Every month we give you a Google specific update on what webmasters are talking about at WebmasterWorld, complied with the past month of changes we reported, specifically at Google. To see last month's report, see the October 2009 Google Webmaster...
A Google Webmaster Help thread has one webmaster who was trying to figure out why his site was not coming up for a search on its own name. After some review, Googler, JohnMu, said the site has recently shown a...
There is a really long thread at Google Webmaster Help on the topic of the .GB.COM TLD. Some are of the belief that Google is penalizing or banning these domains. Of course, to you and me, that sounds ridiculous. There...
A Google Webmaster Help thread has one webmaster who noticed Google indexed his site with the server port in the URL structure. So instead of Google ranking the http://www.domain.com/ it ranks the site, and every page within the site as...
One of the key topics I have heard being discussed in the speaker room last week at the SMX East conference was that the Google results were not good. It rarely came up in the sessions, except for Greg Boser...
A Google Webmaster Help thread once again confirms that Google ignores the geo-meta tags. Those tags somewhat look like this and use to serve the purpose of telling search engines where the site is based: <meta name="geo.placename" content="United States" /><meta...
The question of having valid HTML and would it help your rankings in Google or other search engines is not new. Most SEOs believed that it made no impact on your rankings, unless Googlebot has serious issues crawling your site....
There is a featured WebmasterWorld thread on the topic of how Google treats affiliate links and if there are ways to hide your affiliate links from Google. There is discussion that Google will lower your rank of a web page,...
It seems that Google has finally gone on the record that longer domain name registration has no impact on your search engine rankings, at least not at Google. A Google Webmaster Help thread has a post from Googler, JohnMu, who...
It has been a somewhat slow start to our typically monthly report based on a WebmasterWorld thread that tracks day-to-day changes with Google's web results. Overall, it seems like people are discussing two main things. (1) The Caffeine preview, Google's...
Two threads at Google Webmaster Help report that .ME ccTLDs (domain names) can now be geo targeted in Google Webmaster Tools. Typically, Google doesn't allow you to geo-target a ccTLD (country specific top level domain). Google assumes that if you...
A WebmasterWorld thread has new discussion around how important it is to have keywords in the URL. This is a very old SEO topic, but new chatter in the industry is saying how keywords in the URLs actually make more...
It is that time of the month again and we have your Google webmaster update, brought to you by a WebmasterWorld thread. The July '09 report complaints and issues linger on. Including those issues found in the small Google July...
There is some discussion in the forums about a potential Google update underway. Keep in mind, the Google results are always in a state of fluctuation, so updates have to be more about how many people are noticing a major...
One person posted a rant in the Google Webmaster Help forums about the "Top Contributors / Bionic Posters" in that forum. In short, Top Contributors / Bionic Posters are given the title by Googlers, who believe that these people are...
I have been tracking the WebmasterWorld thread on the July Google changes and a lot of people are now discussing how Google is treating location specific queries differently. By that I mean, the consensus in the thread is that there...
Title tags in the search results are very important, they drive clicks, which drives sales. It now appears that Google is pulling the title for some listings from Google Maps and not from the title tag in the page's source...
There is only so much CSS can accomplish with making headlines pretty. If you want to give your headlines a pretty font that not all computers support, then you need to go with graphics. But as an SEO, you don't...
We are a few days into July and the WebmasterWorld thread that covers Google changes from month to month has been getting a lot of traction over the past couple weeks. The overall theme is that there is a lot...
A couple weeks ago, Google made me and many SEOs very happy by adding a verified change of address feature that allows you to tell Google you are moving domains. Today, I learned from a Google Webmaster Help thread that...
An interesting WebmasterWorld thread has a theory that for some sites, Google may give that site higher ranking based on what day of the week it is. The SEO has been tracking the traffic from Google to the site for...
Gab Goldenberg from SEO ROI posted a thread at Google Webmasters Help discussion forums when he noticed Google began to drop his rankings for all his pages. I have been tracking the thread for about three weeks, but held off...
We have written about Wikipedia's dominance of the Google search results plenty of times. A new thread at WebmasterWorld asks if it is possible to beat a number one Wikipedia ranking at Google. I wanted to poll our audience to...
Like every month, we try to provide you with a Google webmaster report on what is going on with Google over the past month, in terms of the SEO perspective. You can read the April 2009 report, in case you...
A WebmasterWorld thread has a documented case of one webmaster forgetting to renew his domain name after a day or so. Then after the domain name expired, he renewed the domain and got things back up after maybe two days....
Over the past day or two, I have been hearing reports from webmasters and SEOs that Google's geo targeting technology has changed in a big way over in their international or localized search engines. I have one, possibly, two threads...
Every month we report on a monthly WebmasterWorld thread that discusses the current state of the Google web search index. This month, the WebmasterWorld thread has very little to report. If you want to see last month's report click here....
