Google Chrome will no longer automatically play video in tabs that are running in the background. Autoplay videos will now be restricted to the active or current tab only. For users who love to open multiple tabs, it can sometimes be a game of hide and seek to try and determine which tab has an […]
Archives for August 2015
Google Chrome to Begin Blocking All Flash Ads by Default
If you are still using Flash advertisements, either on your site as an advertiser, or on other sites as an advertiser, be aware that Google is making a new change that will disable Flash ads to everyone using the Chrome browser. The change will go live on September 1st. While this change is supposed to […]
Displaying Rich Snippets in Google Search Results Doesn’t Impact Rankings
As Google has been displaying more and more types of rich snippets in the search results, people have questioned whether having them displayed on a site in the search results meant the site had a ranking boost associated with it. And it is common to see the top ranked sites displaying them for many types […]
Who Owns the #1 Ranking in YouTube for “Back to School”? It’s Bethany Mota
According to Google Trends, August is the peak month for interest in the search term “back to school.” This is the case whether you look web search interest worldwide or just in the United States. It’s also the case for YouTube search interest worldwide or just in the United States. And it appears that YouTube […]
Structured Markup Does Not Affect Google Search Rankings
The question came up in today’s Google Webmaster Office Hours about how Google handles sites that use structured markup versus those that don’t, and whether sites that use it get any kind of extra ranking boost when it comes to Google’s search results. Google’s John Mueller confirms that they do not consider the use of […]
Google Can Display Large Featured Snippet & Expanded Knowledge Panel on Same Page
Google can display both a large featured snippet with image alongside a Google knowledge panel on the right side. What makes this most noticeable is that the featured snippet – with an image and a table – is very lengthy and is actually longer than the knowledge panel with the related projects in it. On […]
Twitter Adds Hearts to Their New Mobile UI Test
Twitter is testing a new look to their mobile Twitter UI… and it will likely drive you crazy…. For starter, stars for favorites are gone, and have been replaced with hearts. And it doesn’t get much better from there, especially for regular or longtime Twitter users. Yes, it definitely looks like they hired a teenage […]
Google Reaching Out to Larger Third Party Sites to Get Embedded CSS & JS Unblocked
Ever since Google sent out the alerts asking webmasters to unblock all Javascript and CSS on their webpages, it has been a struggle with all the third party resources – including some from Google itself – that show up as an error in Google Search Console. While Google has said that webmasters don’t need to […]
Organic Search Results No Longer Displayed Above Google Local Pack Results
Google seems to have made yet another change to how they present local search results with 3-pack results and it will hurt those who aren’t in the top 3. One of the saving graces for some businesses with the switch to the 3-pack is that if the business ranked #1 for the search query, they […]
Google My Business Asking Inactive Accounts to Verify Local GMB Information
There has been a lot of talk recently about what Google planned to do about dormant Google My Business listings that are showing up for local searches on Google. While it seemed Google was removing some, it turned out they were merely removing some listings that were compiled with third-party resources but were never claimed […]