Facts: The October 2023 spam update incident began on October 4, 2023 at 09:51 US/Pacific with the global release at 09:52 PDT, improving coverage in multiple languages including Turkish, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Hindi, and Chinese, and concluded on October 19, 2023 at 22:15 US/Pacific with the rollout fully completed by October 20, 2023. This “Terminator” algorithm … Read more

Tool: See the new Hobo EEAT Tool. For the small publishers who even made it to March 2024, the March 2024 Google Core Update brought together all of Google’s corrective algorithms launched in 2022 and the ones in the news in late 2023 into one update period. In March, Google also launched the Google March … Read more

Facts: The December 2024 Google spam update incident began on December 19, 2024 at 09:00 US/Pacific with the global release at 09:01 PST, and it concluded on December 26, 2024 at 11:00 US/Pacific, with the rollout fully completed by 11:03 PST on the final day. The December 2024 Google Spam update followed in the wake … Read more

Tool: See the new Hobo EEAT Tool. I’m looking into noticeably impactful and unannounced Google update activity in February 2025, on the surface, unrelated to the entity issues (Google’s understanding and representation of entities in Google Search) I’ve been sharing in the Disconnected Entity Hypothesis I shared last month. It looks as though this February Google … Read more

Google’s algorithms, HCU, SPAM, and CORE updates, amongst other things, impact “Disconnected Entities” and seek to demote and remove them from Search.

CLAIM 50% OFF Hobo Robot Hobo Robot is an automated robot at the heart of a suite of tools in Google Docs designed to streamline various aspects of digital marketing and SEO for businesses. Get it for 999 GBP in the early bird presale. Includes installation and setup. It integrates functions like: WordPress content management. … Read more

Meet Hobo Robot.

Hobo SEO Dashboard Multi-Site for Google Sheets is available now.

Hobo WP Agent in Google Docs is a tool that automates WordPress content management directly from Google Docs and Sheets.

Get a full manual SEO audit for your website As 20K social followers interested in SEO on Linkedin and X can attest to, I’ve been looking at the carnage caused by Google’s HCU and accompanying SPAM and CORE updates and how specifically the HCU (Helpful Content Update) and SPAM have impacted small, independent publishers over … Read more

Get 50% OFF Hobo SEO Dashboard The Winners and Losers Reporting System in Hobo SEO Dashboard (in Google Sheets) is designed to work automatically as part of the SEO Dashboard’s automatic reporting. You can also run it on the loaded client in your Settings sheet, from the Hobo Admin menu. In your Google Sheets top … Read more

Hobo SEO Dashboard is a Google Sheets tool that helps marketers, SEOs, and website developers perform an SEO audit report on any website. SEO Dashboard will autonomously run regular reports on every client in your Search Console according to the schedule you set. When set up, you can rely on it to automatically publish and … Read more

Hobo SEO Dashboard is an autonomous SEO reporter in Google Sheets, and easy to set up. If you are an SEO or web developer or an SEO manager who manages many sites in Search Console and prefers to work in spreadsheets, this is for you.

Get 50% OFF Hobo SEO Dashboard Hobo SEO Dashboard Multi-Site, an autonomous and highly cost-effective SEO reporting system built in Google Sheets. It is designed for SEOs, agencies, website managers, and consultants who manage multiple clients using Search Console. It includes a built-in Search Console Account Explorer, a Client Publishing and Scheduling system, and a Client … Read more

Hobo SEO Dashboard is a tool that helps marketers, SEO consultants and and website managers explore and analyse Search Console data on any website directly in Google Sheets.

How to set up Search Console Api access

Hobo SEO support are tools and services to help you guarantee you align your site with Google guidelines, to avoid penalties and algorithm punishments in the future.

Save hours on prepping SEO audits, setting up crawl files and analysis with Hobo SEO reporting. Quick and easy analysis set to a schedule you want.

Hobo SF Multi-Site for Google Sheets is a complete SEO audit and reporting system built in Google Sheets For SEO Consultants and Website Managers, Hobo SF Multi-site for Google Sheets costs only GBP 499 for a lifetime license with NO subscription fees and NO further ongoing costs.

