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
Google is rolling out a new label is search results for pages that are recognized as highly cited sources. The label will appear next to pages in Top Stories and is designed to help people find credible information. Google’s new “highly cited sources” label comes just in time for International Fact-Checking Day on April 2. … Read more
Additional data from Search Console is now available through the Google Data Studio connector, allowing users to visualize traffic from more Google sources. This update is announced by Google Search Advocate Daniel Waisberg in his second post of a blog series related to Data Studio & Search Console. In case you missed it, his first … Read more
A new blog post from Pandu Nayak, Google Fellow and Vice President of Search, explains how Google Search uses MUM and BERT to serve safer search results. Highlights: Google is using MUM to better detect when the query indicates a searcher is in crisis and will begin rolling out these improvements within weeks. Google uses … Read more
Having a Google Business Profile (GBP) is the best way for a local business to rank high on Google – in the Local Pack, the Local Finder, and on Google Maps. And for many of these local businesses, having a Google Business Profile is often their only local SEO strategy and the one way they … Read more
Google launches a third product review algorithm update in search results, which builds off of the product review updates introduced last year. The first product review algorithm update, which is designed to reward content with first-hand research, went live in April 2021. A second product review update followed in December. Today’s update continues Google’s efforts … Read more
Google’s John Mueller answered a question about how Google’s algorithm handles abbreviations. John answered the question in depth, explaining how these are essentially synonyms and that Google doesn’t do anything particularly special with abbreviations. How Does Google Handle Abbreviations? The person asking a question wanted to know how Google handled abbreviations such as “eg” which … Read more
Local businesses that want more traffic from search must improve their local rankings. But can prominence, distance, and relevance affect your organic search rankings? Read on to learn whether there is any connection between prominence, distance, and relevance, and improved Google rankings. The Claim: Relevance, Distance, And Prominence Are Ranking Factors What are relevance, distance, … Read more
John Mueller answered a question about why a site that ranked for one keyword phrase didn’t rank for what they said was a synonym for the same phrase. John answered the question in general terms, explaining how what’s important is the full context of the search query. Synonyms and Search Results Before Google Hummingbird Google … Read more
Reconsideration requests are indirectly related to search rankings, as they’re an essential step in the process of recovering from a Google manual penalty. They make the difference between a site getting reinstated in search results or remaining deindexed. Reconsideration requests play an important role in SEO when rankings are manually held down by Google, but … Read more
Google is working on ways to show more short-form video in search results, saying it’s a clear and concise format for satisfying certain queries. This was stated in latest Search Off The Record podcast episode by Google Product Manager Danielle Marshak, who oversees videos in search results. Marshak is joined by Gary Illyes and Lizzi … Read more
Not to be confused with HTML sitemaps, which are designed to be viewed by humans, XML sitemaps are solely for search engines. Given that XML sitemaps are intended to assist Google, site owners may assume they play a role in search rankings. SEO experts even suggest XML sitemaps are so crucial to search that the … Read more
Google clarifies how performance data for pages in the ‘people also ask’ section is measured in Search Console – such as clicks, impressions, and positions. This topic is discussed during a recent Google Search Central SEO office-hours hangout. An individual named Aakash Singh joins the livestream to ask how Google Search Console tracks data for … Read more
When you register a domain, the registrar has your identifying information. However, you can choose domain privacy protection if you don’t want the names, addresses, phone numbers, etc. of website contacts listed in WhoIs for all the world to see. There are plenty of legitimate reasons people want to protect their privacy online. But does … Read more
