Google has officially begun sending out email notices to site owners confirming their change from desktop indexing to mobile first indexing. And we do have some clarification on mobile friendliness being a criteria or not for sites changing over. Some people had speculated that a way to prevent mobile first indexing was to have a […]
Over 60% of Google Search AMP Clicks Go To Non-News Sites
Google has released some new stats about AMP pages and one of the new stats should really make site owners and publishers take notice. While AMP originally launched as primarily a tool for news sites, the expansion of that to non-news sites has grown tremendously. Dave Besbris, VP of Engineering at Google, confirmed that now […]
Google’s Mobile Page Speed Update: Everything SEOs Need to Know
Google has officially announced that mobile page speed will be a ranking factor. The new “mobile speed update” will launch in July 2018, giving site owners roughly six months to ensure their mobile sites will not be negatively impacted. It had been confirmed that mobile page speed would be included as a ranking factor, but […]
Google Updates AMP Testing Tool for Multiple AMP Styles & Submit AMP Page
Google has updated their AMP testing tool with a ton of new features. The main update now shows examples of how AMP results appear in the Google mobile search results. Google has also updated features for submitting an AMP page to Google and viewing AMP source code. The new update shows three different styles, the […]
Insights from Google’s Voice Search Quality Rater Guidelines
Google has released quality rater guidelines specifically for voice search, the first time they have published guidelines specifically around the evolving world of voice search and assistant responses for search queries. While most will refer to them as the voice search quality rater guidelines, the official name is “Evaluation of Search Speech – Guidelines.” For […]
Google Testing “Instant” Tag for AMP in Search Results
Google is testing a new way to let searchers know that AMP results shown are much faster than a typical web page. They have added an “Instant” tag next to the usual AMP logo for those results, instead of the usual AMP icon along with the word “AMP” next to it. Jonathan Jones spotted the […]
Google Indexes AMP Version for Mobile First When No Regular Mobile Page
At Brighton SEO, I asked for clarification on an issue that has had mixed responses – whether sites that are using AMP as their only mobile version of a site – would see their desktop or their mobile indexed when Google switches to mobile first indexing. I raised the question with Gary Illyes from Google, […]
Google Testing More Visible AMP Icon in Search Results
Google is testing a much more visible version of their AMP logo in the search results. Instead of the usual light grey that you see in the mobile search results, the new test shows them in black instead. Aleyda Solis posted screenshots of the new style on Twitter. They show in both the regular search […]
Google: Check Your Mobile Site Has Alt Text Tags on Images
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 Converting Non-Mobile Friendly Pages to Mobile Friendly for Searchers
Google is testing a new feature that offers to convert a non mobile friendly page to a mobile friendly one for searchers when they land on a page that isn’t. Kiran Nagula spotted the test. When you view a webpage that isn’t mobile friendly, Google adds a closeable banner to the bottom of the page […]