Webcology

Google’s local pack, the local results that show up in the main search results page, now may show different business categories next to a business’s name based on the category the user queried. Google has removed the ability for users to book rides with Uber directly through the Google Maps app. This is a feature that has been around since 2017, and was removed without any announcement other than...

No Follow Links for SEO Ranking; Stars, ratings, and surveys are not ranking factors; Local SEO agencies new agency dashboard Plus, Matt Cutts gets a lifetime achievement award at the SMX US Search Engine Award ceremony in Seattle at SMX Advanced. Googleoffers clarification on some points mobile. Google doesn’t index images found within DIV tags. Anti-Social Media – the Three ways Facebook spies o...

Previewing the 2018 Rocks Digital Marketing Conference with featured speakers Roger Montti, Lissa Duty, Michelle Stinson Ross, and Bill Hartzer. Business owners, brand mangers and digital marketers from agencies and enterprise corporations around the United States will converge on Dallas, Texas for this national digital marketing conference later this June. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle...

A comparison of mobile speed metrics of the Internet from 2017 to 2018 reveals that websites are less mobile friendly today than they were a year ago. This is bad for the Internet. But it can be good news for you. Russian search engine Yandex has introduced a smart speaker, marking the company’s first foray into the world of hardware. The company’s smart speaker, called Yandex Station, is designed...

Google has a bias towards scientific truth; Google sues SEO company BeyondMenu, Point Break Media, and Supreme. Plus, The Ultimate Guide  to WordPress and GDPR Compliance – Everything You Need to Know. Plus, Google’s New Algorithm Creates Original Articles From Your Content. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Kim Krause Berg, the owner of Cre8asite Forums and founder of Cre8pc, talks ot5 Jim Hedger and guest host Kristine Schachinger about how the revered  Cre8asite Forums are being close down after 20 successful years.  She had recently announced: "There is no easy way to say this, so I'll make it simple. On May 25, 2018 these forums will close down. I'll make an announcement in public nex...

Gannett on Thursday announced an agreement to acquire search marketing and advertising company WordStream for $130 million in cash and up to an aggregate of $20 million earnout during the next 24 months based on achieving certain revenue targets. Google will be deactivating AdWords accounts with no recent ad spend starting in mid-May. Previously, the company stated it would begin deactivating acco...

For the first time, Google is letting agencies register accounts on Google My Business. Agencies registered with GMB will also get access to an all-new dashboard designed to meet the needs of agency partners. One of the key benefits of the new agency dashboard is the ability to manage an unlimited number of locations. Non-agency accounts are limited to 100 locations. User groups can be created tha...

Today on Webcology we talk about how Google parent Alphabet Inc. has announced financial results for the first quarter of 2018.  The company reported $31.1 billion in quarterly revenue, which was down sequentially but up year over year. Revenues beat Wall Street consensus estimates by about $870 million, and earnings also beat analyst expectations. Bill Slawski published an article noting that Goo...

Net Neutrality remains alive and legislated in California; Google and Anchor Text; The last available IPv4 address block has gone;  Google Generally Prefers One Stronger Page Versus Many Smaller Pages; Google loses ‘right to be forgotten’ case in UK High Court.  Decision likely to spark other appeals to courts by those denied de-listing. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy...

Facebook said Wednesday that as many as 87 million people might have had their data accessed — an increase from the 50 million disclosed in published reports. Apple Hires Google’s A.I. Chief as Ben Gomes To Take Over Search At Google, John Giannandrea Steps Down. John Giannandrea who replaced Amit Singhal as head of Google Search is going to Apple. Plus, how structured Data helps a site rank, SEO...

Jim Hedger and guest host Kristine Schachinger welcome Alicia Wanless-Berk – Digital Propaganda Expert @ La Generalista. La Generalista is an online publication that investigates influence and propaganda in a digital age.  Plus, with Google pushing into retail and Amazon into advertising, where should you invest your ad budget, and No Reset button for penalized sites Advertising Inquiries: https:/...

