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Articles
Upcoming Google Algorithm Updates According to Google
The updates which Google release for their algorithms, Panda and Penguin, are often considered a cause for some alarm for SEO agencies and businesses that source much of their business online.
Link Disavow Finally Available With Google
Earlier this year we wrote about how search engine Bing has released a link disavow tool for those websites trying to optimise around their algorithm. It was a bold step in the fight against web-spammers, although seemingly redundant from Bing.
New Meta-tag For News Articles
Getting articles on Google’s News search engine can be quite tricky for any website with a news section. If your site isn’t a well established publisher of news articles like the various industry and online newspaper sites, Google is often likely to completely ignore your news posts.
Exact Match Domains Targeted by Google
Google is constantly working on its algorithms. They slightly tweak the weight of certain ranking factors, they add new ones and then carefully examine the results of the data refresh.
Google Synonym Matching And SEO
The various spellings of words and their numerous synonyms has always been an important factor in the SEO’s keyphrase strategy. And as anyone trying to optimise their content around numerous keywords will know, it can be a difficult task, with the added risk that Google might see it as manipulative.
The Shrinking SERP on Google
The first page of Google’s Search Engine Results Page (SERP) is the holy grail of a valuable web presence. Even more so if it’s for a popular industry keyword. Websites, in some industries, can spend thousands each year optimising their pages, just to maintain their rank. And with each slip down the rankings, traffic can drop.
The Google Panda and Penguin Updates
They’re the most heavily discussed of all of Google’s algorithms, which is why updates for the Penguin and Panda algorithm tend to make webmasters quite anxious. And when they wake up to check their rankings, only to find them violently shaken by the update, they’re essentially left to guess as to what exactly the new signals are.
The Google Emanuel Algorithm Update
When Google skipped their June search quality highlights, many SEOs didn’t know whether to consider it a good or a bad thing. Now that they’ve released a list of 86 changes, a lot of them dealing with updates the their indexing algorithm, we can see some webmaster’s should expect a slight shake in their rankings.
Google Local Reviews Going Missing
Complaints on Google’s blog have spiked recently, concerning the unexplained disappearance of reviews on certain Business Pages in Google+ Local. The disappearances are apparently largely without reason. Google’s public statement on the matter stated that they were looking into the problem and would try find a solution, in due time.
Gmail By SMS
Google began offering their browser based e-mail service, Gmail, in 2007 and although its market share is still relatively small compared to its competitors (7% by the last count), it is still the fastest growing email service in the world.
Worry Less About Penguins and More About Your Customers
Since the release of Google’s two latest algorithms Panda and, more recently, Penguin, many have speculated that all forms of SEO are gradually coming into their cross-hairs. It was particularly threatening when they announced that Penguin would specifically be targeting over-optimisation.
The Release of Google Now
Those who own smartphones that use the Android operating system can now look forward to a brand new Google application called ‘Google Now’. A new Intelligent Agent Software (IAS) application for mobile devices.
Google Search By Image Gets Updated
The new image search interface was launched last year along with Google Voice Search for Android, and was very well received. It gave people the option to search for a topic based on a picture they had, whether to find a better quality version of the image, finding source of the picture or just looking up some information related to it.
Inaccuracies in the Google Knowledge Graph
The Knowledge Graph was an exciting project: a search engine that no longer just exposed you to the information of internet but could actually summarise certain topics for you and present them on the results page. Of course, this would depend on the fact that you were interested in the most popular topic associated with that keyword.
Google Panda Update 3.8
We wrote about the introduction of Google’s algorithm Panda in February of last year. The learning algorithm focuses on artificial intelligence by filtering out entire sites, rather than pages, based on inferences it makes from the data put together made by thousands of site quality testers.
The New Google Localised Search
Google’s Venice update in February of year this brought with it over forty changes to its search and indexing parameters.
Google Businesses View
At the beginning of this year Google expanded on their Street View service that they introduced in 2007 to include interior views of businesses in those areas, giving people the opportunity to virtually explore a location before deciding whether or not to physically visit it.
Google Places Replaced
Yesterday, Google announced that they were discontinuing their Google Places product, and instead, would be rolling that data into the new Google+ Local.
Google Update Targets Web Spam Not SEO
Google has just announced that their latest algorithm update will target people who spam search results, or deliberately violate their guidelines to improve their rankings.
Track Google Account Activity
This week Google released a new functionality that allows users to get a monthly report of their internet activity.
Google Checking Up On Places Pages
According to some recent reports, Google has been manually verifying their places pages via phone.
Google Discontinues Products
There are always a few different Google products kicking around, of varying levels of use and popularity. Every now and then, Google cleans house, and they’re announcing it again right now.
Verbatim Results From Google
After numerous complaints about the removal of the “+” search operator from Google, the search engine has responded by giving the option for verbatim searches.
Google Places Category Tool
With local search results continuing to be prominent (if not dominant) in search engine results, it’s important to make sure that your business has a Google Places listing. This means your business can appear on Google Maps, and has a chance of coming up as a local search result in searches on Google.
