Google Does Not Support Crawl Delay But Bing Does
Google’s John Mueller said on Twitter that Google “never supported crawl-delay in robots.txt.” Bing’s Frédéric Dubut said on Twitter “Bingbot supports crawl-delay.” That is not to say Google does not let you slow the crawl, you can and here is how.
Google Local Panel With “X Minutes From Landmark”
Google can now show how far a specific location is from another nearby landmark. I know I’ve seen this with hotel search results but this is now showing for other local panels in web search. This was spotted by Dave DiGregorio and he shared it with me…
Bing: To Use Machine Learning; You Have To Be Okay With It Not Being Perfect
Frédéric Dubut of Bing said on Twitter that if you do use machine learning in production, like Bing does, you have to be okay with the results not being perfect. And not all applications are okay with not being perfect, but I assume search can be okay with it.
Google Tests Review Carousel In Local Knowledge Panel
Mike Blumenthal posted on Twitter a screen shot of a new look for reviews listed in the local knowledge panel. It shows a carousel of reviews, and Mike said are “query related phrases.”
Google Warns: City Landing Pages Can Be Doorway Pages & Against Guidelines
Google’s John Mueller had to warn one SEO that he should not go ahead and build out 1,300 city based landing pages, with the strategy of trying to rank for your keyword phrase + city name. He said that would be a doorway page and against Google’s guid…
Fun SEO Role Play Game
Alexis Sanders from Merkle put together a really fun, educational and addictive SEO RPG, role playing game. It is available at technicalseo.guru and you can play it for free.
Google News Submission Not Required, Powered By BERT & New Top Stories Features
Google announced some new features around Google News and Top Stories. First, now Google is using BERT and other machine learning techniques to examine the related articles and determine where one story ends and another begins. Second, Google no long…
December 11th Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update Signals
There are now signs that there is a Google search ranking algorithm update going on. The signals started late December 10th, mostly on December 11th and throughout December 12th. We see both chatter in the SEO forums and from the automated tracking t…
Vlog #30: Ben Cook On The Wild West Days Of SEO & Enterprise Site Migrations
Ben Cook (@BenjaminCook) the Senior Organic Search Specialist at Perficient Digital is also someone I’ve known in the industry for a long time – back in his Skitzzo days. He invited me to his office in St. Louis, as a way to vacation from my family va…
Google News Publisher Center Updated & News Content Now From Web
Google announced yesterday a revamp of the Google Publisher Center, which originally launched in 2014. This revamp merges two existing tools, Google News Producer and Google News Publisher Center, into one. In addition, Google said “Content for News w…
Google Search Console Job Postings Errors Adjustments
Google has posted that in Google Search Console your job posting errors may have changed. There may be a reduction in the general errors and Google may now show you more specific errors instead. The total number of errors should not change but how Go…
Google Tests Local Service Ads For Realtors
Matt McGee shared with me screen shots of what appears Google testing Google Local Service Ads specifically for realtors. LSA for real estate shows the LSA carousel and takes you into the local service ads interface.
Google BERT International Launch Still Impacts ~10% Of Queries
Danny Sullivan from Google confirmed on Twitter that even with the international/global release of BERT to 70+ languages, it still impacts about 10% of queries where BERT is live in. The other 90% do not use BERT for understanding queries and content….
Bing Does Reach Out To Webmasters With Search Issues
Bing’s Frédéric Dubut said on Twitter that Bing does do proactive webmaster outreach. So if a site has a crawl issue that is negatively impacting search and the site, Bing may reach out via email.
Google BERT Now International Supporting Over 70 Languages
Well that was quicker than most expected, Google has taken BERT, which launched in late October for English language queries in the US in core search and expanded it to 70 languages internationally. In fact, it surprised Danny Sullivan and John Muelle…
Bing: Cost & Value Determined In Bing Core Ranking Improvements
Frédéric Dubut from Bing said on Twitter “Every time we evaluate a ranking improvement, we look at the trade-off between cost and value.” He added that this discussion is not always a fun topic but it is a necessary one.
Recent Google Algorithm Update Chatter May Be Related To An Analytics Bug
There is a lot of chatter in the past 24-hours in the SEO forums, mostly at WebmasterWorld, around Google organic traffic fluctuations. It seems that it might be related to a bug with Google Analytics in a short period of time. Here are some of the c…
Google Tests Local Pack With Black Ad Label On Desktop
We’ve seen Google testing black ad labels on desktop, but now here is what it looks like in the local pack. Note, the mobile black ad label has been around for some time but Google is only testing it on desktop and has been for some time.
Google Translate In Search Can Show Pictures
Just like Google definitions and dictionary results can now show photos, so can Google Translate results in search show photos. Brian Freiesleben posted an example on Twitter and it works for me as well.
Google To Revise Guidelines Around Rel=next/prev
Google looks like they might publish new guidelines and help documents around what to do now that the rel=next/prev is no longer supported. This news comes via Igal Stolpner on Twitter based on his notes from the Google Webmaster Conference in Tel Avi…