Most site owners are pretty good about ensuring their images have alt tags, especially ones that might also be used as links, as Google will use that alt text for SEO purposes. But John Mueller had an interesting side note about the use of images when they are on a mobile site, which could have […]
Google: Position & Weight of Internal Links for SEO Value
An interesting question came up in the last Google webmaster office hours, with Google’s John Mueller being asked about internal links, and how Google weights those links for SEO purpose. While one use for internal links is for users to enable them to easily find their way around a site, there is also a great […]
Google Flags User Submitted Store Hours in Local Knowledge Panel
Google has received some criticism when hours listed in a local knowledge panel don’t match a location’s actual hours. Google is now showing when a user submits hours that don’t match the hours either Google has added or that the business has submitted, and flags them clearly as being different hours that someone has submitted. […]
Google Recommends Using Self Referencing Canonicals
Some SEOs automatically include self referencing canonicals on all pages, while others only use it when it is actually needed due to similar or duplicated pages that should all reference a single page. But what should be considered best practices? The question came up in Google’s last webmaster office hours about whether Google recommends using […]
Google Adds Other Locations to Local Knowledge Panel
Google has made yet another change to how they display local businesses in the knowledge panel. Google is now showing additional locations when it displays the knowledge panel, in a carousel at the bottom of the knowledge panel. Here is what it looks like: It has an additional “view all” link that can be clicked, […]
Google Adds Trending Now to Knowledge Panel “People Also Search For”
Google has added a new feature to their knowledge panel that shows when a person related to the one in the knowledge graph is also trending. Here is an example for a search that brought up Serena Williams in the knowledge panel. Under the “People also search for” section with additional people, it shows that […]
Bing Local Pack Shows Live Traffic Conditions in Search Results
Bing has added a new feature to their local packs in the Bing search results – the ability to toggle live traffic conditions on and off to help searchers choose a business when traffic is a concern. Here is how it looks normally – there is a new icon on the top right that acts […]
Google: No Fred Algo Update From Google POV
During the last Google Webmaster Office Hours, the Fred algo update was brought up, specifically with regards to the Fred update and ecommerce sites. And Mueller confirmed that Fred isn’t just a single algo update, but rather just a series of updates to improve the search results. And he also confirms that from Google’s point […]
Using Subdomains for Low Quality Google Panda Pages
Google Panda has once again been a popular subject lately, as many site owners have been taking a good look at quality issues on their sites, especially with Google Fred also bringing up unrelated (Fred is not related to Panda) quality issues on sites as well. Gary Illyes was answering Google Panda questions on Twitter […]
Google Considers Branded Anchor Text Unnatural in Widget Links
Google has repeatedly warned site owners over the danger of using widgets for link building. But simply using branded anchor text as the link within the widget was a gray area where some site owners were saying that if it was branded – and not “keyword keyword keyword” links – then it shouldn’t be considered […]