Google has released a new version of the Google quality rater guidelines, and one of the most significant additions was creator reputation. Instead of just focusing on the reputation of the website itself, Google wants the raters to now look and see what the reputation is of the creator of the content. Does this person […]
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
Google: When Asking for Links Isn’t a Link Scheme
For SEOs, links are very important part of any SEO strategy for all websites. However it can be a pretty geay area for site owners to request links, especially when those links are in exchange for something else, such as content or money. And for the most part, those are pretty clearly a violation of […]
Google Does Not Use Quality Raters for Machine Learning Algos
Whenever there is a new quality raters guidelines released by Google, there is always lots of speculation about what Google does with the data from those ratings. And does that include machine learning? Google confirmed that they use quality raters to evaluate potential changes to the search algos. They push out a change and then […]
Google’s Latest Core Algo Update Still Rolling Out
For those watching the search results to see how well (or not) sites have done with Google’s latest core algo update, you will need to watch for quite a lot longer. Google has confirmed that the algo update is still rolling out. Danny Sullivan from Google has confirmed that the latest update is still rolling […]
New Google Core Search Algo Update: What We Know
Google has confirmed a major algo update in their search results that was released this week. Danny Sullivan from Google confirmed this via twitter after many SEOs noticed major fluctuations in rankings. This week we released a broad core algorithm update, as we do several times per year. Our guidance about such updates remains the […]
Google Testing Reading Time Filter in Search Results
Google is testing a new feature in the search results that allows searcher to filter the search results by the approximate time it takes to read the article. The tool is accessed through the Tools filter. The new filter is a drop down that says “Any duration.” Then the searcher can choose between 3 time […]
Google Adding FAQ, Q&A and How To Verticals to Search Results
At Google Dance Singapore, Gary Illyes from Google revealed a new feature that is coming to the Google search results. The new feature would see specific content from a webpage, including FAQ, Q&A and how-to verticals being highlighted in the search results for those pages. And these rich results take up nearly the entire screen […]
Bing Launches JSON-LD Support in Bing Webmaster Tools
Bing has finally launched its long awaited support of JSON-LD in Bing Webmaster Tools, with a new Markup Validator Tool. Bing is proud to introduce JSON-LD support as part of Bing Webmaster Tools, as announced at the 2018 SMX Advanced. Users can login to Bing Webmaster Tools and validate their JSON-LD implementation through the Markup Validator Tool present in the […]
Google Testing New Visual Product Recommendations in Image Search
Google is testing a new visual product search in image search results, adding a new similar items carousel based on the products that were seen in the images for the image search. In this test, instead of automatically loading more images, as usually happens when you scroll down, it instead adds a button to view […]
Google Removes Public Submit URL to Google Tool
Google has removed the public version of their submit URL tool. This tool allowed anyone to submit a URL to Google, as it wasn’t restricted to site owners only, We've had to drop the public submission feature, but we continue to welcome your submissions using the usual tool in Search Console and through sitemaps directly. […]
Google Removes Search Quality Rater Guidelines PDF
A few days after Google released its first new version of the quality rater guidelines of the year, Google has pulled the file from the site. It now goes to a 404 page. Google’s blog post from 2015 about releasing the guidelines from a few years ago still links to the URL where the file […]
Google Search Quality Rater Guidelines Updated: Beneficial Purpose, Creator Reputation & More
It has been a year since we last saw Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines updated, but they released a brand new version over the weekend. Here is what has changed, with commentary about why it is important for site owners and tips they can take away from it to incorporate into their own sites. Once […]
Bing Ads Adds Security Badge Annotations to Search Results
Bing Ads is now live with a new Security Badge Annotations that shows a site is secured when it shows up in the search results. Here is what it looks like. It adds a “Site secured by Norton” to the listing following the URL. It is worth noting that the displayed URL does not show […]
Google Slows Crawling With 5xx Server Errors
When a website starts to serve Googlebot 5xx server errors, how does Googlebot handle the change in server status? The question came up about Google crawl errors, and John Mueller from Google had some interesting comments about 5xx type of server errors and how it impacts Googlebot. That's a very vague question, and a post […]
Google: H Tags as a Ranking Factor
How important are using <h> tags – and more specifically multiple <h> tags, such as using <h1>, <h2>, <h3> and more – on a page when considering it from an SEO point of view? What about the benefits to site visitors? The question came up specifically about the use of <h> tags and whether they […]
Using Redirects Can Impact Google AdWords Quality Score
If you have recently undergone a URL structure change, or recently changed to HTTPS, make sure that you are also fixing the destination URLs in your Google AdWords ads. It came up in a tweet specifically about HTTPS, with Jon Diorio of AdWords advising advertisers to ensure if they have switched to HTTPS, that they […]
Bing Testing Feature to Open Search Results in New Tab
Bing is running a limited test right now in their search results that allows searchers to open individual search results in a new tab automatically. Here is what it looks like: As you can see, when you mouseover an individual result, it shows a new tab icon, with a “Click here to open in […]
Google: Don’t Rely on Google Tag Manager for Structured Data
One of the ways to implement structured data on a site is by using Google Tag Manager – GTM – to do so. But John Mueller from Google is warning against using this implementation of structured data. A question came up on Twitter about the Google Structured Data Testing Tool not being able to recognize […]
Google: On Page Depth, Flat Architecture, Googlebot Discovery and SEO
How important is flat architecture to a website? What about page depth, which is how many pages deep any page is from the homepage, and how it impacts pages based on that depth? And what about how a website structure impacts new content? John Mueller from Google addressed this in a recent Google webmaster office […]
Google: How Googlebot Processes JavaScript Links on a Site
Site developers are often creative when it comes to how they implement linking with various web technologies. But not all links are created equal in the eyes of Googlebot. John Mueller from Google was asked if Googlebot would ignore JavaScript links placed in a “<div href> + JavaScript format. He confirmed that Google will not […]