Google is now showing Google My Business primary categories in some Google local search results, both in pack listings and in the expanded map listings. Brian Barwig was the first to notice the difference, although looking back on some screenshots, it does appear in a few of them. However, because of the nature of the […]
Google Adds Script for Search Tools Filters in Search Results
Google has made a slight adjustment to their search results, using a script to show the “Any time” and “All results” filters when clicking on “Search tools” filtering options. It replaces the usual line “About xxx,xxx search results (o.x seconds)” at the top of the search results when it is clicked. Here it is in […]
Googlebot Has New iPhone User-Agent for Crawling
It looks like Google has given its Googlebot crawler a brand new iPhone. If you track Googlebot visits to your site, or emulate one to “view as Googlebot” for testing purposes, you should be aware that Googlebot has a new iPhone user-agent to reflect the iOS 8 from iOS 6 difference. The new iPhone Googlebot […]
Google Analytics Asking for User Feedback
Google Analytics seems to be the latest Google product to ask for feedback from its users. When I logged into Google Analytics this morning, I got this pop-up layover on the bottom right of the Analytics screen, this led to a series of questions about the product, satisfaction level, and how they could improve upon […]
New Automated Extensions for Google’s Product Listing Ads
Just in time for the holiday advertising ramp up, Google announced automated extensions for Shopping campaigns in Adwords, officially known as Product Listing Ads. Automated extensions will be replacing promotional texts in PLAs. Promotional text was used to include additional ad copy in a PLA. These promotional texts are entered into Adwords manually. We have […]
Google Testing Sponsored Video Ads in Search Results Too
I recently spotted both Yahoo and Bing showing sponsored video ads right in their search results and it appears as though Google is doing the same, according to Digiday. These ads are only in a limited test right now, but it likely seen as a way to get video ads before more searchers outside of […]
New Bug With Indexed URL Numbers in Google Search Console
Google Search Console recently had a bug with the number of reported URLs being shown for XML Sitemap numbers. And Google confirms that it there is a new bug in indexed URL numbers now. It is unclear exactly what causes the bug, but if you spot a drop in the number of indexed pages showing […]
Matt Cutts is Still With Google, Has Leave Through End of Year
Matt Cutts was a guest on This Week in Google yesterday, and he was asked specifically about his current status at Google. He has been on an extended leave from Google for over a year. When Leo Laporte was introducing his guests, he asks “Can I say formerly of Google yet?” Matt Cutts replied “No, […]
Google Adds Search Results to Local Knowledge Panel
Google has added search results to the bottom of the local knowledge panel that appears when someone clicks on a result in the list of local listings in the regular search results. This change makes the local knowledge panel much longer but also puts greater emphasis on those search results, particularly for those businesses that […]
Social Signals Do Not Directly Impact Google Search Rankings
People have always pondered just how much impact social signals actually have when it comes to the search results. While Google has said on numerous occassions that social signals, such as shares, likes or retweets, do not have any impact on the Google search results for ranking, because Google can index those pages, there is […]