Google My Business Review Removal Request Status Tool
Google My Business has launched a new tool where you can not only see the reviews for your business, but also quickly report those reviews for policy violations and even better, check the status or reviews you already reported. Plus, if that review wa…
Google Maps Business Listing Overlay New Ad Spot
Bryant Suellentrop spotted a new ad placement in the Google Maps interface that Ben Fisher confirmed with me is new. In short, if you are browsing Google Maps and click on a business pin, Google will overlay the local result on the map interface. Now G…
Google Blocked 3.1 Billion Ads, Restricted 6.4 Billion Ads & Suspended 1.7 Million Advertisers
Google has published its annual “Ads Safety Report” and disclosed that it has blocked or removed over 3.1 billion ads for violating its Google Ads policies, it restricted over 6.4 billion ads, suspended over 1.7 million advertiser accounts, and removed…
Can Browser Extensions Impact Your Google Core Web Vitals Scores?
Over the past week or so, there has been a lot of chatter in the SEO industry around the potential threat third-party browser extensions can have on your core web vitals scores. Specifically how it might impact your rankings in Google Search based on h…
Google Showing Product Image Thumbnails In Search Snippets More Often
Over the past couple of days I am seeing more reports of people seeing Google multiple display product image thumbnails throughout the mobile search results snippets. Not just a few but in excess. Yes, Google does show product image thumbnails in the…
Google Local Pack Showing Menu Highlights
Google in the local pack is now expanding its “justifications” (weird word for this) to show not just general justifications about the business and not just what is on the menu but highlights from the menu. Luca Bove noticed this and Mike Blumenthal …
Google On When To Canonical Category Landing Pages To Others: It Depends.
There is a nice chat recorded in the last Google webmaster hangout between Mihai Aperghis and with Google’s John Mueller. Where they talked about the times you canonical a URL to another to consolidate signals but those URLs have different content on …
Google Search Console Security Notice For SharedArrayBuffers
Yesterday, Google sent out a slew of notifications through Google Search Console about security or web compatibility issues upcoming with the site and Chrome 91. The email says there are new requirements for SharedArrayBuffers (SABs).
Creepy: Google Maps Street View Images For Service Area Home Businesses
Google lets businesses that do not want to display their addresses (like home based businesses) on Google Maps or Google Search the ability to label their business as “service level businesses.” But starting last Friday according to Tricia Clements (@y…
Featured Snippets Back To Normal Levels In Google Search
On February 19th or so, Google significantly dropped the number of times featured snippets would show up in the Google Search results. Well, as of Friday morning, March 12th, it looks like the percentage of time Google shows featured snippets in the r…
Microsoft Advertising Static Headlines For Dynamic Search Ads Available
Microsoft announced that you can now use static headlines within your Microsoft Advertising Dynamic Search Ads (DSAs). Static headlines are an additional column you can add to your Dynamic Search Ads page feed. This allows you to specify the specific…
Google: Location/Order Of rel Attribute Does Not Matter
Does it matter if you put the rel attribute in your HTML link before the link or after it? The answer is no. You can put the attribute in your HTML link where you want. Google will pick it up either way.
Google: Words In A URL A Very Light Weight Factor But Less After Indexing
Google’s John Mueller said once again that Google does use the words in the URL as a ranking factor. But John explained that this is a “very very lightweight factor.” John added that it becomes even less of a factor once the content is indexed.
Poll: 60% Of SEOs Say SEO Is Harder Than Five Years Ago
Aleyda Solis posted a poll on Twitter asking SEOs if SEO “easier, more difficult or as difficult as 5 years ago to achieve results/goals in the SEO processes you work on?” Over 1,000 results came in and 60% of SEOs say it is harder now to do SEO than …
Vlog #111: Alex Genadinik On How To Start A Business During COVID-19
In part one, Alex Genadinik of Problemio and I spoke about why it is important to focus on niches for SEO. In part two here we talk about what you can do to make money online during COVID-19…
Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Web & Local Algorithm Updates, Free Hotel Listings & Microsoft Bing Visual Updates
2021 has been insane with unconfirmed Google search ranking algorithm updates and this week is no different with one over last weekend and one kicking off on Wednesday through Thursday. Heck…
Google: Site Going Offline For Longer Than A Day; Upload A Static Version
We know that Google recommends using a 503 server status code for your your website goes offline or down temporarily for less than a day. But what if you know your site will be offline for days? John Mueller of Google said try to see if you can upload …
Google Search Console Job Posting Rich Results Report Change
Google made some changes to the rich results report for the job posting structured data. You can obviously access this report in Google Search Console under the enhancements section if Google detects job posting structured data on your site.
Google: Pages With Core Web Vitals May Have Tiny Ranking Advantage
Martin Splitt of Google gave me a softball yesterday when he said on Twitter “all things being equal (spoiler: they never are), a page with CWV field data may have a tiny advantage over one without.” In short, if your page has core web vitals field da…
Bing Local Panel Questions & Answers Box
Microsoft Bing now shows for some businesses a questions and answers section within the business’s local panel in the search results. Colan Nielsen spotted this and posted about it on Twitter. This Q&A box, unlike Google, pulls from the questions and answers from the website directly.