Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Bing Admits They Need To Do Better With Webmaster Communication In a blog post today on the Bing Webmaster Blog, Bing’s Igor Rondel, Principal Development Manager of the Index Quality team, […]
The CPC you pay is the amount you pay per click. As you probably want to spend your money as efficiently as possible, a lower CPC is generally a good thing. However to ensure the success of your site you will first and foremost want to encourage interested, repeat visitors to come to your site. […]
A former member of the Google search quality and web spam team, Pedro Dias, said publicly on Twitter yesterday that “Google is less likely to trust a link once it has changed from the first time it was seen.” So if you changed the anchor text or URL path of the link, the value and […]
Google is now rolling out the 3rd version of the PayDay Loan algorithm. Last night we reported that Google is going to be launching PayDay Loan 3.0 and Google’s Matt Cutts posted on Twitter moments ago that it is now rolling out. Cutts, Google’s head of search quality said, “it’s rolling out now!” To catch […]
Google’s head of web spam, Matt Cutts, announced at SMX Advanced tonight that the third version of PayDay Loan algorithm is launching this week, as soon as tomorrow. This algorithm specifically targets “very spammy queries” and is unrelated to the Panda or Penguin algorithms. Didn’t Google just update the PayDay Loan algorithm a couple weeks […]
Google’s Matt Cutts announced on Twitter that they have released version 4.0 of the Google Panda algorithm. Google’s Panda algorithm is designed to prevent sites with poor quality content from working their way into Google’s top search results. But didn’t Google stop updating us on Panda refreshes and updates since they are monthly rolling updates? […]
Google has confirmed they have released a new algorithm update to their Payday Loan Algorithm update over this weekend. This algorithm specifically targets “very spammy queries” and is unrelated to the Panda or Penguin algorithms. A Google spokesperson told us: Over the weekend we began rolling out a new algorithmic update. The update was neither […]
Over the past week or so, there has been a lot of various signals across the search community that Google’s algorithms and rankings were updating; so much so that people were bracing themselves for a major Penguin or Panda-like algorithm announcement from Google. Google never made the announcement, and so I asked Google if anything […]
In an interesting video released by Matt Cutts, Google’s head of webspam, Matt answers the question on how Google separates the concept of popularity from authority. The truth is, he answered that question quickly by saying popularity and authority are two different things. The example he gave was that porn sites are often way more […]
Google Head of Search Spam Matt Cutts posted a video today answering how Google goes about evaluating which new search algorithms they use and which they throw away or adapt. The question was posed by James Foster of Sydney, Australia who asked: What are some of the metrics that Google uses to evaluate whether one iteration […]
Researchers at Northeastern University in Boston claim the regular overestimation of flu cases by Google Flu Trends can be blamed on Google’s ever-evolving algorithms and the inaccurate analysis of big data. Google Flu Trends often has been cited for incorrectly projecting the number of flu cases. In 2010, a University of Washington study claimed Google […]
Google’s head of search spam Matt Cutts posted a longer video today answering what it is like to fight webspam at Google. The questions posed by Brian Harnish of Westminster, California were: What is a day in the life of a search spam team member like? What is the evolution of decisions in terms of […]
Remember the video Google’s Matt Cutts released in May, talking about the ten future Google SEO changes? One of those topics was about authority boost for authors and sites that are an authority on a topic? Well, Google is still working on that. In TWiG, This Week in Google, episode 227, Google’s Matt Cutts said […]
Those using Google to find the perfect pearl necklace for their significant other this holiday season may be in for a rude surprise. If you search for “pearl necklace,” one of the top results is a definition from Urban Dictionary, which is completely not safe for work. A reader sent us an email about the shock […]
Google Trends is rolling out new topic reports designed to deliver more accurate results, as well as offer topic predictions within the reports. Using Google’s example, now when a user searches for “rice” in a trends report, they will see topic predictions like “Rice University” and “Rice Cereal” to better qualify the search topic. To […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Google AdWords Third-Party “Review Extensions” Start Rolling Out To All Accounts In June, Google announced the beta release of Review Extensions which allow advertisers to append a quote of endorsement from […]
About a week ago, Google released an algorithm update we named the Google’s MugShot Algorithm. This update specifically targeted sites ranking well for names and displayed their arrest photo, name and details. The new algorithm update impacted sites such as Mugshots, BustedMugshots and JustMugshots. Mugshots.com responded to Google’s update with a blog post calling Google’s […]
On Thursday, Google released yet another algorithm update, no – not the Penguin update, but an algorithm to combat mugshot web sites from showing up highly in their search results. In February, Jonathan Hochman wrote a story here named Why Google Should Crack Down Harder On The Mugshot Extortion Racket. That story, according to Google’s […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google’s Knowledge Graph Gets Smarter With Comparisons & Filters Google’s Knowledge Graph is a little smarter today with the addition of filters and a way to compare two Knowledge Graph items […]
Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts announced in a video that Google fights search spam at an international level but does tend to have a stronger spam fighting sense in the Google.com, English search results. Matt Cutts explained that with most of Google’s spam fighting algorithms, such as the Panda and Penguin algorithms, Google […]