Google will start deactivating AdWords accounts next week if they have not spent any money in the past 15 months. This will occur automatically in an attempt to “speed up” the AdWords experience. An email notification will be sent to individual AdWords users when their account has been deactivated. Mike Blumenthal reports that Google is now slowly rolling out the new Google My Business dashboard t...

According to a report from Reuters, the European Commission has proposed new rules that will require search engines, commerce sites and online platforms to explain how they rank results and to reveal why companies are penalized or removed from listings or results. Google is showing answers in the search results without showing any organic listings or ads or anything but the answer. Yehoshua Coren...

Joost de Valk opens a Diversity Fund. It aims to cover the cost of travel and accommodation for speakers that increase the diversity of speakers at a given conference. Plus, Site  or page update frequency is not a ranking signal   Occlus Wrecked? Google: Titles Descriptions Are Easy Wins For SEO; Bing has confirmed support for JSON-LD formatted Schema.org markup; Google Image Search Product Schema...

Backlinko has done an extensive analysis of “voice search ranking factors” and identified 11 variables tied to appearing in Google Home results. The company examined 10,000 results delivered over the smart speaker. What Backlinko found was consistent with what many others have been saying but there were also a few surprises. For example, the study discounts the impact of Schema to some degree and...

RIP Jill Sampey; Google: Content Order, Position Placement Matters. Where you place your content on your page can impact your rankings.  Daron Babin got a couple cats. WebmasterRadio. FM just wanted to be sure everyone knows that. We’re one of the 12 best! We’re one of the 12 best! Vote early, vote often. Vote like a Ruskiebot with a stolen VPN. China cracks down on funeral strippers hired to ente...

John Mueller from Google said on Twitter that if you are building a new site, then you should most likely go HTTPS from the start. I don't think anyone would argue with that. Switching from HTTP to HTTPS can have its challenges but starting your site off on HTTPS from the onset makes a lot of sense. The folks at RankRanger posted on Twitter that over 70% of the page one Google search results l...

Today on Webcology Google is sending out new Google Search Console notifications to some webmasters asking them to "provide a manifest and high resolution favicon for" their web sites. I guess Google wants higher resolution favicons to show up in the Chrome browser. Google announced they have a new AdWords policy around ticket resellers. Specifically they now "require all event ticket...

Search ad click growth fell, ad spend rose 23% across Google, Bing, Yahoo as Bing and Yahoo saw search ad spend jump 32 percent over prior year in Q4 among Merkle's client base. Google spend growth slowed slightly from Q3. David Szetela, host of PPC Rockstars weighs in.  Plus, There’s a difference between indexing and ranking, Google gets all Amped UP over words, and Ranking in Google by align...

Today on Webcology our hosts bring you all the latest in SEO and Google David Harry. Harry is a senior SEO consultant with Verve Developments and the founder of the SEO Training Dojo. HuffPost has decided to shut down their entire contributor's platform, which was launched in May 2005. The platform was home to about 100,000 contributors, who covered everything from finance to relationships. In...

Facebook moves to ‘fix’ the News Feed by de-emphasizing commercial content. The company said it's trying to prevent posts from 'businesses, brands and media' from crowding out 'the personal moments that lead us to connect more with each other. Now, with Facebook changing its news feed to emphasize posts from friends and family, rather than those from media and brands, publishers fa...

The new Google Search Console is rolling out over the next few weeks to all webmasters and you will be able to access the new Google Search Console and the old one via links in the navigation. So you can play with both side by side, as Google keeps adding more and more features in the new version. Google's John Mueller said in a video hangout that the URLs Google finds in your XML sitemap file...

Today on Webcology we ring in the new year with a whole new set of great breakthroughs. First the surprising thing Google learned about its employees, and what it means for today’s students. It turns out that is a gross simplification of what students need to know and be able to do, and some proof for that comes from a surprising source, Google. Also Google confirms mid-December search ranking alg...

Jim Hedger and Dave Davies are joined Jennifer Van Iderstyne, Gretchen Shelby-Dormer Jeremy Knauff and Patrick Stox for a SEO 2017 End of Year Roundtable. Google algorithm changes and search results, AI and voice search, mobile and machine learning and more.  Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy