Google made it clear earlier this year that those doing guest posts “for SEO purposes” might be subject to penalties. But the latest chapter in its war on guest posts feels a bit crazy: an entire site put into Google’s penalty box because of a single guest post that Google didn’t like. Your Entire Site […]
Yesterday, Matt Cutts, Google’s head of search spam, posted an interesting tip to SEOs around disavow file submissions. He said that you should not delete or remove the original disavow file when uploading a new one. He said instead, upload the new one, which will replace the old disavow file. The reason he said was […]
We all saw this one coming: Web Design Library, the website that was using Twitter to renew paid links last week, appears to have earned a Google penalty. While I was researching last week’s article, I saw the site ranking at No. 8 for the term web design. Today, I’m seeing it at No. 48 […]
Google’s Panda update has been one of the most talked about algorithmic updates by SEOs and webmasters since it launched in February 2011. Today is the day the patent document describing Panda was granted. It was written by Navneet Panda, which is why it was named Panda, and Vladimir Ofitserov of Google. The patent application […]
Brands aiming to protect themselves from trademark infringement in paid search are often met with white noise after they submit complaints to the search engines. They typically aren’t told if any action was taken — and even more frustrating, if no action was taken and/or why. To help solve this problem, BrandVerity has added a […]
Mobile app discovery continues to be a challenge for most developers. Quixey (across platforms) and Google (on Android) are trying to address that challenge by indexing deep links within apps. For its part, Apple appears to be trying to broaden App Store search with related keywords. When entering search queries within the App Store, Apple […]
A reader has sent us examples of Google misattributing content from dozens of large online news publications, with hundreds thousands of examples of Google indexing URLs and pages, but that content being pulled from a different source. For example, if you search for [hometownlocator site:post-gazette.com], the first result is local.post-gazette.com/boardman+florist.9.125954212p.home.html: If you look at the […]
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 Slaps Greek Sites With Penalties It appears that Google has taken action on spammers, potentially link spammers, in Greece recently. Matt Cutts, Google’s head of search spam, responded on Twitter […]
Today’s video from Google’s head of webspam Matt Cutts tackles the question, “How can you tell if your site is suffering from an algorithmic penalty, or you are simply being outgunned by better content?” According to Cutts: It’s kind of tricky because we have a large amount of algorithms that all interact, and whether you […]
Nearly a year after Google’s Matt Cutts told us penalty notifications will get clearer, including more actual examples of what a problem is, it seems as if the notifications have gotten harder to understand. I spend a lot of time following penalties issued by Google through examples given to me via email, penalties publicizes on blogs […]
It appears that Google has taken action on spammers, potentially link spammers, in Greece recently. Matt Cutts, Google’s head of search spam, responded on Twitter to a webmaster noticing that many websites in Greece received penalties. Matt responded saying “ah, you noticed the action in Greece?” Here is Matt’s tweet: @realpoisom ah, you noticed the […]
When Google started testing the new look for its search results pages which ditches the shading behind the ads and replaces it with yellow “ad” icons, contradictory outcries of this sort began popping up, “Ad click-through rates are going to plummet because the ads are too obvious with those bright icons.” “The ads look like […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: How To Tell Search Engines What “Entities” Are On Your Web Pages Search engines have increasingly been incorporating elements of semantic search to improve some aspect of the search experience — […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Yelp and YP Enter Into “Strategic” Content, Distribution Partership YP and Yelp have announced a strategic partnership that will in the near future provide YP advertisers with an enhanced presence on […]
Here’s a lesson in how not to sell links. As Search Engine Roundtable pointed out this morning, someone named “Vince” from WebDesign.org is using Twitter to contact companies about renewing paid links that are about to expire. You can look at the @vitaliykoloswdl account and see numerous conversations about selling or renewing paid link agreements. […]
In February, Google controlled 67.5 percent of US search query volume, according to comScore. Bing had 18.4 percent and Yahoo, 10.3 percent. These numbers were essentially unchanged from last month. Compared with a year ago, Bing’s share has grown and Yahoo’s declined. In February 2013, Google had an identical 67.5 percent of queries while Bing […]
Google has taken action on a large guest blog network that we believe is MyBlogGuest.com. In fact, the owner of MyBlogGuest.com, Ann Smarty confirmed last night she received a penalty. Yesterday, there was confusion over if those publishers who participated in MyBlogGuest.com would also be penalized. I suspected they would be and it seems that […]
Alex Chitu noticed that Google’s Knowledge Graph has now added a “related topics” for certain types of queries. The example provided shows a search for [equilateral triangle shows a Knowledge Graph that also adds topics for equilateral polygon, square, regular polygon, and pythagorean theorem. Clicking on each brings up the knowledge graph answer for each […]
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 Matt Cutts: We’ve Taken Action On A Large Guest Blog Network Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, announced really early this morning on Twitter that Google has taken action […]
Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, announced really early this morning on Twitter that Google has taken action on “a large guest blog network.” Cutts previously warned the webmaster and SEO community that guest blogging is done, at least for SEO and link building purposes. Well, it might not have been done — it […]
