It is something that has become a bit more common over the last year… someone burns a website and gets it penalized in Google. And instead of cleaning it up, they try and wield it for negative SEO by 301 redirecting it to a competitor they feel is doing better than them in the search […]
Search Results for: algorithms
Industry Experts Respond to SEMPO’s Code of Ethics Plans
Last week, Tony Wright and Chris Boggs responded to questions about the proposed Code of Ethics that SEMPO is spearheading. Now I have put questions to several well known industry experts to get their reactions and opinions on the Code of Ethics plans. I spoke with Rhea Drysdale, CEO of Outspoken Media; Kristine Schachinger, an […]
Blocking Googlebot from CSS & JavaScript Can Hurt Google Rankings
Many webmasters block Googlebot from crawling both CSS and JavaScript for ranking purposes to try and combat things such as the page layout algorithm. But Google has been advising webmasters not block Googlebot from crawling either, and it has now officially been added to Google’s technical guidelines that blocking CSS and JavaScript so can hurt a website’s […]
Receive Lots of DMCAs? Expect to Rank Lower in Google
Google has added some new online piracy tools and features, but one in particular has the possibility to affect webmasters, particularly those who are on the receiving end of DMCAs filed with Google. In August 2012 we first announced that we would downrank sites for which we received a large number of valid DMCA notices. […]
Search Engine Marketers Have Become Tools of Their Tools
I live about 10 miles from Walden Pond, where Henry David Thoreau wrote the bulk of Walden, one of the most famous non-fiction books written by an American author. Thoreau’s book was published in 1854, but it still offers lots of key lessons for search engine marketers today. For example, Thoreau wrote in Chapter 1, […]
Google’s Structured Snippets in Search Results Will Reduce CTR
Google searchers have become accustomed to seeing knowledge graph information mixed into their Google search results. Google is now taking this a step further and introducing structured snippets to some results within the Google search results. For some queries, Google will extract specific information from the results page and include it as part of the […]
Germany Wants Google to Disclose Search Algorithm
One of the reasons Google is so successful is that their search algorithm does a pretty good job at ranking sites and keeping out the spam. However, if Google published the algorithm it would not only open the doors for competitors to copy their successful algorithm but also for spammers to reverse engineer it to […]
Google’s John Mueller With More Penguin & Algo Update Info
A couple of days ago, John Mueller commented on a post asking if a Penguin penalty would definitely require a Penguin refresh to be lifted, which he confirmed it would, so long as the issues were fixed. The post got a bit more attention than Mueller likely expected, so he came back with a much […]
The Dumbing Down of Pay Per Click
We have reached the level of maturity in the world of PPC where, for many verticals, almost all aspects of a search campaigns can now be automated – at least in theory. It’s just a matter of time until this becomes reality. And for many, the time is now. Everything from set up to keyword […]
Why You Should Care About PageRank
If you’re an experienced SEO you likely read the title thinking, “Oh no.” If you’re newer to SEO you’ll have read it and thought to yourself, “But … that goes against what I’ve read on a hundred other sites.” If either of these was your instinct you’re right, assuming you were thinking of that little […]