Google typically cuts down the display of the title tag in the search results to no more than 65 characters. A WebmasterWorld thread asks does that mean Google won't look beyond the 65th character to determine what that page is...
There is a big misconception out there that to make a site rank well in search engines, you need to make your site look ugly. SEO (search engine optimization) does not have to look ugly. Yes, having a lot of...
Reverse search engine optimization - unranking for keyword or keyword phrases you work well for. Why in the world would you want to rank less in the search engines? Well, people have their reasons. We actually covered this topic twice...
A WebmasterWorld thread asks how long does it take to rank well in Google? A good question, but typically, a new site might rank well in the short term and then drop off the radar until it begins ranking again....
Googlers know they have to be very careful what they say in public forums when I am watching. In a recent Google Webmasters Help thread, Googler, JohnMu replied to a thread, and I am going to beat him up for...
A WebmasterWorld thread asks an interesting question. If you have a space in the nofollow link attribute, does Google consider it the same as having no space? Let me explain. A standard syntax for the nofollow attribute looks like this:...
A WebmasterWorld thread has several different webmasters reporting seeing huge spikes in Google referrals recently and then those spikes dropping down. The first post was on February 28th, but the spikes continue to happen on random days for several webmasters....
About a week and a half ago, there was the start of discussion around Google's brand push in the algorithm. Some people started noticing that for some queries (mostly generic queries), more "big brands" were showing up in the search...
In our monthly tradition, we are reporting on the March 2009 Google Search changes as seen via the ongoing WebmasterWorld thread. You can see the February report that we posted last month to catch up. This month, one member feels...
In August 2005 was the first time I saw "According To" Google results show up in the search results. Since then, they show up for very specific queries. I spotted an interesting thread, where a webmaster asked why is his...
There is an interesting thread at WebmasterWorld that Google may be biased towards showing more and more "big brands" in the top Google web search results. Yea, yea - big brands have more links, more trust, more pages and bigger...
A common but difficult question was asked at HighRanking Forums about the issue of targeting different countries. My advice for when it comes to targeting different countries is almost always to have two different sites on TLDs (top level domains)...
It has been a while since we really discussed the "Google Sandbox." The Google Sandbox goes back to April 2004. We first spotted it when I wrote New Sites = Poor Results in Google, then it became known as the...
Here is the February 2009 webmaster report on Google's search result changes based on the WebmasterWorld thread. I will summarize what people are noticing in the Google search results, as per the thread. Google accidently labeled the internet as malwareSome...
A HighRankings Forum thread has a very interesting topic just getting started. The thread creator asks, "What Has Changed In Seo In Last 2 Years?" This is a great question. People think that SEO tactics are always changing. You need...
An interesting WebmasterWorld thread discusses the phenomenon of redesigning a site, with brand new URL structure, 301 redirecting the old URLs to the new, and seeing an almost immediate boost in rankings at Google.com. In fact, WebmasterWorld moderator, minnapple, has...
A WebmasterWorld thread asks for tips on how he can get his site indexed and crawled faster by Google. The thing is, most, if not all, of these tips apply not to just Google, but any search engine, such as...
Ever since Universal Search hit Google, we have been noticing flavors of video thumbnails and static images left aligned on the Google search results. A WebmasterWorld thread has discussion around this latest format and some are happy with it, while...
A Google Webmaster Help thread has discussion around a webmaster who noticed Google is treating his mobile site as a duplicate site to his main site. This user has his mobile site on a subdomain of m.domain.com, where his main...
An updated WebmasterWorld thread has new reports of changes at Google.co.uk and Google.com.au. Senior member internetheaven, who keeps an eye on the Google UK results said: Google.co.uk is all over the place. The results for one of the more competitive...
We recently covered a comment from Googler JohnMu on if click data is used in Google for ranking purposes. Of course, John gave the typical Google response. But now we have a comment from Matt Cutts of Google at a...
In response to an upset webmaster's post in the Google Webmaster Help forums, Googler JohnMu wrote down four things that some people suspect Google of doing, which he says he has never seen since working at Google. These include: Googlers...
I found a fun but serious SEO mistake in a Google Webmaster Help thread that I wanted to share with you all. But I felt it would be fun, if you had the time, to share at least one of...
In our continued coverage of the a WebmasterWorld thread started by senior member CainIV, we learn two more things. These two items are likely obvious to most, but have been confirmed (at least to CainIV) that they are true based...
The question over Google using click data, such as how many people click on your site from a Google result, how many people click click the back button and so on, as it relates to ranking web pages in Google...
I have seen two smallish thread, relative to a normal Google update thread, that discusses changes in the Google search results. A WebmasterWorld thread and DigitalPoint Forums thread has discussion around some changes being noticed in Google. Now, typically these...
Over the course of the past few months, I have hearing buzz from the forums and from people in the SEO industry that Google is dropping pages out of their index. How do these people know? Well, when they do...
