Duane Forrester: AI is rewriting SEO, but the mission is the same
AI is forcing SEO to evolve fast, but Duane Forrester says success still comes from serving users, building trust, and learning continuously.
Topic: WebmasterWorld, Inc.
Meet llms.txt, a proposed standard for AI website content crawling
Find out what llms.txt is, how it works, how to think about it, whether LLMs and brands are buying in, and why you should pay attention.
From SERPs to CHERPs: Generative AI results need their own name
Introducing the CHERP, or chat experience results page. It's time to give a name to the output of today's generative AI experiences.
Google is testing new Rewarded Ad Gate beta program for publishers
The program will give publishers an opportunity to monetize their most engaged users.
Video: Dixon Jones on building tools for the SEO industry
This man has helped countless people in the SEO industry - he is a true friend.
Video: Jim Boykin on how link building has evolved over two decades
We talked about the history of SEO, link building, content marketing, featured snippets and other Google updates.
What’s up with the unconfirmed Google search ranking updates in July?
Google's Maverick update is still being talked about in the SEO industry but Google has yet to officially comment on it.
Let’s clear things up: Google’s ‘Florida 2’ algorithm update is not related to original Florida update
Here is why some folks are calling this the Florida 2 update but don't let the name confuse you.
Google advertisers blacklisted after exploiting AdSense, driving down CPCs
These ad buyers set irresponsible campaign parameters, which caused a decline in ad coverage and a drop in fill-rate.
SearchCap: Google Local Algorithm Change, Sally Ride Doodle & Link Building
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 You Should Be Using Google Analytics Smart Lists For Remarketing Are you using Smart Lists in your remarketing efforts? Columnist Rebekah Schelfhout believes you should consider doing so if you’re […]
Bing To Shut Down Webmaster Forums
Bing is shutting down their Bing Webmaster Forums by the end of this month or early June. Duane Forrester of Bing said that the forums were turning into the place Bing expected and they have decided to shut it down to give them the “time and resources to focus energies in other directions.” So what […]
The SEO Industry Mourns The Loss Of Ted Ulle, Tedster
Warren “Ted” Ulle, also known in the SEO community for his handle “Tedster,” passed away with his family at his side Thursday night, June 27, 2013. Many of us in the SEO industry learned an incredible amount of knowledge from Ted over the years. In all honesty, his work and contributions to the industry, in […]
If That Was A Google Update You Felt, Google’s Not Confirming It
Over the past few days, the Webmaster and SEO community have been discussing significant shifts, fluctuations and updates in both the Google rankings and traffic patterns they have seen from Google’s organic search. I’ve asked Google if there was, indeed, an update, and Google would not confirm. Instead, they gave me the boilerplate response, “We […]
UPDATED: Bug Affecting Optimization by Acquisition In Some AdWords Accounts
UPDATE: As of January 23, Google said it has fixed the problem and past data should be restored “in the coming days.” Google has confirmed a bug that causes conversions from Google Analytics to not be imported into AdWords properly, which can cause issues with any campaigns using this data for optimization. The bug has been reported by […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, October 17, 2012
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: 6 Underrated Content Marketing Assets For B2B SEO One of the biggest obstacles to B2B search engine optimization is developing new content marketing assets for targeting important keywords and acquiring link […]
WebmasterWorld Sold To Jim Boykin’s Internet Marketing Ninjas
One of the more popular Webmaster and SEO forums, WebmasterWorld, has been sold today to Jim Boykin’s Internet Marketing Ninjas. Jim Boykin has been acquiring several forums this year, including all of the Developer Shed network including SEO Chat forums and Cre8asite Forums from Kim Krause Berg. Cre8asite Forums has been around since 1998 as […]
More Than 10 Is The New 10 Blue Links For Bing
Bing has been experimenting with showing more than ten search results on a page, while Google is showing seven search results on a page in some cases. Now, Bing has decided to stick with the experiment in the June update. There have been some observant searchers who picked up on the change over at WebmasterWorld, […]
Search Convergence In SF: Matt Cutts, Danny Sullivan, Mike Grehan & Brett Tabke
It might be more than foggy in San Francisco this morning, as Brett Tabke of webmasterworld.com said after I took this picture, “that was a twilight zone moment for me”. It must have been interesting feeling for him then about 10 minutes later when Mike Grehan invited him and Danny Sullivan on stage to have […]
Did Google Drop 100+ Small Directories?
