Microsoft and Yandex announced a new initiative today named IndexNow, a protocol that any search engine can participate in to enable site owners to have their pages and content instantly indexed by the search engine. Currently, Microsoft Bing and Yandex are the two search engines fully participating in the initiative but others are welcome to adopt this open protocol.

IndexNow allows “websites to easily notify search engines whenever their website content is created, updated, or deleted,” Microsoft wrote on its blog. The goal is to make for a “more efficient Internet,” the company said, by reducing the dependency on search engine spiders having to go out into the web and crawl each URL they find. Instead, the goal is for site owners to push these details and URL changes to the search engines directly. “By telling search engines whether an URL has been changed, website owners provide a clear signal helping search engines to prioritize crawl for these URLs, thereby limiting the need for exploratory crawl to test if the content has changed,” Microsoft wrote.

How it works. The protocol is very simple — all you need to do is create a key on your server, and then post a URL to the search engine to notify IndexNow-participating search engines of the change. The steps include:

1. Generate a key supported by the protocol using the online key generation tool.
2. Host the key in text file named with the value of the key at the root of your web site.
3. Start submitting URLs when your URLs are added, updated, or deleted. You can submit one URL or a set of URLs per API call.

Submit one URL is easy as sending a simple HTTP request containing the URL changed and your key.
https://www.bing.com/IndexNow?url=url-changed&key=your-key and the same would work by using https://yandex.com/indexnow?url=url-changed&key=your-key

You can see more details instructions at the Microsoft Bing IndexNow site or the IndexNow protocol web site.

They work together. If you use the Bing method, then both Bing and Yandex (or other participating search engines) will get the update. You do not need to submit to both Bing and Yandex’s URLs, you just need to pick one and all search engines that are part of this initiative will pick up on the change.

The search engines are sharing this IndexNow system, so if you notify one, that search engine will immediately re-ping each other engine in the background, notifying them all. In fact, it is a requirement of IndexNow that any search engines adopting the IndexNow protocol must agree that submitted URLs will be automatically shared with all other participating search engines. To participate, search engines must have a noticeable presence in at least one market, Microsoft told Search Engine Land.

Similar to Bing URL submission API. Is this similar to the Bing URL submission API? Yes, in that the aim is to reduce crawling requirements and improve efficiency. But, it is different in that this is a completely different protocol. If you are using the Bing URL submission API or the Bing content submission API, technically Bing will get your URLs and content changes immediately but these two APIs do not work with the IndexNow protocol, so the other search engines won’t get the changes.

Will these APIs go away if and when the IndexNow initiative becomes more popular? That is unclear. The URL submission API would be somewhat redundant to IndexNow but the content submission API is unique.

Integrations. IndexNow is gaining support among third-party websites, like eBay, LinkedIn, MSN, GitHub and others to integrate with the IndexNow API. Microsoft said many have adopted the Microsoft Bing Webmaster URL submission API and are planning a migration to IndexNow.

Microsoft said it is encouraging all Web Content Management Systems to adopt IndexNow to help their users get their latest website content immediately indexed and minimize crawl load on their websites. In fact, Microsoft provided WordPress code it can use to integrate IndexNow into its CMS. Wix, Duda and others plan to integrate with IndexNow soon as well. CDNs like CloudFlare and Akamai are also working with the IndexNow protocol and so are SEO tools like Botify, OnCrawl and others.

What about Google. We were told that Google is aware of the IndexNow initiative and the company was asked to participate but at this point Google is not an active IndexNow participant.

Why we care. Instant indexing is an SEO’s dream when it comes to giving search engines the most updated content on a site. Google has been very strict about its applications indexing API, used for job postings and livestream content only now. So while it seems Google may not participate in IndexNow in the near future, search engines like Microsoft Bing and Yandex are aiming to push this initiative hard.

The protocol is very simple and it requires very little developer effort to add this to your site, so it makes sense to implement this if you care about speedy indexing. It seems more and more search engines will participate but in terms of the big one, Google, that remains unclear.

