MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA - In a recent Reddit Q&A, John Mueller, the Senior Webmaster Trends Analyst and Search Relations team lead at Google, fielded a query on why hyphens are no typically longer utilized in domain names, and if their fall from grace was something to be concerned about. Mueller noted that hyphens in domain names were a trend from a bygone era of the internet, and their curtailed use in modern times has occurred for a number of reasons, ranging from the way … [Read more...]
Domain History As Google Ranking Factor Highlighted Again in Search Engine Journal
BOCA RATON, FL - The history of domain name can have a decisively significant factor in terms of its Google ranking. If a user owns a domain that is new and has never been used before then they essentially have a clean slate, but if the domain name was previously owned and has changed hands – perhaps even more than once – how it was utilized by its previous owner and/or owners could absolutely have an impact on your ranking going forward. Most people don't pay much … [Read more...]
Google’s Senior Search Analyst: Domain Names Won’t “Make or Break Your SEO”
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA - In a recent discussion on Mastodon, Google’s John Mueller – the company’s Senior Search Analyst and Search Relations team lead – was discussing the topic of domain names, and while offering tips on search engine optimization (SEO), he relayed his opinion that whatever an individual or company’s domain name is - “it's never going to make or break your SEO.” This factoid came out after Mueller was questioned about the utilization of dashes in domain … [Read more...]
How Google Search Worked (Back in 2010) With Quality Search Engineer Matt Cutts
PALM BEACH, FL – The below video was uploaded by Google’s YouTube account back in 2010. As of the time of this writing the video has been watched over 5.2 million times. It explains, in layman’s terms (a very simple way), how Google works, at least, how Google ‘worked’ back in 2010. The video includes Matt Cutts, who was at that time, Google’s quality search engineer. He also acted as somewhat of a communications contact between Google and the entire webmaster community. … [Read more...]
Redirecting Domains with Backlinks Helps SEO; Google Doesn’t Want You to Know
NEW YORK – Morgan Linton’s blog caught my eye this morning as it discusses the redirecting of domain names for SEO, an often hotly debated topic. I find this topic especially interesting as it appears to me that Google often dances around the truth with explanations of what works and what doesn’t. Google’s new webmaster PR guy is John Mueller who basically replaced Matt Cutts in a publication relations capacity with webmasters around 2015 when Cutts was on leave. I’ve always … [Read more...]