Chris Silver Smith says, “A number of attorneys who specialize in online defamation/libel cases have reported to me that Google has recently suspended its longstanding, informal policy of removing URLs from US search results that are specified in duly executed court orders. This poses a major paradigm shift for many victims of online reputation attacks. Beginning around August or September of this year, a number of attorneys from across the US began receiving blanket denials after submitting requests to remove defamatory content from Google’s search results. Since at least 2009, Google... [...]

Matt Lawson says, “As we move into the last few weeks of 2016, I’ve been feeling reflective. (Blame it on the eggnog.) Looking back, this was a big year for the Google Display Network. In July, the Google Display Network launched responsive ads. And in late September, we announced cross-device remarketing, display store visits and display location extensions. We’ve gotten a lot of questions on these new features. In favor of starting 2017 off on the right foot, I decided to dedicate a full Q&A to answer the top questions we’ve heard from you. Here we go… 1. How do I set up cross-device... [...]

Barry Schwartz says, “This morning, Google began sending out notices through the Google Search Console to websites that have login and password fields on pages that are not over HTTPS. The notification says nonsecure Collection of Passwords will trigger warnings in Chrome 56 for domain.com. Chrome 56 in January will issue a security warning for web pages that have these login fields without serving them on a page that is over HTTPS. The message reads: Beginning in January 2017, Chrome (version 56 and later) will mark pages that collect passwords or credit card details as “Not Secure”... [...]

John Lincoln says, “Google just started rolling out the so-called “mobile-first” index. It’s going to change the way that your site gets ranked in the search engine results pages (SERPs). Here are a things you need to know about the mobile-first index so that you can optimize your website accordingly. What is the mobile-first index? By now, you probably know that Google crawls your site to add pages to its index. That is, it uses a bot to surf around your site like a real visitor and follows links on your pages. In the past, Google crawled your site as a desktop user. Now, however,... [...]

Brett Middleton says, “For the founder sitting in coworking spaces like The Farm SoHo or CoCo Minneapolis, or working from a home office, the harsh environment of Google AdWords can feel like a trap. Where do you even start? Do you hire someone to manage your campaigns, or do you try to get by in the beginning by having your intern do it? No matter what you do, it can feel like the wrong choice; advertising your business for the first time can be very stressful. But you’re taking a leap, and you should applaud yourself for it — and then use these tips to start generating growth. Who... [...]

Danny Sullivan says, “Early next year, Google will make it easier for those viewing AMP content in its search results to find and share URLs that lead directly back to publishers, rather than to Google itself. Currently, AMP content — accelerated mobile pages — are loaded differently by Google than regular content. Clicking on regular content generally takes people away from Google and to publishers’ sites. Clicking on AMP content keeps people at Google, with a Google URL appearing for that content. Showing a Google URL can be confusing to those who want to share AMP content and... [...]

Jeffrey Vocell says, “So, you’ve developed an amazing site. You’ve put together some seriously valuable content, iterated on the design, and gathered a ton of feedback. Now, you’re finally feeling ready to share it with the world. And as soon as you publish your new site for the world to see, all of your content will immediately start showing up in Google, right? Well, maybe. Although, it takes a little more than just hitting the publish button. To get your site listed, you’ll need to check a few boxes first. Let’s walk through it … How Google Finds Your... [...]

Barry Schwartz says, “Google has announced they’ve upgraded the AMP reports within the Google Search Console to “clearly differentiate between the critical issues that would prevent your page from being shown in the search results, and the other non-critical issues that would be good to fix.” So those errors labeled as “critical” would mean Google cannot index that AMP content, and thus it won’t rank in the search results. The non-critical issues are more likely around richer results that do not prevent the content from being indexed but prevent it being enhanced in the search... [...]

Danny Sullivan says, “As Google has come under fire for search suggestions like “are women evil” or actual results questioning whether the Holocaust happened, those who oversee its search engine aren’t ignoring the issue. They’re just taking time to figure out the best and most comprehensive response. This week, I met with several engineers and executives involved with Google’s search results, including Ben Gomes, vice president of core search. There’s no question that Google has heard the concerns. There’s no question that those within Google itself are disturbed by what’s... [...]

Diana Huff says, ““Our traffic is going down,” said a client in a recent email. Attached to the email was a chart showing this year’s traffic compared to last year’s traffic. Yep, traffic had indeed gone down. The reason for the downward trend was easy to diagnose: we had created a Filtered View in Google Analytics, which excluded traffic coming from the people within the client’s company who accessed the website daily. More important, we had excluded referral spam. The referral spam had become so bad, it had outpaced organic search and was skewing data in the worst way. I explained... [...]