At State of Search in Dallas last week, I asked Gary Illyes about the issue about 301 versus 302s when it comes to passing PageRank. While Google has said previously that both pass PageRank, there are arguments from many SEOs that 301s are better for passing PageRank while others insist 302s are better for PageRank. […]
Google’s Mobile First Index Changes
Google’s Mobile First Indexing Change: Everything SEOs Need to Know
Google’s search index is becoming mobile first. This means that Google will be crawling the mobile versions of the website to rank webpages… and if you truncated content on your mobile pages, your rankings could suffer. Read more…
Latest News
Why Google Rewrites Title Tags in Search Results
One thing Google does in the search results that tends to annoy site owners is when Google will rewrite a carefully crafted title tag with one of their own, sometimes with mixed results and effectiveness. And these titles can vary significantly based on the query – a single search result could have dozens of different […]
How Google Determines Which Ads & Search Features to Show on Search Results Page
At State of Search last week, I asked Gary Illyes from Google about Google’s search results pages and how Google determines what to show. I started by asking if there was any discussion between the ads side and the search side when such things as Google AdWords switching from 3 ads to 4 ads at […]
Removing Low Quality Pages Won’t Result in Sitewide Google Rankings Boost
At State of Search this week, I asked Gary Illyes from Google about the issue surrounding removing or noindexing low quality content versus leaving it or improving it. It has been a long debated topic from SEOs, especially for those sites suffering from Panda issues. I specifically asked about whether or not noindexing low quality […]
Google: Dynamics of Top Three Ranking Factors & Link Effectiveness in Rankings
There has been a great deal of discussion over the top three ranking factors ever since it was confirmed that links, content and RankBrain were the top three. And there has been some more information about those factors and the various weights they may have in recent Twitter discussions too. At State of Search this […]
Google Adds Audience Reviews to Movie & TV Show Knowledge Panels
Google has made another new addition to the knowledge panels displayed for television shows and movies – user submitted reviews. These reviews, which are called “Audience Reviews” are showing up for a variety of searches that show a knowledge panel for the movie or show. Here is what it looks like, within an entire knowledge […]
Use Sitemaps for Sites With Many Hreflang Annotations
If you have a large international site that has many hreflang annotations on each page, you might want to consider moving those annotations to a sitemap instead. The question came up on Twitter about the use of multiple hreflang tags on the same URL, with an example of ten different EU countries on it for […]
Google Testing “Instant” Tag for AMP in Search Results
Google is testing a new way to let searchers know that AMP results shown are much faster than a typical web page. They have added an “Instant” tag next to the usual AMP logo for those results, instead of the usual AMP icon along with the word “AMP” next to it. Jonathan Jones spotted the […]
Bing Testing Google-Like Ads Tag in Search Results
Bing is running another test to make their “Ads” tag look nearly identical to the way Google marks up their own paid results in the search results. Here is what it looks like: It also appears in their right hand sidebar ads as well. Here is how it normally looks: While the new version they […]
Google Drops Sitelink Search Boxes from Search Results
Google appears to have dropped all sitelink search boxes from their search results. It seems to be removed from languages and country versions of Google, affecting both desktop and mobile. RankRanger spotted the drop to zero in their search result tracking tool, following two days of sharp declines in the number of sites showing them, […]
No Plans for Google to Mark HTTP as Insecure in Search Results
With Google making the push to HTTPS, there has been little to differentiate HTTP from HTTPS in the search results aside from the URL showing HTTPS in the URL line for each individual result. Chrome is also making a change in an upcoming version to flag insecure pages as such in the browser. But what […]
Google: Do HTTPS Migrations Separate From Other Major Changes
Migrating a website to HTTPS has taken increased importance this year with changes Chrome is making to flag sites as insecure. But migrating to HTTPS is a major change that can cause temporary ranking losses, which can be longer term if the site owner doesn’t follow best practices for making the site HTTPS. Some site […]
8 Marketing Dashboards and Alerts to Keep Your Team Organized
Content marketing is tough to organize. First of all, it involves a lot of creative tasks and creativity is impossible to scale. Secondly, a content marketing team is often scattered all over the country (or even all over the world) because it’s tough to keep so much diverse talent under one roof. So how to […]
Google: Rankings Should Remain Stable With HTTPS Migrations
When Google first began pushing for site owners to do HTTPS migrations, it was confirmed that it would take 3-4 weeks for rankings to stabilize after making the switch. After all, Google needs to reindex new URLs and match them with the old to transfer ranking signals. It seems Google is now handling HTTPS migrations […]
Google: Value (or Not) of Doing Link Audits
At Brighton SEO last week, I asked Gary Illyes from Google about the value of doing link audits. Ever since Google Penguin switched to the real time version which would discount bad links instead of penalizing a website for having them, the value of link audits has definitely diminished. But does Google still see the […]
Google Indexes AMP Version for Mobile First When No Regular Mobile Page
At Brighton SEO, I asked for clarification on an issue that has had mixed responses – whether sites that are using AMP as their only mobile version of a site – would see their desktop or their mobile indexed when Google switches to mobile first indexing. I raised the question with Gary Illyes from Google, […]
Baby Boomers are the Audience Most Advertisers are Missing on YouTube
I admit that I’m a Baby Boomer. And I confess that I’ve been writing about video marketing for more than a decade. But, despite these two facts, I was still surprised to read the counter-intuitive findings in the Strike Social Data Report entitled, “YouTube’s generational divide.” This report examines a year’s worth of YouTube data […]
Google: Ranking Fluctuations With a Site Redesign
When you launch a new redesign of a site, some site owners are still surprised when they launch a fancy new site design – even when the URLs remain the same – and see their rankings change. At Brighton SEO, as part of a larger conversation about HTTP to HTTPS site migrations, Gary Illyes from […]
Still No Plans for a Google Penguin 5.0 Update
Ever since real time Penguin launched in September 2016, many SEOs have wondered if there would be a Penguin 5.0 from Google. At the time of the real time launch, Google confirmed that there would be no more Penguin updates as we knew it, and that still seems to stand today. At Brighton SEO, I […]
Google Penguin Fine Tuned After Real Time Launch
One of the interesting bits that came out of the Brighton SEO Q&A chat I had with Gary Illyes from Google was regarding Penguin, specifically around changes made after the launch of the new real time Penguin. After real time Penguin launched a year ago, Google has had very little to say about it. But […]