David Freeman says, “Google has recently updated the Google My Business guidelines to state that virtual offices are not considered service-area businesses and that you need to have the virtual office staffed during business hours. A new section was added under the “address” portion of the guidelines that reads: Service-area businesses — businesses that serve customers at their locations — should have one page for the central office or location and designate a service area from that point. Service-area businesses can’t list a “virtual” office unless that office is staffed during... [...]

Barry Schwartz says, “Google has confirmed with Search Engine Land that they are discontinuing support for Google Site Search product. Google Site Search is a paid product that lets you power your internal web site’s search engine based on the Google search technology. Google charges based on monthly query volume for the product. Google said they are directing those consumers to either the ad-powered product named free custom search engine or the new cloud search product. Google will stop fully supporting the Google Site Search product by the fourth-quarter of 2017. A Google spokesperson... [...]

SBM team says, “What’s Happening? An update will soon come to the conversion tracking tool in AdWords. Since 2001, AdWords has used “Converted Clicks” to track whether or not users complete desired outcomes on ads and websites. Historically, converted clicks have shown whether or not an ad click led to the desired action on your website, and will be retired in its simplicity. Why? In its absence, the “Conversions” section within AdWords will remain, becoming the default tool for measuring user action. This is better, because Conversions tracks behavior across a bigger stretch... [...]

Marcus Miller says, “The UK Intellectual Property Office has announced what they call a “landmark agreement” between Google and Microsoft Bing for “reducing the visibility of infringing content” in the UK search results by June 1, 2017. But Google tells Search Engine Land that they are “changing nothing today as a result of the announcement/code of conduct.” Google already has a Pirate algorithm that is in place to deal with DMCA complaints and other forms of pirated content in the search results. So when we heard this announcement, we asked Google if they are changing this algorithm... [...]

Marcus Miller says, “Google has confirmed that they have temporarily disabled the ‘not mobile-friendly’ label in the mobile search results due to a bug. John Mueller of Google said that Google has turned “the label off for now” but it “should be ok soon.” This is in response to Google mislabeling pages as not mobile-friendly over the past 24- hours in the mobile search results. Even AMP pages were labeled as not being mobile-friendly. John Mueller said that “this is a bug on our side” and Google is working on fixing it”. Google temporarily disables ‘not mobile-friendly’... [...]

Jodi Harris says, “How do you measure up when it comes to measuring the impact and value of the content you are publishing? Fortunately, for most questions you may have about your content’s performance, there’s a way to find the answer – and very often, that answer can be found through Google Analytics. Chances are you already use this robust tool to track key metrics like website visits, page views, and bounce rates. But Google Analytics can also uncover deeper, more-actionable insights that can paint a clearer picture of the results your content is achieving now and reveal critical... [...]

Barry Schwartz says, “Recently, we’ve noticed complaints from webmasters that their image search traffic from Google has dropped significantly, specifically from countries like Germany, France and other countries outside of the US. The traffic drop is due to Google releasing the 2013 version of the Google Images design to more countries over the past couple of weeks. When Google made the change in the United States over three years ago, webmasters saw more than a 60 percent drop in traffic from Google Image search. The same thing is happening now in the new countries that Google pushed... [...]

Barry Schwartz says, “Google has added a new video to their do you need an SEO help document page. The 11-plus-minute video walks people through the process of hiring an SEO consultant or firm. It tells them what to look for, what questions to ask, what some of the red flags are and more. Maile Ohye from Google is the face of the video, and she does a very good job clearly documenting the main points one should look at during this process. She outlines the SEO hiring process in these three steps: Conduct a two-way interview with your potential SEO. Check that they seem genuinely interested... [...]

Dianna Huff says, “In my 17 years as a B2B SEO and marketing consultant, I hadn’t really considered giving PPC a go until Google changed the layout for its search results to remove right-side ads on desktop and to increase the number of ads appearing above the organic results to as many as four. Suddenly, SEO became a whole different ball game, especially since I work with small manufacturers, many of whom are SEO-challenged to begin with. Seeing the lower CTRs and my clients’ listings being pushed farther and farther down on the page, I realized it was time for me to learn AdWords so... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “When Google and its sibling companies at Alphabet buy ads on its own search engine, the company says it works to ensure that its participation in the ad auction doesn’t “directly inflate” what the other advertisers in that auction end up paying. The mechanics of those efforts can be hard to follow if you aren’t familiar with the AdRank system Google uses to decide which ads to show based on how much advertisers are willing to pay and the “quality score” assigned to each ad. Our story on Search Engine Land goes into those mechanics. But the bottom line is that... [...]