Dan Shewan says, “In September of last year, when Google Hummingbird was officially announced, Matt Cutts said that it would affect 90% of all searches, albeit in a subtle way. Considering that Google handles more than 3.5 billion searches every day, this means Google Hummingbird affects more than 3.15 billion of them. Not exactly an inconsequential update”. How Google Hummingbird Changed the Future of Search Business2Community.com  [...]

Kevin Webster says, “Knowing the source of your web traffic — organic search, paid search, social media, direct — is important. But taking a look at what your visitors are actually doing and accomplishing on your website is also key. Studying traffic flow can indicate a few potential problems in website navigation or marketing messages, as well as point out what your website is doing well. Google Analytics provides a tool in the Behavior section that can help you visualize the intent of your web visitors, and determine where visitors are dropping out of your goal funnels”. Google Analytics:... [...]

Karissa Bell says, “Google had no shortage of announcements during its almost-three-hour developers conference on Wednesday. Some announcements, like Android Wear and Android L, were expected; others took us by surprise and played out differently than anticipated. Just in case you didn’t watch the full conference, we’ve rounded up some of the biggest highlights, below. Android L Google appears to be ditching its dessert theme with the latest version of Android, simply called Android L, which will roll out to users in the fall. (A preview version is available to developers now.)”. Google... [...]

Dan Rowinski says, “Google is about ready to set its yearly agenda. Its I/O conference, which starts Wednesday, is Google’s main opportunity to showcase what it’s been working on across its sprawling techno-empire. We don’t know if Google will continue to throw everything but the kitchen sink into its keynote address like it did in last year’s three-and-a-half hour extravaganza, but it seems safe to predict that there’s going to be one main star of the show: Android. Sure, Google will probably have something to say about its Chrome OS, its nascent but burgeoning... [...]

Dan Barker says, “Did Google make £3.768bn from users who had no idea they were being advertised to? Here’s a study of 2,000 people where we try to find the answer to that question & more. You may remember two studies which found that 40% of people did not understand that Google ads were ads in 2013, and that 36% still don’t understand this in 2014. These were researcher-led user tests, of around 100 people each, led by Bunnyfoot”. How many web users are unaware of Google’s PPC ads? ‘Econsultancy’ Blog  [...]

Allison Howen says, “For many brick-and-mortar businesses, the biggest challenge with building an online presence is using it to attract attention from a local audience. Google is looking to make local visibility less of a challenge with the launch of its new Google My Business platform. Local merchants and service providers can now create and manage their business listings across the Web, including on Google Search, Maps and Google+, from one location. With increased visibility on these popular platforms, companies are more likely to attract foot traffic from local consumers searching... [...]

Christina Warren says, “Watch out, GoDaddy. Google is making moves on your turf. It looks like the search giant is getting into the domain registrar business; Google has a “beta” site available at domains.google.com. SEE ALSO: First 100 Generic Internet Domains Include .Rich, .Sexy and .Ninja The service is invite-only for now, but it looks like it will provide a bevy of features typically found on registrars such as GoDaddy, Namecheap and Hover”. Google Is Getting Into Domains. Should GoDaddy Worry? Mashable  [...]

The latest article on ‘Website Magazine’ is titled “Panda 4.0: Good News for True Performance Marketers”. Sylvia Nankivell says, “When we hear Google has released another algorithm update, site owners, and in particular affiliate site owners, tend to feel a sense of anxiety, and sometimes even a little panicked. The introduction of Penguin and Panda updates have seen many affiliate sites taking hits to their traffic over the past few years, and have even led some to be pushed out of the affiliate business altogether. Certainly, the rules are a lot harder than they used to be. So,... [...]

The latest MOZ blog post is titled “Feeding the Hummingbird: Structured Markup Isn’t the Only Way to Talk to Google”. Cyrus Shepard says, “Many SEOs limit their understanding of entity search to vague concepts of structured data, Schema.org and Freebase. They fall into the trap of thinking that the only way to participate in the entity SEO revolution is to markup your HTML with complex schema.org microdata. Let’s explore why this isn’t true”. Feeding the Hummingbird: Structured Markup Isn’t the Only Way to Talk to Google MOZ Blog  [...]

The latest post on ‘Mashable’ is titled “Google Launches New Platform to Connect Businesses With Customers”. Jason Abbruzzese says, “Google wants to create a better business directory and, this time, they mean business. On Thursday the tech giant launched Google My Business, a one-stop way for merchants to manage their presence on a variety of the company’s properties including search, maps and Google+. Business owners that had been using Places for Business or Google+ will be transitioned to the new platform. There is also an Android app that can be used to manage business... [...]