The post IndexNow – new initiative by Microsoft and Yandex to push content to search engines appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Search Engine Land’s daily brief features daily insights, news, tips, and essential bits of wisdom for today’s search marketer. If you would like to read this before the rest of the internet does, sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox daily.

Good morning, Marketers, and how much TV do you watch?

Since having my daughter over a year ago, I have only been able to make time for The Great British Bake Off on Friday nights. But as a millennial and a latchkey kid, I was raised on TV. I just saw that Project Runway, one of my college TV favorites, is now in its 19th season!

In case you’re not a reality TV buff, Project Runway is a show where aspiring fashion designers face weekly challenges to create a garment based on the theme. As someone who never learned to sew well (sorry, mom) the fact that they could come up with a look, design it, create it, and have it modeled all in one week was mind-blowing.

The best part was Tim Gunn, a mentor to the designers throughout the week who helped them course correct and encouraged them when they were on to something. His famous catchphrase was, “Make it work, designers.” I still say it now to myself and to others when things are getting weird and we just have to push through. Make it work!

Tim Gunn proves the importance having a guiding hand can be in helping up-and-comers achieve their goals. As the Search Engine Land mentorship program winds down, our group’s mentees have achieved AMAZING things (new jobs, promotions, new projects, and more). They likely would have achieved these things on their own (they are awesome, after all), but having a guiding hand to help you choose the right path for you is ALWAYS a professional benefit.

We’re lucky to have our mentors joining us for a panel at SMX Next to talk about how to be a mentor (which could be great for new managers too!), and how they balance what’d they’d do versus guiding someone along their own path.

If you’re looking to mentor or manage people, it’s a don’t-miss. Register here!

Carolyn Lyden,
Director of Search Content

Podcast knowledge panels go live in Google Search

Google seems to be rolling out podcast-based knowledge panels in Google Search. When you search for your favorite podcast, you might see a new knowledge panel show up in the search results.

Why we care. If you or your clients run a podcast, check to see if you are noticing this new knowledge panel in the Google search results. If not, it might be related to the RSS feed your podcast is produced on. Sadly, there is no official documentation on how your podcast can show as a knowledge panel.

Read more here.

What does Google’s infinite scroll on mobile mean for advertisers?

Google’s announcement about infinite scroll has many advertisers wondering what will happen to their Google Ads on mobile devices. This change, which is rolling out over the next two weeks, “does not affect how the ad auction works or the way Ad Rank is calculated,” said Mohamed Farid, Product Manager at Google Ads. But there may be some changes in metrics.

How will my metrics change? You may see more mobile impressions and a lower CTR on Search, Shopping, and Local Ads. “We expect clicks, conversions, average CPC, and average CPA to remain flat,” added Farid in the Q&A document. “Search campaigns may see more impressions from top ads and fewer impressions from bottom ads.”

Why we care. This is an important change to communicate to clients and stakeholders who may be invested in the minutiae of campaign metrics. Google recommends reviewing your advertising goals and “monitoring your campaigns and continuing to optimize them based on your business objectives.” This change is only for U.S.-based queries right now but will roll out to additional countries and languages in 2022.

Read more here.

Jobs: On the hunt for something new? Check out the latest jobs in search marketing

SEO Strategist @ TripAdvisor (remote)

• Salary: $90k-120k/yr
• Partner with other SEO team members to identify and size opportunities, define product specifications, establish milestones, and assure quality.
• Write specs, run tests, analyze results, and make decisions that have real effects on revenue and profit for the company.

Senior Marketing Manager @ Knoetic (New York, USA remote)

• Salary: $80k-110k/yr
• Create effective communications strategies that articulate Knoetic’s core benefits, and continually test, track, and report on results. 
• Consistently produce high-quality content (including articles, white papers, blogs, emails, case studies, etc.) that drive inbound interest in Knoetic’s offerings.

Search Marketing Manager @ Bon Secours Mercy Health (USA remote)

• Salary: $86k-115k/yr
• Work with key stakeholders to get new content online and existing content optimized with search engine marketing best practices in mind.
• Create and manage ongoing pay-per-click search advertising campaigns for core areas of focus at the brand, service line and local levels.

