We have seen local 4-packs from Google where Google will show 4 paid local listings in a local 4-pack. But it seems Google is now testing a single map pack with a combination of both paid and organic listings. Sergey Alakov spotted this in action this morning, with one paid local listing followed by three […]
Mobile First Index: Google to Notify Sites of Possible Issues via Search Console
In today’s Google Webmaster Office Hours, John Mueller said that they plan to send notices to webmasters via Google Search Console, alerting them that they would be likely to suffer issues when the mobile first index takes affect. While those who use responsive design likely won’t have many or any issues, those with other mobile […]
No Need to Change Canonicals from Desktop for Mobile First Indexing
Just a reminder, if you are updating any canonicals, you do not need to update all desktop/mobile canonicals on your site to make the mobile version be the primary URL. We included this information in our Google Mobile First Indexing Guide, but some people are still asking whether they need to switch or not. @shaunmaharaj […]
Google’s Mobile Interstitial & Popup Change Now Live: What to Know
Google’s change that would see pages devalued for using popups and interstitials for mobile users coming the Google search results is now live. This means if you are showing either popups or interstitials to Google traffic, that your pages will be downranked in the Google search results. Here are the changes and what you need […]
Google Adds “Trending in the News” Autosuggest on Mobile
Google is testing a new autosuggest in the mobile search results, this time highlighting specific news that Google sees as trending when the search is done. Here is what it looks like, when you start searching for something trending: When you click on the trending in the news link, it takes you to a regular […]
Google Updates AMP Error Reporting to Show Critical & Non-Critical Errors
Google has made a new change to AMP reporting that will make it much easier for those implementing AMP to troubleshoot errors and issues when validating the pages. Google is now showing AMP errors based on how critical they are. Critical errors – the ones that will cause AMP to not display in the search […]
Google: Stats on Page Speed of AMP
There have been some questions about AMP speeds recently, with some external testing done by those attempting to figure out how fast – or not – AMP is. At State of Search in Dallas last month, Maile Oyhe from Google talked about AMP and how it relates to speed for users, and she revealed some […]
Google To Remove AMP Bars When Scrolling & Easier Canonical Sharing
When viewing an article on AMP, Google will add an additional bar at the top of the AMP page – this bar is used so that a searcher can see the site they are on, as the URL in the top URL field will show the AMP URL, which is currently a google.com/amp/ URL. This […]
Google AMP URLs to Get New Non-Google.com URLs
Update: Google has clarified this will not impact the visible URLs that searchers see. This change mostly affects non-user visible cache URLs. I asked for further clarification if Google would be changing away from the Google.com URLs, but that doesn’t seem to be any update on that becoming a possibility. Google will begin showing the […]
Google Testing Alert to Inform Searchers That AMP Means Fast
Google is testing a way to help searchers understand what exactly an AMP result is. They are testing a notification that shows underneath an AMP result, alerting the searcher that an AMP page is a really fast web page. Here is how it looks: It says “AMP delivers a lightning-fast experience” and can be closed […]