For over a year we all waited. Impatiently mind you … but we waited nonetheless. Knowing that with a Penguin-based penalty (or devaluation if you prefer) victims had no hope of relief until the next regardless of their actions, it was a very very long wait. And then the Penguin refresh began and the results […]
Google Adds Mobile Usability Errors to Webmaster Tools
With the importance Google is placing on sites being mobile friendly, their latest feature added to Google Webmaster Tools will be a big help for those webmasters who might not understand all the nuances of mobile-friendly design. Webmasters can now see mobile usability errors in Google Webmaster Tools and the number of pages affected by […]
YouTube Confirms Ad-Free Subscription Model Being Considered
In August, the first rumors hit about Google offering an ad-free subscription for YouTube which would allow users to watch unlimited videos without having to watch any pre-roll advertising or with ads displaying on the bottom of the video while it plays. Google has now finally confirmed that they are considering the possibility when YouTube’s […]
Google Expands Flash Warnings to Mobile Users in Other Languages
Earlier this month, Google began rolling out their warnings to mobile users if a site uses Flash internationally. They are now expanding this warning feature to many more countries and languages. Google announced the changes on multiple international Google Webmaster Central blogs today, including German, Portuguese, and French. This is one of the many changes […]
Disable Google’s Site Search in Search Results With Meta Tag
If you don’t want Google to include a site search box within the listing for your website in the Google search results, Google has added a new tag to disable the functionality. Spotted by Menashe Avramov, you simply add <meta name=”google” content=”nositelinkssearchbox” /> They have also added information about the new tag to their “Meta […]
Blocking Googlebot from CSS & JavaScript Can Hurt Google Rankings
Many webmasters block Googlebot from crawling both CSS and JavaScript for ranking purposes to try and combat things such as the page layout algorithm. But Google has been advising webmasters not block Googlebot from crawling either, and it has now officially been added to Google’s technical guidelines that blocking CSS and JavaScript so can hurt a website’s […]
Google’s Pirate Update Increases Visibility of Smaller Torrent Sites
Google recently made a change to their algorithm designed to demote major sites hosting pirated content, but the algorithm has a secondary side effect – bringing more visibility to smaller torrent sites that had been previously buried in the search results due to the more popular sites ranking so well. The new algo takes the […]
Larry Page Transfers Leadership of Search, Google+ & Ad Products to Sundar Pichai
In a surprising move, Larry Page has transferred leadership of multiple core products from himself to Sundar Pichai, a Senior Vice President at Google. Pichai was previously in charge of Android, Chrome and Google Apps, and will now see research, search, maps, Google+, commerce and ad products and infrastructure added to his responsibilities. Page will […]
YouTube’s Gaming Division Hires eSports Commentator Ryan Wyatt
YouTube is continuing their push of their YouTube gaming division by hiring eSports commentator Ryan Wyatt. Wyatt, who is also known as his gaming handle Fwiz, made the announcement on Twitter from an Major League Gaming (MLG) event in Ohio this weekend. Update: I’m now the Head of Gaming @YouTube! I’m excited to be working […]
New Top Level Domains Have No Ranking Advantage in Google, Not Geotargeted
John Mueller from Google reminds webmasters that the newly added TLDs do not come with any ranking benefit in Google. It’s been a while since Matt posted https://plus.google.com/+MattCutts/posts/4VaWg4TMM5F , but this is still the case. There’s no inherent advantage in search that comes from using any of the new top-level domains (TLDs). They’re also not […]