Over the weekend, Webmasters started to notice major changes with the Google search results. Most of those changes are documented in an incredibly long but only three-day long thread at WebmasterWorld. I decided to wait on reporting on this thread...
Google's JohnMu from the Webmaster Central team has done a blog post named First Click Free for Web Search where he clarifies that the First Click Free program is allowed to be used for web search as well. In short,...
The topic of Google Still Showing Different Results Base on Case Sensitivity seems to still be an issue every now and then. Again, Google says they do not differentiate results base on case sensitivity: Google searches are NOT case sensitive....
Andy Beard started a Google Groups thread asking why Google seems to be handling tagged pages (tag cloud results) in a "fairly random fashion." Andy goes through examples of how Google sometimes indexes these pages, sometimes shows a cache page,...
The Google blog has officially said that they prefer that in most cases, you should not use rewrites to change your dynamic URLs to static looking URLs. In my opinion, this is a major 180° on basic SEO practices. SEO...
So, you have been penalized by Google. You think you cleaned up your site and you submitted a reinclusion (reconsideration) request. But you have not heard back from Google. Do you submit another reconsideration request? If so, how soon? That...
Friday, Google posted a blog post named Demystifying the "duplicate content penalty". The blog post basically describes what many of us have been saying for a long time. Google does not typically penalize for duplicate content, but duplicate content can...
Over the past couple weeks, we reported about two issues: (1) Did Google Stop Crawling Blogger Blogs on Personalized Domains? (2) Google Bloggers Having Sitemap File & Continued Crawling Issues? Google seems to have resolved both issues. The Google Groups...
The historically popular search engine ranking software, WebPosition, has reportedly been blocked by Google from checking rankings automatically. A WebmasterWorld thread reports that WebPosition is no longer able to process one's search rankings as of August 5, 2008. Old time...
There is a world of SEOs who continually search Google to track how their keyword phrases are ranking. But they do not just search the main Google.com page, they search each and every Google data center by IP address. A...
Google Webmaster Tools is now reporting "too many redirects" within Sitemaps files. A WebmasterWorld thread has reported the warnings back last week. I have finally hunted down a screen shot of such an error: The only way to see this...
About 15 days ago, I reported on the Google Yo-Yo Effect. This yo-yoing is a lot different then the typical ups and downs of Google's rankings. I know many of you are going to say, Google's results always differ. Trust...
Part two of the WebmasterWorld thread on the July 2008 Google update discussion is virtually all about how Google is yo-yoing the results. Meaning, one day a site can have top positions for a keyword phrase in Google, the next...
Recently I have been reading and hearing a lot of webmasters complain about a huge drop in their Google traffic. There are just too many threads to reference, so I thought I reference one valuable post by JohnMu of Google....
There are many SEOs spilt on the topic of the value in submitting a Sitemap to Google. In my opinion, it is clear that if a site has very poor navigation and on-page SEO, submitting a Sitemap might be your...
Chris Boggs featured a WebmasterWorld thread when I was away. Chris focused on sharing some of the theories behind Google's trust factors. I wanted to possibly highlight this thread one more time and ask for you to chime in. We...
A weekend WebmasterWorld thread is reporting dozens and dozens of webmasters noticing a major traffic drop due to Google. Some of these webmasters reported traffic declines in the 90% range. Many of the issues seem to be that Google has...
Last night, I had a nice chat with Googler, JohnMu. I joked around with John, asking if he has messed up yet, in terms of Google communication with webmasters. He said not really - which I agree with. But he...
The Google Webmaster Central Blog posted a blog post named How Google defines IP delivery, geolocation, and cloaking. They cover topics such as making sure to treat Googlebot as a California resident with the Geolocation section, they go over IP...
Talk about theories! A WebmasterWorld thread has a theory that was posted by senior member, travelin cat, who noticed that his top ranking pages tend to have related YouTube video's embedded on them. The YouTube videos are not his videos,...
Did you know that there are specific HTML markup tags for abbreviations and acronyms? Did you know that people sometimes use them? A Google Groups thread asks if Google actually uses these tags for indexing purposes? The example given in...
A WebmasterWorld thread has some discussion over one member spotting a Google IP address navigating through his site. The IP address originates from the Mountain View location and resolves to Google, so he is convinced a Googler is manually reviewing...
A Google Groups thread has discussion around how this webmaster should handle redirecting its web visitor to a localized version of their site, based on the IP address information. Since I recently wrote a comprehensive article at Search Engine Land...
Remember the floating four story I wrote a week or so ago? Basically how a search result would be in the fourth position and then go so a lower position, then come back to four and then go back again...
Back in February, I wrote a story named Upper Case & Lower Case Searches May Return Different Google Search Results. Since then, the discussion on that topic has died off. But in the past month or so, more and more...
