If you advertise with Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords), does it impact your website’s search engine rankings in Google’s organic search engine results? This question has been one that so many have debated over and over again for years. In fact, I even recall it being discussed back in the early days of Google. Some still, to this day, swear that you’ll get better rankings if you advertise with Google Ads. Let’s put this myth to rest once and for all: advertising with Google (giving them money) essentially has no impact on a website’s organic (natural) search engine rankings. [Continue reading]
Google My Business Short Names are 302 Redirects to Google Search Results
Google My Business recently rolled out a new feature called Google My Business short names. Each verified Google My Business listing can add a short name, which is essentially a URL link to their Google My Business listing, along with a link to the listing’s reviews. A sample Google My Business is one that I set up recently, which is g.page/hartzer-consulting/, which redirects visitors directly to my company’s Google My Business listing. This is certainly a welcome new feature, as it makes it easier for businesses to promote their Google My Business listings both online and offline. It’s easier to ask for reviews, as well, as g.page/hartzer-consulting/reviews/ redirect directly to reviews for the business. I analyzed these new URLs and redirects, though, and I see a few problems and potential issues. [Continue reading]
Google Ads Nightmare: Google Spends $225,000 Despite a $500 Per Day Budget
Pamela Lund on Twitter described this scenario perfectly: "this is a nightmare come true. I cannot imagine waking up to find that in an account. That kind of spend in 1 day with only fake conversions could easily put a client out of business and into … [Continue reading]
Google Calendar Is Down
Google Calendar is down. As in inaccessible using a web browser. This is actually the first time I've personally seen Google Calendar down, at least since I've been relying on it more and more--over the past few years. … [Continue reading]
Google AMP Won’t Allow Users to Click Thru to Site
Update: June 12, 2019 - On June 11, 2019, I reported that AMP was having an issue where users could not click thru to the website where the content originated, as described below. This actually turned out to be a "bug", and it was not intentional by … [Continue reading]
Network Solutions Won’t Let Go Of A Domain
Despite the fact that I transferred a domain name from Network Solutions to another registrar (GoDaddy), Network Solutions still wants me to renew the domain name and has it in my account. I literally transferred the domain name and moved it because … [Continue reading]
Google Cloud Went Down Because It Was Misconfigured
A recent major outage of Google Cloud was caused because of a misconfiguration, not only because of network congestion, like Google initially reported. The outage was described by Google as "network congestion issue in eastern USA, affecting Google … [Continue reading]
What Google Knows About You
Do you often wonder what Google knows about you? I mean, how much are they tracking, do they know whether or not you visit certain websites, when you visited them, how long you visited them? If you add in Android and you have a smart phone that uses … [Continue reading]
Tech: SunBrite Veranda Series Outdoor 4K UHD TVs with HDR
This is a sponsored post from the Sunbrite Veranda Series TVs at Best Buy. Yesterday was the unofficial start of Summer, Memorial Day. It's already hot here in Texas. In Texas, though it tends to be summer 365 days a year. That means plenty of … [Continue reading]
Google Organic Search Listings Can Now Look Like Ads
Google's organic search engine listings can looks like Ads, but they are not actually Google Ads. Instead, the site owner has updated the favicon on their website to display an Ad logo. That Ad logo image similar to the black and white Ad symbol … [Continue reading]
Google Tracks Your Purchases
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 … [Continue reading]
Page Blocked by Robots.txt Still Ranks for Competitive Keyword
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, … [Continue reading]
Google News Audit Shows Google Favors 3 Left-Leaning News Sources
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]
4 Questions to Ask Your Web Host Provider
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]
Example of a Google Ads Exploit
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 Social Media Links Cause a Manual Action Google Penalty?
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]
Measuring Your Speed Offline With The Uniden R7 Radar Detector
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]
Sometimes Google Search is Wrong. Really Wrong
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]
Firefox Blocks Google Analytics and Other Trackers in Standard Mode in Private Windows
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 and i-Dressup.com Settle with FTC
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]