Yesterday we spotted a Google AdWords test running in Google India where they were placing four AdWords ads at the top of the search results. We have also confirmed that this is also being tested on a limited basis in both the US and Germany too. For those who haven’t seen it in action, here […]
Yahoo Testing Full Screen Video Ads on Search Results Page
If you thought Yahoo pushed their advertising a bit too far with at least four ads at the top of their search results, then they have just taken ad obnoxiousness in the search results to a whole new level. Yahoo is testing a full-screen size image ad in their search results, which transitions to a […]
Real Time Penguin Changes & The Role of Links in the Algo
In part of today’s Google Webmaster Hangout, an interesting question came up about why Google decided to go to a real-time Penguin, if it was to appease webmasters who were penalized with the recovery time, or if it was simply the way Penguin evolved with the ability to analyze links on the fly, which then […]
Why Google Decided to Delay Penguin Until the New Year
We learned yesterday that Google would be delaying the upcoming real time Penguin update until the new year. In today’s Google Webmaster Hangout, John Mueller had a few more details behind Google’s decision to delay the long-awaited Penguin update until the new year, and it came down to technical reasons and the holidays. We just […]
Penguin Real Time Update Delayed Until New Year
If you have been waiting for Penguin to be updated, you will have to wait a little bit longer. Google has delayed the Penguin update until the new year. Many SEOs have been wondering when Penguin would be updating, especially since there hasn’t been a Penguin update since October 2014, and it was believed that […]
Google Testing 4 Top AdWords Ads Above Search Results
Google is now testing four AdWords ads above the organic search results. I started getting reports recently about Google showing 4 ads earlier this week, and was able to trigger it. Here is an example for a search I did: Here is another example: I was only able to trigger four ads above the organic […]
Using Rel Canonical on All Pages for Duplicate Content Protection
In this week’s Google Webmaster Hangout, a question was raised about using rel canonical across an entire site, with each page using the rel canonical to point to itself, in order to prevent the possibility of duplicate content being indexed. The question asked was “Is it still okay to put rel canonical on every single […]
Google Revamping App Indexing Error Reporting, Adds to Data Anomalies Report
Google is revamping their app indexing error reporting that is shown to webmasters within Google Search Console. This showed up in a brand new section Google has added to their “Data Anomalies in Search Console” page. The new section, Crawl Errors Report, includes the reference to the new app indexing error reporting. Nov 20 (mobile […]
Apple’s Applebot Follows Googlebot’s Instructions in Robots.txt Files
John Mueller from Google pointed out an interesting fact about Apple’s Applebot – if a robots.txt file makes no mention of Applebot, but does mention Googlebot, the Applebot will follow the same instructions as for Googlebot. Apple’s Applebot is used for both Siri and Spotlight Suggestions for iOS users. What if you do not want […]
Disavowed Links Continue to Show in Google’s Search Console Link Report
If you have ever wondered about whether or not disavowed links would continue to show up in Google Search Console’s Link Report, the answer is yes. While most who deal with links all the time are aware of it, those who might only be doing link removals on a smaller scale on a single site […]