In this free SEO course for beginners and professionals alike, I take you through exactly what you need to focus on to improve your traffic numbers from Google through search engine optimization best practices.

Get Hobo SEO Dashboard Disclosure: Hobo Web uses generative AI when specifically writing about our own experiences, ideas, stories, concepts, tools, tool documentation or research. Our tool of choice is in this process is Google Gemini Pro 2.5 Deep Research. This assistance helps ensure our customers have clarity on everything we are involved with and … Read more

Meet the Hobo SEO Checklist: Public version (free). Pro version with training course (£49). Premium (£180).

The Premium SEO checklist is a collection of SEO checklists available online through Google Sheets you can purchase.

Chatgpt cant do a lot of things you hear about on Social Media. Chatgpt is effectively emulating the function you think it is doing. It isn’t counting those words you are writing, it isn’t spell-checking your writing, it isn’t grammar-checking your copy. It cant check your website’s SEO (search engine optimisation), and it cannot SEO your website. If you use Ai to produce sloppy content, Google will have an algorithm cooking for you.

This guide provides a beginners guide to learning SEO, starting with the basics.

Learn YouTube SEO with this free guide. Learn about keyword research, video optimisation, video promotion, and more. Boost your YouTube rankings today.

Starting SEO can feel overwhelming, but the core principles are straightforward and enduring. The process is not about finding quick, magical tricks but about making a long-term investment in your website’s quality and authority.

This guide provides an introduction to SEO, its importance, and how it can help businesses increase their online visibility and reach their target audience. It covers the basics of SEO, including keyword research, on-page optimisation, and link building

This guide provides insights into Google’s page experience, covering aspects like Core Web Vitals, secure page delivery, mobile-friendly design, and ad placement. Learn how to evaluate your site and deliver a good page experience.

This is not another generic list. This is a strategic analysis. Drawing on over 20 years of practical experience and, more importantly, on the ground-truth evidence revealed during the landmark U.S. v. Google antitrust trial, this guide will give you a clear, actionable perspective.

The free SEO checklist is a 100+ point reference of Google’s own recommendations on how to rank your site on Google. If you ignore these defacto rules, you are demoted in Google search. You do not recover past traffic levels until you address these quality issues on your site, and you certainly do not want to introduce any of these website quality issues to your site.

If you are a website manager or business owner who wants to check if your website is listed in Google or find out how to submit your website to Google this article is for you.

Here are some notes I have collected for those optimising a website built with Javascript and the challenges with Javascript in terms of search engine optimisation.

Check how your site performs on the most popular mobile, desktop and tablet internet browsers: Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Samsung Internet, UC Browser, Opera, IE, Edge

This article discusses modern link-building tactics and strategies. It is focused on the beginner who wants to understand the benefits and risks of link-building. This article focuses on legitimate link-building tacts and strategies, not black-hat link-building tactics.

There’s no single ‘best’ screen size. Our 2025 data-driven guide reveals the most common resolutions and teaches you how to design responsive, mobile-first websites that satisfy users and Google.

This is a 300-point in-depth SEO checklist for in-house or outsourced website developers and managers (with limited technical jargon) on reviewing your website to ensure it meets Google Search Quality Evaluator ratings.

If you are a website owner, marketer, or developer learning about the benefits of a fast website, this article is for you. This article investigates the latest research and makes a case for why you should focus on improving your website download times.

This is an in-depth SEO checklist for in-house or outsourced website developers and managers (with limited technical jargon) on managing video SEO (search engine optimisation) on a website. This professional-level checklist goes beyond the standard video SEO advice.  It includes many recommendations from Google itself on how to manage video on your web pages to … Read more

This professional-level checklist goes beyond the standard international SEO (search engine optimisation) advice.  It includes many recommendations from Google itself on how to manage multi-regional and multilingual sites in Google Search.

The SEO Checklist in Excel is an excel spreadsheet to help you manage your SEO (search engine optimisation) project from both a site-wide level and a page-level perspective.

