Google is investigating reports of reviews going missing and pausing reviews on local listings
Google has confirmed it is investigating the reports of bugs with reviews in Google Business Profiles after several days of complaints from businesses.
Topic: Email spam
Google algorithm updates 2025 in review: 3 core updates and 1 spam update
Google is confirming fewer and fewer search algorithm updates, but that doesn't mean there is less ranking volatility.
Google Discover now less aligned with search rankings
This seems like a change to what content Google prioritizes for the Google Discover feed.
Black hat GEO is real – Here’s why you should pay attention
AI-driven search has enabled large-scale manipulation. Here’s how it happens, what Google’s doing, and why best practices still win.
SEO shortcuts gone wrong: How one site tanked – and what you can learn
Scaling SEO with AI? Beware the risks. One site’s rapid rise led to a steep crash. Here’s what went wrong and how to avoid the same fate.
Google algorithm updates 2024 in review: 4 core updates and 3 spam updates
There were seven confirmed algorithm updates (two less than last year). But Google's March core update was Google's biggest update ever.
Google December 2024 spam update unleashed
This update was released a day after Google finished rolling out the December core update.
Google March 2024 core update rollout is now complete
The first core update of 2024 finished rolling out on April 19 - this was a pretty big one but it overlapped with other big changes leading to a 45% reduction in unhelpful content.
Google March 2024 spam update done rolling out
The spam update took nearly 15 days to complete. Google's core update is still rolling out, so we're not done yet. Remain seated and buckled.
Reddit shown excessively in Google product review search results, study finds
Google has a severe diversity issue in Search results as Reddit absolutely dominates the Discussions and forums SERP feature.
Google says it took down 45% more fake reviews in 2023 thanks to new algorithm
Google also shared new stats on actions it took in 2023 to block fake reviews and local listings.
Data providers on the Google October 2023 core and spam update
This was a very big set of Google updates, here is an analysis.
Can search engines detect AI content?
Explore the intricacies of AI-generated content in search and how Google's long-term goals might be shaping its response to the technology.
New Google Merchant Center policy: AI-generated reviews are spam
In addition to its Automated Content policy, Google clarified its existing Merchant Center policies and enforcement behavior.
Yandex scrapes Google and other SEO learnings from the source code leak
Yandex isn't Google, but there is a lot SEOs can learn about how a modern search engine is built from reviewing this codebase.
Arbitrage in Google’s Local Services Ads: What you need to know
Spam in the local search space appears to have moved into another area that Google is unable to police actively.
Google penalties, manual actions and notifications: A complete guide
Learn all about on-page and off-page guideline violations, what Google's messaging means, and how to get a Google manual penalty removed.
Google Maps blocked 100 million abusive business profile edits in 2021
Less than 1% of the content viewed on Google Maps was fraudulent or abusive, Google said.
Google on how it ranks search results and prevents obvious spam
Don't focus on one or two specific signals, make your site is better overall says Google.
Google: Spam less than 1% of Maps content
The company cited spam fighting data in a post on contributed content.
Email Marketing Guide
Very early in my marketing career, I remember hearing something I thought was super weird: Email Marketing is still the most effective form of digital marketing. Even with SEO, SMM, PPC, Influencer, Geo-Targeting, Programmatic and every other advance in technology and acronym use, Emails are still the most effective thing you can do to get […]
SearchCap: Google Adds 2015 Oscar Nominations To Knowledge Graph, Local Search Challenges For Franchises & More
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: 2015 Oscar Nominations Now Showing In Google Knowledge Graph & Bing Carousel Searches for “Oscar nominee” and “Oscar nominations” on both Google and Bing deliver results for this year’s best picture […]
SearchCap: Google PayDay Loan 3.0, Bing Ads URL Tagging & World Cup Fever
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 Launching Payday Loan Algorithm 3.0 Targeting Spammy Queries This Week Google’s head of web spam, Matt Cutts, announced at SMX Advanced tonight that the third version of PayDay Loan algorithm […]
Google Launches “Penguin Update” Targeting Webspam In Search Results
Google has announced that it is releasing a new search algorithm that it hopes will better catch people who spam its search results or purposely do things to rank better that are against Google’s publishers guidelines. Going live today, Google says the “Penguin Update” will impact about 3% of search queries. From the company’s posts […]
Faking A Breadcrumb Trail To Stand Out On Google
Google Rich Snippets are an outstanding way for webmasters to get more exposure for their pages in the Google search results. Using them, you can add add images, review stars and more to your listings. But for some webmasters, that is not enough. Back in November I noticed HTML entities working in Google’s breadcrumb rich […]
All Sales & No Service: Google’s Small Business Priorities Are All Messed Up
Google is, again, wiping the egg off of its company face this week after the New York Times exposed yet another way in which some users are manipulating Google Places to the detriment of unsuspecting small/local business owners. The latest issue involves unscrupulous individuals/companies marking other businesses as closed in Google Places. It’s a process […]
How A Bad Reputation Can Affect Link Building
There is a company that I once bought something from, something that did not at all live up to my expectations, something that was just cheap and tacky and not at all what I wanted. However, it was quite inexpensive and I wasn’t feeling particularly outraged, so I just grinned and bore it. Fast forward […]
Live Blogging Bing’s Future Of Search Event
Bing and Big Think are hosting”Farsight 2011: Beyond the Search Box,” a four hour event today in San Francisco looking at the future of search. We’ve got various luminaries lined-up. Google will be on a panel. There’s that whole Google says Bing is copying them thing that just happened. Plus, Blekko’s here — and it […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, January 24, 2011
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Hot At Sphinn: Google Favoritism In Search Results, Eric Schmidt Steps Down & More The idea that Google might be favoring its own properties and content in search results was a […]
How The “Focus On First” Helps Hide Google’s Relevancy Problems
In January, I was invited to speak to Google’s search quality team about issues I had with Google’s search results. My topic? For queries where I know a subject really well, I often found Google provided some pretty poor results in the top listings along with the good ones. I wanted more perfection! With the […]
The Bogus Google Give-Away
Here’s a new one on me. I just got an email telling me that I’ve won nearly $1 million from a “drawing” randomly selected from those searching on Google. Suffice to say, it’s a scam. I can assure you that Google’s done no drawing like this. Add the spam to those about missing fortunes in […]
How A Twitter Reputation Algorithm Needs To Work
Big news last week: Twitter Search to dive deeper, rank results. Twitter’s @Santosh Jayaram has indicated Twitter Search, which currently searches only Twitter post text, will begin crawling links and indexing the content of pages posted in tweets. To help with search result ranking, Twitter is creating a “reputation” ranking system that among other things […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, June 30, 2008
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
One Day You’re Optimized, The Next Day You’re A Spammer
It is no secret that human review has been playing a bigger role at Google over the past couple years. And we are emotional beings… no matter how logical the guidelines may be, emotions cause human errors. But not all sites that get penalized are penalized in error. Many deserve it. Sadly, Google’s guidelines for […]
New Comment System For Search Engine Land
Back when Search Engine Land launched, we used TypeKey to manage our comments system. Some people hated the system, but I promised from the start that it would eventually be replaced by something better. Today, that finally happens. Comments at Search Engine Land are now being handled through our own Sphinn discussion site. More about […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, May 25, 2007
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web:
Why The SEO Folks Were Mad At You, Jason
Jason Calacanis is riled up about SEO today, telling the world that "90% of the SEO market is made up of snake oil salesman" and still confused over why the "SEO folks" were mad at him when he said "SEO is bull" during our keynote conversation at SES Chicago last December. I love Jason. I […]