Isia McKetta says, “Write it and they will come. That’s the drum we’ve been beating for a long time now. We optimize our pages and our content to please search engines and cross our fingers and hope that customers will convert. We can do better. But to do it, we have to think beyond Google. Yes, you still need to check all your standard SEO boxes to make your site crawl friendly. Then it’s time to stop catering to the bots and start catering to the users instead. That means we have to—no, we get to—think bigger when we think of SEO. As Rand said in his Whiteboard Fridaylast... [...]

Adam de Jong says, “Everyone seems to know that quality content is the foundation of a strong organic online presence, but everyone can’t always agree on iswhat “quality content” actually means. The mystery is understandable, considering that the search landscape is in the midst of tremendous change and volatility. So what does it mean to produce quality content? More and more, it means creating content that answers specific questions your users have. In the last three years, there have been 45 Google Search algorithm updates, all of which have enhanced the search engine’s ability... [...]

Seth Fiegerman says, “Google‘s venture capital arm is turning its attention to Europe. Google announced on Thursday that Google Ventures will launch a $100 million fund to invest in European startups. The operation will be based out of London. “We believe Europe’s startup scene has enormous potential,” Bill Maris, a managing partner at Google Ventures, said in a statement. “We’ve seen compelling new companies emerge from places like London, Paris, Berlin, the Nordic region and beyond — SoundCloud, Spotify, Supercell and many others.” Google Ventures started... [...]

Mark Traphagen says, “On June 25, 2014, Google’s John Mueller made a shocking announcement: Google would be removing all author photos from Google search results. According to the MozCast Feature Graph, that task was fully accomplished by June 29. In this post I will: Give a brief overview of how Google Authorship got to where it is today. Cover how Google Authorship now works and appears in search. Offer my take on why Author photos were removed Investigate the oft-repeated claims of higher CTR from author photos”. Author Photos are Gone: Does Google Authorship Still Have Value? MOZ... [...]

Website Magazine is hosting a webinar on Thursday, July 31 at 2.00 pm EDT. The topic of the webinar is “Did Google just penalize me?”. The WM team says, “That’s the first question everyone asks when their traffic drops. The mystique of search engines, and how they do what they do, lends itself to sensationalism. Mainstream media fans the flames with reporting about websites violating terms of service, with results ranging from penalties to page rank downgrades. The truth is, today few businesses are immune to traffic drops spurred by Google’s seemingly continuous algorithm... [...]

David Skerrett says, “This year’s Google I/O conference, held weeks after Apple’s WWDC, showed the world that Google really is taking over every aspect of our lives, and challenging its fiercest rivals. As Android users have increased from 530m last year to more than 1bn this year, Google announced its ‘biggest ever overhaul’ with a completely new set of Android products. Read on for my top five developments (plus a dose of healthy rivalry)”. Five key trends and takeouts from Google I/O 2014 ‘Econsultancy’ Blog  [...]

Robert Miller says, “Google Analytics is always updating and adding new features. Here are four methods to help you get the most out of your analytics tool. As a part of the consulting services I provide to clients, I often do trainings of Google Analytics. Sometimes it’s one-on-one or to a small group, and other times it’s to multiple teams at once. As such, there is usually a broad range in the knowledge base of training participants. Here are four resources that I find are helpful for clients to get started with Google Analytics. A number of them would actually be helpful with... [...]

Ben Davis says, “Google is making many companies nervous. Anything bought online that involves the collection of information naturally falls into Google’s path. Even outside of this large niche, Google is getting stuck into larger engineering projects like the self-driving car. Let’s take a look at industries ripe for disruption by Google”. Seven big industries Google could disrupt ‘Econsultancy’ Blog  [...]

Ayaz Nanji says, “Google now delivers Universal Search results—those that include a blend of links, videos, images, news, shopping listings, and map data—for 81% of all US searches, according to a recent report from Searchmetrics. The analysis was based on data from millions of keyword searches conducted on Google.com in the United States between January and December 2013. The number of results that include Universal Search integrations has steadily increased over time and is up six percentage points from 2012, it found. Below, other key findings from the report“. Google Universal... [...]

Lisa Furgison say, “Your website is like a high-performance car. Similar to a Porsche, your website should grab attention, navigate easily and hit max speeds. To keep a fancy sports car in tip-top shape, you use a specialized mechanic. To keep your website in tip-top shape, you should use Google Webmaster Tools (GWMT). Think of this Google feature like a toolbox full of fine-tuning agents that can help you improve your website. GWMT isn’t just about performance either; you can learn how customers find your site and use this information to tweak certain pages and boost website traffic”. A... [...]