Google Webmaster Central is a collection of tools and resources (including an official Google Webmaster Central Blog, a discussion area and help center) designed to help webmasters, marketers and others monitor their web sites on Google.

Google Recommending New Video Schema.org Markup

Feb 22, 2012 at 10:13am ET by Barry Schwartz

Google announced on the Google Webmaster Central blog that they are now adding video support for schema.org. They are doing this in combination with Microsoft Bing and Yahoo Search as a "joint effort." Google says using the schema.org video markup is the "recommended way to describe videos on the web." Google added that they still recommend you continue with your other video XML formats, such as Video Sitemaps and mRSS feeds, if you use them. The new schema.org video markup won't impact the Video Sitemaps and mRSS feeds. The technical details on video markup can be found on schema.org an [...]

Now Test Your Sitemaps Before Submitting Them To Google

Jan 26, 2012 at 1:33pm ET by Barry Schwartz

Google has quietly added a feature to Google Webmaster Tools that allows you to test your sitemap files prior to submitting them to Google. Google's Pierre Far confirmed that this is indeed a brand new feature built to help webmasters debug their sitemap files prior to submitting them. One of the most common complaints about Google Sitemap files is that Webmaster would create them but not be able to know right away if they were valid. Now, Webmasters can create the sitemaps and test them in Google Webmaster Tools prior to submitting them to Google. To test the sitemap files, simply log [...]

Google Panda 3.2 Update Confirmed

Jan 26, 2012 at 9:47am ET by Barry Schwartz

Google has confirmed reports of a Panda update with us. The company told us they have done a data refresh of the Google Panda algorithm about a week ago, and added that there were no additional signals or algorithm changes. This was only a data refresh. I saw reports over the past week or so of webmasters commenting about their rankings. Most were complaining that they lost rankings, but some said sites that were originally hit by Panda regained their traffic levels pre-Panda. This would explain the data refresh, where Google ran the algorithm and updated the sites that should or should not [...]

Google Changes Definition Of Average Search Ranking Position

Jan 25, 2012 at 5:46pm ET by Barry Schwartz

The Google Webmaster Blog and Google Analytics Blog announced they are changing how they define the average position in the search query report in Google Webmaster Tools and search optimization report in Google Analytics. The new definition will take the average of the top ranking of your site for all searchers, as opposed to all URLs listed and average that. In the past, they would take all the positions of your rankings and average them together, now they are taking only the top positions. Here is how Google explains it: Let’s say Nick searched for [bacon] and URLs from your si [...]

Google Revamps Submit Content Page

Jan 25, 2012 at 5:13pm ET by Barry Schwartz

Google has updated their URL submission tool page and redesigned their Submit Your Content page. The old URL which was at google.com/webmasters/tools/submit-url/ now returns a page not found (404) error. The issue with that is, Google should really use a 301 redirect because it ranks in the top position for [google webmaster tools] and [google submit URL]: The truth is, the add URL page is actually at google.com/webmasters/tools/submit-url, that is without the backslash at the end of the URL. It must be a bug on Google's side, either they should redirect google.com/webmasters/tools [...]

Google Webmaster Tools Adds Useful Download Options

Jan 20, 2012 at 2:48pm ET by Vanessa Fox

Google webmaster tools data is helpful stuff, but has been somewhat tough to download and use. Last month, Google made things a bit easier by providing a Python script for downloading search query data (as this report isn't available as of yet through the API). Now, they've added new download options that significantly add to the usefulness of the data. Below, why these new CSV files are so important. Search Queries: Download Chart Data Search query chart data downloads provide access to information not easily available before. When you view search query data, the chart in the user interface [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: Webmaster Central

2011: The Year Google & Bing Took Away From SEOs & Publishers

Jan 8, 2012 at 8:50am ET by Danny Sullivan

Increasingly over the years, search engines -- Google in particular -- have given more and more support to SEOs and publishers. But 2011 marked the first significant reversal that I can recall, with both linking and keyword data being withheld. Here's what happened, why it matters and how publishers can push back if Google and Bing don't change things. Where We Came From Some might believe that search engines hate SEOs, hate publishers and have done little over the years to help them. They are mistaken, either choosing to deliberately ignore the gains or, more likely, are simply unaware of [...]