The latest version of Hobo Premium SEO Checklist in Google Sheets with OpenAi (the emerging technology behind ChatGpt) integration is now configured with some automation to save you time analysing pages. This Key Page checklist is a tool for you to quickly analyse any web page to guidelines Google has set out for webmasters to follow.

On July 1, 2023, older Google Analytics properties will stop processing new hits for your website. You must upgrade to Analytics 4 before this date; the sooner, the better. Everything you need to migrate to Analytics 4 before the deadline is included in this checklist.

If you are a website developer, SEO (search engine optimiser) or website manager and you need a Technical SEO audit checklist for your website, look no further. This SEO audit checklist is ideal for webmasters tasked with managing an SEO auditing project.

If you are the website developer, manager or owner of an online store looking to improve Google traffic to it, the Hobo Google SEO checklist for eCommerce stores is made for you.

This is a clear example of the length of time it takes sometimes to achieve number 1 rankings on Google. John Mueller from Google has been saying this for a long time. SEO (search engine optimisation) takes time. QUOTE: “Making significant quality changes across a site takes time to be picked up & reflected in … Read more

This is an SEO checklist for web page copy editors & copywriters (with no technical jargon).

SEO copywriting is the art of writing high-quality content for search engines on-page in copy, in page titles, meta descriptions, SERP snippets and SERP featured snippets. It is not about keyword stuffing text.

This is also known as keyword cannibalisation.

If you are a developer new to SEO (search engine optimisation) and looking for the best SEO tools you can use to optimise your website, this article is for you. This article lists a number of SEO tools you as a beginner can instantly derive value from.

QUOTE: “We’ve been working with HOBO for around 2 years now, and in that time the performance of our site has gone from strength to strength – considerably outstripping our expectations. They have provided timely, considered and expert advice which has always proved beneficial, and have also been proactive in suggesting new tactics and strategies … Read more

QUOTE: “Creating compelling and useful content will likely influence your website more than any of the other factors…” Google SEO Starter Guide, 2021 SEO (search engine optimisation) is modifications to a web page that help make a page more relevant to a query. Assuming you “only publish high-quality 100% unique content to your site” then … Read more

This paid-for SEO checklist in Google sheets is designed to be all website managers need to edit a mobile website to align with Google’s webmaster guidelines and so rank optimally in Google.

This is a website migration SEO checklist for in-house or outsourced website managers, designers, and developers to manage the migration process. The professional website migration SEO checklist is now available as part of the Hobo SEO Premium SEO checklist.

This paid-for SEO checklist in Google sheets is designed to be all website managers need to edit a Hotel website to align with Google’s webmaster guidelines and so rank optimally in Google. Know that if you do not follow these guidelines, your website is demoted in Google search results.

I can help you develop an SEO strategy and manage your SEO team as they implement it. Contact me for more information.

Here is a comparative summary table of all the Hobo SEO ebooks, outlining their value at the time of publishing, their relevance now, and their core contribution to the evolution of SEO strategy. These ebooks are 100% free. All ebooks are available to download as PDFs.

Google recommends you ‘qualify outbound links’ using the link attribute ‘nofollow’: Use rel=”sponsored” or rel=”nofollow” for paid links. Use rel=”ugc” or rel=”nofollow” for user generated content links. Use nofollow on widgets, themes and infographic links. Don’t use nofollow on every external link on your website. Don’t use nofollow on internal links.

Return a 404 if the product is permanently out of stock. Return a 200 if the product is temporarily out of stock. Return a 301 to equivalent content if the product is expired but you have reason to preserve SEO Benefits.

Make sure Google can crawl your website, index and rank all your primary pages by only serving Googlebot high-quality, user friendly and fast loading pages to index.

Many SEO experts have agreed for over a decade there is no single best keyword density to rank high in Google or Bing. Optimal keyword density differs from page to page, phrase to phrase. Write naturally and include the keyword phrase once or twice on-page. Avoid demotion in Google by avoiding repeating keyword phrases in text content. Focus on creating high-quality engaging content instead.