This morning, I noticed a possible Panda update was rolling out, one that seemed to be “softer” in nature than the previous updates, where many webmasters who were originally hit by the algorithm are now claiming recovery. Google has confirmed a Panda update is rolling out and this specific update is “more finely targeted.” As […]
Two years ago, we released “The Periodic Table Of SEO Ranking Factors.” Now we’re back with an update. We’ve introduced some new elements, adjusted a few rankings and given the table a more encompassing name, The Periodic Table Of SEO Success Factors. Clicking on the image above will take you to the permanent home of the […]
The Russian search engine Yandex has announced changes to how it presents personalized search results, saying that personalization is now based on what’s happening within a single search session. When the company launched personalized results late last year, it was based primarily on looking at a user’s search history within the previous few weeks/months. Now, […]
Yesterday, we covered and summarized the ten future Google SEO changes coming to Google’s search results by the end of this summer. But today, I wanted to pull out one point where Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, said Google is working on an algorithm to give authorities in a particular subject a ranking […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Google Maps To Get A Major Design Overhaul Alex Chitu reports Google is testing a new Google Maps interface, possibly to be launched next week at Google I/O. The new interface […]
Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, posted a YouTube video talking about a recent SEO misconception that he would like the SEO and webmaster world to “put to rest.” Matt said, just because Google has a search quality or ranking patent it does not mean that the patent was or is currently part of […]
Starting today, LinkedIn members will begin seeing a number of enhancements to the professional networking site, including a new unified search feature and a smarter query intent algorithm that continuously serve up more relevant results. With over 5.7 billion searches performed on LinkedIn last year, the new unified search experience is one of the most […]
A study by Portent, an Internet marketing company, shows that Google’s tolerance of spammy links to trigger a Penguin algorithm ranking drop has declined by 30% since the Penguin algorithm launched. The study shows that of the 500,000 links found, Google has been steadily reducing its tolerance for webspam. Now, Google is likely to penalize […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Why Local Retailers Should Be Using Open Graph Markup Last November, Chris Sherman highlighted the findings of Forrester research in his article, Forrester Rates The Top Large Search Marketing Agencies. As […]
Ever wondered how Google Search works, finds pages from across the web and decides how to list them in response to a search? If so, Google’s got a new resource designed to answer questions. Called “How Search Works,” the new area announced today is an interactive infographic that explains more about the search process, including […]
Remember in August Google launched a new algorithm we coined the Pirate Update? It basically looked at the number of valid DMCA takedown requests processed and used that data to downgrade the rankings of sites that were found to be abusive in this area. Since then, it appears some people have been abusing the algorithm. […]
Do a search for “Obama,” and you might find your subsequent queries for things like “medicare” seemingly personalized based on your initial Obama search. Do the same for Romney, it is doesn’t happen. Is Google biased toward Obama, as some are now writing? No. Is it the “filter bubble” of personalization out of control? Perhaps […]
Google’s head of search spam, answered some questions in the Power Searching with Google Hangout on Air #2 on October 2nd. In that video, he was asked by fellow Googler, Dan Russell a Search research scientist at Google, will search spam go on forever? This question was asked about 36 minutes into the video, where […]
The YouTube Blog announced they have adjusted their ranking algorithm to include the time a video was watched. YouTube said they experimented with this ranking factor with suggested videos and it lead to “less clicking” and “more watching” and thus feels it is a good idea to add to the overall YouTube Search ranking algorithm. […]
Another week, another update to part of Google’s search algorithm. This time, Google announced a refresh of its Page Layout filter that it first announced back in January, or what’s often called the “Top Heavy” update. Updates, Updates It’s the fourth Google update in the past two weeks. The rundown so far: Panda Update 20: Sept. 27, […]
Yesterday, Google’s Matt Cutts tweeted a reminder that Google makes one or two algorithm changes every day (around 500 a year). Google talked about this in a video they published last year, but it can be easy to forget. The algorithm changes that Google announces are only a tiny fraction of the changes they are […]
The head of Google web spam fighting team Matt Cutts announced on Twitter that Google will be rolling out a “small” algorithm change that will “reduce low-quality ‘exact-match’ domains” from showing up so highly in the search results. Cutts said this will impact 0.6% of English-US queries to a noticeable degree. He added it is […]
I’m often asked whether it is better to change an ad to fit an audience, or to change an audience to fit an ad. Many in the online advertising industry are familiar with the concept of dynamic creative, which customizes the content of an ad to match the interests of the user seeing the ad. […]
Google’s announced that another Panda Update is being unleashed on its results, one that it says will impact 0.7% of queries. We’re calling it Panda 3.92, through we’re wondering if it’s time to declare Panda 4.0 upon us. Here’s the official news from Google: Panda refresh is rolling out—expect some flux over the next few days. Fewer […]
In the beginning, Google matched the words in a searcher’s query to the words on a web page and ranks those pages (roughly) based on how many external links each had. Over the years, Google’s algorithms have evolved in numerous ways, including with how Google figures out what the searcher is really looking for. Now, […]