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 […]