The last SEO Roundup of the summer of 2018 is packed with valuable information about lazy loading, snippet results, and of course, Google Search Console. Take a look to see if there are any updates you missed in August from Google, Bing, Yandex, and more.

NB: The technical roundup was delayed due to our new site launch.

New TLS 1.3 Specification

In the second week of August a major overhaul of a critical internet security protocol was completed, making TLS 1.3 an official standard.

After four years of work, the new standard will make it much more difficult for eavesdroppers to decrypt encrypted traffic. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) described it as "a major revision designed for the modern internet."

The new update makes three previous RFCs obsolete (5077, 5246, and 6961), while updating another two (5705 and 6066).

Aside from security improvements, the new version uses less resources and is more efficient so that latency and CPU usage are both reduced.

Action Point The editors of the update have ensured that the update is incredibly easy to deploy, being a drop-in replacement for TLS 1.2. It also uses the same keys and certificates, so that servers can automatically negotiate TLS 1.3 when it is deployed.

Google Speeds up Information Delivery On 16 August Google announced a new and more efficient way of delivering information to users based on a single search. When searching for "quartz vs granite", presumably for a new kitchen, the benefits, drawbacks, cost and durability are all included. This seems like a balanced approach to 'perspective answers' that Bing introduced in February 2018. The information is served within a knowledge accordion, offering a set of relevant subtopics: The new format aims to guide users with common and useful aspects of particular topics in the quickest and most efficient way possible. It is also the latest part of Google's effort to provide more comprehensive results. Action Point Use headings ` ` to markup page content. Bootstrap has classes that allow other elements such as the paragraph tag to maintain the same styling as headings too. Include the role attribute and set that to "heading" too. <h2>How to do X</h2> <p class="h2" role="heading">How to do X</p>

Bing Launches Intelligent Features On 3 August Bing announced a new range of intelligence features, allowing users to estimate and compare prices across a range of providers. Users are also given insights so that they can make the best decision around prices and savings through a new "deals experience" designed to save money. Hotel Bookings Building on its hotel booking experience announced in May, users are now provided with intelligent tips based on price trends and comparisons. When searching for a hotel, Bing displays booking tips when looking at hotels with competing options (such as higher rated hotels offering a similar price): From there, the search engine offers historical price trends, which allows users to browse price trends over time from a single view: Lastly, the feature provides an overview of pricing by hotel option, which means that users will be able to see the detailed breakdowns side by side. Home services pricing and scheduling After partnering with Porch, a home improvement app, Bing can now help users find reliable home service providers, such as plumbers or electricians. Although currently only available in the US, by searching for home repair services, users will be provided with information such as price distribution based on their local area: Bing then helps users collect quotes from multiple providers with just a few clicks. The search engine can provide up to 10 providers similar to the one being viewed by the user and can send out a bulk request for quotes on their behalf: Coupons and deals For those searching for coupons and deals, Bing now aggregates deals across both first and third-party listings and provides insights such as "expiring soon" coupons or whether offers are based only in-store. Action Point Ensure to provide accurate information on all services and offerings to make the most of Bing's newest features.

Statistics on Unanswered Questions On 2 August, Chats in the Search was made available to all users. This means that users are able to chat with companies by pressing the "Chat with the Company" button, which is displayed next to the snippet of the main page of the site. Sites using Juvosite, Talk-Me, Verbox, Bitrix can add the button. To do so, enter the chat site ID in the Yandex.Dialog platform settings. You can also find detailed instructions in the Help page. Yandex has also opened an API for other chat platforms to connect their clients to Yandex Search. Yandex’s aim is to "make communication with quality resources as accessible as possible", which it clarified in its blog on 28 August, where it discussed statistics on unanswered user questions. In Yandex.webmaster, site owners are able to view site statistics regarding unanswered user questions: The search engine has warned that webmasters should monitor statistics to avoid lost users, and that the quality, speed, and frequency of a chat operator succeeding in successfully closing a conversation is taken into account "when ranking along with other data about the quality of the site." Action Point Include schema to show the "Best question". Once a community question has been "solved", add "SOLVED" in the title. This helps with call to action on Google's search rank position. Good examples include: Stack Overflow and Microsoft Power BI Replacing TCI by IKS On 22 August Yandex stated that it will stop displaying TCI on all resources, as it is to be replaced with IKS. In its blog, Yandex states that it has been using TCI since 1999, but that a modern approach is needed being that "social networks have developed, the number of mobile sites and users has increased, [and] the era of SEO links has passed." IKS takes into account the relevance of a site to its audience, as well as how useful it is and what degree of satisfaction it is able to serve, which is used as an indication of the overall level of trust in the site. From the last week in August users will have been able to view the overall quality index of their site in Yandex.Webmaster. Action Point The data behind a site's quality index can be found from Search and any other Yandex service, although Yandex has stated that the algorithm for calculating the quality index will change, so for now, it is in Beta. Automatically Adding Skills On 17 August Yandex announced that it had automated the process of adding skills to Yandex.Station. In order to make skills available, you need to: Publish the skill through Yandex.Dialogue to send it to the moderation. Apply for the publication of the skill for Yandex.Station through the feedback form. Wait for the answer on the results for additional moderation. The skill will become available if it meets the following requirements: It should contain a short greeting, as well as explaining what it allows and how to get out of the conversation.

The skill should not require pictures or buttons to continue the script.

A skill should not contain links to enable the script to continue.

It should not contain signs that occur in the text.

The skill should not contain large texts for reading. It is possible to add skills for private and public use within the catalog and a notification will appear once that the skill has been approved. This should take around a week. Action Point When adding a skill, ensure that it is clear and meets Yandex's criteria. Skills will be withdrawn if they fall short or violate Yandex's license agreement. Quickly Remove Index Pages Yandex has now added the ability for users to quickly remove pages from the index using the "Remove URL" tool, which has the ability delete pages by prefix if implemented in robots.txt. After just a few hours, the designated page will be removed from the search engine, which can be added once more in robots.txt, before being sent to the re-branch. Action Point If you accidentally publish a page that is sensitive or private, the new ability is a great and useful way of protecting information from the search engine.