Google Assistant Testing Audio News
Google announced audio news for the Google Assistant. This is not speakable markup or YouTube videos playing on the Google Home Hub, this is real audio news, like broadcaster, podcaster, etc that produce audio form content.
Google: Canonical Tags May Not Work With Other Inconsistent Signals, Like Redirects
Aaseesh from Google responded to a complaint about Google not picking up on a web site’s canonical tags. He said that “even if you setup the canonical tags properly, other signals like inconsistent redirects can make Google not select your preferred U…
Google Images Best Practices Guide Updated, But What Changed?
Google announced yesterday on Twitter that they updated their Google Images best practices guide. I did a compare of the old and new pages, and for the most part, it seems like there is no new specific advice. They cleaned up some of the text and page …
Most SEOs Think Google Shouldn’t Delist A Hacked Site
As you know, Search Engine Land was delisted from Google’s search results for most of the day on Friday because a bug in Google’s hack sites classifier labeled the site as being hacked. Colin McDermott ran a Twitter poll asking if Google should delist…
Matt Cutts: Google Index Was Cursed In The Month Of March
There is this outstanding article from The New Yorker named The Friendship That Made Google Huge. It talks about how Googlers Jeff Dean and Sanjay Ghemawat fixed code and server problems, with the rest of the team, in the early days.
New Google Livestream Support In Search With Structured Data & Indexing API
Google now supports showing livestreams in the search results and in Google Assistant. Google added structured data to help Google understand the information in the live stream and also added using the Indexing API to support communicating the new liv…
Google Gray Logo For President George H. W. Bush National Day Of Mourning
If you go to Google’s home page, you will see the multicolored Google logo is a simple gray color. Google changed their home page to honor the National Day of Mourning for President George H. W. Bush. Bing also did with a special photo of the US Capi…
Google: Do Not Use Q&A Page Structured Data On FAQs Pages
Google launched new structured data for question and answer pages named Q&A Page schema. Google updated the guidelines to say it is against their guidelines to use this markup on FAQ style pages.
Google: Our Personalized Results Do Not Create Filter Bubbles
DuckDuckGo, a Google competitor, came out with a study that claimed Google’s search results create what is known as a “filter bubble,” this influencing what you click on and see. Google came to Twitter and defended themselves saying their personalizat…
Google Local Listings Tests New Design For Images
Google is testing a new design for how they display images in a Google local or Google My Business listing in search. The new design shows a carousel of image categories at the top letting searchers filter by inside, by owner, videos, inside and other…
December 2018 Google Webmaster Report
Here is our monthly Google webmaster report that summarizes and links to the more important SEO and webmaster related stories. The big news this past month was the nice number of unconfirmed Google ranking updates. Google also launched the zero result…
Google Search Console Performance Report Drops Some Google Images Data On December 1st
Google posted a notice in the Google Search Console data anomalies page that they dropped Google Images data from the performance and/or search analytics report. It reads that on December 1st and ongoing “some data for clicks in Google Images from mob…
Google Fixes Bug Prevents Signed In Users From Using Google Search
For the past several days some searchers have been reporting issues with being able to go to Google.com and search the web. It happened to some searchers who were signed into Google. I was not able to replicate it but Andy B. from Google confirmed th…
Google Posts Tests Like Button
It looks like Google is testing a like button, thumbs up button, on some Google Posts within search and maps. Brodie Clark shared a screen shot of this in action on Twitter. You can see the thumbs up icon at the bottom right corner of the post.
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Google Adds Structured Data For Question & Answer Pages
Google announced yesterday a new supported structured data format named Q&A pages. It is designed to help Google with the question and answer formatted snippets carousel, where they let you slide through answers to questions from Q&A pages.
Google: It’s Worthwhile To Have Unique Images On Each Page
Google’s John Mueller said on a hangout last week that when it comes to images, he thinks it is worthwhile to have unique images on each of your pages. If you have the resources, making your own images, instead of using blanket stock photography, shou…
Google 2018 Holiday Decorations For Hanukkah, Christmas & Kwanzaa Now Live
Google has dressed up their search results page for the holiday season. All you need to do is search for holiday related searches; such as [christmas],[chanukah], and [kwanzaa]. Here are screen shots of the mobile version of each.
Official: Google Sticky Round Search Bar Header Is Live
After several months of ongoing testing, Google has officially launched the new desktop search results interface where the search bar header is rounded and sticks to the top. This went live Friday night, a Google spokesperson confirmed it for us at Se…
Google “Sold Here” In Local Pack Results
Google seems to have launched a new feature in the local pack named “sold here.” It shows, based on your query, if that product is sold in the store, directly in the local pack. This roll out was spotted by Sergey Alakov but was seen also in early Nov…
Google Search Algorithm Update Hits Friday November 30th?
I was going to cover the chatter and signals of a Google update this past Friday on Friday but when the Search Engine Land spectacle touched down, I decided to wait it out and see how things settle over the weekend. There are still strong signs both i…