Google has changed they way they are serving local listings in Google. Now, each listing has a “fly out” that replaces the Google Maps area on the right-hand side of the page with the company’s knowledge graph. This style has been appearing for some users off and on for at least a year, but now […]
Why Your Google+ Profile Image is Important for SEO
Most people, when choosing the Google+ image for their business, tend to choose the company logo. They may do variations of their logo for certain events or seasons, such as Christmas or Mother’s Day, but the logo itself is usually recognizable to anyone somewhat familiar with the brand. But some companies have been choosing non-traditional […]
Google Displays Visit Website Not Rates in Hotel Listings
Google has been adding more features to their hotels in the Google search results, most notably with the 3-pack of hotel listings directly within the search results that allow searchers to search availability and which lists pricing. I noticed something unusual when doing a search. For some hotels, Google does not display a listed price […]
How to Create Tracking URLs for Google Analytics
Did you know you can create tracking URLs for Google Analytics, even if you are not currently using a third party tool that will do this automatically for you? Just because you don’t have fancy tools doesn’t mean you can’t use the standard tracking URLs in Google Analytics. If you would like to be able […]
Google Uses Same Search Algo Worldwide But Have Country & Language Boosts
Some SEOs have wondered whether Google has different variations of their core search ranking algorithm depending on what country the searcher was searching from. Spam is certainly more prevalent in some languages and countries more than others. But does Google have special variations targeting different countries? Google uses the same search algorithm throughout the world, […]
All SSL Certificates Equal For Google Ranking Purposes
There’s been plenty of debates about where to buy an SSL certificate ever since Google initially announced their HTTPS ranking signal. Would bargain basement priced secure certificates be viewed as equal to the more expensive options in the eyes of Google? According to Gary Illyes from Google, he said that Google does, in fact, consider […]
Mobilegeddon “Inaccurate” to Describe Google’s Mobile Friendly Algo
At SMX Sydney, Gary Illyes addressed the topic of the mobile friendly algo, and more specifically, the term “Mobilegeddon” that has been commonly used as its unofficial name, and said,”The term mobilegeddon is inaccurate”. The term “Mobilegeddon” started because Google didn’t have an internal name for the mobile friendly algo other than, you guessed it, […]
Google Considering Adding Hreflang Issues to Webmaster Tools
Mess up hreflang? Google Webmaster Tools might be adding a feature that would show when they feel there might be an error in a site’s usage of hreflang on their pages. At SMX Sydney Wednesday, Gary Illyes did a session on hreflang and dropped a few tidbits including the possibility of showing potential errors. The […]
Bing Search Testing Reminders When You’ve Visited a Webpage
Bing is adding reminders in their search results when you have previously visited a webpage. This is similar to a feature Google has, which most often appears to users using Google Now. This type of feature always has mixed results, as some people find it useful, while others find it on the creepy side, since […]
Bounce Rate & Analytics Not Used in Google’s Search Ranking
Despite Matt Cutts categorically saying Google does not use bounce rate data in their search rankings at SMX a couple of years ago, many SEOs still believe that Google does bounce rate, and demotes sites and/or pages that have a higher bounce rate. Someone asked the question to Gary Illyes from Google on Twitter, and […]