Senior Search Engine Optimization Manager @  Freeman+Leonard (Chicago)

• Salary: $100k-130k/yr
• Lead day-to-day execution of organic search engine campaigns including keyword research, content gap analysis, strategic optimization of existing content, competitor analysis, on-page SEO factors and site architecture improvements.
• Work with content leads to create SEO content strategies for each of the verticals and work on executing evergreen strategies for existing and new content.

Want a chance to include your job listing in the Search Engine Land newsletter? Send along the details here.

What We’re Reading: We’re all hackers now: Journalist “decodes” HTML to find PII

A local Missouri media publication warned the state’s administrative officials that their website exposed the social security numbers of multiple teachers. The reporter did so as a courtesy before publishing the news, as the PII was publicly available for anyone to find.

The news went “viral” after Missouri Governor Mike Parsons posted a tweet thread saying the website was hacked:

“Through a multi-step process, an individual took the records of at least three educators, decoded the HTML source code, and viewed the SSN of those specific educators. We notified the Cole County prosecutor and the Highway Patrol’s Digital Forensic Unit will investigate.

Upon receiving this notice, DESE immediately contacted the Missouri Office of Administration ITSD, who programs and maintains the web application, to remove public access to the portal and update the code. This matter is serious. The state is committing to bring to justice anyone who hacked our system and anyone who aided or encouraged them to do so — in accordance with what Missouri law allows AND requires.”

Search marketers know, of course, that there’s no “decoding” source code. A quick right-click and “view source code” makes it available to all. The issue is actually that social security numbers were included in the HTML, to begin with. The Missouri administration believes it was hacked, though.

We hope the misunderstanding is cleared up and that the Governor’s office stops putting social security numbers in the HTML of their sites.

The post How infinite scroll will affect your ad metrics; Monday’s daily brief appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Messy SEO is a column covering the nitty-gritty, unpolished tasks involved in the auditing, planning, and optimization of websites, using MarTech’s new domain as a case study.

Hello marketers,

This installment for “Messy SEO” details my process of rectifying the broken link and image issues that arose following the MarTech website consolidation. In Part 2 we discussed fixes for incorrect canonicalization, which aimed to future-proof our site for proper indexation.

You can read Part 2 of our Messy SEO series here.

Anyone who’s worked with website moves and merges knows redirecting the old pages to the new domain is just part of the story. Consolidating duplicate pages, fixing canonical tags, and optimizing page indexation are foundational steps that make search engines happy. But an equally important stage in any SEO project is user experience optimization.

SEO is incomplete without good UX

Regardless of how well Google and other search engines crawl your website, few people will interact with your brand if they have a poor experience. Broken and non-HTTPS links discourage many from trusting what your page has to offer. People want relevant links and engaging images in their content, not outdated links no longer working.

Link issues were everywhere after the MarTech site consolidation. Whether they were broken or non-secure, many of the newly consolidated pages suffered from choppy pages filled with blank boxes and links leading nowhere.

Fixing broken links

Virtually all of these instances had nothing to do with negligence; they were largely the result of old domain URLs on the site. The link issues we chose to tackle first were those that were completely broken, undoubtedly leaving visitors wondering why they were included within the article at all.

Many of these were simply outdated links to external sites that either completely removed their content or neglected to redirect it to someplace else. Finding the lost page was relatively easy after combing through their sites.

The most obvious broken links, and those which have the most obvious impact on user experience, were those housing images that were no longer available.

Replacing images that no longer exist

Search marketers run into this messy problem most often during migrations. If the old site domain isn’t set to redirect every image file to its new URL, the new site will fail to pull the old, non-existent content.

Needless to say, visitors will have little interest in pages full of blank boxes. The question is, how do SEOs replace these missing pieces?

The Internet Archive and Wayback Machine

In scenarios such as this, some marketers opt to view cached images from their old domain in the search results. The problem is that search engines such as Google only store cached images for a limited amount of time. And this is only helpful if your domain URLs are still indexed post-migration.

We’ve found the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine to be the most extensive and reliable source of images no longer published online. We used its archive of pages from the old MarTech Today and Marketing Land sites to find the corresponding missing images from MarTech’s domain.

