Joy Hawkins says, “In the local SEO community, Google’s recent Possum update was a very big deal. To those of us who regularly track the search results for local businesses, it was obvious there were massive changes on September 1. The SEO community as a whole has been relatively quiet about this huge update, and I believe this is because this update primarily impacted the Local/Maps search results and not organic. SERP trackers like MozCast and Algoroo do a fabulous job of tracking changes in the search results, but this algorithm update didn’t seem to make any massive impact in... [...]

Ryan Shelley says, “The only constant in the world of SEO is change. In fact, Google is reported to change its search algorithm around 500 to 600 times each year.  While most of these updates are small and often aren’t even picked up by users and SEO, every once in a while, Google releases major updates. Over the past two years alone, we’ve seen about nine major updates to the algorithm. The two most recent, “Possum” (released on September 1, 2016) and Penguin 4.0 (released on September 23, 2016) caused a lot of stir in the SEO community. Over my years in the SEO community,... [...]

Jordan Kasteler says, “After a nearly two year wait, Google’s Penguin algorithm has finally been updated again. It’s the fourth major release, making this Penguin 4.0. It’s also the last release of this type, as Google nowsays Penguin is a real-time signal processed within its core search algorithm. Penguin goes real-time Penguin is a filter designed to capture sites that are spamming Google’s search results in ways that Google’s regular spamming systems might not detect. Introduced in 2012, it has operated on a periodic basis. In other words, the Penguin filter would run and... [...]

Joe Robison says, “For almost two years (707 days, to be precise), one question has dominated the SEO conversation: “When will Google update Penguin?” Today, we finally have the answer. Google announced that a Penguin update is rolling out and that Penguin is now operating in real-time. In a normal month, a temperature of 82°F would be slightly interesting, but it’s hardly what many people were expecting, and September 2016 has been anything but a normal month. It takes time to refresh the entire index, though, so it’s likely Penguin volatility will continue for a few days.... [...]

Andrea Francis says, “Every marketer has a story about getting penalised by Google. Evidence suggests that though many websites have been penalised (not just by the big updates, but also by one of the thousands of tiny little manual Google updates), the average marketer or webmaster hasn’t noticed. According to Kissmetrics, only 5% of penalised websites are submitting a reconsideration request every month to recover their rankings. Since we are all reliant on search engines for traffic, we have to stay in the know about the latest updates — and make changes if we’re affected. Not... [...]

Jack Simpson says, “Google is increasingly valuing ‘quality content’ when it comes to search rankings, according to a new report. This isn’t exactly news to most marketers, but the way in which Google determines quality is evolving. According to the study, positive signals such as the amount of time spent on a page are having an increasingly significant impact on rankings. This means it’s more important than ever to keep the reader engaged. With that in mind, I’m going to use this post to try and explain how you can achieve ‘quality content’ on your site based on some of the... [...]

Gregory Ferenstein says, “When it comes to optimizing traffic to your website, plenty of reports would have you believe that social media is the only field worth plowing. But a new Adobe study shows that Google searches remain a dominant force—so much so, that even small tweaks to its algorithm can cause immediate and significant changes in Web traffic. The company has a history of intentionally punishing or rewarding websites, based on whether they align with its vision or not. Most recently, it decided to lower rankings for websites that weren’t mobile-optimized, such as those displaying... [...]

Graham Charlton says, “Google algorithm updates are a fact of life for brands and search specialists.  With so many Google updates over the course of a year, we have a periodic collective outburst of stress around these changes. However, the effects of these changes are generally much more subtle and are not the cataclysmic events some fear. Google’s mobile-friendly update was one such example. There was talk of ‘mobilegeddon’ (and yes, we used that term) but the reality was that Google was simply implementing changes to its algorithm that it had talked about and hinted... [...]

Brian Massey says, ““We aren’t worrying about our mobile traffic right now.” At my company Conversion Sciences, this is what we’ve heard from many — if not most — of our website optimization clients over the past three years. Businesses are just getting their heads around their big-screen websites. Mobile traffic is often small by comparison, and it converts terribly for my clients, often at half to one-third the conversion rate. But the decision to ignore it may be short-sighted. Mobile traffic is likely one of your fastest-growing segments. Have you done the calculations to... [...]

Thomas Smale says, “On April 21, Google unleashed its mobile-friendly update on the online world. However, most businesses and entrepreneurs were in the loop and had sufficient time to react and take appropriate measures. More recently, there have been rumors flying about a new “phantom” algorithm update, which was presumably applied towards the end of April or the beginning of May. As it turns out, if you’ve been noticing changes to your — or anyone else’s — search rankings as of late, you aren’t out to lunch. The reason some have been referring... [...]