A guide to setting up Google Analytics for your WordPress site
If you are an enthusiast who is setting up a website or a new blog using WordPress as your CMS, it is highly recommended to set up Google Analytics. This guide will show you exactly how.
Google: We sent 9M web spam messages in 2016, more than double 2015 total
While more messages were sent, Google said they received less than half the 2015 number of user-generated spam reports in 2016.
The post Google: We sent 9M web spam messages in 2016, more than double 2015 total appeared first on Search Engine Land.
…
4 tips to maximize content marketing performance
Many SEOs are turning to content marketing to replace or supplement their link-building efforts, but consumers think most of this content is clutter. How do you stand out? Columnist David Freeman has some advice.
The post 4 tips to maximize content ma…
The Secret to Driving Facebook and Display Ad ROI
Digital ad spend is now being evaluated and optimized on the basis of online-to-offline impact. And in today’s smartphone world, that means phone calls. Join digital advertising and call conversion experts from Brandmuscle and DialogTech to learn proven strategies that will improve ROI and…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
SearchCap: New Google Earth, Google Posts & Esther Afua Ocloo Google doodle
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
The post SearchCap: New Google Earth, Google Posts & Esther Afua Ocloo Google doodle appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
New Google Earth delivers guided tours, 3D images & an ‘I’m feeling lucky’ feature
It’s currently only available on Chrome and Android, but Google says its latest version of Google Earth will soon roll out on iOS and other browsers.
The post New Google Earth delivers guided tours, 3D images & an ‘I’m feeling lucky’ feature appeared first on Search Engine…
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
Google Maps Timeline finally comes to iOS
Feature available on Android and desktop since 2015 hits iOS; Google’s main iOS search app also gets a small update.
The post Google Maps Timeline finally comes to iOS appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full…
Part 2 of 2: How Google learns to guide purchasing decisions
In a follow-up to his last article, columnist Dave Davies explores a Google patent on guided purchasing, which describes how smartphone behaviors and user data could be used to predict and direct purchase behavior.
The post Part 2 of 2: How Google lea…
Google: Use Info Command To Find Canonical URL
Have you ever noticed that sometimes, Google shows a slightly different URL for your content in their search results? So maybe they show your normal URL with tracking parameters at the end? Or maybe something else but similar…
90% Of SEOs Achieve Ranking Success Within A Year
A few months ago, I covered the topic of how long does it take to rank well in Google. In a Google video on how to hire an SEO, Google said “in most cases, SEOs need four months to a year to help your business first implement improvements and then see…
Poll: You Or Your Clients Hit By The Google Fred Algorithm?
I want you to check your own sites and/or client sites and let me know if you saw a huge 50% or higher decline on March 7th…
Google Posts from NBA, NHL & MLB teams will now appear in Knowledge Panels
According to Google’s latest update, a quick search will bring up an “all-star lineup of content” from pro sports teams across the US and Canada.
The post Google Posts from NBA, NHL & MLB teams will now appear in Knowledge Panels appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
Esther Afua Ocloo Google doodle honors co-founder & chairman of Women’s World Banking
Ocloo spent her life helping the women of Ghana — and, eventually, the world — start and run their own businesses.
The post Esther Afua Ocloo Google doodle honors co-founder & chairman of Women’s World Banking appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.
5 ways your merchandising strategy is affecting SEO performance
How does your merchandising strategy affect SEO? Columnist Stephanie LeVonne describes the various challenges that can arise if you overlook the importance of communicating your merchandising strategy with your SEO team.
The post 5 ways your merchandi…
The State of Schema.org: What are the biggest challenges surrounding Schema markup?
A recent survey carried out by Schema App, a provider of tools to help with implementing Schema markup, has shed some light on the question of why adoption of Schema.org is so low among marketers despite its considerable benefits.
Ask Yoast: Publishing in another language and SEO
If you’re creating content for a website, you might want to, occasionally, publish an article in a language different from the language of your other content. However, it’s difficult to rank with one specific article that’s written in a language that differs from the rest. So what should you do to improve the SEO of that article? In this […]
How we fought webspam – Webspam Report 2016
With 2017 well underway, we wanted to take a moment and share some of the insights we gathered in 2016 in our fight against webspam. Over the past year, we continued to find new ways of keeping spam from creating a poor quality search experience, and worked with webmasters around the world to make the web better.
We do a lot behind the scenes to make sure that users can make full use of what today’s web has to offer, bringing relevant results to everyone around the globe, while fighting webspam that could potentially harm or simply annoy users.
Webspam trends in 2016
- Website security continues to be a major source of concern. Last year we saw more hacked sites than ever – a 32% increase compared to 2015. Because of this, we continued to invest in improving and creating more resources to help webmasters know what to do when their sites get hacked.
- We continued to see that sites are compromised not just to host webspam. We saw a lot of webmasters affected by social engineering, unwanted software, and unwanted ad injectors. We took a stronger stance in Safe Browsing to protect users from deceptive download buttons, made a strong effort to protect users from repeatedly dangerous sites, and we launched more detailed help text within the Search Console Security Issues Report.
- Since more people are searching on Google using a mobile device, we saw a significant increase in spam targeting mobile users. In particular, we saw a rise in spam that redirects users, without the webmaster’s knowledge, to other sites or pages, inserted into webmaster pages using widgets or via ad units from various advertising networks.