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 Ads Starts Allowing Keyword Variations Once Flagged As Duplicate Just about anyone who has imported a campaign from Google AdWords or uploaded a new keyword set into Bing Ads has […]
There was a fun search marketing-related Dilbert strip last week on the topic of doing and presenting your keyword research to your boss. The search marketer says: “I did A-B testing and found the search terms that bring the most people to our site.” He then adds “the most effective search terms are “wingless skunk”,” […]
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 Key Takeaways From Meet The Search Engines @ SMX West Another SMX is in the books! This show definitely had one of the most engaged attendee groups I have ever […]
Another SMX is in the books! This show definitely had one of the most engaged attendee groups I have ever seen at any conference in recent memory. The polite, attentive search engine marketers weren’t there to just network and enjoy the San Jose sun. They were interested and looking for answers. And on day three […]
Google’s Matt Cutts answered in a video what webmasters and site owners should do about their out of stock products on their e-commerce sites. Matt Cutts basically said it depends on the size of the e-commerce site. He broke it down into three sizes: small sites with tens of pages, medium sites with thousands of […]
Speaking at SMX West last week Google’s Matt Cutts said that he “wouldn’t be surprised” if mobile search exceeded desktop queries this year. A similar comment was made by a Google speaker informally during a roundtable discussion at the International Franchising Association conference in New Orleans earlier this year. We asked Google for an official statement […]
Google has been migrating all their properties to work over SSL over the past years and they are still working on that migration process. Google would like to see you make your site work over SSL as well. So much so that Matt Cutts said at SMX West that he would personally love to make […]
As promised, Google has taken manual action to penalize link networks in Italy and Spain. It was just four days ago that Google warned webmasters in those two countries about its rules on paid links and willingness to take action against websites that violate those rules. The penalties were announced separately on Friday by Google […]
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 Penalizes Two German Link Networks; One Being efamous Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, announced on Twitter today that they have penalized and taken action on two additional German […]
Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, announced on Twitter today that they have penalized and taken action on two additional German link networks. He mentioned one by name: efamous. efamous looks like a typical ad network, but I guess they passed PageRank through their link network, which is against Google’s guidelines. Cutts also said […]
The Search Marketing Expo West show this year has just ended. Three days of jammed packed content and tips on search, social, display and more. If you missed it or you want a recap of what happened, below are a listing of live blog coverage from the event over the past three days. #SMX: The […]
Google’s Matt Cutts confirmed on stage at Search Marketing Expo today that Google does have a form of “Author Rank” in use today at Google. It is specifically used within the in-depth articles system to determine which articles to show in the In-Depth articles section. This question was prompted by a tweet from Matt Cutts: […]
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 Working On A Softer & Gentler Panda Algorithm To Help Small Businesses Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, announced at Search Marketing Expo that his search team is working […]
Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, announced at Search Marketing Expo that his search team is working the “next generation” Panda update that would appear to many as being softer. Cutts explained that this new Panda update should have a direct impact on helping small businesses do better. One Googler on his team is […]
Last September, Google confirmed it was encrypting search term information, rendering previously available keyword data “not provided” and leaving many website owners in the dark. While most SEO professionals managed the loss of search terms without suffering major disruptions in their SEO efforts, SMX West’s “Life After Not Provided” panel offered tactical insights for those […]
Yandex chose the Bynet Week conference in the city of Minsk in Belarus to announce that they have “Started to remove links gradually” from the Yandex MatrixNet algorithm for commercial queries in just the Moscow region. Alexander Sadovsky, Head of Web Search at Yandex, made the announcement yesterday following on from his original explanation in […]
What’s your best mobile SEO solution? Responsive design? A mobile dedicated site? An app? Four mobile SEO pros gave their expert insights on how to create successful mobile SEO strategies during the “Best Practices in Mobile SEO” panel yesterday at SMX West. Moderated by Search Engine Land’s contributing editor Greg Sterling, the session included presentations […]
With algorithm updates happening more frequently than ever and Google continuously working to keep searchers on the result page, companies need to make a conscious effort to broaden their marketing efforts and move beyond Google. In the “Life Beyond Google: Diversifying Your Efforts” session at SMX West 2014, the speakers showed us how to do […]
Google announced today it is now adding concert dates to its Knowledge Graph. According to the Google Webmaster Central blog, concert information for a musician will be pulled from the artist’s official website if the site includes structured data markup. The announcement listed three ways webmasters for musical artists could take advantage of the new […]
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 Reviewing “Not Provided,” Withholding Keywords From Organic But Not Paid Search Clicks When Google moved to secure search in October 2011, it was a blow to publishers, who began losing […]