Google Easter Egg For Cha-Cha Slide
This is a few days old but I keep meaning to post it and other things keep coming up that are more important. But that is it, this is too important to leave for yet another day. Go to Google and search for [cha cha slide] and then click on the sparklin…
Google Asking Searcher: How Fast Did This Site Load?
Google is now asking some searchers how fast a site loaded after visiting the site and jumping back to the search results. Taylor Berg posted a screen shot on Twitter of this in action the other day, here it is.
August 2020 Google Webmaster Report
Last month was not that slow of a month, while we didn’t have any confirmed Google search algorithm updates, we had several unconfirmed ones and some felt pretty big. Google also said it will weight business names less
Google Doodle That Was Pulled Down Is Now Live: Wear a Mask. Save Lives.
The other week I reported Google posted a Google Doodle about wearing a mask to help save lives and then Google pulled down the Doodle. Well, today, August 5th, it is back up and live. It leads to a search around [covid-19 prevention] with three piec…
Google: Many Manual Actions Are Algorithmic Now & Not Used
Google’s John Mueller said that many of those manual actions are probably not used anymore. Why? He said because many may have been automated and done algorithmically. I did ask John for a list but he refused, go figure.
Google For The Umpteenth Time: Quality Raters Do Not Directly Impact Search Results
I have covered Google saying that its quality raters, which are third-party consultants who are not even employed by Google directly, do not have any direct influence in Google search rankings. I reported Googlers saying this countless times and I did…
Google: A Lot Of Negative Reviews Can Hurt Your Site
The other day I reported that Google said negative reviews on the web about your brand or business won’t hurt your rankings in Google search. Yesterday, I was on the video call with John Mueller and I asked him this question and brought up the Decor My…
Google Featured Snippets Without Borders – A Bug Or Feature?
I had a few reports yesterday of Google displaying featured snippets but without borders. It seems like a bug to me but who knows, maybe Google is testing borderless featured snippets and search results?
Google Adds Games To Search Results
Google has added games to its search results from the Google Arts and Cultures games section. The game is basically a game where you are asked a multiple choice question related to your query and Google tells you if you got the answer correct.
Google On How It Measures Web Vitals
Martin Splitt from Google went a bit deeper, on Twitter (yes on Twitter), on how Google goes about rendering and measuring what it renders. Here is what Martin Splitt said on Twitter.
Google Asks Did You Just Feel Shaking After Earthquake Search
Some of those who searched Google about an earthquake yesterday in some California regions were given a special box in Google search asking the searcher “did you just feel shaking.” Here is a screen shot of this box from Shree Khare who is in Yorba Li…
Why Won’t Google Add Paywall Label To Google News Results
The other day, Danny Sullivan of Google went back and forth with the SEO community on why Google does not want to add paywall content labels to publisher sites that require you to pay to see the content. For a user, it can be frustrating to go to an a…
Google Adds Call Button To Local Panel On Desktop Results
Google has added a call button to the local pack on desktop search results. So not only is there a call button on the mobile results but now you can click “call” from your desktop results. This started showing up yesterday morning.
Google Ads Hacked Political Materials Policy Announced
So starting this September, Google Ads will no longer allow hacked political materials. Google wrote “in September 2020, the Google Ads Hacked political materials policy will be launched. The policy is specifically related to the distribution of hacke…
Google On When Comments Can Hurt Your Blog & When You Should Block Them
In the next episode of the Search Off The Record podcast from John Mueller, Gary Illyes and Martin Splitt of Google – they spoke about comments and how they may impact your blog. They also spoke about CMS platforms, how they got hired at Google and Ja…
Microsoft Bing – The New Name Of Bing Search?
Over the weekend a lot of people who use Bing saw a new logo and new name for the Bing search engine. Now it says Microsoft Bing instead of just Bing and the logo is the Microsoft logo, not the Bing logo.
Web Stories Also Get More Exposure In Google Image Search
SEOs have been loving playing with Web Stories in Google Search for the extra exposure those get and potentially the higher click through rate. But did you know that these are also highlighted in Google’s Image search results?
Google Tests Categorized Sections For Search Results Again
We’ve seen this numerous times where Google would test sections by category of some sort of its search results. Well, over the past several days Google started those tests back up. Here are some screen shots shared with me on Twitter. Note, I may have…
Google Tests “Also In The News” Box Under Top Stories
Last week Google was testing “for context” sections within the top stories carousel. This week, Google is testing “also in the news” carousel boxes under the Top stories section in Google search.
Google Ranking Update & Fluctuations July 31st & August 1st
Seems like since Friday and throughout the weekend there may have been some update pushed out by Google to its search ranking algorithm. There is chatter and there are third-party tracking tools that seem to suggest there was some sort of update. Goog…