It looks that Google might be conducting some sort of major update. Yes, I know - Google is constantly updating, constantly adding content and "improving" the algorithm. But some changes make a bigger impression in the forums then others. I...
A WebmasterWorld thread has some interesting observations, which I thought would be fun to name the "Floating Four" symptom. In short, it seems like there are some pages that happen to float into the fourth position at Google's search results...
Remember when I reported that we saw Google Sitelinks in position 60? I said then that it seems Google is admitting to the minus 60 penalty: What I do find very interesting is that Googler, JohnMu, tells the webmaster to...
WebmasterWorld moderator posted a detailed thread at WebmasterWorld claiming that he feels the proxy hijacks that Google has suffered from in 2007, and was getting better towards the end of 2007 seems to be 100% cleaned up now. IncrediBill concluded:...
Google has finally written a formal post at the Google Webmaster Central blog named Best practices when moving your site. It honestly is a nice place to send a client or webmaster when the question comes up. Does it give...
I'll be honest, I keep watching the WebmasterWorld thread discussing the April 2008 Google update, code named Update Dewey. The latest thing that I noticed were recent reports from very senior members saying that Google is shuffling around the results,...
We should have seen this coming, based on the number of reports that Google was submitting GET forms. But often, it is hard to validate those types of reports, due to people spoofing Googlebot and similar tactics. In any event,...
There are reports from several sources including WebmasterWorld that Google is having a tough time mapping the proper URLs with the associated page titles for those URLs. One report says that Google is treating searches for portal A on a...
On February 20th, I asked our readers if they thought a listing in the Open Directory Project would have a major impact on a site's Google ranking. The response was split down the middle. We only had 58 responses, which...
Juicy title, isn't it? Well, that is the topic of discussion at a WebmasterWorld. A senior member decided to post some generic, not specific examples, ways to hurt a website's Google rankings. Here are some of the methods you can...
On the last day of March, I reported on a major Google search index update which seemed to have impacted tons and tons of SEOs, as opposed to just a ton of SEOs (if you know what I mean). Yes,...
The huge WebmasterWorld thread devoted to tracking Google changes over the course of March 2008 has sprung some late March legs. Reseller, well known at WebmasterWorld for tracking the slightest changes at Google, posted two data centers that are very...
One of the oldest questions in the search engine optimization practice is on the META description. The META description is this little tag you include in the header file, that provides a machine readable short summary of your page. Many...
SEOmoz posted results from a study he did where he concluded that only the first anchor text on a page is counted by Google as the anchor text for that link. For example, let's say you have a two links...
Moving document and file locations on the web is fairly common. So what do you do when you have to communicate the move to your users and the search engines? You set up a redirect. There is no question that...
A Google Groups thread on the -60 penalty at Google (there are so many of these now, -6, -10, -250, etc) now has several responses from Matt Cutts of Google. Matt replies specifically to the nature of the posters site...
I am very confused by a search result at Google Netherlands. Stay with me now, and search for internet publishing at Google.nl. What comes up in the second result for me is www.publiceren.net, which looks to be a video result....
A WebmasterWorld thread asks how long should he or she wait for after making a change to see if that change worked in Google. In this specific case, the SEO has a web site that seems to be penalized. He/she...
Over the weekend, in a WebmasterWorld thread that is tracking the Google February 2008 SERP changes, the recent discussion is around a new Google update. This Google update is reportedly impacting the search results in the position two, three, four...
A WebmasterWorld has several reports from non-US based site owners saying their rankings in the main USA based Google.com has dropped from the first page to page five or beyond. This is not just one report from people complaining, there...
We now have official confirmation that the Google position 6 penalty is now being reversed. Sebastian commented to let me know that Matt Cutts of Google has confirmed at Sphinn that whatever was causing quality sites to be moved down...
In late December, we reported about a possible Position 6 Google Penalty. What that meant was that many people noticed their number one or two rankings all of a sudden dropped to position number 6. Google's Matt Cutts denied such...
WebmasterWorld administrator, tedster, has compiled the feedback of the December 2007 Google SERP Changes thread, which we covered earlier in a new WebmasterWorld thread. In this thread, he says there is a pattern of reports he has been noticing where...
The Ultimate Fate of Supplemental Results from the Google Webmaster Central blog announces, what Google calls, the "next major milestone" for Google's supplemental results. What is happening exactly? Google is implying that when you conduct a search in Google.com, Google...
We asked the question a while back, Should Google Display RSS Feeds in Web Search Results and we determined, no. Then GoogleGuy confirmed Google does not want to display most RSS feeds in the Google index. The Google Webmaster Central...
A WebmasterWorld thread has a nice amount of Webmasters noticing an increase in the number of supplemental pages being returned by Google. How does one measure the number of supplemental pages in the Google index for their site when Google...