Yesterday I covered a WebmasterWorld thread where SEOs were complaining that Google has been removing tons of free web directories from their index. I conducted some random tests and did notice some of these free web directories not coming up in Google. Later in the day, Terry Van Horne began running larger tests on 500+ […]
Confirmed: Panda Update 3.6 Happened On April 27th
Google has confirmed they have pushed out a refresh on the Panda algorithm on Friday, April 27th. I noticed an uptick in Webmaster discussion around Google changes over the weekend, mostly at WebmasterWorld and asked Google to confirm if there was an update. Google confirmed they refreshed the Panda update on the 27th, but it […]
The Penguin Update: Google’s Webspam Algorithm Gets Official Name
Move over Panda, there’s a new Google update in town: Penguin. That’s the official name Google has given to the webspam algorithm that it released on Tuesday. What’s An Update? For those unfamiliar with Google updates, I’d recommend reading my Why Google Panda Is More A Ranking Factor Than Algorithm Update post from last year. It explains […]
Dropped In Rankings? Google’s Mistake Over Parked Domains Might Be To Blame
Search rankings got you down on Google recently? It’s not the expected over-optimization penalty, as some have been guessing at. Rather, Google may have thought your site was a “parked domain,” when it wasn’t. Search forums like Webmaster World and Google’s own search discussion areas have had much discussion about recent drops in ranking, such as here, here and […]
Google Fixes Bug That Required Cookies To Search
Last week, we saw some reports of people finding they can’t search on Google unless they accept cookies. Google confirmed to us there was a bug causing this that’s now been fixed. Google emailed us: This was a bug that was flagged and the team quickly resolved on Thursday. We apologize for any inconvenience. A […]
No Looking Back for AdSense Users: Interface Change Becomes Permanent
The old AdSense interface is gone for good, as of yesterday, so holdouts clinging to that version are being thrust smack-dab in the middle of the new AdSense. Users had previously been able to toggle back and forth between the old and new versions of the interface. Publishers have certainly had plenty of warning. Google […]
Yes, Google Is Testing Infinite Scroll Web Results
Google has confirmed that they are indeed testing a form of infinite scroll web search results. I covered the news this morning at the Search Engine Roundtable sharing a screen shot from WebmasterWorld and a video from Waebo of this in action. Here is the video: As you can see, Google replaced the pagination feature […]
Google Images Improves Relevancy & Quality Algorithm
This week, several webmasters at WebmasterWorld noticed that the results in Google Images seemed to surface the original source of the images more of the time than it did in the past. I wrote about this at the Search Engine Roundtable as Google Images possibly improving their image source detection algorithm, but it is more. […]
Major Google Updates Documented
SEOmoz announced they have published the Google Algorithm Change document detailing all “major updates” that happened since the Boston update in 2003. SEOmoz did it with style in this graphical document: While I agree with a lot of the updates listed here, I had worked up a list of my own a few months ago. […]
Google’s 12 Sitelink Experiment Returns
Google is once again testing — or continuing to test — a jumbo-sized search result that displays a whopping 12 sitelinks below the main/top search result. Here’s one example of how it looks: That’s an image posted yesterday by Seer Interactive, where their blog post has additional screenshots showing 12 sitelinks for queries such as […]
Official: Google Panda 2.3 Update Is Live
Google has confirmed to Search Engine Land that late last week it pushed out a small update to the Panda filter. “We’re continuing to iterate on our Panda algorithm as part of our commitment to returning high-quality sites to Google users,” a Google spokesperson told us. “This most recent update is one of the roughly […]
Is Google Ignoring The HTML Title Tag More Often?
Google’s long created title tags from means other than using the HTML title tag, however, there are reports that it might be increasing the times it does so. A WebmasterWorld thread has dozens of webmasters complaining that Google is not using their HTML title tags. The HTML title tag is often used by Google as […]
Google Vows Renewed Look At Cloaking In 2011
The head of Google spam fighting team, Matt Cutts, has tweeted that Google will be looking more at cloaking in the first quarter of 2011, perhaps with more clarification of what exactly cloaking is. Cloaking, which is against Google’s webmaster guidelines, is defined by Google as follows: Cloaking refers to the practice of presenting different […]
Confirmed: Google Image Search Updating Index Faster
Google has confirmed that they are now updating the Google Image Search index of images at a more rapid rate. Earlier this week, I reported at the Search Engine Roundtable that webmasters noticing this at WebmasterWorld. Webmasters were saying that Google Image Search was including their new images within a “few days” as opposed to […]
6 Daily Habits That Make Up My Link Reading List
I’m frequently asked what resources I read to keep up with the latest trends and information on link building. While it’s an easy question, answering it takes a while since I follow a long list of sites. Here’s a list of resources I find invaluable and try to review every day. I’ve grouped them by […]
Google Testing New AdWords Preview Tool
I reported this morning via a WebmasterWorld thread that Google is testing a new AdWords Preview Tool at this URL. I do not believe Google has announced this new version yet, but from what I can see there are a few minot functional changes. Plus the user interface looks a bit cleaner. Here are before […]
Google Testing Colored Top Navigation Bar & AdWords At Bottom
William Vicary tweeted that he is seeing a colorful Google top navigation bar. The navigation bar is very similar to what is there now, except for the colored stripe at the top and the settings icon at the right of your email address. I assume the icon replaces web history, settings and signout links to […]
Google Error Allowed BP To Violate Ad Guidelines
It’s well known to many at this point that BP has been advertising on Google to get its public relations message out. Today, it turns out that some of those ads have been violating Google’s guidelines — in particular, a rule that requires showing people the site they’ll be going to when clicking on an […]
Google Confirms “Mayday” Update Impacts Long Tail Traffic
Google made between 350 and 550 changes in its organic search algorithms in 2009. This is one of the reasons I recommend that site owners not get too fixated on specific ranking factors. If you tie construction of your site to any one perceived algorithm signal, you’re at the mercy of Google’s constant tweaks. These frequent […]
SEMPO Elects 2010 Board Members
SEMPO — the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization — has announced its 2010-2012 Board Of Directors. Officers will be elected from the board later this month. The board takes office as of March 18 and includes: Chris Boggs, Director, Search Engine Optimization, ROSETTA Massimo Burgio, Founder, Chief Strategist, Global Search Interactive Bruce Clay, President, Bruce […]
Finally! Yahoo Search Weather Report : January 2010
The Yahoo Search Blog dusts itself off to announce a search update happening right now. The last “weather report” Yahoo announced was in September 2009 – typically, Yahoo would announce these updates monthly. We actually expected this to be announced. I was tracking a WebmasterWorld thread where SEOs were noticing ranking changes at Yahoo Search. […]
Moving Ads Closer To “Free” Listing Ups Google’s Earnings
In early August, Google quietly shifted the ads closer to the free listings. We assumed then, Google did this to drive more attention to the ads, and now we can say that we were right. In the question and answer session of last week’s Google earnings report. A transcript reports Google’s Jonathan Rosenberg confirming that […]