This process may seem pretty straightforward; after all, most experienced SEOs are aware of Wayback and its functions. But simple mistakes—no matter how small they seem—can land marketers right back at square one.

Restoring images with cached images the right way

It may be tempting to save time in this process by copying the cached images and pasting them into the pages in question. But there are many problems with this method. For instance, the image’s source will lie on another site. This takes away all control from the webmaster; there’s no guarantee that the image will stay on Wayback forever.

In addition, a cached image on your site takes away your chance to rank for your own site’s images. And in the visual-driven search landscape, you want to take advantage of every opportunity to improve image rankings.

To address this potential issue, we downloaded the applicable images from the cached MarTech Today and Marketing Land pages and uploaded them to MarTech. This process allowed us to replace the broken images with the restored versions on our new domain.

Though tedious at times, we found this solution to be a much better alternative than leaving visitors to comb through a sea of broken images and links.

Wrapping up

That’s it for the third installment of “Messy SEO.” We’ll continue to go through the steps taken toward cleaning up the issues that arose post-site consolidation and migration.

Have you had issues tracking down pages or images from an earlier version of a site? Did find any hiccups using the Wayback Machine? Email me at cpatterson@thirddoormedia.com with the subject line Messy SEO Part 3 to let me know.

The post Messy SEO Part 3: How to find cached images and improve user experience appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Santa Ana, October 14, 2021 – LenderHomePage proudly announced today that they are the recipient of two honors in the mortgage industry, MPA Magazine’s “Top Mortgage Employers 2021” and the “Housing Industry Icon in Mortgage Technology”, awarded to Rocky Foroutan, CEO and Founder of LenderHomePage. Already surpassing last year’s milestones, LenderHomePage attributes these significant achievements and their exceptional growth to key personnel appointments, collaborative performance, and creating an impactful work culture.

“These awards are testament to something bigger than outpacing our competitors or surpassing revenue goals – it’s proof of our remarkable team at LenderHomePage, whose collective expertise and commitment raise the bar in the digital mortgage space,” Foroutan asserts. 

The Top Mortgage Employer award comes on the heels of a 34% percent increase in employee headcount for LenderHomePage, signifying rapid growth, high employee retention, and exceptional employee satisfaction rates. 

Employee satisfaction, particularly work culture and management relationships, is a strong predictor of a company’s growth. 

A study first published in 2015 in Personnel Review looked at 475 firms to analyze the relationship between performance and employee perception of their work and the company. The data revealed a clear correlation between employee satisfaction and increased organizational performance in both the company’s operating margin and revenue per employee.  

A leader’s ability to make strategic hirings is also crucial. In 2021, Foroutan bolstered its leadership team by adding Brandon Salisbury as the new Director of Sales & Marketing and transitioning Bryan Skitt to Chief Creative Officer. LenderHomePage also expanded its sales and development departments with new hires and promotions.

Equally critical to an organization is its leadership. A wealth of literature exists underscoring the role that leadership plays in the company’s growth, revenue, and overall success. A leader’s aptness to innovate, cultivate a collaborative work dynamic, and motivate the organization to achieve goals are strong predictors of success.

Foroutan’s MPA Housing Industry Icon award, a peer-nominated recognition awarded to exceptional mortgage executives with at least ten years of experience, comes as he has led the mortgage technology company to another 40% year-over-year growth. “Our philosophy has always been to make our software simple and easy to use,” says Foroutan. “but the real secret to our continued success is our preeminent team. Putting the right people in the right seats – and giving them reign to blow it out of the park – you can’t lose.”

Since 2003, LenderHomePage has been a market leader in innovative mortgage technology development. They are the designer of highly acclaimed mortgage software products, including Loanzify POS and Loanzify Mortgage Mobile App, enabling mortgage companies of all sizes to create better operations efficiencies and deliver an omnichannel experience for their consumers.

About LenderHomePage:

Since 2003, LenderHomePage.com is the leading provider of a secure and compliant cloud-based digital mortgage platform that powers lender websites, mobile apps, and mortgage POS solutions. Mortgage lenders of all sizes use LenderHomePage.com’s customizable and scalable solutions to enhance borrower experience, streamline the mortgage process, and increase Loan Officer productivity and efficiency.