Permanent redirects, also known as 301 redirects, are the life blood for webmasters when they make changes to their URL structures. It is common practice and knowledge, that when you change a URL from one location to a new location,...
A WebmasterWorld thread is speculating that Google has recently shown more interest in ranking domain names that have keywords that match the searcher's query. One member explained: This could just be a regional thing, but G.ie seems to be giving...
A WebmasterWorld thread has Labnol asking, "Can rankings vanish because a site is not updated?" If you do not update a site's content, can it set off a red flag at Google or another search engine and have the site...
Friday we reported that Google to Begin Treating Subdomains as Folders: Max 2 Results Per Search based on a post from Tedster at WebmasterWorld. Soon after, Matt Cutts of Google commented saying: This isn't a correct characterization of what Google...
A WebmasterWorld thread has dozens of reports from SEOs and Webmasters that Google has dropped the number of pages they indexed of their sites. Here is one such report: On all the searchees I look at a regular basis I...
Yesterday I covered the news at Search Engine Land of a new Google experimental search feature that lets you move search results up and remove results from the Google search results page. The changes you make only impact you -...
What SEO doesn't like talking about spam? Now add a newly granted Google patent that talks about spam and an SEO is in heaven! Bill at created a Cre8asite Forums thread about a new granted patent named Methods and systems...
Ever wonder what exactly makes up the pieces of the search results you see at Google? Matt Cutts, the head of "search quality" at Google blogged about it over at the Google Webmaster Central Blog. Here is the video where...
Validate your robots.txt - Googlebot becomes smarter from Sebastian reports official confirmation from Google that they are testing out new crawler directives. He explains that adding "Noindex: /" to your robots.txt file will now deindex your complete site. Specifically, Google...
A Search Engine Watch Forums thread asks why a URL is showing up twice for the same search. The example search is sheffield jobs. Result number nine is www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=49, but if you go to page two you should see the...
We recently had the October 2007 Paid Link Debate which recapped the discussion around Danny Sullivan's Official: Selling Paid Links Can Hurt Your PageRank Or Rankings On Google. But will SEOs and Webmasters stop buying links? That is the question...
Last week Tamar wrote about How to Stop Googlebot from Crawling Your Site Rapidly, so I thought I write about the opposite. How can you induce GoogleBot into crawling your site. Although there is no magic shot that guarantees inducement...
Over at the Google Groups forum, yet another Googler said that bad links to your site cannot hurt you, at least for the most part. Wysz, a Googler, said in response to someone being worried that a spammy site is...
A WebmasterWorld thread has discussion about Google's allintitle, allinanchor and allinurl operators. Basically, these are special operators you can use when search in Google. For example, if you want to find pages that match a keyword phrase but limit it...
A WebmasterWorld thread has dozens of reports that Google's page index counts of sites have been bouncing up and down like a rollercoaster. By page index site, I assume they mean the number of pages Google reports when you conduct...
There are several reports across multiple forums about a large update at Google. It appears people are noticing large search results shifts at Google Web Search. Some are obviously happy with the changes, such as one user at Search Engine...
A WebmasterWorld thread was broken out by WebmasterWorld administrator, Tedster, where he summarizes one isolated change he may have noticed from the latest Google update. The change, he said, has to do with Google grouping more of the same category...
Google has updated Google Webmaster Tools with a link update yesterday. Google typically does these updates monthly, around this time. There are additional reports of and ranking changes. There is currently discussion at DigitalPoint Forums and WebmasterWorld. Here is a...
Matt Cutts finally chimed in on the big buzz about Hyphens & Underscores Are Now Treated Equally in Google.com, which was broken by Stephan Spencer at News.com. Matt said, he "didn’t quite say that in the talk." What he did...
Google has updated Google Webmaster Tools with a link update over the weekend. Google typically does these updates monthly, around this time. There are additional reports of PageRank updates and ranking changes. There is currently discussion at DigitalPoint Forums and...
A WebmasterWorld thread says that Google has counted links from within Microsoft Word Documents, as links to a page. We all know Google indexes files like Word Documents, PDFs, and many many other types of documents. We also know you...
Last night, Google announced that they have done away with the "supplemental results" label from the search results within Google.com. What this means is that Google will no longer label results with a "Supplemental Results" tag in the search results....
A WebmasterWorld thread asks why when you do a search at Google.com on a phrase, why does Google return results with that phrase of words scattered around the page, as opposed to a page that matches that exact phrase. The...
EGOL started a thread at Cre8asite Forums asking how using the various robots.txt command or META noindex nofollow commands will impact the flow of PageRank and link popularity. Several members go through some detailed examples and what-if scenarios. However, Ammon...
Until today, Google treated dashes and underscores in the URL differently. A dash (hyphen) between two words in the URL (i.e. keyword-phrase) would tell Google that those are two different words (i.e. keyword +phrase). In the past, an underscore between...
