Make no mistake. Plenty of sites — big brands included — willingly do things in an attempt to rank better on Google that go past SEO tactics that Google itself considers acceptable. However, there’s also no better poster child for how complicated and confusing Google’s rules can be than the fact that Google has had […]
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 Brings Search Funnels Attribution Modeling Tool To AdWords Google announced it is adding a Search Funnels Attribution Modeling Tool to AdWords to help marketers better understand how AdWords campaigns are […]
Google head of search spam Matt Cutts posted on Twitter this morning another stern warning to German webmasters about a link penalty looming for them. Matt Cutts tweeted: A reminder (in German) that paid links that pass PageRank violate our guidelines: https://t.co/u1MpvL7kh4 — Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) February 3, 2014 The blog post is written […]
In a video released by Matt Cutts, Google’s head of search spam, Matt said publishers who publish similar or duplicative stories on different URLs may use the rel=canonical tag to help consolidate the PageRank of the stories and avoid any issues with Google. Matt Cutts did say that duplicate content won’t hurt you unless you […]
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 […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: The 2013 Bing Infographic In Text Format: Bing Indexes A Lot Of Social Content Bing posted their 2013 highlights on the Bing Search Blog, summarizing some key statistics they wanted 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 Busts Yet Another Link Network: Anglo Rank Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, just confirmed on Twitter that Google has targeted another “private link network” – this one is […]
Google has updated the Toolbar PageRank values this morning, despite Google’s Matt Cutts implying the update would not happen again within 2013. The SEO community, discussion forums and social media outlets are lighting up with the news that Google has actually updated the Toolbar PageRank values. Why? (1) The SEO industry always lights up when […]
Google’s Matt Cutts posted a video explaining why Google no longer has that 100-links-per-page Webmaster guideline. In fact, the guideline was dropped well before 2008, but SEOs and webmasters still think having over 100 links on a page is something that may lead to a penalty. The truth is: no, it won’t. Sites like Techmeme […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Social Media Marketing Tactics that Work – Next Week in Las Vegas Learn the latest tactics and best-practices for Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram. Whether you’re managing your brand’s communities, […]
In a video released today by Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, he said you don’t have to worry about there being a down side, related to SEO, when using a responsive design approach for mobile web sites. The question posed to him was: Is there an SEO disadvantage to using responsive design instead […]
In a new video released today by Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, we learn that the more pages a web site has, does not necessarily mean you will have better rankings. Matt Cutts said, “I wouldn’t assume that just because you have a large number of indexed pages that you automatically get a […]
This morning, the head of Google’s webspam team Matt Cutts gave a keynote speech at Pubcon in Las Vegas. The keynote comes on the heels of a scathing day — 1 keynote from Jason Calacanis, who said that Google rules everything, that they were essentially evil. On Twitter yesterday, Matt asked if Jason wanted the […]
We already knew Google wasn’t likely to update the PageRank meter in the Google Toolbar this year. The head of Google’s web spam team, Matt Cutts, reiterated today that this will stay the case and explained why. Google’s ability to update the toolbar is broken, and it’s not a priority to fix it. Speaking at […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Penguin 5, With The Penguin 2.1 Spam-Filtering Algorithm, Is Now Live The fifth confirmed release of Google’s “Penguin” spam fighting algorithm is live. That makes it Penguin 5 by our count. […]
Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, said on Twitter yesterday that Google won’t be pushing out a new Google Toolbar PageRank update this year. Niels Bosch asked on Twitter if we should expect an update to PageRank before 2014. In response to that, Matt Cutts said, “I would be surprised if that happened.” It […]
In a video, Google’s head of search spam Matt Cutts published today an answer to the question, “Should I use rel=”nofollow” on internal links to a login page?” Matt Cutts basically said you shouldn’t, but said it won’t hurt you if you did. Matt said, “It doesn’t hurt if you want to put a nofollow […]
Google has a new search algorithm, the system it uses to sort through all the information it has when you search and come back with answers. It’s called “Hummingbird” and below, what we know about it so far. What’s a “search algorithm?” That’s a technical term for what you can think of as a recipe […]
Google has significantly penalized another underground link network over the weekend and we believe that one of the link networks targeted by Google is named Ghost Rank 2.0. A few weeks ago, Matt Cutts, Google’s head of search spam, tweeted “Thinking of ghost-related puns for a spam network. “They try to look super natural, but […]
John Lincoln from Ignite Visibility spotted a Google Hangout where Google’s John Mueller confirmed that Google will use URLs or domain names within content that are unlinked, i.e. without an a href attribute, to discover and index new pages of content. John went on to add that typically no PageRank or trust is flown from […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: 10 Features Unique To Bing Ads That You Might Not Know About On the Bing Ads blog this week Marta Turek from Mediative spotlighted several features offered in Bing Ads that […]