About Loanzify:

Loanzify POS by LenderHomePage is part of a suite of innovative productivity solutions developed for the modern mortgage professional.

About MPA:

Mortgage Professional America (MPA) is the mortgage & finance industry’s most trusted source of news, opinion, and analysis.

Google’s mobile search results now offer infinite scroll, what Google is calling continuous scroll. So as you scroll, Google will not show you the “more results” button when you reach the bottom of the page, instead, Google will just load the next page of results automatically.

Google said “with this update, people can now seamlessly do this, browsing through many different results, before needing to click the “See more” button.”

Google added that while “you can often find what you’re looking for in first few results, sometimes you want to keep looking.” And for those searchers who want to keep on looking, you will be able to continuously scroll “up to four pages of search results” without clicking to load more.

What it looks like. Here is a GIF of it in action:

When can I see it? Google has been testing this for some time, in fact, I’ve seen it myself over the past couple of weeks. Google did say it will “gradually roll out today for most English searches on mobile in the U.S.”

But Google also tested it earlier this year, and then again in 2019, 2015, 2011 and more.

In 2018, Google took a step closer to infinite scroll with launching the more results button.

Why we care. This may (or may not) encourage searchers to look beyond the first few results and scroll more through more results. It is yet to be determined how this might impact your click-through rates and traffic from Google search but keep an eye on it.

The post Google rolling out continuous scroll on mobile appeared first on Search Engine Land.

Search Engine Land’s daily brief features daily insights, news, tips, and essential bits of wisdom for today’s search marketer. If you would like to read this before the rest of the internet does, sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox daily.

Good morning, Marketers, can you imagine a search engine without a results page?

That’s what Neeva, the ad-free, private search engine, introduced yesterday — a feature called FastTap Search that enables users to bypass the results page via a list of direct links that are generated when the user puts a query into the URL bar or the Neeva app (learn more about the feature below).

It is very interesting to see what kind of features are possible when a search engine isn’t reliant on ad revenue. Neeva is supported by its subscribers, meaning that the company has no skin in the game when it comes to whether users spend time on their properties or head directly to another site.

Of course, Neeva is not on the same plane as Google, but neither is its strategy.  Google has a similar feature (the “I’m Feeling Lucky” button that takes users straight to the top result for their query), but appears to be moving towards more robust results pages. In fact, its MUM-related announcements from Search On in September gave us a preview of results pages that lead to even more search results, with featured snippets that may resolve queries without users having to click through to another site.

Will Neeva’s new feature change the way we optimize for search? Unlikely, but I’m hoping this spurs even more innovation among search engines. That kind of competition is important because it often provides marketers with more opportunities, like the free product listings Google introduced last year (and Bing also launched shortly after), which help it compete against e-commerce platforms like Amazon.

George Nguyen,
Editor

Neeva’s ‘FastTap Search’ feature presents direct links instead of a results page

Neeva is launching a feature that enables searchers to type queries directly into the URL field of their browser or the Neeva app to be shown a drop-down menu with direct links. Dubbed “FastTap Search,” the feature allows users to bypass traditional search results pages and head directly to a site via the list of links generated based on the query. As Neeva’s founder and former SVP of ads at Google, Sridhar Ramaswamy, said in the announcement, this type of feature is made possible by the search engine’s unique business model, in which users pay $4.95 per month for an ad-free, customizable search experience.

Why we care. This feature may take on more significance if Neeva is able to increase its share of the search market or if Neeva is popular with your particular audience. While this is a reimagining of the search results page, it is still a list of results and there is still a top position, which means algorithms have to determine relevance and award that position to a page, just as they do on other search engines. However, since FastTap Search only presents a few results, the brands or publishers that are able to earn that top spot stand to gain significant visibility, which can be important if you operate in a highly competitive sector.

Read more here.

Facebook changes how it measures users for advertising purposes; Instagram introduces notifications for outages and a new Account Status tool

Facebook changes how it measures accounts for advertisers. “If someone does not have their Facebook and Instagram accounts linked in Accounts Center, we will consider those accounts as separate people for ads planning and measurement,” Facebook announced Monday, adding, “Facebook and Instagram accounts that are connected in Accounts Center will continue to be counted collectively as a single person.”