Welcome Back CO.CC To Google

Dec 29, 2011 at 7:53pm ET by Barry Schwartz

Six months ago, Google delisted all sites on a co.cc domain name. Today, they seem to have all returned. A search for [site:co.cc] currently returns 105,000,000 results. Google originally delisted the co.cc subdomains because Google saw a "very large fraction of sites" on that subdomain to be "spammy or low-quality" and felt it was warranted, in this case, to simply block the whole subdomain from showing up in Google's results. I am not sure if this change was intentional or a bug where after we write about it Google will delist the subdomains again. Here is what the resu [...]

Google Adds Author Stats To Webmaster Tools

Dec 15, 2011 at 9:47am ET by Barry Schwartz

Google has introduced a new report in Google Webmaster Tools named "Author Stats." Author Stats shows you how often your content is showing up on the Google search results page. This will show up under Google Webmaster Tools in the "labs" section in Webmaster Tools. It shows the impressions and clicks of the stories found in Google and shows up when you associate your content with your Google Profile. Here is a picture: Google said if you have issues with it, you can email them at authorship-pilot@google.com. Also, Google has promoted the authorship stories in the Google search [...]

Google’s New Multilingual Markup Signals New Issues Of Concern For Global SEOs

Dec 13, 2011 at 9:08am ET by Andy Atkins-Krüger

Last Monday, Google announced that they had released "new markup for multilingual content", see the webmaster tools blog post here. Even for those of us that work in the field of looking after global websites, this produced relatively unexciting headlines along the lines of "Google Launches New Multilingual Markup -- Wow". Big yawn. In fact, digging deeper into the announcement produces new worries and potential new solutions for international SEOs. For instance, whilst it may not have been Google's intention, they're presenting this as a "stronger signal than canonicals", and give scen [...]

Google Adds New Link Element Markup For Multilingual Content

Dec 5, 2011 at 4:25pm ET by Barry Schwartz

Google announced a new markup to communicate multilingual content to Google's spiders. The new link element is rel="alternate" hreflang="x" where you define the language and location in the hreflang area. Here are examples of how you may use it respectively: http://www.example.com/ - contains the general homepage of a website, in Spanish http://es-es.example.com/ - is the version for users in Spain, in Spanish http://es-mx.example.com/ - is the version for users in Mexico, in Spanish http://en.example.com/ - is the generic English language version <link rel="alternate& [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: SEO | Google: Webmaster Central

Do You Have Duplicate Content Issues Across Domain? Google Will Now Alert You

Oct 31, 2011 at 1:08pm ET by Vanessa Fox

Today, Google webmaster tools has launched a new message alert to let site owners know when a particular URL doesn't appear because Google sees it as duplicate of a URL on a different domain. In the blog post announcing the feature and in an in-depth help topic, they provide details on how they identify duplicate clusters of content and choose a "canonical" version of that cluster to display in search results. "When we discover a group of pages with duplicate content, Google uses algorithms to select one representative URL for that content. A group of pages may contain URLs from the same site [...]

Google Says SEO Is Not Spam

Oct 24, 2011 at 2:35pm ET by Barry Schwartz

Matt Cutts, head of the Google's web spam fighting team, has gone on record by saying Google does not consider SEO to be spam. Matt said outright, "We don't consider SEO to be spam," and added that SEO is "a valid way to help people find what they're looking for via search engines." He did add that there are bad SEOs out there, typically known as black hat SEOs that can produce web spam. But in general, SEO is not spam and there are plenty of good SEOs out there. Matt has said several times at conferences that SEO is not spam, but this is the first time he devoted a video to it. He [...]

