Your managed WordPress might be blocking AI bots and you can’t see it
Your SEO tools show nothing wrong. But platform-level limits may be quietly blocking AI systems from accessing and citing your content.
Topic: Transport Layer Security
New web standards could redefine how AI models use your content
A new protocol could give you power over how AI models collect and use your content. See what rules are being drafted and why they matter.
How to monitor your website’s performance and SEO metrics
After launch, ongoing tracking keeps your site competitive. Use automation and analytics to catch issues early and sustain SEO growth.
A technical SEO blueprint for GEO: Optimize for AI-powered search
Boost your chances of being cited in AI answers with these four technical SEO tactics that power visibility in generative search.
7 tips to improve your website speed in 2024
Learn what you can do to improve the page load time and Google Core Web Vitals of your website.
15 ways to secure your WordPress site
Protect your WordPress website from harmful cyber attacks. Follow these tips to keep hackers at bay and secure your SEO performance.
How to show Lighthouse Scores in Google Sheets with a custom function
Learn how to use machine learning to streamline your reporting workflows right within Google Sheets.
How Switching To HTTPS Helps Your SEO
Why are some sites HTTP and some sites HTTPS? If that’s a question you’ve ever asked yourself, then there are some fundamental things you need to know about the internet. Simply put, the S in HTTPS stands for secure and means that a site has a security certificate (more on that below). Back in 2017 […]
Chapter 3: Site Architecture & Search Engine Success Factors
The next major on-page group in the Periodic Table of SEO Factors is site architecture. It plays a critical role in SEO effectiveness. These factors affect the findability and usability of your site. Good architecture makes content easier for search engines and users to access and navigate. Take the following architectural factors into account as […]
Chrome starts telling users HTTP sites are not secure
Is your site using HTTPS yet? Google is releasing Chrome 68 that will begin marking pages not using HTTPS URLs as not secure.
Effective July 2018, Google’s Chrome browser will mark non-HTTPS sites as ‘not secure’
After years of pushing for 'secure by default' web sites, Google will identify insecure sites in the Chrome browser beginning mid-Summer.
SearchCap: DMOZ officially closes, Google dilutes Exact Match in AdWords & 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: Your playbook for click-to-call paid search is here Mar 20, 2017 by Digital Marketing Depot Consumers now click on “Call” buttons from search ads and landing pages by the billions. To […]
Google To Begin To Index HTTPS Pages First, Before HTTP Pages When Possible
If your pages work on HTTPS, Google will likely show the HTTPS version over the HTTP version, starting today.
SearchCap: AdWords SMS Promotions, Google TLS Warnings & Yahoo Firefox UI
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Promote Black Friday & Cyber Monday Offers With AdWords Structured Snippet HeadersNov 11, 2015 by Ginny Marvin The extensions can start showing starting the week before Cyber Monday. JustWatch Claims Google’s […]
Google Sending Messages To Webmasters For SSL/TLS Certificate Not Matching
Google starts notifying webmasters of broken SSL/TLS certificates. Will this lead to a stricter HTTPS ranking factor?
Bing To Encrypt Searches By Default & Referrer Data To Go Not Provided This Summer
Not Provided is about to expand when Bing goes HTTPS over the summer, ultimately blocking query data in the referrer path.
Google Says They May Flag Broken Security Certificates In The Search Results
Google may flag sites that have broken security certificates in the search results. They may also boost the ranking benefit on login pages, to prevent phishing attempts.
What’s The Most Searched Thing On Google? Turns Out It’s “Google”
Webmaster Trends Analyst Gary Illyes said the most searched term on Google is "Google" itself during SMX West session.
Google SafeSearch For Schools Now Supports HTTPS
Google’s Brian Fitzpatrick, Engineering Director, announced on the Google Security Blog that the Google SafeSearch feature that network administrators can force over their networks now supports HTTPS. That means if the network administrators upgrade to the new protocol, all searches over Google will not only be forced to SafeSearch filters but also be secured over […]
SearchCap: Google AdWords Conversion Optimization & Bulk Edits, Bing Maps Imagery Update & Google’s Mobile Revenues Hit $8B
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 Maps Adds Hundreds Of Streetside & 3D City Images; Plus New HD Aerial Images Bing announced a large maps update today, where they have added hundreds of Streetside images, 3D […]
Explainer: How Google’s New SSL / HTTPS Ranking Factor Works
Last Thursday, Google launched a new ranking signal to give HTTPS sites a ranking boost, a small ranking boost, to encourage webmasters to migrate their sites from HTTP to HTTPS. In our story from Thursday, we covered why Google is doing this and the concerns some SEOs had with the migration, as well as the […]
SEO Industry Tweets Its Reactions To Google’s SSL Ranking Boost
The SEO industry is abuzz today with the news of Google’s latest ranking signal: Using SSL certificates will provide a boost in Google’s search rankings. (The web hosting industry is all abuzz, too, if you’re curious.) Google says it’s a “very lightweight signal” for now, but one that may become stronger over time because Google […]
Google Starts Giving A Ranking Boost To Secure HTTPS/SSL Sites
Google To Give Secure Sites A Ranking Boost Google has announced that going HTTPS — adding a SSL 2048-bit key certificate on your site — will give you a minor ranking boost. Google says this gives websites a small ranking benefit, only counting as a “very lightweight signal” within the overall ranking algorithm. In fact, Google […]
Ranking Benefit To Making Your Site SSL? Not Yet But Google’s Cutts Would Like To Make It Happen.