Previously, if someone used the same email address for both their Facebook and Instagram accounts or accessed both platforms using the same device, the company counted them as one person when they interacted with ads. As this new methodology rolls out over the next few weeks, advertisers should expect increases in pre-campaign estimates such as estimated audience size, “but for most campaigns we do not believe this will have a substantial impact on reported campaign reach,” Facebook said.

Instagram launches notifications for outages and a new Account Status tool. Instagram is testing Activity Feed notifications to inform users when the platform experiences outages (like the one from last week), technical issues and when those issues are resolved. “We won’t send a notification every single time there is an outage, but when we see that people are confused and looking for answers, we’ll determine if something like this could help make things clearer,” the company said. The test will run in the U.S. for the next few months.

Alongside that announcement, the company also unveiled a new tool called “Account Status.” The tool is designed to inform users about whether their account is at risk of being disabled. Within the tool, users can see if their content has been removed and why. They can also appeal a removal by requesting a review from their Account Status menu.

For the visual learners among us

“Short Videos” carousel spotted on desktop. First appearing as a test in mobile search results in November 2020, Brodie Clark has spotted a “Short Videos” carousel in Google’s desktop search results (shown above). The screenshot even includes a video from TikTok. Search feature junkies might also want to bookmark Brodie’s timeline of Google SERP features, which is sure to become even more handy as the company experiments with more features.

I heard you like flowcharts. Aleyda Solis has published her 10 favorite flowcharts to support SEO decision making. The charts can help you avoid the “it depends” answer with stakeholders, they may be easier to understand for non-SEOs and can make the criteria for various decisions more transparent.

Shipping delays mean Santa’s got some bad news this year. Marketoonist Tom Fishburne addresses supply chain slowdowns with the help of Santa and a young child wondering whether a year of good behavior was even worth it. Fishburne’s take is especially pertinent since so many businesses pivoted to e-commerce over the last year and a half. If you’re looking to learn how shipping delays might affect your advertising, check out Fred Vallaeys’ post on the subject over at Optmyzr.

What We’re Reading: Leaked documents suggest Amazon has been doing exactly what some merchants and regulators have suspected for years

“Use information from Amazon.in to develop products and then leverage the Amazon.in platform to market these products to our customers” — That quote comes from an internal Amazon document that details the strategy for Solimo, a private brand Amazon created in India. Reuters reporters have analyzed thousands of internal Amazon documents showing that, in India, the e-commerce platform ran campaigns to create knockoff products, undercut the original brands and promote them using manipulated search results.

“The documents show that two executives reviewed the India strategy – senior vice presidents Diego Piacentini, who has since left the company, and Russell Grandinetti, who currently runs Amazon’s international consumer business,” wrote Aditya Kalra and Steve Stecklow for Reuters.

The documents are about as damning as it gets: There are specific instructions on identifying which brands to “replicate,” a strategy for partnering with the manufacturers of the original item, there’s even a designated term for the practice of placing Amazon’s own newly launched private brand items in the top three ASINs in search results — “search seeding”; seedy indeed. Focusing specifically on the above-mentioned Solimo brand, Amazon matched or exceeded the quality of competing products but were 10–15% cheaper, the documents from 2016 revealed. 

This is bad news for merchants who have reached a high degree of success selling their own products on Amazon: “It is third-party sellers who bear the initial costs and uncertainties when introducing new products; by merely spotting them, Amazon gets to sell products only once their success has been tested,” Lina Khan, now-chair of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, wrote in a 2017 paper for the Yale Law Journal. “The anticompetitive implications here seem clear: Amazon is exploiting the fact that some of its customers are also its rivals.”

“As Reuters hasn’t shared the documents or their provenance with us, we are unable to confirm the veracity or otherwise of the information and claims as stated,” Amazon said in a written response. “We believe these claims are factually incorrect and unsubstantiated.”

The post Search results, but without the search results page; Thursday’s daily brief appeared first on Search Engine Land.