Ben Davis says, “As an identical twin, duplication is a topic close to my heart. Content duplication is more and more prevalent and can lead to serious search losses, irrespective of who created the original. Resellers should be particularly vigilant given that they have product listings that will have inherent similarities with other reseller and brand websites. In this post I’ll look at how ecommerce sites are being penalised in Google SERPs for having duplicate content… 1. Sports Direct and the Ralph Lauren jumper Let’s look at one example. Below you’ll see remarkably... [...]

Patricio Robles says, “As rumored earlier this year, Google has announced Customer Match, a new ad targeting product that gives AdWords advertisers the ability to target their customers through Google Search, YouTube, and Gmail. Similar to Facebook Custom Audiences, Customer Match allows advertisers to upload a list of customer email addresses, which Google then matches against the logged in users on these properties for the purpose of delivering highly-targeted ads. For example, a company with a customer loyalty program can create and target Google ads specifically for members of the... [...]

Damon Rutherford says, “How much do you really know about Google and how it ranks websites? You may have heard about the value of links to improving your rankings, but have you heard of Google penalties such as Panda and Penguin? If you have a website for your business it is more important than ever to understand how search engines work so you can improve your online visibility and, just as importantly, avoid being penalised for breaking Google’s webmaster guidelines. To the uninitiated Google can seem to move in strange and mysterious ways when it comes to ranking websites in search,... [...]

Dr. Peter J. Meyers says, “The Google landscape is constantly changing. Two years ago, I created the Mega-SERP, and within days it was already outdated. This time, we’ve set out to create a more permanent glossary of Google features – a reference that we’ll update as the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) change. If your focus is on organic SEO, why should you care about the wider world of Google features? Put simply, because rich SERP features are no longer the exception to the rule. Across 10,000 keywords tracked daily by the MozCast project, this is what we saw as of September... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “On Wednesday, Google took legal action against a search marketing firm for allegedly making illegal automated calls to small businesses and falsely claiming to be working for or with the search giant. According to the suit, the action comes more than a year after Google first contacted the agency to stop the alleged behavior. The suit, filed in the US District Court of Northern California, claims that the firm, Local Lighthouse, based in Tustin, California, made extensive and misleading use of Google’s trademarks and that the agency’s sales agents were making... [...]

Chris Perkins says, “Facebook isn’t the only tech company that wants to deliver #content to its users instantly. Google and Twitter are teaming up to create their own open-source version of Facebook’s Instant Articles, according to a Friday report by Re/Code. Google and Twitter will be developing this project open-source with the hopes that other tech companies will adopt their platform. It is said to launch this fall with a small handful of publishing partners lined up. The main differentiator between this project and Facebook’s is that Google and Twitter wouldn’t... [...]

David Nield says, “The battle for the mobile payment market can begin in earnest now: On Thursday, Google announced the official launch of Android Pay in the U.S. for later this month. Similar to Apple Pay, Android Pay will allows users to pay for goods and services with a tap of their smartphone in stores—assuming that the device supports Near Field Communication (NFC) short-range wireless technology and runs Android 4.4 KitKat or above. (The terminal itself must also support Android Pay and NFC.) However, the component of Android Pay of most interest to developers—the ability to make in-app... [...]

MOZ team says, “Through experimentation and analysis of patents that Google has submitted, we’ve come to know some interesting things about what the engine values. In today’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand covers some of what Google likely learns from certain user behavior, specifically queries, CTR, and long vs. short clicks“. The Impact of Queries, Long and Short Clicks, and Click Through Rate on Google’s Rankings – Whiteboard Friday MOZ Blog  [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “To combat ad injectors, Google has added a filter on DoubleClick Bid Manager to automatically keep advertisers from buying injected ad inventory across the exchanges it has access to. Google says it has already received nearly 300,000 complaints in 2015 from Chrome users about ad injectors. Ad injector programs can take over legitimate ad placements or put ads in places that are not designed for ads at all. Google provided the example below showing a scam ad injected on the New York Times site, complete with a pop-up. The programs often end up on users’ machines... [...]

Angela Patteys says, “If the name “Google Webmaster Tools” rings a bell for you, then you might already have an idea of what Google Search Console is. Since Google Webmaster Tools (GWT) has become a valuable resource for so many different types of people besides webmasters—marketing professionals, SEOs, designers, business owners, and app developers, to name a few—Google decided to change its name in May of 2015 to be more inclusive of its diverse group of users. If you aren’t familiar with GWT or Google Search Console, let’s head back to square one. Google Search... [...]