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 […]
Receive Lots of DMCAs? Expect to Rank Lower in Google
Google has added some new online piracy tools and features, but one in particular has the possibility to affect webmasters, particularly those who are on the receiving end of DMCAs filed with Google. In August 2012 we first announced that we would downrank sites for which we received a large number of valid DMCA notices. […]
Google Wants to Visit Online Marketing Teams in Their Offices
Google wants to learn more about how companies use Google Webmaster Tools as well as how they manage content and infrastructure, and they are willing to come to you to do it. Gary Illyes, a Google Webmaster Trends Analyst, has posted on Google+ looking for companies willing to have Google visit them as they go […]
Penguin 3.0: Is it an Update or Merely a Refresh? Google’s Response
When Penguin began rolling out Friday night, we all assumed this was the long awaited Penguin update. After all, with over a year to work on it, many assumed it was a new groundbreaking Penguin that would leave the old one in the dust in terms of spam fighting. So while a year is a […]
Penguin 3.0 Affects Less than 1% of Queries, Will Rollout for Weeks
Google has publicly posted the first comments about the Penguin update. Pierre Far shared the following on Google+: On Friday last week, we started rolling out a Penguin refresh affecting fewer than 1% of queries in US English search results. This refresh helps sites that have already cleaned up the webspam signals discovered in the […]
Penguin 3.0 Finally Updates – Google Hits Homepages, Affiliates & 301 Redirect Spam
After waiting more than a year, the Penguin 3.0 update has finally rolled out. Google has emailed me to confirm that Penguin did roll out on Friday, at the same time forums and Twitter began to light up about a possible Penguin update rolling out, but said they might not release any further details or […]
WordPress SEO Plugins Used by 49% Sites, But Best Performing is Surprising
WordPress is an incredibly popular CMS system. And according to Lipperhey, WordPress powers over 22% of the entire web. In a sample of 21 million sites in the US, WordPress is the CMS used behind 68% of the websites that were running on a known CMS. Joomla was the second most popular CMS with 18% […]
Google Considers Adding Disavow Tool Confirmation
Google is considering a confirmation to let webmasters know when their disavow URL list has been processed. Gary Illyes, a Google Webmaster Trends Analyst said at SMX East yesterday that he plans to bring it up internally to see if the change could be made. One problem with the disavow tool is that webmasters are […]
Penguin Possibly Next Week, Too Late to Disavow Links for Update
Penguin update is “weeks away” according to Gary Illyes, a Google Webmaster Trends Analyst. Illyes was speaking on the “Meet the SEOs and Search Engines” at SMX East today. Illyes said he talked to the search quality group about this a couple weeks ago, and was told it was “weeks away”, which means we could […]
Changing to HTTPS will not fix other Google penalty issues on the site
John Mueller recently commented that switching to HTTPS would not increase your rankings noticeably in Google, despite many webmasters scrambling to make their site’s secure following Google’s announcement that it was a lightweight ranking factor. Mueller has also made some additional comments about HTTPS as rankings, particularly that some webmasters were considering that it would […]