Google announced that it is discontinuing the use of several image and video sitemap extensions. Google stated they decided to sunset the use of these sitemap extensions after evaluating the value of the tags. The deprecated tags and attributes will have no effect after August 6, 2022. Google announced that the documentation for the removed … Read more
Bill Slawski recently called attention to a patent that describes a way to apply generic ratings to content as part of a process of modifying search results. The patent applies to search results, media content, books, websites and games and describes a way to show modified search results where some of the results are blocked … Read more
When customers are searching locally for products and services like yours, they often seek validation to ensure they’re making the right choice. This includes reading online reviews, asking for personal recommendations, or looking for more information about your business on your Google Business Profile. Google offers a way for businesses in some industries to earn … Read more
Google is rolling out new ways to remove personally identifiable information from search results such as phone numbers and physical addresses. This update expands on an existing policy that allows people to request the removal of personally identifiable information that’s sensitive in nature, like bank accounts and credit card numbers. Now, you can request the … Read more
Google has a free, single-page website builder designed for small businesses. Anyone with a Google Business Profile can use this tool to create and edit websites in minutes on either desktop or mobile. With Google’s website builder being an extension of Google Business Profile, you will need to have a complete listing in order to … Read more
Google has published its annual report on search spam revealing SpamBrain, a machine learning-based spam identification system, took action on six times as many spam sites in 2021 as it did in 2020. By identifying these sites, Google claims a 70% reduction in hacked spam and a 75% reduction in gibberish spam on hosted platforms. … Read more
A member of Reddit asked if Google search was becoming worse and thousands of others responded overwhelmingly that Google search was not showing what they were looking for. The SEO community on Twitter picked up the discussion and largely agreed. Google Search Quality Has Declined, According to Users? While a few members of Reddit (referred … Read more
Google search has been continually evolving since the very beginning. Over the past 10 years, much of that evolution was driven by improvements in technology but also changes in what users expect. Here are 10 opportunities for more traffic from Google and how to get it. Google has steadily been committed to making search results … Read more
This week’s Ask An SEO question comes from Andrew in Chatanooga, who wrote: “I have a client who is a personal injury attorney with a last name that is the same as a major U.S. city (City Name Removed). Google gets confused sometimes and puts his firm’s website on SERPs for that city plus our … Read more
Google announced it will be using artificial intelligence (AI) and a machine learning (ML) model to automatically update business hours and real-world road information. The goal of these initiatives is to provide users with more up-to-date information about neighborhood changes. Harnessing The Power Of AI For More Accurate Information Though research into AI began in … Read more
Google has created and shared a free template for visualizing your Search Console data as a bubble chart in Google Data Studio. This makes it easier than ever to analyze Search Console data with a bubble chart — a task people have been using third party tools to accomplish. Now, creating a bubble chart is … Read more
Organization schema structured data is useful to have on a website because it communicates important information to Google that can then be used to present an organization’s data in the search results in an attractive manner. This is why implementing organization structured data correctly is important. Structure Data Types And Properties Before we get into … Read more
JavaScript-based webpages may appear blank or incomplete in Google’s cache, which is normal and not indicative of any problems. This is stated by Google’s Search Advocate John Mueller in the latest installment of the Ask Googlebot video series on YouTube. A question is submitted by an individual asking why their JavaScript pages aren’t showing in … Read more
Google published a Search Off Record episode about structured data. An interesting topic they touched on was how Google might use structured data that goes beyond what Google’s developer pages recommend. Martin Splitt said that more data can be better. But there are caveats to adding more structured data beyond what Google recommends. Schema.org and … Read more
Google’s Search Advocate John Mueller says content automatically generated with AI writing tools is considered spam, according to the search engine’s webmaster guidelines. This topic is addressed during a recent Google Search Central SEO office-hours hangout in response to a question about GPT-3 AI writing tools. There’s a debate in the SEO community about the … Read more
In a Google SEO Office hours hangout, someone asked Googler John Mueller related the situation of articles talking about his site but that the mentions of the brand name or domain name were not linked to his site. What he wanted to know was if those mentions of his domain and brand name could pass … Read more
This week’s Ask An SEO question comes from Abhinav in New Delhi, who writes: “How can article aggregator sites outperform the original source? Google has various guidelines on aggregator copy not performing well, and much is said of not showing duplicate content across the web. Yet RSS aggregator sites URLs are indexed, even knowing it’s … Read more
Google’s John Mueller answered a question in a Google SEO office-hours video about whether rankings could be affected by a banner popup. John answered the question and then shared the technical background of why banners may have a negative effect as well as other issues related to Core Web Vitals. The answer to the question … Read more
