If you weren’t aware, Google tracks all of the purchases that you have made online if the purchase receipts land in your Gmail account. If you’re logged into your Google Account, then you can go to the purchases page and see everything Google knows that you have purchased. But there’s only one problem: the purchases that Google reports that you’ve made sometimes are purchases that other people have made. [Continue reading]
A website’s home page is ranking very well for a competitive keyword despite the fact that the website is blocking the search engine crawlers from indexing the site. A search for the keyword “backpack” in Google shows a website’s home page, GSCBackpack.com, ranking #2 for the keyword. However, Google isn’t allowed to crawl the website (especially the site’s home page), and Google is ranking the keyword anyway. [Continue reading]
A recent Google News audit shows that the top 3 news outlets, CNN, The New York Times, and The Washington Post, is favored by Google in their results a lot of the time. According to the audit, the top 20 percent (136 of 678 news sites) accounted for … [Continue reading]
Looking for a new web host for your website? Or you're going to move your website to another web host? Well, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), has a list of four questions to ask when hiring a web host provider. The effort here is applauded. … [Continue reading]
From time to time, people come across various exploits, holes, or problems with sites or services. Google's not immune to such occurrences, just like a lot of other sites out there. Certainly Google's had its issues in the past, and I've pointed out … [Continue reading]
Can links from a social media website, such as Reddit, cause a website to get a manual action penalty from Google? Well, according to the example links provided to a site owner recently, they can. Links from the website Reddit.com were provided as … [Continue reading]
Sponsored post and review, Posted May 1, 2019 Here in the online world, and as website owners and Search Marketers, we're always looking to go fast. I mean, we want our sites and our clients' sites to load really fast. The faster the better. It's … [Continue reading]
There are times when Google's search results are wrong. Really wrong. So wrong that you start to question whether or not you should even rely on Google's search results for information. Case in point: When you ask Google how many legs a horse has, it … [Continue reading]
The latest version of the Firefox web browser blocks Google Analytics, as well as other trackers, such as Google Tag Manager, Google Ads (such as Google AdSense), and email trackers such as MailChimp. This blocking is done when a Firefox user has the … [Continue reading]
ClixSense, an online rewards website, and i-Dressup.com, a dress-up games websites, have agreed to settle with the United States Federal Trade Commission that they failed to take reasonable steps to secure consumers' data. They both allowed hackers … [Continue reading]
Back in March 2019 (just last month), Yelp announced a new initiative called Verified Licenses, which is supposed to bring peace of mind to booking a professional that's listed on Yelp.com. I did some checking of my own on a few local businesses. I … [Continue reading]
Chitika, the online advertising network that, at one time, was an alternative to Google Adsense for publishers such as myself, has shut down, effective immediately. In an email sent to publishers late last night (April 17, 2019), Chitika informed all … [Continue reading]
KPMG has moved to their own .BRAND TLD (Top Level Domain), the first of the big accounting firms to make the move. Previously they were using the domain name KPMG.com as their home page, and now if you go to KMPG.com in your web browser it will … [Continue reading]
Today I learned that Google will index a domain name that has not been registered. Ever. As in no one has ever registered the domain name, the domain name is available for registration by anyone, and someone could register it if they met the … [Continue reading]
A while back I uncovered a new type of undetectable negative SEO, which involved the canonical tag. Search Engine Journal covered it in a post here. I thought that as a result of bringing it out in the open that Google would somehow fix the problem. … [Continue reading]
A company called Web Host Agents is sending businesses an invoice for web hosting services. The problem is that the invoice is fake, and Web Host Agents doesn't currently host the company's website. It's a fake invoice, a sales tactic that's being … [Continue reading]
We knew this was coming, and we even were told via popup messages in Google Search Console. I knew the end was coming. March 28, 2019 was the date that Google's Fetch as Google tool would be removed from Google Search Console. Now I can confirm that … [Continue reading]
Sponsored post and review, Posted January 10, 2019. Updated February 19, 2019. For a while now, I have wanted to set up a security camera or system so I can monitor it from my iPhone. If I'm in my working on my laptop, working on an SEO … [Continue reading]
On Tuesday, March 19, 2019, I will be doing a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) via the SEMRush.com Subreddit. This is an opportunity to literally ask me anything. I've chosen the topics of SEO Audits and Domain Names as well as chickens and goats. But … [Continue reading]
It appears that several are mentioning that Facebook has been having issues today, March 13, 2019. Based on a few posts and comments that I've made on posts today, I'm seeing errors. I don't know if these are being posted or commented on--or if … [Continue reading]