There has been a definite increase in the number of reports on webmaster forums, including the Google ones, and many of the reports involve the popular WordPress plugin Wordfence. Google has never published a list of IPs they crawl from, as those IPs can change at any time. They also have bots used for specific […]
Google’s Change to Chrome Showing non-HTTPS Site Warnings Launching in Chrome 42
Ilya Grigorik from Google has posted a reminder that Chrome 42, the browser’s next stable build, will start displaying expired certificates. We have known for some time that Google was making the change, as back in January they announced that Google would begin flagging non-HTTPS sites in an upcoming build. Google recommends downloading Chrome Canary […]
Google Showing Specific Product Answer Box with Amazon Link for Generic Product Searches
We have seen Google display answer boxes for some highly competitive search terms before, but now they are showing specific products with a commercial link to buy the product, but for when searchers aren’t searching for that specific product, but when searching for a general product query instead. CognitiveSEO was the first to spot the […]
3 Ways to Force Google to Reindex Pages for Mobile-Friendly Tags
Are you cutting it really close to the line when it comes to the April 21st mobile-friendly ranking change? Or is Googlebot seeming to ignore many of your pages to check and see if they are indeed mobile friendly? There is a way you can prompt Google to send Googlebot to reindex those pages in […]
Google Now Autocompletes Popular Brands for Non-Brand Searches
Google auto suggest to them going through some significant changes recently. The latest is Google is now auto suggesting brand names when you do a generic search – even if that brand name does not have a single one of the search keywords in it. Rand Fishkin of Moz was the first to notice the […]
No Need for Separate Mobile Sitemap Unless Designed for Feature Phones
When you have finished making your site mobile friendly, do you need to submit a mobile sitemap as well? In the Google Webmaster Help forum, the question was raised about mobile sitemaps, if a separate mobile sitemap is required once a site is made mobile friendly or if they should just duplicate the regular sitemap […]
Google’s Mobile Friendly Algo Will Only Affect the “Ten Blue Links” & Not In the News, In-Depth Etc.
At BrightonSEO today, Gary Illyes revealed that local pack results are not affected by the new mobile friendly ranking algorithm that is due to arrive on April 21st, which makes perfect sense. Then Gary replied to me and tweeted this: @jenstar yep, just the "10 blue links" are, but of course teams who own the […]
Duplicate Content Will Not Trigger a Penalty… With One Exception
At SMX West, Gary Illyes talked about how duplicate content is not a penalty, it is merely a filter. In today’s Google Webmaster Office Hours Hangout, John was asked a question about duplicate content and whether it could trigger an algorithmic penalty or lower your rankings. Essentially, he said that Google will just pick one […]
New GWT Search Analytics Has a Release Date… But It’s Still Secret
Everyone is waiting for the new update of Google Webmaster Tools when the new Search Analytics is added… but no one knows yet when it will go live for all users. We do know they were still adding testers as of the end of March. John Mueller was asked today about the release date, and […]
Page Speed is Not a Factor in the New Mobile Friendly Ranking Signal
At Brighton SEO today, Gary Illyes, a Google Webmaster Trends Analyst, was talking about mobile and the upcoming mobile friendly ranking signal which will come into play on April 21st. Many SEOs have been emphasizing page speed rather aggressively when it comes to ensuring sites are mobile friendly before the 21st. At SMX West earlier […]