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 […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, January 23, 2014
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: MapQuest Transfers Local Listings Management To Yext Last October, MapQuest started outsourcing local business listings management to Yext. The “claim your MapQuest listings” page is hosted by Yext (I believe) with […]
An Easy Way To Check What Referrer Data Google, Bing Or Yahoo Pass To Your Secure Site
With the three major search engines migrating their default searches to secure search, over SSL/HTTPS, marketers and webmasters want to know what referrer and analytics data will be passed to them and what won’t. The majority of Google is secure search, Yahoo yesterday defaulted all searches to be conducted over SSL, and Bing is currently […]
Bing Begins Supporting Separately SSL Search Site; No Referrers Pass
Bing now appears to be supporting secure search through the https://www.bing.com address. Previously, trying to use this address generated an error. If you conduct a search on Bing, while on the HTTPS URL, it will remain HTTPS and keep your searches secure. This is a new feature Bing quietly started supporting over the weekend. Cyrus Shepard […]
Don’t Want Your Searches Encrypted? Add ?nord=1 To Your URL Parameters
Not interested in having Google encrypt and secure your searches for some reason? Well, now there is a way to stop Google from forcing you to search using Google SSL search, as it made everyone use last month. All you need to do is add ?nord=1 to the Google URL parameter. For example, searching Google […]
Search Engines Ixquick & StartPage Double Up On Security Measures With 2 New Encryption Standards
On the heels of the US PRISM scandal, private search engines Ixquick and its partner site StartPage are leveraging new encryption methods that offer higher levels of security beyond the standard SSL encryption. With a combined four millions searches daily, Ixquick and StartPage boast they are the first search engines in the world to employ […]
Google Expands Gmail In Search Results With My Orders, My Events & My Reservations
In August, Google introduced a field test that brings Gmail content in your search results. So if you searched for [my flights] and you had a flight confirmation email in your Gmail account, Google would show you upcoming flights. This is still an opt in field test available to a limited number of US users […]
How An iOS 6 Change Makes It Seem Like Google Traffic From Safari Has Disappeared
A change in iOS 6 made by Apple and not anticipated by Google means that for the past week or so — and likely for some weeks to come — those reaching web sites from Google’s search engine after doing searches from within Safari will be counted as “direct” traffic rather than “search” traffic. As […]
Safari Shifts To Google Secure Search in iOS 6, Causing Search Referrer Data To Disappear
Another source of Google search referrer data appears lost. Searches through Google that happen in Apple’s Safari browser search box in iOS 6, Apple’s latest mobile operating system, no longer pass along search terms to publishers. For those unfamiliar, “referrer” data is information a browser passes along to a publisher about the last page you were […]
Firefox 14 Now Encrypts Google Searches, But Search Terms Still Will “Leak” Out
Firefox 14 has officially launched today, which means all Google searches are encrypted by default. However, due to a Google loophole, the encryption will not prevent things you search for from “leaking” out to Google’s advertisers nor potentially showing up as search suggestions or in data reported to web sites through Google Webmaster Central. The Firefox […]
Firefox To Use Google Secure Search By Default; Expect More “Not Provided” Keywords To Follow
The popular Firefox browser is on track to use a secure method of searching Google by default, a change that will help prevent potential “eavesdropping” of what people are searching for. It will also further reduce the ability for publishers to know how people find their sites in Google — except for Google advertisers. A […]
Ixquick Now Encrypts All Searches
Likely sensing an opportunity after Google’s recent encrypted search announcement, Ixquick — a tiny and widely unknown search engine — has announced that it will make SSL encryption the default on all searches. Ixquick says it became the first search engine to offer encrypted search back in 2009. In its announcement, Ixquick notes that the […]
Google To Begin Encrypting Searches & Outbound Clicks By Default With SSL Search
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 […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, May 20, 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: Google Maps Vs. Bing Maps: Summer Vacation Planning Showdown Wouldn’t it be great if there was one mapping service that offers everything you need to plan a trip to somewhere you’ve […]
Google Steps Up Privacy Requirements For AdWords Advertisers
If you’re going to advertise on AdWords, you’d better be safeguarding users’ personal and financial information on the landing site. So say new policy guidelines released today by Google. The new global requirements for all AdWords advertisers govern sites that request payment, financial or personal information from visitors. They will take effect May 17. If […]
Google Web Report: Average Page Size 320 KB
Google released a report on general statistics of web pages on the Internet. The report lists basic information they retrieved over the course of “Google’s crawl and indexing pipeline.” The key highlights include: The average web page takes up 320 KB on the wire. Only two-thirds of the compressible material on a page is actually […]
Google Moves SSL Search To Encrypted Sub Domain
About a month after Google launched encrypted search at https://www.google.com/, they will be moving it to https://encrypted.google.com/. The reason for the move is due to “better serve our school partners and their users,” said Dave Girouard, President, Google Enterprise. The issue with having it at https://www.google.com/ is that they can block encrypted searches via their […]