We have all gotten those reminder emails from Facebook and Twitter, trying to tempt us to return to either social media platform and see what we’ve missed. It seems that now Google+ is testing that approach out too with emails to users. Thom Craver from Internet Marketing Ninjas sent me this screenshot of an email […]
Archives for 2015
Google’s Knowledge Graphs are Actually Called Knowledge Panels
Google’s Gary Illyes is continuing to teach webmasters about what some of the “official names” are for various parts of the Google search results, rather than the name we all use for it. This time we learned that what we all commonly call knowledge graphs are called knowledge panels by Google. After I tweeted about […]
Using the New AdWords Keyword Planner Benchmarks for Competitor Analysis
Google recently announced a feature enhancement in the Keyword Planner in Adwords, and it looks like it has finally rolled out to most accounts. The Keyword Planner will now allow advertisers to compare impression share with competitor domains and the top five market leaders. The competitor domains impression share is calculated based on the last […]
Bing Ads Testing Call to Action Boxes in Top Search Results Ads
Bing Ads is testing this eye catching ad at the top of the search results, one with a huge “Book A Room” action box that appears on the right side of the search results on the top of the page. I can easily see other advertisers wanting to test this as well. And I can […]
Google Chrome Plans to Prevent Auto-Play Flash Content from Playing by Default
Is your website still rocking Flash content? You may want to start rethinking that Flash, as Google announced plans to prevent non-essential Flash video content from automatically playing when it loads a webpage. Chrome is billing it as a way to save battery resources, and says they worked with Adobe, the creators of Flash, to […]
Google AdWords Adds New Airline Specific Consumer Ratings
Google AdWords is adding some new consumer ratings into the mix – these ones specific to the airline industry, and seem to be usable only by the airlines themselves. We are all used to seeing consumer ratings in Google AdWords and Bing Ads, where the ad can highlight consumer ratings they have received in traditional […]
Thumbtack.com Hit With Google Manual Action Penalty for Links
Thumbtack’s Manual Action If you do a search for “Thumbtack”, you will not find them anywhere in the Google search results… nor will you see them for any of the estimated 25,000 keywords they were previously ranking for. They have been hit with a manual action penalty courtesy of Google. Thumbtack does not rank for […]
Google Plans to Make HTTPS Ranking Signal Stronger
When Google first announced that HTTPS would be a ranking signal, a large number of webmasters jumped on the opportunity to get what was essentially a freebie boost in the search rankings simply by switching to HTTPS. Later, John Mueller from Google announced that it was a very small ranking signal, something that Gary Illyes […]
Mobile Testing Beyond Google’s Responsive Web Design Test Requirements
When Google announced a new recommendation that websites must pass its mobile test, the rush to turn desktop layouts into responsive created what some termed “Mobilegeddon.” The logic behind Google’s decision is simple. The increase in smartphone searches created a need for websites to be user friendly on smaller screens. Websites that failed to be […]
Emojis Now Showing as Display URLs in Google Search Results
Just when you thought emojis in search results couldn’t get any more annoying, some SEOs have discovered that they can use specific combinations of characters to display the URL in emoji format. This was actually part of an ad campaign by Norwegian Airlines. They converted a domain name into emoji format, then built their ad […]