Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
News from Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Yes, Anchor Text Is A Google Ranking Factor
I am a bit surprised I am writing this but yes, anchor text is a signal Google uses for ranking purposes. Yes, Google can ignore spammy links that try to manipulate rankings but normal anchor text does help Google rank a page for what the anchor text says about the page. Hence giving Google more context about the page. It is why Google can rank […]
Google: Why It May Appear Your JavaScript Page Is Not Fully Rendered Before Indexed
Mark Williams-Cook posted the results of an SEO Twitter poll that said most believe Google does not fully render a JavaScript page/document prior to ranking. In fact, the results showed that almost 70% of SEOs felt those pages were not always rendered prior to Google indexing them. In Ep6 of “Search Off the Record” @g33konaut says “in almost 100% of cases your website gets crawled>rendered>indexed” […]
Vlog #96: Elie Orgel On Writing Unique Robust Content That Ranks Well In Google (Part Two)
In part two of my interview with Elie Orgel (you can see part one here) we talked about how to get content and data that Google has not indexed yet. A lot of governmental web sites and portals do provide data exports and weird charting solutions that Google has not indexed. You just take that data and mash it up in a useful way. Then […]
Google’s Martin Splitt Gets A Trim
Martin Splitt of Google, who is known for his somewhat wild hair styles, has decided to go with a new hairdo. The new hairstyle is, um, ordinary. No more color, not long, just very corporate. Martin said the reason for the change is because this hair cut is “much more practical for diving.” I made this GIF of a before and after look based on […]
Some Google AdSense Publishers Receive Multiple Payments/Deposits
There are reports of some Google AdSense publishers receiving more than one deposit or payment from Google this month. In fact, I received a few myself, and I am not exactly sure why. The payments report shows weird cancelled earnings and rebilled earnings, with backup withholdings and so forth. There are several threads about this, here are two at the Google AdSense Help Forums where […]
Google: We Can Still Rank A Page After Matching Content Is Removed
Let’s say your company name is Google and then after 17 years (and 28 days) you decide to change your name to Alphabet – just a theoretical name change. So you remove Google from all your home page and change it to Alphabet. Did you know that the home page can still rank for the word [Google] even if you removed that from your page? […]
Google Maps Tests Address Numbers On The Map
Google seems to be testing displaying address numbers in the Google Maps user interface. I personally cannot replicate this but Joy Hawkins was able to see it and shared a screen shot. Here is the screen shot she shared on Twitter (click to enlarge): Joy wrote “Google Maps is now showing address numbers directly on the map. This is a super helpful feature!” Indeed, this […]
Google Local Suggest An Edit Placement Moved On Mobile
Google has moved the feature to “suggest an edit” from in the main mobile list view of a local listing to in the three vertical dots bar. So it is a bit harder to find now but it now takes up less space in the local panel. This was spotted by Amy Toman and posted on Twitter. I think it is new, and the desktop […]
Click Bots Won’t Improve Your Google Rankings
A post on Reddit asks what is stopping someone from building a bot to click on your Google search result listings, going to your site, spending some time there and sending Google positive click data. The truth is, no one is stopping you from doing this but it won’t help your Google rankings if you ask Google. I mean, seriously, if it was that easy […]
Search Buzz Video Recap: Google Ranking Fluctuations, Featured Snippets With Augmented Links, Google-Generated Web Stories Deindexed & New Crawl Stats
Although this is the Thanksgiving holiday week, it was not slow at all in terms of search news and changes. First, we had an unconfirmed Google search ranking update earlier this week, which is unnerving. Google was caught testing augmenting featured snippets with links to third-party sites that the site itself did not add. Google also ranked, by accident, its own Google-generated web stories and […]