SearchCap: Google local messaging & booking, business insights & crawl spikes

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

From Search Engine Land:

• Google begins rolling out messaging feature within Google My Business
  Jul 12, 2017 by Barry Schwartz

  You can now message with your customers directly via your Google local panel in mobile search.

• Google My Business updates insights email sent to businesses
  Jul 13, 2017 by Barry Schwartz

  Check out the new, fancy emails Google is sending businesses with analytics for their local listings.

• Rand Fishkin to step away from day-to-day operations at Moz
  Jul 13, 2017 by Barry Schwartz

  Moz’s founder is moving into an advisory role at the company early next year.

• Brace yourself: The benefit and shock of analyzing Googlebot crawl spikes via log files [Case Study]
  Jul 13, 2017 by Glenn Gabe

  Site owners really don’t know the full story about who, or what, is crawling their sites until they analyze their server logs. Columnist Glenn Gabe shares a case study that illustrates some insights to be gleaned from a server log file analysis.

• Google adds booking for spa and salon appointments from Search & Maps
  Jul 13, 2017 by Ginny Marvin

  The Reserve with Google program makes it possible to book appointments right from Google.

• 7 features you’ll only find in the new AdWords interface
  Jul 13, 2017 by Ginny Marvin

  Advertisers getting used to working in the new UI will find some bonus capabilities.

• 12 things to know to succeed with Google Posts
  Jul 13, 2017 by Joy Hawkins

  Local businesses, are you utilizing Google Posts? Columnist Joy Hawkins shares her observations from several months of testing this new feature.

• SMX East agenda is now live! Check out the SEO & SEM sessions in store for you.
  Jul 13, 2017 by Search Engine Land

  Feed your obsession for SEO & SEM with actionable and proven tactics by attending Search Engine Land’s SMX East, October 24-26 in New York City. The agenda is packed with 50+ sessions and led by search marketing experts in paid search advertising, search engine optimization, conversion and analytics, social media and much more. Here’s a quick look at some of the sessions […]

• The AMP is a lie
  Jul 13, 2017 by Patrick Stox

  Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) are a hot topic right now, but are they really the answer to your mobile page speed issues? Columnist Patrick Stox weighs in.

Recent Headlines From MarTech, Our Sister Site Dedicated To Internet Marketing:

• Consumers over bots: Why site crawlers don’t hold all the answers
• SEM growth hack #4: Grow ROI with cross-channel optimization
• Rented media: When paid and owned media combine
• Custom, dynamic email is giving marketers and readers what they want: hyper-personalized messages
• YouTube ad views drop in June with No. 1 #MoreThanARefugee at 16M views
• LinkedIn starts letting people natively upload videos that play automatically
• SMX East agenda is now live! Check out the SEO & SEM sessions in store for you.
• How to ask survey questions of liars and pretenders
• Google wins French court decision, won’t have to pay $1.3 billion in back taxes
• CommuteStream now offers native ads for dozens of transit apps around the US

Search News From Around The Web:

Industry

• Marty Weintraub Interview, Kwasi Studios Blog

Local & Maps

• Game of Thrones: The old Views and the new, Google Blog
• Google My Business Messaging FAQ, Mike Blumenthal

Searching

• Amazon may give app developers access to Alexa audio recordings, The Verge
• Bing tests a new share button, allgoogletesting.blogspot.com

SEO

• Ask Yoast Case study: SEO for architects, Yoast
• Google Crawls The Web Stateless, Without Cookies, Search Engine Roundtable
• Google: Check Your Mobile Site Has Alt Text Tags on Images, The SEM Post
• Google: Position & Weight of Internal Links for SEO Value, The SEM Post
• How to Boost Your Search Visibility with SEO-Friendly WordPress URLs, Search Engine Journal
• How to Optimise Your Site for Yandex part, Majestic Blog
• Long-Tail SEO Strategy: Why & How to Target High-Intent Keywords, Search Engine Journal
• SEO Tips for managing SERP features, SEM Rush
• Six things you need to tell your next agency in an SEO brief, Vertical Leap
• Surveying the Featured Snippets, SISTRIX

Search Marketing

• How “Message Match” Can Lift Conversion Rates by 212.74% [Case Study], Moz