Did you know that if you wanted to ensure that zero supplemental results come up for a site command at Google, you can type your query in the syntax of site:www.example.com/* I speculated over at Search Engine Land that Google...
A WebmasterWorld thread discusses the implementation of 301 redirects on a newly constructed site. WebmasterWorld administrator, Tedster, adds to the discussion that he has seen that a chain of 301 redirects does not always pass the link popularity along. For...
There has been a lot of buzz recently about how Google has been indexing blog content or fresh content very quickly. Not only is Google indexing and crawling the fresh content, but also showing the content in the search results...
In late 2004 and early 2005, page hijacks were a huge concern with Google. Back then, sites used a 302 redirect to take over a susceptible page within the search results. Marcia reports at Search Engine Watch Forums that the...
Cre8asite Forums is holding a small poll of their members, asking if it is harder to optimize for Google's Universal Search as opposed to OneBox results? Right now, the majority of people feel it is not harder because it "follows...
A Cre8asite Forums thread asks the question, does search engines rank (or index) an individual forum post or a complete forum thread in the search results? The simple answer is that search engines simply index pages. So a thread is...
This may be considered a continuation of the June 2007 Google Update but it has now been given a name. The Buffy update, as it is now called out of respect for Vanessa Fox leaving Google, is currently underway. Yes,...
A Google Groups thread asks if it is acceptable in accordance with Google's new webmaster guidelines on Hidden text and links to use CSS as an image replacement technique for graphic links. Image a site that has images for their...
There have been lingering reports at both Search Engine Roundtable Forums and WebmasterWorld that Google's site command feature for the UK search engine is broken. For example, if you conduct a site:www.bbc.co.uk and restrict it to "pages from the UK",...
Everyone is talking about the Google Keeps Tweaking Its Search Engine article from the New York Times. Check out the Techmeme coverage and you can find dozens of summaries of the article. I will summarize the article based on the...
Last week, Google Revamps Search Results Landscape with Universal Search. Part of that includes not just Google News results in the middle of the page, not just image results or local results but also video results. An example video result...
The Google search results landscape has forever changed. Yes, this is a huge deal. With the launch of Google Universal Search, you will see a totally different approach to search results that you have never seen before. Remember we found...
There is currently a lot of discussion taking place in two forums about comments left by Matt Cutts of Google in a post here named Google Attacked Over Webmaster Relations. Now, Matt responded to some question left by a comment...
A thread at WebmasterWorld speculates about how Google is weighing factors throughout the site rather than on a single page on a domain. Some people are seeing that Google is placing heavier emphasis on so-called "landing pages" that might bring...
Bill Slawski, Cre8asite Forum Admin, started a thread at Cre8asite Forums about a patent application Google recently published named mobile sitemaps. The abstract reads: A method of analyzing documents or relationships between documents includes receiving a notification of an available...
MSGraph at WebmasterWorld posted a link to a Google Patent filed in August 22, 2005 with authors including Matt Cutts named removing documents. The patent basically describes how you can remove documents using Google personalized search, which I described in...
I was chatting with a few folks who are convinced of a major Google update. David Ogletree was the first I know to spot this. So I revisited a WebmasterWorld and sure enough, since the 18th of this month, four...
Barry Welford at Cre8asite Forums noticed Google using tracking URLs in the search results and asked if Google uses this for ranking purposes. It's clearly stated that in its contextual advertising programs, Google will adjust the ordering of Adword ads...
A Google Groups thread has some details that I have not seen before. If a site is temporarily down, I thought Google would not deindex the site, but give it some more time before they removed the page from the...
As I reported recently, Google Recommends Using Meta Description Tag but why? This Search Engine Watch Forums thread shows the perfect example of why a unique meta description is slightly important. If you ever do a site: command, i.e. site:www.seroundtable.com...
I spotted a good Google Groups thread that has Google's official word on how they handle the nofollow attribute in links. When Google began complying with the nofollow attribute, they posted this blog entry but people are still fuzzy today...
SEOs and Webmasters always wondered how long it took for a typically site to pass along a PageRank value from one URL to another via a 301 redirect. Google's Adam Lasnik answered this question, saying only about a couple weeks....
It appears as if on this Friday, Google has done an update on their Sitelinks. Google Sitelinks, first thought to be Web Categories, was officially released back in September 2006. Google has their official doc on sitelinks in their Webmaster...
In a WebmasterWorld thread, there is a question about how can one preserve the PageRank value they have on his pages and not spread it out to others too much. Of course, you know my rant on PageRank, but outside...
A WebmasterWorld thread is reporting many cases of people noticing the pages on their site going into the supplemental index. But even more so, they are noticing that a site:www.domain.com command returns one result and then shows you: In order...
There has been a lot of recent talk about the Google Minus-950 Penalty. It was named that because people didn't find their pages anywhere before around the 950th result. The question is what happened recently to cause such a change...
