Annoyed at all the spam referrals in Google Analytics telling you to buy followers or download website buttons? Google Analytics is working on a solution to the problem. At Mozcon today, Adam Singer from Google Analytics confirmed that they realize the spam referral issue in Google Analytics is an issue and they are working on […]
Archives for July 2015
Bing Adds Social Links to Knowledge Panel; Snubs YouTube, Google+ & Tumblr
Bing has added social media icon links to the knowledge panels of celebrities in the Bing knowledge panel, following Google’s own addition of them to the panel, but there is one glaring omission from most of the knowledge panels… YouTube. And while YouTube is the obvious exclusion, Bing is also not including Google+ or Tumblr […]
Firefox Blocks All Flash Content by Default
If you still use Flash elements on your website, despite the fact most mobile devices no longer display it, you have just received yet another sign that the end of Flash is near… Firefox will no longer display Flash content within their browser by default. This change also explains why you may have noticed Flash […]
Google Search Console Making Changes to Whom Receives Site Messages
Google Search Console is making some changes in the coming weeks to whom exactly will receive site related emails about issues or problems. When the change comes into play, only direct owners of the site in question (child sites) will receive the emails, not owners of parent sites as well. For consultants who might only […]
Twitter Blends Sponsored Tweets in Twitter Stream Better
If you have been confused about sponsored tweets appearing in your Twitter stream that look like regular tweets, you are not alone. Twitter has made some changes to sponsored tweets so they aren’t obvious as being sponsored. Notice the promoted part at the bottom? That medium gray icon to show it is a sponsored tweet […]
Bing Adds Book Purchasing Options to Knowledge Panel in Search Results
Bing is also adding book buying options into their knowledge panel, following on Google’s addition to book purchasing options in their own knowledge panels. While they have the option to buy it on both Amazon and Barnes and Noble, they have also added options to borrow in from a local library and to read an […]
Google Adding Lottery Numbers Featured Snippets
Google is starting to display lottery numbers in the search results as a featured snippet at the top of the search results. Pedro Dias posted this screenshot on Twitter and Google+. This doesn’t seem to be active in the US or Canada as of this writing, but it could be rolling out across languages. This […]
Google Sending Hreflang Implementation Warning Notices in Search Console
Google is sending out error messages to users for incorrect implementation on Hreflang through Google Search Console, warning webmasters if they have made mistakes while implementing it on a site. Dan Sharp, the Founder & Director of Screaming Frog tweeted one of the warning emails. The warning is fairly standard about possible hreflang issues that […]
Google Adds New Options When Closing Mobile Ads
Google announced had they were making changes to mobile ads to reduce the liklihood that people would accidentily “fat finger” an ad while trying to close it. And now we have seen how they are putting this into action. Here is an ad how it normally appears, with the X to close. But after it […]
Google Testing 4 Line Description Snippets in Search Results
Google is testing out longer snippets in the descrption for some Google search results, giving some results 4 lines of description over the standard two lines that you see in the majority of results. While Wikipedia triggered the first 4 lines of description as information sites, as you can see with the Hobbycraft result, commercial […]