Google Study: PPC Ads Drive 50% More Clicks In 2012, Google published a study. The Impact of Organic Search Results Rankings on Search Ad IncrementWe investigated whether clicks from organic search results could substitute for ad clicks when PPC advertising was turned off. Google found that on average: 81% of ad impressions and 66% of […]
More Sites Move to Google Mobile First Indexing In 2018, Google announced that it enabled mobile-first indexing for more websites. This is the first time Google has confirmed that many sites are moving to this mobile-first indexing process. Google reported in October 2017 that a limited number of sites had been moved. Websites migrated in […]
Patented Google Panda 2014, patent (Ranking of search resultsWritten by Navneet Panda and Vladimir Ofitserov at Google, which may describe updates to or parts of the Google Panda algorithm, has been accepted. However, the fact that Google obtained this patent does not necessarily mean that it was in use by Google at the time, or […]
Google’s Top 3 Search Ranking Factors In 2016, Google’s Andrey Lipattsev revealed that links, content and RankBrain were the top three ranking signals for Google’s search algorithm. RankBrain was the third most important ranking factor. Google said so in his 2015. the other two? Lipattsev clarified them in a Q&A, stating: Content. And it’s a […]
View event rich result errors where not found Google Search Console 2022: Google Search Console’s rich results report now shows an additional warning about structured data markup in events if the event has no location. Merchant Center can now be linked to Google Analytics 4 2022: Additionally, you can now “connect your Merchant Center and […]
Google launches new ‘Rankings’ section Google Search Status Dashboard Launched last December. The new rankings section contains current and historical Google algorithm updates. This allows you to see what has changed in Google Search related to ranking, not just crawling, indexing or serving. new dashboard. Here’s what the new dashboard looks like: Google added a […]
I didn’t find rel=next/prev on Google. it is an error. In 2019, I learned that Google stopped supporting the rel=next/prev markup introduced in 2011. Worse, according to Google’s John Mueller, Google hasn’t used it for indexing in “years.” All the while, Google continued to encourage the use of markup, so SEOs, publishers, and developers invested […]
New emergency help attribute on Google Business Profile for Ukraine Support 2022: Google also added a hotel attribute to define whether the hotel provides assistance to refugees from Ukraine. Brands, especially restaurants, urgently need FAQs and “corona pages” 2020: It was important that the precautions being taken were found in the search results. Video: Martha […]
Google blocked 3.1 billion ads in turbulent 2020, says annual ad safety report 2021: The report lists misinformation about COVID-19 and the political climate, and ad fraud as the top concerns. Schema.org adds coronavirus-related structured data types in version 7.0 2020: “SpecialAnnouncement” and “eventAttendanceMode” help businesses provide event updates in search results. Yahoo and other […]
Google Universal Analytics: the beginning of the end In 2022, Google announced plans to retire Universal Analytics on July 1, 2023 (106 days from today). Data previously processed by Universal Analytics will be retained for at least 6 months from the date of retirement. Why did Google switch to Google Analytics 4? Because it doesn’t […]
Google rolls out Search Ads 360 integration for Google Analytics 4 2022: Integrate active advertisers to view sessions, users, and conversions within the context of dimensions such as source, campaign, medium, and default channel grouping. Google has narrowed this search and expanded this search to now appear in search results 2022: These features were previewed […]
Google releases video of search quality conference In 2012, Google shared a video from one of its search quality conferences. Google annotated the video to make the conversation easier for the general public to understand, elaborated on the specific features being discussed, and changed how spelling corrections were handled. “I was lucky enough to be […]
Google officially acquires DoubleClick In 2008, the European Commission approved Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick. The commission determined that “this transaction is unlikely to adversely affect consumers in terms of ad serving or intermediation in the online advertising marketplace.” The deal was first announced on April 13, 2007. The EU launched an investigation in November 2007. […]
Google and Bing “Exception List” In 2011, Google and Bing revealed at SMX West that they had an “exception list” of websites that could be hit by some algorithmic signal. Neither search engine suggests that these listings were used to boost sites in search results or exclude them from algorithm-wide changes. However, some sites may […]
Goodbye Google Toolbar PageRank In 2016, Google confirmed to remove Toolbar PageRank. Google will continue to use PageRank data internally within our ranking algorithms. Only his PageRank value externally displayed in the toolbar will soon be completely gone. The end of Toolbar PageRank was inevitable at this point. Google hasn’t updated his PageRank score since […]
Google adds landing page load time to Quality Score In 2008, Google AdWords looked at a new addition to Quality Score: landing page load time. Google says it did this for two reasons: First, your users will have the best experience if they don’t have to wait a long time for your landing page to […]
