The COVID crisis has lasted six months and a week and maybe more and Jim says he’s starting to lose it as both his and Dave’s regions enter a distinct second wave of the virus. The conversation strays around the news of the week with a constant loop back to planning for a future with fewer in person gatherings and retail opportunities. Going into a new growth phase of the disease is frightening but at least planning for and communicating about online businesses is getting easier.

Google introduces new schema mark-up language allowing online retailers to provide shipping information. https://www.seroundtable.com/google-shipping-details-schema-30156.html

Barry Schwartz and Martin Splitt exchange interviews for their respective VLOGs late last year. The collaborative interviews revealed a lot about how Googlers feel about SEOs as persons and as practitioners. Dave and Jim talk about some of the SEO Myths Martin addresses in the interviews. https://www.seroundtable.com/vlog-086-30105.html

Microsoft leaked about 5.6Billion terabyes of search data after leaving a server open and unprotected from September 10 - 16. https://www.theregister.com/2020/09/23/microsoft_leaks_over_65tb_bing/

Did Google drop hints it is compiling authority profiles? A post by Danny Sullivan appears to suggest it does. There’s a lot of conversation about it in the SEO community. https://searchengineland.com/did-google-just-hint-at-an-authority-profile-340815

LinkedIn is pulling a professional Facebook with a redesign. Jim and Dave wish it luck, hope it doesn’t suck, and genuinely hope it remains a place businesses can talk to and research each other while other people can use it for employment spam as long as it doesn’t actually become Facebook.

Lastly, Google alters text in guidence to confirm good reviews bring good rankings. https://www.seroundtable.com/google-how-reviews-impact-local-rankings-change-30158.html

Be good, don’t touch your face, for goodness sake wear a mask, stop the spread, wash your hands, be kind to each other, rank well, we’ll talk with you next week.