Ayaz Nanji says, “Google’s search engine is displaying fewer organic results on it first page this year than it was last year, and it’s increasingly presenting different experiences for desktop and smartphone users, according to recent research from Searchmetrics. The report was based on 2016 data from 500,000 general, frequently searched keywords. The researchers examined the first Google search results page for each term and analyzed how 11 features (text results, product listing ads, images, news, maps, etc.) were integrated. Whereas Google used to almost always display 10... [...]

Patricio Robles says, “If you needed any more evidence that mobile has taken over the world, you got it last week when news broke that Google is going to be creating a dedicated mobile index. Here’s what you need to know about it. It’s coming in a few months According to Google’s Gary Illyes, the new mobile index will be launched within “months.” So it’s right around the corner. It will be made the primary index Perhaps the most important aspect of Google’s announcement is that the new mobile index will be made the primary index. The decision isn’t... [...]

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,... [...]

Matt McGee says, “Google has announced big changes to its four-year-old Google Consumer Surveys product. It’s essentially splitting the tool in two: a new version specifically for enterprise-level marketers that’s integrated into the Analytics 360 Suite, and the existing consumer-level survey tool that’s been renamed and moved under the Google Analytics umbrella. Google is also promising changes in design and functionality to the latter. New: Google Surveys 360 The new enterprise-level tool announced today is Google Surveys 360, which sits inside the Google Analytics 360 Suite. With... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “Advertisers can now get forecasts for their existing keywords, in addition to campaigns, in Keyword Planner. If you haven’t checked out this feature in Keyword Planner, it’s worth taking a look. After clicking on the “Select from account” button shown above, there is an option to select Campaign or Keyword from a drop-down. After making your selections, the tool offers performance forecasting and various looks at search volume trends. In the performance forecast screen, you can see how changes in bids could affect performance for the campaigns or keywords selected.... [...]

Tony Edward says, “Google has been testing a new content platform called “Posts with Google,” and it could have a huge impact on brand searches, for both paid and organic. We all know that Google has had its struggles with trying to develop its own social network; Google Buzz is dead, and Google Plus seems to be on its way out. This new platform seems to have some social elements to it, though it is very different from a social network. On the official site for this platform, Google states the following: Every day millions of people search on Google, many of whom are looking for information... [...]

Barry Schwartz says, “Every year we like to get a Googler who is close with the ranking and search quality team to give us future thinking points to relay to the search marketing community. In part two of our interview with Gary Illyes of Google, we asked him that question. After a little bit of coercion, Illyes told us three things: (1) Machine learning (2) AMP (3) Structured data He said: Well I guess you can guess that we are going to focus more and more on machine learning. Pretty much everywhere in search. But it will not take over the core algorithm. So that’s one thing. The other... [...]

Barry Schwartz says, “Google has launched a new testing tool for AMP (accelerated mobile pages). The new tool is available at https://search.google.com/search-console/amp and from within the Google Search Console. The tool works on your mobile device and uses Google’s “live web-search infrastructure” to analyze the AMP page with the real Googlebot — so the result is done in real time. It tests the validity of the AMP markup and structured data on the page related to AMP. If issues are found, you will be able to click on them to see details. Even the line in the source-code will be... [...]

Barry Schwartz says, “Google is going to create a separate mobile index within months, one that will be the main or “primary” index that the search engine uses to respond to queries. A separate desktop index will be maintained, one that will not be as up-to-date as the mobile index. The news came today during a keynote address from Gary Illyes, a webmaster trends analyst with Google, at Pubcon. Illyes didn’t give a timeline in his talk, but in a follow-up with Search Engine Land, he confirmed that it would happen within “months.” Google first announced that it was experimenting... [...]

Julie Ask says, “Google held an event in San Francisco this week to announce several new consumer products – a smartphone, a wireless speaker, Wi-Fi routers, a virtual reality headset and an updated Chromecast solution. All showcased an emerging strategic direction for Google and some killer engineering and design skills. None of it impressed as much as the demos of Google Assistant – Google’s virtual assistant. What is a virtual assistant, you ask? A virtual assistant is another name for an intelligent (personal) assistant. Virtual assistants orchestrate agents or services from third... [...]