Today In SEO & Search News: April 21, 2017

I haven't been able to post over the last few days as I've been busy at Conversion Conference learning, doing interviews for upcoming episodes of my podcast/radio show Webcology, networking, visiting with clients and (to be completely honest) just enjoying the sights and sounds with my wife and business partner Mary.  Taking the opportunity once more to blog from 30,000 feet on my journey home. So let's jump in.  Here's what's happened since our last update: Image Size Cheat Sheet The fine folks over at Social Media Today have done it again, they've gone and updated their social media image size cheat sheet for 2017. If you're at all involved in social media (and I mean if you just have a Twitter profile or Facebook Page) then this is one to bookmark.  it has all the different sizes and scales you'll need to easily reference. Make Your Search Console Data Useful Collette Easton for Search Engine Journal wrote a very helpful piece on tools to boost up the power of your search console.  I got introduced to one through reading it that appears like it might be very useful indeed.  Definitely worth the read if you like to use site data to help make decisions. New Features For Google Earth Amy Gesenhaus reported on a Google Earth update for Search Engine Land. They've no added guided ours 3D images and an 'I'm feeling lucky' button. Reportedly it's been two years in the making and yes, it looks cool. It's currently only available on Chrome and Android but it's expected to roll out on iOS soon. Improving Website Navigation For SEO Benj Arriola wrote an interesting piece for Search Engine Journal on how to craft your website navigation to move the PageRank where it's most needed while at the same time aiding your visitors. I'll be honest, I've only had a chance to give the first section a read and skim through to review the content focus as of this writing and before but certainly as I hit his outlines of how to deal with AJAX sites saw me emailing it to myself so I could digest it in full. It's a good read. 9 Local SEO Experts Give 9 Tips Over on Search Engine Journals 9 Local SEO experts each gave a single tip, a secret to their success in local so-to-speak. Some are obviously but need to be included like "keep your citations up to date" and others that get a bit deeper in the approach of local SEO and not just a single trick.  Its a worthwhile piece to read over and make sure you're covering your bases. New Google My Business Features Matt Southern reported for Search Engine Journal of a finding by Local Search Pros of a couple new features visible in some Google My Business profiles.  One can now see the frequency of visits and peak times of day as illustrated above.It's a great addition. Export 18 Months Of Google My Business Data No surprise - Matt Southern of Search Engine Journal covered the discovery that users can now download up to 18 months of Google My Business data. The export includes the following data:

• Total searches
• Direct searches
• Discovery searches
• Total views Search views
• Maps views
• Total actions
• Website actions
• Directions actions
• Phone call actions

Google Home Can Now Distinguish Between Six Users One of the big drawbacks of Google Home is that it only held one profile and all commands, requests, etc. sent to it were blended together as far as personalizing. As Greg Sterling reported for Search Engine Land however - that's no longer the case and a Google Home device and now differentiate between six users. This will now allow users o customize their experience to their own accounts and habits (my own Spotiy playlist for example is very different than that of my 19 year old) and is a big leap forward. Google Adding Ad Blocking To Chrome Google has announced that they're adding an ad blocker to Chrome.  As the vast majority of Google's revenue is based on advertising i's assumed that the goal is to block the majority of bad ads and home that users will not take to third part ad blockers. One can of course assume that AdSense ads wold not be considered bad ads but we'll have to wait and see. Google Testing 'Suggested Clip' In Search Results Barry Schwartz over on Search Engine Land covered an interesting test Google's running.  In the search results they're including videos for some how to phrases but most interesting is that the video is set to start at the portion of the video where the answer resides skipping past things like intros. This is a pro and a con obviously in taking a user to the answer they want but bypassing the branding the content producer likely intended to have. Bing Ads Editor Updated Once again over on Search Engine Journal Matt Southern is covering the updates to Bing's Ads Editor.  On top of adding review extensions they've also added a better keyword import and they've also made it easier to make audience associations for remarketing. Adding Schema Markup Via Google Tag Manager It isn't hard but a lot of people don't know that thay can add Schema Markup via Google Tag Manager. Thankfully Bryan Stenslokken has written an easy-to-follow article for Search Engine Land outlining step-by-step how it's done. Machine Learning Controls AdWords Smart Display Campaigns Smart Display Campaigns are a new campaign format that has been made available globally.  This new format puts control of targeting, bid management and even ad creation in the hands of machines and machine learning algorithms. And that's it for today. If you think we missed anything please feel free to add it in the comments below.