How To Write A Meta Description That Gets Click-Throughs
I feel sorry for meta descriptions. Google has long held that meta descriptions do not impact search engine rankings. From a 2007 post on the Google Webmaster Central Blog: Google reiterated this point yet again in 2009 in a post stating that the meta keywords tag was not used as a ranking signal:…
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Google Quietly Updates The International Targeting Hreflang Webmaster Tools Reporting
Google has updated the “accuracy” of the reporting within the Google Webmaster Tools International Targeting section. On November 18th, Google said: Google refined the accuracy for reporting hreflang tags. This update might show as a sudden change in the report graph. You now may see an…
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Learning SEO From Google Employees
What do local marketers really need to know about SEO? Columnist Chris Marentis discusses some tips that come straight from the horse’s mouth.
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Replace (Not Provided) With Behavioural Analysis & Fuzzy Matching To Boost SEO
Worried about your site’s bounce rate? Columnist Chris Liversidge details how to identify and fix problem pages using Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools.
The post Replace (Not Provided) With Behavioural Analysis & Fuzzy Matching To Boost SEO app…
Google Launches Mobile Friendly Test Tool
Wondering if your site will qualify for Google’s new mobile-friendly labels or be ready for a potential mobile-friendly ranking boost? Google has a new tool to help. The new tool is at google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly and it basically gives you a pass or fail grade. Either it tells…
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Mobile Usability Reports Come To Google Webmaster Tools
Google announced a new feature available in Google Webmaster Tools this morning for tracking your mobile usability issues. The new report is named the Mobile Usability report and it is available at google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-usability within Go…
Google Webmaster Guidelines Updated To Warn About Blocking CSS & JavaScript Files
Google announced they’ve updated their webmaster guidelines to specifically note that blocking your CSS or JavaScript files may have a negative impact on your indexing and search rankings in Google. Pierre Far, Google’s Webmaster Trends Analyst, said the “new guideline specifies…
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Google Webmaster Trends Team Wants To Visit Your Office
Gary Illyes from Google announced on Google+ that the Google Webmaster Trends Analyst team is looking to observe you and your company, while you work. Gary said Google is looking to sit with companies, agencies, and website owners at their office and watch them as they work on “managing their…
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Google Penguin 3.0: Worldwide Rollout Still In Process, Impacting 1% Of English Queries
Google updated their Penguin algorithm with version Penguin 3.0 late Friday night. The Penguin algorithm primarily looks at a site’s backlink profile and may demote a site that appears to have a poor backlink profile. The Penguin 3.0 release was communicated very poorly by Google. With Google…
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XML Sitemaps Or RSS/Atom Feeds? Google Says Use Both For Optimal Crawling
When it comes to telling search engines about the content on a website, webmasters might be wondering if they should submit sitemaps or just setup RSS or Atom feeds. Google’s answer? Use both. In a new blog post sharing advice on XML sitemaps and RSS/Atom feeds, Google says it’s not an…
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Google Revamps Change Of Address Tool Within Webmaster Tools
Google’s John Mueller announced they have made significant changes to the Change Of Address Tool they initially added to Google Webmaster Tools in 2009. The new changes help walk-through a webmaster through the process of using the tool, while validating most of the important steps are…
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Google Makes Penalty Mistakes: The Buffer Story
Buffer’s Courtney Seiter posted on the Buffer blog that they had a bit of unusual Google Penalty that resulted in a 90% drop in organic Google traffic to the site. The issue had nothing to do with the Buffer web site, but rather a bug with Google, according to Courtney. Courtney said they…
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Google Revamps Webmaster Tools API
Google announced on the Webmaster blog that they’ve updated the Google Webmaster Tools API to bring it up to par with other Google APIs. Google has revamped how you authenticate for apps or web-services and it also gives you access to some of the main features of Webmaster Tools. Specific…
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Google Allows Developers Integrate With Search Within Site Feature
Google announced a few changes to the search box you find within the Google search results. Often, when you search for a brand name, Google will add a search box within the search snippet result for that site. That box allows you to search within that …
It’s Over: The Rise & Fall Of Google Authorship For Search Results
Anyone who follows Google knows that nothing it creates is immune from elimination. Like so many efforts before it, Authorship is fading into the sunset.
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Google Sending Invalid Error Notices Of Redirecting Smartphone Users To Homepage
A couple weeks ago we reported that Google began sending notices to webmasters over faulty mobile redirects. This notice was to inform webmasters of notices being shown to searchers that the searcher may be redirected to the home page as opposed to the…
Google Targets Two European Link Networks Yesterday Morning
Over the weekend, Google has sent out mass link penalty notifications throughout Europe for those sites partaking in specific link networks with the goal of manipulating their rankings in Google. Google’s Johannes Mehlem posted on Twitter that Google has “taken action on one European…
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21 Metrics For Monitoring SEO Health
An SEO issue that goes unnoticed, even for a few days, can have a huge impact on business — so what metrics can you use to detect problems early?
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Google Investigating Bugs With Structured Data Report In Webmaster Tools
There are hundreds of complaints within the webmaster and SEO community around the Structured Data report within Google Webmaster Tools showing massive drops in structured data elements being shown. The good news is that everyone seems to be affected by the issue and that Google’s John…
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Google Webmaster Guidelines Update Calls “Low Quality Guest Blog Posts” Spam
Google has updated their webmaster guidelines, specifically in the little or no original content guideline, to add “low-quality guest blog posts” as an example of “scraped content.” Brian Ussery first spotted this change, noting how Google has been fighting the use of guest…
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