Google Puts A Price On Privacy

Oct 22, 2011 at 12:35pm ET by Danny Sullivan

Earlier this week, Google made a significant change purportedly to better protect the search privacy of users. In reality, it specifically -- and deliberately -- left a gaping hole open to benefit its bottom line. If you pay-to-play, Google will share its search data with you. Google's a big company that goes after revenue in a variety of ways some critics feel put users second. However, I'm struggling to think of other examples where Google has acted in such a crass, it's all-about-the-revenue manner as it has this week. The best comparison I can think of is when Google decided to allow C [...]

Google To Begin Encrypting Searches & Outbound Clicks By Default With SSL Search

Oct 18, 2011 at 2:09pm ET by Danny Sullivan

Google will now begin encrypting searches that people do by default, if they are logged into Google.com already through a secure connection. The change to SSL search also means that sites people visit after clicking on results at Google will no longer receive "referrer" data that reveals what those people searched for, except in the case of ads. Google announced the news on its blog here, saying: As search becomes an increasingly customized experience, we recognize the growing importance of protecting the personalized search results we deliver. As a result, we’re enhancing our default se [...]

Google Analytics Webmaster Tools SEO Reports Now Available

Oct 4, 2011 at 4:44pm ET by Barry Schwartz

In June, Google released a limited beta of Webmaster Tools integration with Google Analytics, where you can view search query data from Webmaster Tools directly in Google Analytics. Google just announced this feature is now available to everyone! You can find the new reports under the "traffic sources" > "search engine optimization" section of the new Google Analytics. The new reports there include: Queries: impressions, clicks, position, and CTR info for the top 1,000 daily queries Landing Pages: impressions, clicks, position, and CTR info for the top 1,000 daily landing pages [...]

How To Capture Broken Inbound Links

Oct 4, 2011 at 1:05pm ET by Rick DeJarnette

Everyone in our field knows that inbound links are an important facet of search engine optimization (SEO) – search engines regard them as votes of approval from the linking sites. That’s why webmasters and optimizers invest so much work on link building. Unfortunately, with link building, you are usually left counting on someone else to do the job that’s so important to you. You actively ask another webmaster (or blogger, online author, or worse yet, a casual, social media user) to link to a page on your website. You depend on them to do the job right. You can even give them explicit [...]

Google Adds “Site Health” To Webmaster Tools Home Page

Sep 30, 2011 at 9:28am ET by Matt McGee

Saying that it wants to help website owners prioritize their work, Google has added a new "site health" view to the Webmaster Tools home page. The next time you visit Webmaster Tools, Google will show the sites in your account sorted with those in need of work at the top. Here's a screenshot of Google's sample WMT account: Google is currently using three issues/concerns to determine when a site is in poor health: when malware has been detected when important pages have been removed via Google's URL removal tool (as RipoffReport.com did last month) when important pages are blo [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: Webmaster Central | Top News

Google Improves Webmaster Penalty Notifications For Both Manual & Automated Penalties

Sep 15, 2011 at 8:49am ET by Barry Schwartz

Google announced they have stepped up their webmaster communication for notifying webmasters of both manual and automated penalties. In the past, Google let you submit reconsideration requests and then added that they received those requests. Now, Google may reply if your site was affected by a manual spam action and that you are no longer penalized by that action. In addition, Google may tell you if your site is still in violation of the Google guidelines. In addition, Google may even notify you if your site is not affected by any manual action, but rather of an automated ranking [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: SEO | Google: Webmaster Central

New: Google Classifies Subdomains As Internal Links Within Webmaster Tools

Sep 1, 2011 at 9:51am ET by Barry Schwartz

Google has changed the way they handle reporting links within Google Webmaster Tools. Instead of considering subdomain links as external links, they are now considered internal links. Google made this announcement on their Google Webmaster Blog, explaining that this applies to both the non-WWW and WWW versions and other subdomains on the domain name. Google said: Most people think of example.com and www.example.com as the same site these days, so we’re changing it such that now, if you add either example.com or www.example.com as a site, links from both the www and non-www versions o [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Google: SEO | Google: Webmaster Central | Top News

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