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... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “Ad disapproval notices are typically uninteresting bland affairs, free of controversy. Last week, however, a disapproval notice from Google raised eyebrows. WordStream received a disapproval notice for a Gmail ad — the ads looks similar to email messages and appear in the Promotions tab — in a campaign that used “curvy” and “plus size” keywords in the targeting. The disapproval reason given in the AdWords UI simply stated, “Gmail Ads- Body type and personality targeting”. It was the full policy explanation that the team received that caused... [...]

Varun Sharma says, “A new year brings along new opportunities and new challenges. The SEO world, too, is preparing to combat unexpected threats, especially from various Google penalties. What are those possible threats? Imagine, you wake up one fine morning and get a call from the office reporting, “We have lost all traffic,” and your heart stops. It’d be no less than a nightmare… your worst nightmare, in fact. But did you know this could really happen, at any time? Whether you like it or not, websites in variety of niches depend on Google for a high percentage of their traffic.... [...]

Lei Sun says, “Google has spoken — and an important part of the mobile web will never be the same. At least that’s the theory, and certainly the search giant’s intention. Google sees app install interstitials — those big ads that pop up suddenly on the mobile web and monopolize all of your mobile device screen to prompt you to download an app, rather than let you keep surfing — as too annoying to users. On November 2, the company therefore put in place a new policy to discourage the ads. According to this policy, Google has since penalized mobile websites that use such interstitials... [...]

Jonha Richman says, “Google’s latest change in the way it looks for URLs on the Web may give small business owners one more reason to switch to HTTPS. In an effort to secure users from man-in-the-middle attacks or data modification while browsing the Web, Google has recently announced its adjusting its indexing system to look for more HTTPs pages. In a recent announcement, Google’s Webmaster Trends Analyst, Zineb Ait Bahajji said that the company is now going to index HTTPS pages first before the equivalent HTTP page. This means that even if you have an HTTP URL, Google will make... [...]

Ryan Stewart says, “Earlier this year, Google rolled out the Related Questions feature (AKA “People Also Ask”). If you haven’t seen them yet, related questions appear in an expandable box, mixed in with organic results. Once expanded, a typical answer contains a machine-generated snippet, a link to the source website, and a link to the Google search for the question. How common are related questions? We started tracking Related Questions in late July on the MozCast 10K, where they originally appeared on roughly 1.3% of queries. Keep in mind that the MozCast set tends toward... [...]

Dr. Peter J. Meyers says, “As part of the MozCast 10K (a 10,000-keyword daily Google tracker), we keep a close eye on the domains with the most page-one Google real-estate. As of December 1st, these were the “Big 10”. “Share” represents the percentage of total results each domain has across the entire data set. Of course, absolute rankings can vary a lot depending on the data set, but what’s more interesting is how any given brand moves over time. We watch day-to-day movements closely as search marketers, and often track winners and losers when Google announces... [...]