Summary of SEO 101 Episode 367
John and Ross covered the intermittent indexing issues Google continues to have, news on author recognition, Google Assistant Actions, oddities in local SEO, glimpses into Google’s plans with photos, and much more.
They then ended the show answering 3 questions from listeners that are posted within the SEO 101 Facebook Group.
Notes from SEO 101 Episode 367
Issues with Latest Podcast Episodes
First, Ross discussed the issues with the recent podcast episodes not being available.
If you’re experiencing the same, please go to SEO101Radio and you will find links to the latest shows AND a link to the new iTunes address.
Stitcher got problems but has been fixed as well. On the other hand, Google Podcasts is not currently working due to website issues at WebmasterRadio.
Google Fixed Another Indexing Issue With Fresh Content – Search Engine Roundtable
Google confirmed the latest indexing issues that some SEOs raised. Apparently, Google was having issues showing new and fresh content from websites and publishers.
“News sites content usually gets indexed anywhere between 4 and 10 minutes… We were seeing a handful of our articles taking 3 to 4 or 6, 8 hours to get indexed.” – John
Changing The Destination URL Of A Link Changes Relevance & Value Of That Link – Search Engine Roundtable
Gary Ilyes from Google said the “weight” of a particular link “will very likely change” when you change its destination URL. What will be its impact on SEO and broken link building practice?
Google Search Doesn’t Recognize Authors But Rather Entities – Search Engine Roundtable
According to Gary Ilyes, Google Search recognizes entities and not authors.
“Don’t worry so much about the author of the piece. Think more about entities… I think this is really about who wrote the content more than anything.” – John
Create Google Assistant Actions with Structured Data – Search Engine Journal
Now publishers can create how-to “actions” for Google Assistant through the use of structured data.
“Use HowTo structured data to explicitly tell Google that your content is a how-to… Properly marked up how-to pages may be eligible to have a rich result on Search and How-to Action for the Google Assistant, which can help your site reach the right users.” – Google
Local SEO News Segment (Weekly) 
Verified Listings Showing as Unverified? – Local Search Forum
Local search expert Joy Hawkins encountered an issue wherein she saw the “Own this Business” label on verified listings while in an incognito window. The label usually appears on unverified listings.
Google My Business Q&As Disappearing? – Search Engine Roundtable
There is no official word from Google. Danny Sullivan said he tested and his Qs didn’t go live.
New Google Local Discovery: Search By Photos – Blumenthals.com
Mike Blumenthal shared that “Google is showing a new image based search interface.” This is only on mobile and does not yet appear on desktop.
The Mueller Files
Our weekly section of commentary from Google’s John Mueller.
Manual Actions Are Immediate But Take Time To Process In Search – Search Engine Roundtable
John Mueller said on Twitter:
“Once a manual action is removed, the site is immediately free of the manual action that was affecting it. However, the effects of that might take a bit of time to be reprocessed.”
Questions from SEO 101 Listeners
Ross and John also welcome some SEO-related concerns from listeners. Please listen to the show to find out their detailed answers to these questions.
Q: “This is an interesting case that was posted in another forum. No one had any answers for the guy. I was wondering if anyone here has any suggestions.
‘When a person does a search for “po box 470 archerfield bc qld 4108” my debt recovery website is the top result. This is not my address! We are actually 161.2 km from Archerfield. Unfortunately, a grubby debt collection company sends out hundreds of letters with this address as their return address. This means that we get heaps of calls and emails from irate people who just Google the address without looking at our ACTUAL address. This not only takes up a lot of my time, but also creates a bad UX.
My question: How can I stop appearing in Google for the search “po box 470 archerfield bc qld 4108”?‘” – Brenda M.
A: “One of the ideas here was to actually create a page on a site, and try to rank for it on that address. And then explain the situation and include the actual address and phone number that they should call.” – Ross
Q: “I wanted to shoot a quick question over to see how you all tackle schema with blog posts. Do you all add an individual piece of schema (structured data) to every blog post your company/website publishes?
I am always a bit sceptical that I am adding too much schema to my website. Has anyone seen any benefit from adding it to every blog post?” – Dale O.
A: “I don’t think you can add too much schema to your website as long as you’re doing it correctly.” – John
Q: “We have a Google Partner show up at our business the other day. He was trying to sell us on their 3D tour and professional photos for each of our locations. He was trying to tell me that Google prefers their images and videos over stuff that we post. This seems like some shitty sales tactics. Am I correct in thinking that?” – Carl. B.
A: “It does depend. But if this person is technically a Google Street View approved photographer, he is correct… There is an advantage to using them.” – Ross
End of Show Notes
If you have any questions you would like to share with Ross and John, please feel free to post them on the SEO 101 Facebook Group. And, if you enjoy SEO 101 on WebmasterRadio.FM please consider supporting the hosts with feedback on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or your favourite podcast stream.