SBT team says, “There is a tendency within the digital sphere to uphold a future-oriented mindset. From social media to SEO, from algorithms to user experience, our approach and practices maintain a forecasting nature. Trends and methods are always observed and developed with the next step in mind and the future in sight, the end goal being to evolve with complexity and instinct matching that of users. How is search behavior changing? What will users respond to? How can we improve the digital practices that already exist? In what direction is search moving, and how can we stay ahead of the... [...]

Dr. Peter J. Meyers says, “It’s been almost two years (August 2014) since Google announced that HTTPS was a ranking signal. Speculation ran rampant, as usual, with some suggesting there was little or no benefit to switching (and possibly significant risk) while others rushed to sell customers on making the HTTPS switch. Two years later, I believe the data speaks for itself — Google is fighting, and winning, a long war. What’s happened since? If you only consider the impact of Google’s original HTTPS update, I understand your skepticism. Prior to the update, our 10,000-keyword... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “Google announced it will be adjusting how Dynamic Search Ads are triggered over the next few months. The goal is to improve ad relevance on queries. From the announcement: For example, ads that point to a landing page about iced coffee makers will be less likely to show for less relevant searches like “iced coffee.” As the updates roll out, performance may fluctuate, says Google. You’ll want to keep an eye on the search terms report even more vigilantly than usual with DSA campaigns during the transition period to see how query matching is affected”. Google... [...]

Joe Shervell says, “As anyone familiar with Google Analytics knows, the platform has kept its keyword data hidden for some time. A number of years ago, it was possible to understand the exact words users searched to find your site, but in 2011, Google began witholding that information, and much of the data became ‘(not provided)’. Google claims this was a move towards greater privacy, on the basis that users’ website browsing habits are private and personal information. By a happy coincidence for Google, this move encourages web marketers to move towards Google Adwords in... [...]

Zak Stambor says, “The test, available to verified Google Plus accounts, adds a social element to search results. Google Inc. is experimenting with a feature that allows small businesses, brands and public figures verified in the Google Plus social network to publish posts that appear in search results related to the post. For example, when a consumer searches for the band LANY, he sees a carousel of posts that include the band’s “Where the hell are my friends” video, a link to the same song on Spotify and a link to the band’s tour dates. The search giant quietly began testing the... [...]

Ben Davis says, “On Friday, Google explicitly stated what it expects from bloggers who receive free products (read the blog post here). In a nutshell: a prominent clarification of a commercial relationship, a no-follow link and content that isn’t suspiciously hotchpotch. We already knew this, so why has it peeved some SEOs? When is a link a natural link? The Google blog post in question prompted some SEOs to bemoan the fact that marketers are finding it increasingly difficult to earn organic traffic. Hasn’t Google made online PR a more tricky proposition than offline? If a company... [...]

Zachary Evans says, “Ever click on a result in the Google Search Results Page only to have some annoying video start playing or huge pop-up ad block your entire screen? Annoying, right? Well, the good news is that Google is aggressively tweaking its search algorithm to remove pages and websites that do the kinds of things that infuriate visitors. The latest algorithmic update came at the end of 2015, and was dubbed Phantom III (because it wasn’t initially confirmed by Google) and followed two other Quality Updates designed to boost sites that provide favorable user experience. This is... [...]

Andy Taylor says, “The Google Search Network gives advertisers the ability to gain additional AdWords traffic and conversions from users across the web, as Google delivers ads on partner websites in much the same way it does on Google.com. To target users searching on these partner sites, advertisers need only check a box in campaign settings to “include search partners.” However, AdWords advertisers have long pined for a bid modifier to adjust bids for Google’s search partners, as the value of this traffic is often very different from that of clicks that come from users searching... [...]

Aaron Friedman says, “Thinking in templates We all judge people on first impressions. When we see someone for the first time, we’re quick to decide what type of person they are — based on the clothes they wear, how they style their hair, and anything else we notice that immediately puts them in a group. It’s certainly not fair, but it’s human nature. And I’d like to keep my faith in humanity and argue that lots of us try NOT to prejudge others. Google is judging you Believe it or not, Google is the same. It judges, too. Some might disagree with this theory, but our internal... [...]

Ben Davis says, “Google’s unabridged Page Quality rating guidelines were released in November 2015. Whilst some outlets covered this at the time, I thought I’d do so in purely practical terms. So, here’s a very simple checklist, based on Google’s approximation of highest and lowest quality content. It by no means covers everything in the guidelines, but references those bits that caught my eye. 1. Improve your 404 (page not found) message The Google guidelines give many examples of low, medium and high quality pages. One of the examples of a medium quality page was... [...]