In yesterday’s Google Webmaster Central office hours, the question came up about how some sites seem to get back into Google’s search index faster than other sites, in light of Thumbtack’s link penalty and subsequent removal of the penalty a week later. John Mueller actually went quite in depth into it, talking both about why […]
Google Reminds Webmasters of Meta NoIndex Issues
Gary Illyes from Google is reminding webmasters to be careful of how they use meta “noindex” tag. Illyes mentions that most search engines will honor a <meta name=”robots” content=”noindex”> even if it is placed in a body element. Please be mindful with noindex directives and remember that most search engines will honour it, even if […]
Google Trends Now Updated in Real Time
In a marketers dream come true, Google Trends has been updated to put greater emphasis on real time search trends. This means marketers can track trends – and jump on them – much faster than before. The change means access to more than 100 billion monthly searches that can be explored in real-time. You can […]
DuckDuckGo Traffic Has Increased 600% in Last Two Years
DuckDuckGo has seen a 600% rise in search traffic over the past two years, the search engine has reported. DuckDuckGo grew in popularity after Edward Snowden’s leaked information made many people more concerned with how their information was being tracked online. DuckDuckGo bills itself as a search engine that doesn’t track users as they search […]
John Mueller Says Today’s Algo Google Changes Not Panda, But Panda Coming
In today’s webmaster hangout, John Mueller just said that he doesn’t know anything specific about the changes people are seeing today, but he says that it is not Panda. He later says he doesn’t have anything specific to share with us about today’s changes. Mozcast is recording a record high today, just shy of 102 […]
Website Owners Could Be Responsible for Other’s Comments in Europe
A new ruling in the European Court of Human Rights could have dire consequences for website owners. They found that website owners are responsible for comments made by others on their sites, even if they are removed from the site in question. Techdirt has a detailed account of the ruling. The ruling itself can be […]
AdWords Upgraded URLs Deadline is July 1st
Google AdWords is reminding advertisers that the deadline for upgrading URLs is July 1st. Starting on July 1st, all advertisers will need to start using Upgraded URLs in place of destination URLs. If you’ve already updated your URLs to Upgraded URLs, then you’re all set and no further action is required. If you haven’t upgraded […]
Google Adds Rich Lists for Calories in Restaurant Chain Menus
Google has added a new rich list to the Google search results when searching for “<restaurant name> calories.” The rich list appears above the search results and lists popular menu items at the restaurant with calorie contents for each item. Some rich lists for restaurants also feature a drop down menu that can be used […]
Google Bolding Entire Snippet in Search Results
If you are looking for a way to make your organic search result to stand out from the others, this entirely bolded snippet/description in the Google search results should do it. It is common to do a Google Search and see specific keywords bolded by Google to make it easier for searchers to see the […]
Google Adds Knowledge Card Quotes for Famous People, Including Authors and Celebrities
Google is adding knowledge cards containing quotes to their search results when someone searches for a famous person’s name plus the keyword “quotes.” They seem to come up for a wide variety of names, including historical and political figures as well as authors. Here is an example for J.R.R. Tolkien, which pulls heavily from quotes […]