If you have tried accessing Google Analytics and the real time reporting since yesterday, you have probably discovered that real time reporting is not updating. Instead, users are seeing an empty report and an error message: Google first acknowledged the issue for some users yesterday: Some users may be experiencing issues with real time reporting. […]
Archives for September 2016
Is Code to Text Ratio a Google Ranking Factor?
During yesterday’s Crawling and Indexing Q&A with Google, the question was raised about whether code (actual code on the page) to text (the text content) ratio has any impact on Google’s rankings. It is something that people periodically bringing up with regards to SEO. And compounding the issue that it is potentially important is that […]
Google Warns About Followed Links in Widgets Again
Google has posted a reminder for site owners to not use widgets that have a followed link within it. Despite it being clearly against Google’s webmaster guidelines, many site owners still gain links via widgets. And regardless of the motivation, links – in widgets or just as a regular link – cannot be placed in […]
Check If Page Quality is Preventing Rich Snippets from Showing in Search Results
When a site owner implements structured data for rich snippet features in the search results, and then those rich snippets do not show up in the search results, the next step is to figure out why that is. First, when a site owner implements structured data, they should run it through the Structured Data Testing […]
Ad and Analytics Blocking: It’s More Complicated Than You Think
Content blocking has been a feature of the internet for a long time. Usage, and industry chatter, reached panic levels when Apple released iOS 9 in September 2015. The question everyone is facing is simple: How does content blocking affect my business? Turns out, when you directly measure what’s happening on websites, the answer is […]
Google Testing Darker AMP Icons in Search Results
Google is testing a new darker AMP symbol in the search results. The new icon stands out significantly more when you compare it to the usual light grey symbol you normally see in the search results. Mats Tolander spotted it in action: This is quite different from the usual grey, but still not as noticeable […]
Google Local Testing 2-Packs for Local Search Results
Google seems to be testing replacing their local 3-packs with 2-packs instead, even for queries that would normally show 3 results, and with many results showing in the “more places.” The map itself is still showing 3 icons, even though there are only 2 results displayed below it. There are lots of examples where Google […]
Google Testing Another New Desktop UI
Google is testing yet another version of their mobile, this one affecting the layout most predominantly. What is notable about this test is it also drops the total number of search results from the page. We have seen this test with the card style UI Google has recently been testing (where each result appears within […]
Google Testing Click to Call on Organic Generic Local Queries
Many are used to seeing click to call feature in the mobile results for Google AdWords results. You also sometimes see it for specific brand queries or on generic queries when you start going pages deep in the results. But now Google is testing click to call for businesses on the first page of the […]
Google Testing Mobile Local Knowledge Panel on Desktop
Google is testing a new style of the local knowledge panel on desktop, which is actually the mobile version of the knowledge panel. Here is how it appears, the primary difference in the photos at the top being displayed carousel style rather than the desktop style: With the mobile style, it is also missing the […]