Google: A Character Is Needed After The /? Of A URL To Be Unique
This may be obvious to many of you and this is a purely technical note, but for a URL to be somewhat unique, generally you need to have at least one character after the trailing slash followed by the question mark. So if you have a URL that ends with …
Vlog #193: Greg Finn’s Contributions To The Search Marketing Community
In part one, I do a lot of bantering with Greg Finn and talk about his history in the space and the growth of his agency, Cypress North. In part two we start to talk about his contributions to the industry…
Google Search Officially Rolls Out New Site Name & Favicon Design
Google is officially rolling out the new site name and favicon design, along with the new sponsored ad label, in the mobile search results. Yes, this is something Google has been testing and we saw this coming but now it is official and live in English…
Official: Google Ads Rolls Out Sponsored Label
For months we have been watching Google test a new ads label in search named “Sponsored” in bold black text. Well, now it is officially live in the Google mobile search results.
Google: There Is No Need To Use English URLs For Pages Not In English
Google’s John Mueller said that there is no need to use English URLs when your pages are not in English. You can use the language of the page in your URLs, if you want. Or if you prefer, you can use English URLs – it does not matter too much he said.
Google Search Central Live Events Now Back In Person
Google has announced that it is kicking off its in-person SEO, creator, publisher, site owner, etc event named Google Search Central Live. The first in-person event will be in Singapore on November 24, 2022.
Google: Leave Alt Text Empty For Decorative Images & So Does W3C
Google’s John Mueller said in the latest Search Off the Record podcast that you should leave decorative alt text on your images empty and blank. Oh, and John later said, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) also says you should do that.
Programming Note: Offline For Simchat Torah
I will be offline completely for the holiday of Simchas Torah on October 17th and October 18th, Monday and Tuesday. Any stories published here will be scheduled and written beforehand and not posted live…
Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Webmaster Guideline Now Search Essentials, Unconfirmed Google Ranking Update, Product Reviews Transparency & More
This week, Google pushed out a revamped Google Webmaster Guidelines and renamed it the Google Search Essentials. Google also seemed to release an unconfirmed Google search ranking algorithm update. Google told us that the product reviews…
Google Webmaster Guidelines Is Now Google Search Essentials With Lots Of Changes
Google has replaced the Google Webmaster Guidelines with the Google Search Essentials. The name change is Google’s ongoing efforts to remove the term “webmaster” so that these tools and documentation do not narrow the focus to just “webmasters,” but e…
Google: Pinging Sitemaps Help Get New Content Indexed More Quickly
Google’s John Mueller said that pinging Google that your sitemap file has been updated can help Google index your new content quickly. He said it is simply Google practice to ping Google with when your sitemap file is updated.
Google About This Result Gains Remove Result Button
Google announced at the Search On event that it would be adding a remove result feature in the about this result overlay in Google Search. Well, now it is there for all to click on and use, if they want…
Just Because Ranking Top In Google Is Hard, It Doesn’t Mean You Can’t Succeed
We all know that ranking well for competitive terms in Google Search is not as easy, or even a fraction as easy, as it was two decades ago. This is because of many variables including but not limited to Google’s algorithms getting better and there bei…
Google Local Panel “Hear About This Place” Feature In Some Regions
Google seems to have launched or is testing a feature to have Google Search read details about a local business listing. This might be in only some regions, as I cannot replicate this in New York but I received a few reports from India about this feature.
Daily Search Forum Recap: October 13, 2022
Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Google may have released another Google search ranking algorithm update…
Unconfirmed Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update Around October 13th
It has been a while since I reported on an unconfirmed Google search ranking algorithm update but it seems over the past 24 hours or so, we are seeing one. It probably started yesterday and is now continuing throughout today. There is some SEO chatte…
Microsoft: Half Of Bing Crawls Are New BingBot User Agent
Fabrice Canel updated us the other day that now half of all crawling Microsoft Bing does is over the new BingBot user agent. About a month ago, it was 20%, then two months prior to that it was 5%.
Google Releasing Older Local Reviews For Some Businesses?
There are reports from some local SEOs that Google is pushing out previously held reviews in Google Maps. Some are seeing dozens, if not over a hundred reviews being posted to local business profiles in Google Maps, some dating back a year or more.
Google Image Metadata Now Supports Image Credits
Google has added support for image credits for image metadata. Previously, image credit information was only supported with IPTC photo metadata.
Google Business Profiles Edit Ticket Prices Feature Added
Google has added some new features around attraction and tour operators including the ability to edit your ticket prices directly in Google Business Profiles.