The Google Blog announced that they will be adding personalized search results by default for any person signed in to their Google Account. That means if you use any one of the following Google services Gmail, Orkut, AdWords, AdSense, Groups,...
Typically, you have threads about, how do I make my site better or what do I need to do to rank higher. Then people may discuss topics such as unique content, link building, etc. There is a thread at WebmasterWorld...
After writing my piece named Why Do Some SEOs Want Toolbar PageRank To Go Away? I found a thread at DigitalPoint Forums asking members to vote if "PR is Overhyped." Here are the current results: 80% vote yes, PageRank is...
Vicyankees posted a WebmasterWorld thread that explains that when searching with a site command at Google, using site:www.domain.com, Google now returns results that may be sub domains. For example, when I conduct a site search for site:www.seroundtable.com I see in...
Back on January 4th, we reported Google Not Showing Localized Pages Within Country For .COM TLDs. We have specific examples showing that Google was not showing proper pages for .com domains, when one conducts a site command search, but restricts...
Well respected SEO, Scottie Claiborne, wrote a guest article for Jill Whalen's popular newsletter named Switching to a New Domain Without Losing Your Google Rankings. In her article, Scottie recommends using a 302 redirect temporarily, so that Google keeps your...
Brett Tabke, founder of WebmasterWorld, created a thread at WebmasterWorld (1) placing the age of a domain a top five factor in Google rankings and (2) asking for hands on advice on what this exactly means. Here is Brett's post:...
We have more evidence of our past coverage that Google sends out notifications to Webmasters when they violate Google's terms of service. For example, Gabs received a notification and posted the details at Search Engine Roundtable Forums, explaining he was...
Here are some takeaways from Adam Lasnik's latest post at WebmasterWorld, see post number 3208854 or post # 70 in that thread. Boilerplate content is "huge swaths of text repeated on every page, such as an obnoxiously long legal footers"...
On December 21st, Ben reported a Google Data Refresh - Rankings Fluctuations Before Christmas via a WebmasterWorld thread. Now, I have been tracking that original thread, along with two additional WebmasterWorld threads named part 2 and Is there any point...
An Adam Lasnik post in Google Groups sprung a post at Cre8asite Forums explaining that if you have bad HTML, Google will be OK with it. Yes, that is the case, your code does not need to be 100% validated...
A slow but very interesting WebmasterWorld thread asks, "Is Googe Devaluing "Social Content" Links?" Tedster, WebmasterWorld Admin, said; It's not a big secret. Webmasters looking for a ranking boost have been using "web 2.0" tactics for quick link building. Even...
It seems like we can not get away from the topic of duplicate content. A recent post at the Google Webmaster Central blog named Deftly dealing with duplicate content by Adam Lasnik, gives more insight (possibly) to what is duplicate...
A late Friday post at the Google Webmaster Central blog named Building link-based popularity sparked a ton of discussion over the weekend at WebmasterWorld. The WebmasterWorld was named "It's Official: Google Discounting Reciprocal Link Exchanges" by martinibuster to spark some...
WebmasterWorld and DigitalPoint Forums are both reporting significant changes in rankings at Google starting last night. Typically, Google, since December 2003 (aka the Florida update), Google does not want to shake up the search results (did not mention search ads...
WebProNews is shooting video all week at SES Chicago and they have recently posted an excellent one named SES: Google’s Fox Clarifies Sitemaps, PageRank. Here are my notes, the video is about 18 minutes. Rand asks is the duplicate content...
There are reports from WebmasterWorld that a new Google data refresh is taking place now. People are noticing both large and small shuffling of the positioning of pages for select search queries. I do not believe this is a huge...
There has always been confusion on if Google uses the meta tag data. Some say Google uses the meta description tag, some say they don't. Most say, Google doesn't use the meta keywords tag. In any event, Google's Vanessa Fox...
We have discussed this topic over and over again this past year or so. What happens when you move from an established domain to a new domain name? What can you expect to see in terms of traffic drops from...
The question at a WebmasterWorld forum is does registering your domain name for 10 years, instead of one year, help you rank better in Google? Reading the thread, it appears that most senior members in the thread, feel that it...
A limited number of people are noticing significant changes in their rankings and traffic from Google.com at WebmasterWorld forums. Some have seen a 80% drop in traffic from Google and some have seen a 350% increase in traffic from Google....
It seems the more Google talks about the supplemental index, you know the results in Google that are labeled as "supplemental," the more confused SEOs are, including myself. Here is an image of what a result in Google.com from the...
A Search Engine Watch Forums thread has a member not understanding why Google has not indexed his PDF files. To make a long story short, Google did index his PDF files, but I thought it would make a nice quick...
A typical WebmasterWorld thread has a member who is upset about submitting his (I believe) new site to Google Sitemaps and 3 weeks later, Google has still not fully indexed his site. Well, it is a great way to tell...
tedster has put together a concise post of current and common questions that people post at the Google WebmasterWorld forums. The post contains links to some of the most recent and active questions Webmasters and SEOs have about Google. Here...