QUOTE: “Keyword Stuffed” Main Content Pages may be created to lure search engines and users by repeating keywords over and over again, sometimes in unnatural and unhelpful ways. Such pages are created using words likely to be contained in queries issued by users. Keyword stuffing can range from mildly annoying to users, to complete gibberish. Pages created with the intent of luring search engines and users, rather than providing meaningful MC to help users, should be rated Lowest.” Google Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines 2017

How to do an seo audit quickly and simply with SEMRush.

Keyword research is one of the most important aspects of SEO. But do you know what makes it so significant? Or how to do it? Or which tools to use? This post is a guide for beginners.

Only add unique hand-written content to your web pages. Don’t add content to your pages that is found verbatim on other pages on the web. Do not ‘spin’ text on pages on your site. Don’t create thin-pages with little value add to users. Implement the rel=”canonical” link element on all pages.

A review and walkthrough of a new website crawler tool that helps you manage your seo efforts.

For students of SEO, a collection of my notes on potential Google ranking factors and quality rating signals.

Is Google censoring autocomplete suggestions for Hillary Clinton?

I’ve focused on surfacing the top advertising agency sites in the world, based on search engine marketing and social media signals – the top ad agencies in the world based on SEO performance.

Many new into SEO today think old school seo was spam. Today’s narrative encourages them to think like that. I do miss that old style seo which – of course – was a lot simpler to deploy. I miss the cavalier approach to seo, and the quick results to be had from it. There was fun to … Read more

Hobo got talked about on the front page of Reddit yesterday. Which was nice. I try to answer some questions in this post.

Find out about Google PageRank.

Beyond the Limits: A Modern Guide to Exporting Large Datasets from GA4 & Search Console

Disclaimer: This is research, not legal advice. Seek professional legal advice if unsure about your own situation. The digital privacy landscape has undergone a profound transformation since the original article’s context of 2011-2012, so I thought it was worth updating. Key developments include the full enforcement of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) across the … Read more

You’ll need: To follow Google Webmaster SEO Quality Guidelines. A website reputation for publishing original, useful and relevant content. A satisfying user-friendly page experience for visitors from search. A fast, responsive, easy-to-edit mobile-friendly website. A sensible user-friendly website architecture. High-quality prominent natural links from other websites.

Politician & MP for Inverclyde, David Cairns (RIP), recently visited the Hobo offices for a few hours, and during that time I pointed out to him something called Twitter.

How do you run a blog to get the most SEO benefit? I explore the basics of it in this blogging guide for beginners.

As seen in Smashing Magazine! A free web design an development project plan and checklist for designers and clients.

Did Google find Atlantis? It’s being reported around the web today that Google Earth has found Atlantis :) Here’s the co-ordinates to find Atlantis with Google Earth; coordinates: 31 15’15.53N, 24 15’30.53W (600 miles west of Morocco, deep in the Atlantic Ocean) The man from the sun says yes but the man from Google says … Read more

1. Figure Out What You Want To Get Out Of Social Media. 2. Create Your Profiles. 3. Learn The Community Rules. 4. Become An Active Part Of That Community. Enjoy It.

A robots.txt file is a file on your webserver used to control bots like Googlebot, Google’s web crawler. You can use it to block Google and Bing from crawling parts of your site.

If you are serious about organic search engine optimisation, forget about using, or optimising frames and read up on the latest guidelines for SEO.

For over two decades, I’ve seen web standards come and go. One that often resurfaces is the topic of ‘access keys’ – keyboard shortcuts for website navigation. Back in the early 2000s, this seemed like a promising feature, and even the UK Government created a standard for it. However, the web has evolved, and our … Read more

This guide reframes web accessibility as a core pillar of strategic, high-quality web development, driven by a self-reinforcing tripartite imperative: legal compliance, commercial advantage, and ethical design.

No. While Google recommends we use W3C validation, Google doesn’t rank valid html and css pages above invalid pages. If Google can crawl and render a page Google will rank the page appropriately based on how relevant it is to the query. Invalid HTML can on the other hand can cause search engines problems.