How we fought spam in 2016
- We continued to refine our algorithms to tackle webspam. We made multiple improvements to how we rank sites, including making Penguin (one of our core ranking algorithms) work in real-time.
- The spam that we didn’t identify algorithmically was handled manually. We sent over 9 million messages to webmasters to notify them of webspam issues on their sites. We also started providing more security notifications via Google Analytics.
- We performed algorithmic and manual quality checks to ensure that websites with structured data markup meet quality standards. We took manual action on more than 10,000 sites that did not meet the quality guidelines for inclusion in search features powered by structured data.
Working with users and webmasters for a better web
- In 2016 we received over 180,000 user-submitted spam reports from around the world. After carefully checking their validity, we considered 52% of those reported sites to be spam. Thanks to all who submitted reports and contributed towards a cleaner and safer web ecosystem!
- We conducted more than 170 online office hours and live events around the world to audiences totaling over 150,000 website owners, webmasters and digital marketers.
- We continued to provide support to website owners around the world through our Webmaster Help Forums in 15 languages. Through these forums we saw over 67,000 questions, with a majority of them being identified as having a Best Response by our community of Top contributors, Rising Stars and Googlers.
- We had 119 volunteer Webmaster Top Contributors and Rising Stars, whom we invited to join us at our local Top Contributor Meetups in 11 different locations across 4 continents (Asia, Europe, North America, South America).
We think everybody deserves high quality, spam-free search results. We hope that this report provides a glimpse of what we do to make that happen.
Posted by Michal Wicinski, Search Quality Strategist and Kiyotaka Tanaka, User Education & Outreach Specialist
How we fought webspam – Webspam Report 2016
With 2017 well underway, we wanted to take a moment and share some of the insights we gathered in 2016 in our fight against webspam. Over the past year, we continued to find new ways of keeping spam from creating a poor quality search experience, and worked with webmasters around the world to make the web better.
We do a lot behind the scenes to make sure that users can make full use of what today’s web has to offer, bringing relevant results to everyone around the globe, while fighting webspam that could potentially harm or simply annoy users.
Webspam trends in 2016
- Website security continues to be a major source of concern. Last year we saw more hacked sites than ever – a 32% increase compared to 2015. Because of this, we continued to invest in improving and creating more resources to help webmasters know what to do when their sites get hacked.
- We continued to see that sites are compromised not just to host webspam. We saw a lot of webmasters affected by social engineering, unwanted software, and unwanted ad injectors. We took a stronger stance in Safe Browsing to protect users from deceptive download buttons, made a strong effort to protect users from repeatedly dangerous sites, and we launched more detailed help text within the Search Console Security Issues Report.
- Since more people are searching on Google using a mobile device, we saw a significant increase in spam targeting mobile users. In particular, we saw a rise in spam that redirects users, without the webmaster’s knowledge, to other sites or pages, inserted into webmaster pages using widgets or via ad units from various advertising networks.
How we fought spam in 2016
- We continued to refine our algorithms to tackle webspam. We made multiple improvements to how we rank sites, including making Penguin (one of our core ranking algorithms) work in real-time.
- The spam that we didn’t identify algorithmically was handled manually. We sent over 9 million messages to webmasters to notify them of webspam issues on their sites. We also started providing more security notifications via Google Analytics.
- We performed algorithmic and manual quality checks to ensure that websites with structured data markup meet quality standards. We took manual action on more than 10,000 sites that did not meet the quality guidelines for inclusion in search features powered by structured data.
Working with users and webmasters for a better web
- In 2016 we received over 180,000 user-submitted spam reports from around the world. After carefully checking their validity, we considered 52% of those reported sites to be spam. Thanks to all who submitted reports and contributed towards a cleaner and safer web ecosystem!
- We conducted more than 170 online office hours and live events around the world to audiences totaling over 150,000 website owners, webmasters and digital marketers.
- We continued to provide support to website owners around the world through our Webmaster Help Forums in 15 languages. Through these forums we saw over 67,000 questions, with a majority of them being identified as having a Best Response by our community of Top contributors, Rising Stars and Googlers.
- We had 119 volunteer Webmaster Top Contributors and Rising Stars, whom we invited to join us at our local Top Contributor Meetups in 11 different locations across 4 continents (Asia, Europe, North America, South America).
We think everybody deserves high quality, spam-free search results. We hope that this report provides a glimpse of what we do to make that happen.
Posted by Michal Wicinski, Search Quality Strategist and Kiyotaka Tanaka, User Education & Outreach Specialist
Periodic Account Access Review; Add it to Your To Do List!
Do you review who has access to the business’s online accounts, such as Twitter, Google Analytics, email, etc? Previous employees’ access to a business’s online accounts presents a huge risk. Periodic account access review is crucial, as Rishi Lakhani explains in this guest post.
Post from State of Digital Guest Contributor
Google did not ban Infowars; did rescind quality example using an Infowars article
Infowars article was used to help illustrate how quality raters might judge content, but raters have no power to censor, ban or penalize pages.
The post Google did not ban Infowars; did rescind quality example using an Infowars article appeared first …