Does the change of a domain name ownership, i.e. the whois records, by itself, have an effect on the site's rankings? For example, if I sell domainA.com, with the content and everything as is. And if the new owner does...
There are two threads, both the same exact subject, one at Search Engine Watch Forums and the other at WebmasterWorld that asks if it is wise to use one Google Account for all your sites in your Google Webmaster Central...
A WebmasterWorld thread has some credible sources claiming the site:www.domain.com, site command, at Google is becoming more accurate. In the past, conducting a site command on a domain may have returned a lot more pages than what is currently accessible...
A WebmasterWorld thread asks why after he set up his site in Google's Webmaster Central Sitemaps, his site was no longer "verified." Vanessa Fox from Google replied saying; We recommend that you leave the verification file or meta tag in...
A WebmasterWorld thread asks how long on average would you guess that it takes Google to find good links and act on it? Let's assume that this site gives off "good links" when I link to someone. For example, I...
Well that was fast! After I resubmitted the site October 25th at 7am and I checked again this morning at it is back in the index. This is after Jennifer Convertibles Web Site Hacked & Delisted In Google.com, I decided...
A DigitalPoint Forums thread discusses how long would it take to get back into the Google index after being kicked out. From the day you submit a reinclusion request, how long will it take to get back into the index....
In the past, having a dynamic site caused issues with most search engines. If your site has weird parameters in the URL, they were known as stop characters, and search engines would stop crawling them - in fear of getting...
This penalty, that penalty, this filter, that filter - we now have a new one named the "-30 Penalty." But this one I think may have some substance. A WebmasterWorld thread has a lot of discussion on it, 6 pages,...
A DigitalPoint Forums thread asks why hasn't the Google algorithm been leaked? Often company secrets have been leaked in the past, such as company product releases and more. But why not Google's algorithm. Well, it kind of has been. Over...
It has been a while since a Googler knocked on buying links in a while. But recently, mini-Matt, Adam Lasnik, of Google, wrote in a WebmasterWorld thread saying; Advertising's fine Buying links for PR: bad Google senses much ;) So...
Yesterday, we reported that Google Giving Search Engine Optimization Classes. Adam Lasnik commented about the seminar he is giving to the governmental agencies, saying that he doesn't feel that those who read WebmasterWorld would benefit much from it. While I'm...
WebmasterWorld has discussion of an SEO class being given by Adam Lasnik of Google. The class is named Optimizing Your Websites for Google Search and is to take place at Catholic University, on September 18, 2006 at 1:00 pm –...
It appears that Matt Cutts of Google has added a tidbit to his already mind-swimming post named Scoble visiting the Plex, Matt added; By the way, it looks like the primary issue with the Windows Live Writer blog was the...
We have confirmation over the long debated topic on if the keywords in the URL or file names help with rankings. Some SEOs say it does not help, some SEOs say it may hurt (still true - be smart), some...
A WebmasterWorld thread reports that back links are being updates at some of Google's data centers. The data centers documented with the updated back links are at 64.233.187.104 and 64.233.187.99. What does this mean for SEOs and your rankings? Um,...
A WebmasterWorld thread has a very interesting questions. Does Google, or any other search engine, associate link popularity to a portion of a page? For example, if I link to a page and anchor down to a specific portion of...
Conduct a search on five seo excuses and the top five five results in Google are listed excuses. Pretty cute SEO trick by this guy. I assume all it takes is a bit of linkage pointing for that anchor text...
I am not sure if the title of this post is all that clear. Basically, if you go to the Robots.txt informational page at the Wikipedia and scroll down to the Directives within a page it claims Google has has...
A featured WebmasterWorld thread has examples of issues with Google possibly disobeying the robots.txt file. GoogleGuy and VanessaFox both come in, to offer some guidance on the perceived issue. GoogleGuy first explains that "a more specific directive takes precedence over...
Web hosts are typically in a very powerful position. One such example is discussed at a Search Engine Watch Forums thread showing how one Webmaster was finding "strange results" in the Google search results pages. The results contained pornographic terms...
A WebmasterWorld thread discusses webmaster complaints with Google treating the Wikipedia too well. Meaning, the Wikipedia ranks well for so many different keywords. Often people mock the Wikipedia, because the information sometimes found there is not 100% accurate, since it...
Detlev Johnson is moderating this new session. Can you rank well in all the search engines? Or do you need to pick and choose. This session will be a SEO session on that topic. Aaron Wall from SEO Book is...
GoogleGuy is still active in the forums, updating Webmasters on Google's latest changes. He explained earlier this morning that we should be expecting "fresher supplemental results" in the index. Okay, I believe most/all U.S. users should see radically fresher supplemental...