Over a year ago, we first started noticing Google showing featured snippets with one source for the snippet itself while using a second source for the image. Earlier this year, Google began to increase the likelihood of this happening, resulting in some upset webmasters who claimed the featured snippet, only to see a competitor’s thumbnail […]
Google Ignores Paid Links from Major Publications
It has been a well known secret that some major publications, such as Forbes and Huffington Post, have authors who are using their status as a regular contributor to make money on the side by adding paid links within their articles published on those sites. And those authors make pretty good money from them, as […]
No Google Plans for a Featured Snippet Specific Meta Tag
While many SEOs are trying to earn featured snippets for their sites in the search results, there are some SEOs who don’t like their content featured in the featured snippets by Google, especially when the answer is fully displayed in the search results. Currently, there is the nosnippet meta tag, but this isn’t the right […]
Google’s Page Speed Ranking Boost Acts as Tie Breaker in Search Results
We have long known that Google has a ranking boost associated with page speed. We also know that it tends to impact sites more negatively, where the page speed algo will not rank exceptionally slow sites as well, when there are other sites with a better user experience with load times. And it is a relatively […]
Google Adds Festival Locations to Local Google Maps
Google has added a new feature to their local maps – Google will now show an area that a festival is in a map. Emily M. Yetzer shared this screenshot showing a local festival showing on Google Maps when nearby Ribfest in Chicago. It appears it shows it not when someone is searching specifically for […]
Google SEO & Using Age Verification Gates
Sites that require some kind of age verification gating system, such as you see on alcohol sites or some video game sites, can be a complicated thing when it comes to SEO. On the one hand, those sites are required by law to ask someone’s age before viewing the content on the site. But on […]
Bing Adds Expandable Featured Snippets to “See Full Answer”
Bing has added a new type of featured snippet to their search results, and site owners likely won’t be very happy with this one. Bing will display a usual sized featured snippet, but instead of requiring a clickthrough to the actual publisher’s site for more details or information, Bing is offering a new “see full […]
Google Officially Stops Using DMOZ as Snippet Source in Search Results
In a move that should come as no surprise to SEOs, Google has officially stopped using DMOZ as a source for sites and pages in their search results. DMOZ closed earlier this year, meaning Google no longer had an updated outside source – beyond the webpage itself – for pulling snippet information when the webpage […]
Google Soliciting Feedback for Local Pack Results
Google is testing a new feedback feature in their local packs, allowing searchers to give feedback about the specific results that are being shown – or not shown – in the local pack. For local SEOs, the feedback form includes the usual expected feedback options, but with an very interesting addition – an option for […]
Google Adds Local Restaurant Search Suggestion to Top of Search Results
Google has added a new alert to their search results, suggesting that people use Google search to find local restaurants, going so far as suggesting a search query to do so. And most mysteriously, it shows up for completely unrelated – and non-local – queries. Here is what it looks like: As you can see, […]