Google Webmaster Tools Adds User Management In 2012, Google Webmaster Tools added a long-awaited feature: user management. Site owners can finally grant users access to their Google Webmaster Tools accounts without sharing their usernames and passwords or going through the verification process. Site owners can grant three types of access: Owner, Full, or Limited. See […]
Matt Cutts confirms Vince, calls it a ‘minor change’ In 2009 Matt Cutts of Google said video Since late February, we’ll be answering a lot of questions about the recent “brand push” in search results that SEOs and webmasters have noticed. Cutts confirmed it was a “minor change,” adding that Google’s ranking algorithms may consider […]
Sheryl Sandberg becomes Facebook’s chief operating officer In 2008, Facebook announced Sheryl Sandberg as its new Chief Operating Officer. At that time, Sandberg was Google’s vice president of global online sales and operations, responsible for online sales of advertising and publishing products. Sandberg said he joined Google in 2001. Sandberg joined Facebook on March 24, […]
Google panda’s name revealed In 2011, Google’s Amit Singhal and Matt Cutts revealed that Google Panda is the real name of the update that was unofficially called Farmer when it was released on February 24th. “Well, we named it internally after our engineer. His name is Panda. So internally we called him Big Panda,” Singhal […]
Happy birthday, Yahoo! (or is it?) In 1995, Yahoo! was incorporated. I wanted to celebrate Yahoo’s 28th birthday with this day in search history on March 1st. Especially after seeing the 2010 article Happy Birthday, Yahoo: 15 Years Old Today. But why was Search Engine Land’s March 1st headline the only one that said it […]
Google expands mobile friendliness as a ranking signal In 2015, Google announced it would expand its use of mobile-friendly as a ranking signal starting April 21st. Google says the algorithm change will have a “significant impact” on mobile search results and affect all languages worldwide. But by April, the general consensus was that Mobilegeddon wouldn’t […]
SEO upset after Google removed attribution from featured snippets In 2019, SEOs were frustrated with Google’s featured snippet format that didn’t immediately show the source of the content. in order to found on the web Cards required searchers to click to expand featured snippets and scroll through different sources to see the publisher. Danny Sullivan, […]
Google Search Console will send you an alert when clicks drop significantly In 2019, Google Search Console began sending notifications when it detected a “significant decrease” in clicks to your website from Google search results compared to the previous week’s data. it read: “Search Console has analyzed your performance report and found that your site […]
Google Drops Support for Meta News Keyword Tags In 2018, I learned that Google quietly ended support for news meta keyword tags. Google didn’t announce this change, but it was actually done a few months ago. John Mueller, Google Webmaster Trends Analyst, Confirmed This is on Twitter: “It looks like they stopped supporting this around […]
Google removes ads from right side of search results In 2016, Google removed ads in all global languages from the right side of desktop search results (two exceptions: product listing ad boxes and knowledge panel ads). Google ads only appear at the top or bottom of the page. Additional ads (i.e. 4 instead of 3) […]
Yahoo will stop using Google Search In 2004, Yahoo stopped using Google’s web search results and rolled out its own new indexing and ranking system. Yahoo had it, I bought ink In December 2002, Yahoo chose to build its own web search engine. Yahoo still relied on his Google for image search, and news search […]
Microsoft Introduces Bing Network In 2016, Microsoft announced the launch of the Bing Network, marking the demise of the Yahoo Bing Network. Bing Ads continued to serve ads on a significant percentage of Yahoo’s search results. The Bing Network is the result of a renegotiated search deal between Microsoft and Yahoo, originally for 10 years. […]
Google Releases “How to Hire SEO” Video In 2017, Google added a new 11 minute video to its site on how to hire an SEO. Need SEO? Help documentation page. Google’s Maile Ohye outlines the SEO hiring process in three steps. Conduct a two-way interview with a potential SEO person. Make sure they seem genuinely […]
Google Webmaster Tools beta has ended In 2007, Google Webmaster Tools officially exited beta. Its extension, which started as Google Sitemaps in June 2005, change name August 4, 2006. Google also revealed that Webmaster Central now has over 1 million users. For more information, see Google Webmaster Central Leaves Beta. The blog gets comments. Finally, […]
Deploying Google AMP Stories In 2018, Google launched a new visually rich mobile content format designed to increase user engagement. Contrary to previous guidance, Google never intended to match this type of AMP content with non-mobile content. Instead, this mobile-only content was supposed to be unique. Specifically, Google says that AMP Stories content should be […]
Google penalizes JCPenney for linking scheme In 2011, JCPenney was found to be involved in a linking scheme and was penalized by Google as a result. The New York Times seemed baffled that jcpenney.com ranked organically for nearly everything the retailer sold. So, I asked someone who is familiar with SEO to check it out. […]
Yahoo formally rejects Microsoft Rumors came true in 2008 when Yahoo rejected Microsoft’s $45 billion offer to buy Yahoo. The company concluded that the proposal grossly undervalued Yahoo and was not in the best interests of Yahoo and its shareholders. Microsoft basically rejected Yahoo’s refusal, calling it “disappointing” and promising to “pursue all necessary steps” […]
