8-7-2014: [FORBES] Complete Reversal: Google To Reward Sites With HTTPS Security In Search Rankings A Google+ Hangout on Air with Google Webmaster Central John Mueller revealed that there is no direct benefit to having an SSL active on your domain although this might be looked at in the future. Another question related to invalid certificates, further suggested that even if there is an invalid certificate this should still not effect a sites ranking in any … [Read more...]
The Google Conspiracy Theory: More Updates = More Revenue?
Back in June, the distinguished engineer Matt Cutts came out swinging to debunk the fact that many webmasters, particularly those considered to be in the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) space, suggest that Google loves flux in its search results because it increases pay-per-click revenues for Google. Cutts actually labeled this rumor a “Conspiracy Theory” noting that Google lost revenue when it first released Google Panda in February 2011. So how would Google loose … [Read more...]
Doing SEO to Your Site? Inquiring Minds at Google Want to Know
Out of all the posts and discussions on “SEO Profiling” through the years and with all sorts of opinions as well as speculation on what Google possibly wants or doesn’t want to know about someone’s SEO efforts, I believe there are finally some answers available for the taking as GOOG’s latest patent is sure to clear the air on some or all of these theories and misconceptions from both sides of the fence. A new Patent Application dated August 14, 2012 called “Ranking … [Read more...]
Two Different Google Penguin “Death Messages” from Webmaster Tools
Who knew a Penguin could be so deadly? Losing your traffic and search positioning on Google is bad, real bad. Showing up on Bing or Yahoo near the top of search is just sort of cool, but it doesn't really make much difference to your business. Sure it might make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside seeing you up at the top there, but even competitive terms, year over year, don’t seem to yield much traffic. Google, on the other hand, makes or breaks your business, … [Read more...]
Search Market Share: Rivals Struggle as Google’s Shadow Grows Bigger
Newly released figures from comScore, an Internet analytics firm, show Google's dominant position to be a granite boulder against which weaker competitors can only grind futilely. Despite vigorous attempts by Microsoft, Yahoo and others to whittle away at the commanding share of Web visitors held by Google, the search king expanded its slice of the pie to 66.8 percent in June 2012, a significant rise from 65.5 percent in June of the previous year. Yahoo's share slid to 13 … [Read more...]
Google Webmaster Tools Now Offers Email Alerts for Crawl Errors
Google Webmaster Tools has been fairly popular for some time but it’s popularity is beginning to grow even more quickly. Much of this new found fame is due to the messages being received by a wide range of webmasters (over 700,000 recently), primarily from, or what seems to be from, the changes rolled out in Google’s Penguin update. Equally significant is the significant buzz and publicity surrounding the fact that receiving these messages is generally bad news for your site … [Read more...]
Rich Snippets: The Absence of Star Ratings & Reviews In Google Search
Most Internet news agencies originally praised Google's decision to replace its local search business rating system with Zagat ratings. After all, the acquisition of Zagat data was a major business decision by the search engine giant who paid a hefty price for those scores, $125 million as originally reported by the Wall Street Journal (more recently reported by AP to be $151 million). However, it seems that business owners and local webmasters who run sites previously … [Read more...]
Bing Update Pleases Developers: Webmasters Can Disavow Links
Microsoft's Bing search engine is now offering web developers a tool to disavow malicious links. Bing Webmaster Tools features a small gadget that allows people to submit domains that apparently link to a legitimate page from poor quality sites. Individual pages and directories can also be submitted in the disavow links page. Web developers with SEO on their agenda often wish they could disavow links. Unnatural links and other black hat spam policies can hurt both a site's … [Read more...]
Knowledge Graph Misses Company Philosophy: Fast Better Than Slow
Google's new "Knowledge Graph" has been one of the most discussed topics out of many new releases from Google as of recent . It may also be the reason, or at least, a contributing factor, to Bing entering into a closer relationship with Encyclopedia Britannica. Ever since Google announced Knowledge Graph, the new feature has been present on countless search pages and is often based around information taken from Wikipedia. Wikipedia appears on the front of Google pages quite … [Read more...]
“Jelly Bean” and “Google Now” To Make Ordinary Search Less Interesting
Google I/O saw a number of new features go down in the book. Several of these were directly related to search. Jellybean is the latest version of Android (available next month), and the operating system comes with improved Knowledge Graph visualization technology. Out of all the features, however, the search features of Google Now might very well be the most significant change to user navigation. Google Now is designed to serve users information that they require based … [Read more...]
Google Webmaster Academy: Google’s Webmaster Beginners Guide
Below is a small grouping of videos (out of 492 videos Google team members have created) that have been released over the years. In May, Google announced a new section which details some web-mastering tips they want you to know about. Google's got plenty of things they don't want you to know, but these topics and processes are the things they do want webmasters to know and understand so that crawling and indexing your site (plus the web) could be done better which in-turn … [Read more...]
Google’s Semantic Web: Knowledge Graph Means Things, Not Strings
Google, which commands the elephant's share of search-engine visitors, has ponderously stamped the ground again by introducing a new feature intended to quickly illuminate popular topics. Company officials say their Knowledge Graph addition will help searchers gain a wider picture of many subjects without the need to wade through overly expansive results. Similar functionality has already appeared with little notice at smaller competitors such as DuckDuckGo, but Google's own … [Read more...]
Business Listings Get New Name: “Places” Becomes “Google Plus Local”
Google local search results are becoming more important every day. As Google expands its local maps listings businesses continue to try determining why some sites out-rank or appear above them, particularity, in the local maps based results on Google’s first page. Recently, David Mihm, a search marketer who specializes in local SEO, released a study performed by 40 local search marketers from around the world (all of whom are listed on the survey results page). The study … [Read more...]
Google Unleashes Limitless Liability for Websites with Penguin Update
Never before has there been a negative factor when it comes to hypertext links, until now. On or around April 28th 2012, Google released its latest algorithm update dubbed “Penguin”. This update was specifically targeting web sites which have characteristics indicating they have used tactics to build what Google refers to as “artificial” or “unnatural links” pointing to them. Web sites which are deemed to be using methods of generating what Google feels are “unnatural” or … [Read more...]
Google Panda: 10 Ways Panda Update Determines Content Quality
Google Panda is the Google algorithm that specifically attempts to improve the relevance of search results. While the Penguin algorithm focuses more on link quality, Panda is still very important and focuses on content quality. The standards Google uses in Panda are, like its namesake, fairly black and white. 10 Ways Google Determines Content Quality 1 ) Links: Especially from recognized "authority" sites within a particular niche are an important indication of content … [Read more...]