Want to know what the PageRank of a page is? The ability to easily do this using the Google Toolbar has gotten harder over the years, with the latest blow being no update in values for the past six months. The Google Toolbar is how non-tech-savvy people can discover how much Google trusts a page, […]
Matt Cutts, Google’s head of search spam, posted a video answer this morning strongly recommending that those who place widgets on their sites, or those who distribute widgets, should place a nofollow on the links within the widget code. Matt Cutts said, “I would recommend putting a nofollow, especially on widgets.” The reason is because […]
Google has quietly updated the link schemes document under their Webmaster guidelines to add large-scale guest posting, advertorials and optimized anchor text in articles or press releases to the list of types of links that violate their guidelines. The new guideline examples that were added to this document include: Large-scale article marketing or guest posting […]
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 Logo Marks The 407th Birthday Of Rembrandt van Rijn Google has dedicated today’s homepage to Rembrandt van Rijn, marking the Dutch painter and etcher’s 407th birthday. The Google logo includes […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: New Bing Search By License Feature Filters Images Based On Usage Rights Bing announced a new “Search by License” feature today that filters images based on usage rights. The new feature […]
Up Close Coverage From SMX Advanced 2013 Recently, I attended the SMX Advanced session, “Authorship: The Deep Dive“, moderated by Elisabeth Osmeloski, and featuring speakers: John Carcutt, Advance Digital, Janet Driscoll Miller, Search Mojo, Mitul Gandhi, seoClarity, and Mark Traphagen, Virante, Inc. There were a number of interesting takeaways. Mitul Gandhi is up first. He […]
On May 15th, we reported that Google targeted yet another link selling network that resulted in several thousand penalties. Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, has revealed which link network was the target via Twitter last week. The target was one of the oldest, and arguably the most prominent, link selling brokers on the […]
Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, posted a new video today on YouTube clarifying Google’s stance on Advertorials and “native advertising.” Advertorials are editorial-like content that is published because an advertiser has paid the publication to publish the story or the content. Recently, we covered a story on how a major U.K. floral company […]
What a week it’s been where Google and SEO are concerned. The company, via Matt Cutts, has issued several warnings about things to come — and, late Tuesday night, also revealed that it’s just acted against another link network. In a pair of tweets, Cutts — the head of Google’s webspam team — said that […]
If you’re considering using an analytics platform other than, or in addition to, Google Analytics, it can be a bit difficult to determine what the best alternative will be. Search Engine Land compiled a great buyers guide to enterprise web analytics tools, but what if you’re in the market for a free to mid-level tool, […]
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 Adds Green Arrows To View Cache, Similar Pages & To Share Results On Google+ Google has updated how you access the cached pages, similar results and how you share search […]
Matt Cutts, Google’s head of search spam, posted a 90-second video on what happens if a site that is selling links also links to your site. In short, Matt Cutts explains that when sites that sell links (with Google knowing about it) link to you, Google won’t pass value from that link seller website. So, […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Report: PPC Tablet Spending Up 112%, Smartphones Up 113% The new IgnitionOne Digital Marketing Report for Q1 finds that overall paid search spend in the U.S. was flat for the quarter, […]
One of the highlights from the SMX West show a week ago was the session named “The Search Police: Matt & Duane’s Excellent Search Engine Adventure.” The panel featured Google’s Matt Cutts and Bing’s Duane Forrester as Bill & Ted with Danny Sullivan playing Rufus. Matt (Bill) and Duane (Ted) both give presentations and then […]
Google did end commenting on why the BBC received an unnatural link notification despite offering us a “no comment” on our story this past Friday. Was the BBC penalized for unnatural links? Was it possible that the world’s largest news organization was not trusted by Google’s algorithms? The answer is, only one article was penalized. […]
Interflora, the major UK flower delivery service, is showing up again in Google’s search results — just 11 days after it was penalized. According to some tweets and posts on Google+, Chris Gilchrist was first to spot Interflora’s resurrection today. As you can see in the screenshot above, Interflora is ranking again on searches for […]
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 Panda Two Years Later: The Real Impact Beyond Rankings & SEO Visibility (Editor’s Note: This is the second in a series of articles looking at the aftermath of Google’s Panda […]
Just under three years ago, we reported that 301 redirects don’t pass full PageRank and that you should try to link through a normal link versus using 301 redirects. The truth is, a 301 redirect and a link pass the same amount of PageRank. There is no more dilution of PageRank with a 301 redirect […]
A day after warning publishers against advertorials, will Google’s search team now have to penalize parts of its own company for running advertorials? Perhaps, and if so, it wouldn’t be the first time. It’s also another absurd chapter in Google’s war on paid links. Google Says: Advertorials, Beware! After news came out yesterday that Google […]