Google To Track Content Authors
Google announced yesterday that it has started to index content based not only on the website that published it, but also on the author who originated it. Using the rel=“author” attribute, Google will be able to match writers and their work.
Google +1
At the end of last month, Google very quietly launched what it calls a new layer of social networking tied to the world famous search engine. The Google +1 Button is modeled on Facebooks even more famous “like” button, and is supposed to give personal recommendations for search results.
Even Google Makes Mistakes
Technically, we all know that Google makes mistakes sometimes. It’s pretty much an extremely complicated piece of software, that they make changes to every day. (In the last year, Google made over 550 changes to their search algorithm.) So it’s not surprising that it breaks sometimes. In fact, we should be impressed that it works so well.
Google Instant Preview
In a move which some claim is an attempt to catch up with Microsoft’s Bing search engine, Google has just rolled out testing on their new feature, Google Instant Preview.
Google Place Search
Yesterday Google announced their latest feature, the Google Place Search. Place Search allows Google users to easily find information about local businesses, by clustering search results around a specific area.
Google Instant Launches
In its never ending quest for the most intuitive search technology possible, Google has just released the latest tweak to its user interface: Google Instant. According to Google, it’s a new search enhancement, that lets you see results (for what Google thinks you’re searching for) as you type.
Tools for Online Success
Google, in conjunction with the US Small Business Administration, has launched a new site aimed at providing small business owners with the tools and advice they need to help them succeed online.
Google Tweaks Search Pages
If you’re a regular Google user, you might have been served up a different version of the Google search page recently. Google has been tweaking its user interface, to make it easier for people to find the information they’re looking for, and testing it with random appearances.
Google Docs
For some time now, Google has offered a set of document related applications built into their user accounts. Google Docs allows you to create, store and share your documents online, which means they’re accessible any time, from anywhere.
New Google Keyword Tool In Beta
Google has just released a new version of its popular (and useful) keyword tool. The new tool for keyword research is still in it’s beta version, and provides an updated interface, as well as additional keyword data.
Google Caffeine Becomes Official
According to a recent blog post by Google spokesperson Matt Cutts, the much discussed and recently tested new search algorithm Google Caffeine will soon be implemented worldwide.
Google PageRank Not So Important
A recent move by search engine giant Google has left search engine optimisers either shaking their heads, or feeling vindicated. An article appeared on WebProNews earlier this week, backed up by a post on Google Webmaster Central from Webmaster Trends Analyst Susan Moskwa, pointing out that Google has removed their PageRank distribution feature from their webmaster tools.
Google Local Business Directory
Now that Google Maps has officially launched in South Africa, with all the functionality that’s associated with it, it’s become possible to add your business to Google Maps with the Google Local Business Centre.
The Final Word On Meta Keywords
For years we’ve been telling people that the meta keywords tag that appears on almost every website has no impact at all on your search engine ranking. And yet we keep getting, hearing, and seeing queries about this most misunderstood of all meta tags.
Google Launches Display Ads
Google announced on it’s official blog at the end of last week that it was rolling out the end product of it’s incorporation with DoubleClick, an acquisition that Google made 18 months ago.
Fast-Flip Testing By Google
Responding to an increasingly media rich online environment, Google has launched a new experimental service that they call Fast Flip.
Google Search Box Gets Bigger
In the past, search engine giant Google has been very careful about not tampering with the look of their clean, simple and functional search page. Last week though, in a move that had many rubbing their eyes and fiddling with the text size options on their browser, Google changed something.
Register Your Trademark With Google
With recent questions regarding cyber-squatting and the protection of domain names, we’ve queried Google itself about the importance of trademarks when it comes to online marketing.
Google Trends & Search Research Tools
Google Trends is a public web tool released by Google, that provides a graphic representation of how frequently any given term is searched for, according to date, region and language.
Is Bing Better Than Google?
The relatively recent launch of Microsoft’s new search engine Bing has also launched a new online debate. Which search engine is better?
Google Caffeine Comparison Tool
Following on from our last article, in which we discussed the new Google Caffeine algorithm that’s in development, here’s a handy little tool that lets you compare the results of the existing Google search infrastructure with results using the proposed new Google “caffeine” algorithm.
Testing Google Caffeine
Although not yet confirmed, it appears that the Caffeine index will provide a new search infrastructure, effectively replacing the existing methods that Google uses.
Quick Guide To Google Applications
Google makes a wide variety of different applications available to their users, most of them freely. As well as being free, many of them are fun, engaging, useful, or all three. For your convenience, here’s a list of Google application, as well as links to them.
Search Engine Optimisation Is Google Optimisation
Although the industry is called search engine optimisation (SEO), the truth of the matter is that most websites, especially in South Africa, want and need to optimise for Google.
Basic Google Search Tips
Its amazing. Google is a tool we all use constantly, (I myself use it innumerable times a day), yet the true potential of its search capabilities remains untapped by most.