Start Google Buzz In 2010, Google announced its latest attempt to create a social network and compete with Facebook and Twitter. And they called it Google Buzz. Buzz was tied to two main things: Gmail and mobile. But do users want social networking to invade their inboxes? As I pointed out at the time, there […]
Moz Upgrades Domain Authority Metric In 2019, SEO tool Moz announced an update to how it measures Domain Authority (DA). Essentially, DA is a score from 0 to 100 that “predicts the likelihood of a website ranking on search engine result pages.” Want to know what changed? For more information, see Moz upgrades controversial ‘Domain […]
Microsoft’s Yahoo takeover bid, day 4 In 2008, following the news of Microsoft’s acquisition of Yahoo, there were some big developments. Google wasn’t happy with this news. The company objected, suggesting that the move undermines the Internet’s underlying principles of “openness and innovation.” There was an ironic back and forth over the past year, as […]
The all-new Google Partners program finally launches In 2022, changes to the partner program requirements first announced in 2020 are finally taking effect. These changes were scheduled to take place in June 2020, but were first postponed until 2021 and then postponed a second time due to the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic and […]
Google accuses Bing of copying search results In 2011, the headline first appeared in Search Engine Land that Google: Bing is cheating and copying search results. As reported by Danny Sullivan, “Google ran a sting operation. Bing monitors what people search on Google, the sites they select from Google results, and uses that information to […]
Google Penalizes French Link Network In 2014, Google’s Matt Cutts tweeted: Buzzea wasn’t all that excited about being called a link network. As a result of the penalty, Buzaire officially called it quits. For more information, see Google removes another link network, France’s Buzzea. This was not the first link network pursued by Google. Buzzea […]
Google begins experimenting with featured snippets In 2014, Google began answering complex questions at the top of search results with detailed answers (or answers) pulled from websites. Sound like a featured snippet? Because it. We know from Google that Featured Snippets have been introduced. January 2014We don’t know the official date Google started testing, but […]
Release of the Google AdWords API In 2005, Google launched the Google AdWords API. Google said the API was free to use, but activity was limited by a quota system. Users with larger accounts or spending more on Google are allowed higher activity. Google explained AdWords API as follows: …a free Google AdWords beta feature […]
Google dismisses ‘miserable failure’ Google bomb In 2007, Google finally defused the “Google bomb”. This bomb returned President George W. Bush as the best organic search result since December 2003. [miserable failure]. Originally, Google had a belief that “for better or worse, we just put our opinions on the web.” But eventually, Google came up […]
Jeff Ferguson is CEO of Amplitude Digital and has been in the search space for a very long time. He is also an Adjunct Professor at UCLA. Part 1 showcased his long career in this field. He talked about how he worked for a startup that basically scrapped content on the web, and that company […]
Expedia Acquires Travelocity In 2015, Expedia acquired rival Travelocity for $280 million. The travel industry is slow to grow and comes under pressure from rebellious tour operators. Expedia actually operated Travelocity.com since 2013. So the acquisition seemed very logical from both perspectives. At the time, Expedia also owned several online travel brands. Hotels.com, Hotwire, eLong […]
Google deduplicates featured snippets In 2020, Google rolled out a global change to featured snippets that resulted in any URL only appearing once on the first page of search results, instead of twice. Google said there would be no change to its overall set of web search results. There would still be 10 unique listings, […]
Google Explains “Core” Algorithm In 2016, Google’s Andrey Lipattsev described the “core” algorithm. This comes on the heels of news that Panda will become part of Google’s core algorithms. SEO wanted to better understand what it meant to be part of Google’s core algorithms. Simply put, it means that the algorithm is consistent enough that […]
Matt Cutts sticks a fork into a guest blog In 2014, Matt Cutts, head of Google’s webspam team, posted a clear message on his personal blog. It just got too spammy. “ This isn’t the first time Google and Cutts have discussed the risks of guest blogging. look: But it was a clear, powerful and […]
Google Speed Update: New Ranking Algorithm Designed for Mobile Search In 2018, Google announced that it would be rolling out “Speed Update”, a new ranking algorithm designed for mobile search, later this year. What we call “speed updates” only affects pages with the slowest user experience, and only affects a small percentage of queries. The […]
Facebook graph search is here In 2013 Facebook announced a new experience called Graph Search. Facebook Graph Search relied heavily on likes and other connections to determine what to display as the most relevant search results for each user. At launch, Facebook Graph Search only included people, photos, places, and interests. Facebook Graph Search was […]
lip amplifier In 2022, we revealed what happened when Search Engine Land shut down AMP. TL;DR: “We’ve seen very little disruption to our traffic, and we’ve benefited from a much clearer picture of our audience analytics.” Aside from the loss of pageviews, we didn’t see any year-over-year traffic decline that could be attributed to AMP. […]