Do Effective & Efficient Web Sites Really Need SEO?
Pedro Dias, a former Googler, posted on Twitter this line “Doing SEO means either the website, or the search engine, or both, are not dealing effectively–and, to some extent, efficiently–with the web as they should.” In which, Gary Illyes from Google…
Poll: After The SEO Audit; Next Steps
Chris Green posted a few Twitter polls about what folks in the SEO profession do after the SEO audit is complete. The responses to the poll show that many times SEO professionals do not agree on implementation or maybe “it depends.”
Google Keyword Planner Now Lets You Share Keyword Plans
Google Ads announced that you can now create and share keyword plans in the Google Keyword Planner tool. Google said “you can now create, save, and share plans from directly within Keyword Planner.”
Google News Publisher Center Request Inclusion Feature Broken?
There are numerous threads in the Google News Publisher Help that there is a bug with the feature to submit a site for inclusion into the Google News index. After you request inclusion, it says successful but then goes back to its original state. It s…
Google: BERT Does Not Affect Indexing
Google’s John Mueller said something obvious to most the readers here, that “BERT does not affect indexing.” BERT launched as a way for Google to understand queries better, which can impact how a site is ranked in Google search because Google might ma…
Google: Legal Interstitials Are Fine As Long As We Can Index Content
Google’s John Mueller said on Twitter that “legal interstitials are fine as long as we can index the content without having to do anything special.” That means that you are not requiring GoogleBot to click on anything to accept and load the content aft…
Google Confirmed The November 2019 Google Local Update – Here Is What We Know
Google, I believe, for the first time ever, has confirmed a Google Local update. Google confirmed on Twitter the November local update we wrote about here a few times, some are also calling it the Bedlam update. But Google named it the Nov. 2019 Local…
Google: Ads.txt Is For AdSense But Not Needed For Search Or SEO
Google’s official webmaster channel on Twitter responded to a question about the ads.txt file. Someone asked if you need it for SEO or search because he sees GoogleBot trying to access it. The answer is no, you don’t need it for Google Search or SEO. …
Google: We Ignore Links From Sites Where Links Are Unlikely To Be Natural
Google’s John Mueller was asked about links from from “theglobe.net and related spammy domains” and if they should be disavowed or something. John responded “We already ignore links from sites like that, where there are unlikely to be natural links. N…
Google: Best Approach For Syndication Partners Is To Use rel=canonical
Google said the best approach for when you allow others to syndicate and publish your content is to make them use the rel=canonical attribute, so Google knows where the source of the article is. Google said on Twitter “For syndication, using rel=canon…
Google Ignoring The rel=canonical For Syndication Partners?
So we just covered that Google said the best approach is to force your syndication partners to use the rel=canonical attribute to point to the content they distributed from your site. But Glenn Gabe said on Twitter he has seen Google not honoring that…
16 Years Covering The Search Industry
Today is the 16th anniversary of this website, the Search Engine Roundtable, and thus my sweet 16 for writing about search, SEO and of course Google. It is hard to imagine I’ve been writing about this topic for so long and still, every day, find a hand…
December 2019 Google Webmaster Report
This past month we had a bunch of tremors and somewhat unconfirmed and semi-confirmed Google search algorithmic updates. We also had a big Google Local and Maps update that seems to be about relevancy, not proximity. It was not an insane month of news…
Search Buzz Video Recap: Google November Update, Recipe Bug During Thanksgiving, Google Ads Overreporting & The Best SEO At Google
This week we covered more rumors around the Google November update and how John Mueller of Google downplayed the links portion of it. Google’s recipe image bug remained an issue through the Thanksgiving cooking season. Google said your robots…
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Google Tests More Spacious Search Result Snippets
The eagle-eyed Sergey Alakov spotted Google testing a taller, more spacious, Google mobile search results user interface. There is simple more vertical space between the search results. Here is a side by side comparison so you can see yourself.
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Google My Business Adds Job Types For Services With Services Editor
Google launched yesterday, I believe, on Thanksgiving, a new feature in Google My Business for job types for services. This is where services businesses in the US can choose from suggested types of services. This includes things like “repair toilets” …
Google: Robot.txt Blank Vs Allow Is No Difference
John Mueller from Google said in a Reddit thread that using a blank robots.txt file or just stating all is allowed in that file is the same thing, it doesn’t matter which you use. He said “Doesn’t matter” when he was asked Is there a difference? I’ve …
Survey Says: The Best SEO At Google Is John Mueller
It is the Friday after Thanksgiving, so let’s have some fun. I ran a very scientific, statistically accurate, and unequivocally clear survey on Twitter (sarcasm) asking which Googler would win an SEO contest. The winner of the poll was John Mueller!
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Google & Bing Thanksgiving 2019 Logos
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Today is a holiday in the United States and I will just post this recap of some of the logos from Google and Bing for the holiday. Google has “hand turkeys” and Bing goes with some fierce looking turkeys on its home page.
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Google Drops Lingerie & Adult Shopping Ads For Christmas Searches
Yesterday I was doing some searches to see when the holiday decorations come up (I do weird searches all the time) and up came Google Shopping Ads that were a bit adult in nature. Specifically selling lingerie and adult oriented costumes. Yes, for the …