Back in February 2016, I wrote about Google’s new project, called Accelerated Mobile Pages, and how you can install a WordPress Plugin called the Google AMP plugin. The whole idea is to provide a new web format so that mobile users can view content that loads really quickly, even with a slow internet (mobile) connection. Initially targeted towards news publishers like Practical Ecommerce, we’re seeing a lot more public adoption of this new web standard. Google AMP is not just for news publishers anymore. [Read more…]
Google Launches Allo App – Tough to Find in The App Store
Google just launched a new smart messaging app called Allo. This app is certainly interesting–but do we really need yet another messaging app? After all, Apple just introduced a whole lot of new features of their built-in iOS messaging (imessage) when they launched iOS 10 just last week. [Read more…]
Google Launches Google Analytics Demo Account, Includes Referral Spam
I applaud Google for launching a Google Analytics demo account, which anyone (with a Google Account) can access. Now we can use a real, live, Google Analytics account to play around with and look at the data. Quite often, it’s difficult to learn all of the Google Analytics features because some websites (in your Google Analytics account) may not have that feature. So this is all good. But there’s only one problem: even Google’s own demo account includes referral spam. [Read more…]
Google’s Request for Rehearing Denied in Case Vs. Mississippi
In a long dispute between Google and the State of Mississippi’s Attorney General Jim Hood, Google’s most recent request for a rehearing has been denied. The Times Standard reported back in April that the appeals court had overturned a ruling against the Stage of Mississippi. Google has appealed that ruling, which has now been denied. [Read more…]
Google Search Console Search Analytics: Last Updated May 3, 2016
Google Search Console’s Search Analytics feature, the feature that allows you to see the keywords, impressions, clicks, and average position of your website’s pages, has not been updated since May 3, 2016. Usually, Google allows verified website owners to see their search query data up to the past two days (the data is delayed two days). However, this week, the Google Search Console Search Analytics data has not been updated since May 3, 2016. [Read more…]
Google Showing Multiple Domains in SERPS for Site: Command
Google is showing multiple domain names in its search results when the site: command is used if domains pointing to the main domain include the canonical tag. Let me explain by giving you an example. [Read more…]
Google Continuing to Allow Alternative Characters in Title Tags
In the Google search results, I’m still seeing some alternative characters show up at the beginning of the title tags in some results. Looks like the cases I have come across are all search engine spam results, but the fact that these characters are even being allowed is a mystery to me. Let’s look at an example: [Read more…]
New Search Engine Launched: Only Searches New gTLD Domain Names
There’s a new search engine out there that apparently has ditched the legacy .COM, .NET and .ORG TLDs (Top Level Domains) and only show New gTLDs in its search results. Using Google’s Custom Search Engine, Newgle has done what no other search engine has ever done before: only show search results from websites on New gTLD domain names. Newgle is a new search engine using Google Custom Search that takes the legacy TLDs out of the search results. [Read more…]
Google Wants Us to Share Links to Their Search Results Pages
Google has added a share button to knowledge graph entries to encourage us to search more at Google. Whenever you search using a desktop (not mobile) device, and you see a knowledge graph entry on the right side of the search results, Google is displaying a share button, like this: [Read more…]
All Ranking Factors of Google Search Algorithm Not Applied to All Search Queries
Google’s organic search engine algorithm is made up of a lot of different search engine ranking factors. When it comes to certain search queries, not all of those search engine ranking factors are applied. In other words, Google may apply certain parts of their algorithm to certain keyword queries and might disregard other parts for other keywords. In a recent post at the SEM Post, one Google employee indirectly verified that this is the case. [Read more…]
Google Change of Address Tool Still Broken After 3 Months
A while back I wrote about my utter frustration with Google and their Change of Address Tool. I wrote about how their Change of Address Tool is broken. Well, honestly, I’m still frustrated. After 3 months, it’s still broken. [Read more…]
Dallas SEO: Google Gets It All Wrong on Google Maps
I don’t recall anytime recently when Google showed such a horrible, misguided, completely wrong search result lately. I am stunned that Google would even possibly show a result such as this. Or, perhaps this is a sign of yet another change to Google’s search engine algorithm? [Read more…]
Mobilegeddon II is Coming: Are you Prepared?
Uh oh, Google just announced that a new mobile-friendly update is coming in May 2016. And, as such, I’m going to personally be the first one to call this Mobilegeddon II. Not because of the fact that the first mobile friendly update back in April 2015 was catastrophic–just because this is the second mobile friendly update for Google that they’ve announced ahead of time, and, well, the first one was called Mobilegeddon. [Read more…]
Using Google AdSense Hurts Mobile User Experience, Violates Google’s Own Guidelines
Adding Google AdSense to your website hurts the mobile user experience on your website and violates Google’s own suggested guidelines.
I have been working on my own site, this site, to optimize it for page load speed. Using Google’s own Pagespeed Insights tool, I found that there is one particular section of the results, under User Experience, that gave me a score of 99 out of 100. That problem is Google AdSense. [Read more…]
Google Accelerated Mobile Pages AMP Data in Google Search Console
About a day after I made my website Google AMP compatible, I am now seeing data in Google Search Console for Accelerated Mobile Pages. Turns out that the official WordPress Plugin, for some reason, is generating errors, though. Let’s take a look at the errors that are generated, and see if there is a way to fix them. [Read more…]
How to Make Your WordPress Site Google AMP Compatible
We just got word that Google’s AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) project is live. That means that if your website can serve up Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) versions of your content then you will probably see more traffic from mobile. Google will be encouraged to show your site more often in the mobile search results. So, how do you make your WordPress site compatible? Well, luckily there’s a WordPress Plugin for that! Here’s how to make your WordPress Site Google AMP compatible. [Read more…]
Suggesting Changes on Google Maps Won’t Get It Manually Reviewed
Well, this is disappointing. Either that, or the person reviewing the suggested changes I had to a spammy listing on Google Maps isn’t doing their job. I recently made a suggestion to what I consider a VERY spammy listing in Google Maps, which appears to violate a several of their guidelines. And even though I submitted a recommendation or edit, it was apparently reviewed. However, it got even worse, and still violates Google’s guidelines for keyword stuffed Google Maps listings. [Read more…]
Google Updates to Knowledge Graph Entries
Last week, I wrote about Google allowing those who have knowledge graph entries about themselves or official representatives of a knowledge graph entry to request an update. As you may recall, if you’re logged into Google you’ll typically see something like this: [Read more…]
Google Change of Address Tool is Only for Moving Domains
I have run across some confusion recently about the Google Change of Address Tool, which I wrote about recently. While the Change of Address tool is still broken in my opinion, it’s important to note that the tool is only really meant for moving from one domain name to another. [Read more…]
Did Google Remove the Link Search Operator?
It looks to me like Google has, just recently, remove the link: search operator on Google. If you search for any website’s links using Google, there aren’t any search results. So, for example, a search for link:google.com shows no results: [Read more…]