Google has long been an advocate of “build great content”; however, in reality, it’s turning into “build great content … and if we like it we’ll take it from you, put it on our pages, and deprive you of that traffic. Without compensation.” Strong accusations, sure, but I’m willing to step up to the plate, put my money where my … [Continue reading Is Google Stealing Your Content and Hijacking Your Traffic]
Traffic Down From Panda Update – Diversify Your Traffic Sources
Post Updated: April 11, 2018 - By
Recently Google had an update and some webmasters were significantly impacted. Google has had many big updates and will have many more. If your rankings are soured by an update you may become angry at Google. IMHO that is just not the smartest or most profitable approach.
How to Get Reviews For Your Website
Post Updated: March 27, 2018 - By
Reviews are an extremely powerful asset for many websites. They can provide a continual stream of fresh, new, and unique content that is good for the users, which is ultimately what everyone wants. However, there are some upsides and downsides to reviews, and there is the big hurdle of figuring out how to get reviews and integrate them. In this … [Continue reading How to Get Reviews For Your Website]
How Google Plans to Steal More of Your Traffic
Post Updated: March 5, 2018 - By
At the SMX Advanced Conference in June of 2014, Danny Sullivan had a Question and Answer session with Matt Cutts. During this session, Matt did a live search demo that, in my opinion, demonstrated that Google wants to take the search traffic it’s currently sending to other websites and keep it for themselves.
Why Simple Websites Will Always Lead to Better SEO
Post Updated: February 17, 2018 - By
Earlier this year it was discovered that Google was having a problem crawling Apple’s website and, as a result, direct links to apps weren’t showing in the results. The next few days involved lots of finger pointing, blame shuffling, and hang wringing; but, a few non public changes later, things were sorted out. This, however, set a very bad example that … [Continue reading Why Simple Websites Will Always Lead to Better SEO]
How Google Continues to Kill Organic Results
Post Updated: February 10, 2018 - By
As someone who has been involved in the search industry for over a decade, one of the things that really bothers me is how Google is slowly but inevitably taking all of the “above the fold” organic search result space and giving it to paid results, Google web properties, and to the Google Knowledge graph.
How to Add Search Shortcuts to Google Chrome.
Post Updated: February 2, 2018 - By
Last week Danny Sullivan twittered he was looking for a creative commons image to use. Christine Churchill poked a little fun at me wondering how I was able to get that so quickly. The trick is using search shortcuts, and I’m going to show you how to do it.
How Google is Filled With Hypocrisy and Will Steal Your Intellectual Property
Post Updated: February 1, 2018 - By
If there is one thing Google is good at, it’s framing themselves and their actions as being “good for the user” and for the benefit of others while playing down how their actions are self-serving. However, those of us who have been around the block a few times know that Google plays fast and loose with rules, employing them when … [Continue reading How Google is Filled With Hypocrisy and Will Steal Your Intellectual Property]
How I Got Lost Using Google Maps and the iPhone
Post Updated: February 1, 2018 - By
Over the years chances are you’ve seen stories about Google Maps or similar services sending people off course, sometimes by hundreds of miles. When you use any of the mapping or GPS services you always have to use common sense, but I’ve always wondered if this happens because these people maybe aren’t the most technologically savvy people out there. However … [Continue reading How I Got Lost Using Google Maps and the iPhone]
How Google Profiles SEO’s
Post Updated: January 29, 2018 - By
At SMX one of the more contentious subjects was the debate over Google’s Android Phone giveaway, and demonstration that they are in practice profiling SEO’s.
Facebook and Google+ Competing For Your Attention
Post Updated: January 28, 2018 - By
With the launch of Google+, the inevitable tech fan boys preaching the downfall of Facebook–because a new shiny cat toy caught their attention–was laughably predictable. As SEO’s, internet marketers, and social media consultants, we have to be involved in these games, or we risk losing our competitive edge. However, what we really need to understand is that this is a … [Continue reading Facebook and Google+ Competing For Your Attention]
Why Big Brand Media Sites Are The Real Cesspool of the Internet
Post Updated: January 19, 2018 - By
Eric Schmidt of Google famously remarked last year that “The internet is fast becoming a cesspool where false information thrives” and that brands were the way out. Well Eric I’m going to show you not only did you get it wrong , but you got it very wrong, not only are big brands just as responsible for the pollution of … [Continue reading Why Big Brand Media Sites Are The Real Cesspool of the Internet]
Filter Bubble Book Review
Post Updated: October 5, 2017 - By
The Filter Bubble is a new book by Eli Pariser that addresses the subject of how personalization of sites like Google and Facebook are sheltering us from information that doesn’t agree with our world view. Instead of the Internet being a window to new experiences and viewpoints, it becomes a mirror, reflecting back only what we already believe.
Cleaning Up After Google’s URL Mess
Post Updated: September 16, 2017 - By
Recently Google announced the release of their own URL shortening service, Goo.gl. If we put aside the data gathering aspects for a moment, this product is the third in a series of products that make the web a more difficult place to crawl. In this post we’ll follow a Goo.gl URL through its course and look at the trail of … [Continue reading Cleaning Up After Google’s URL Mess]
25 Things I’d like to See Google Fix
Post Updated: September 13, 2017 - By
While I’m well known for being critical of many of the things Google does, I’m also a power user of site and many of their tools. Being a power user gives me a unique insight to see some areas these tools could be improved. This post is written in the spirit of constructive criticism, since I know my posts sometimes … [Continue reading 25 Things I’d like to See Google Fix]
How to Build an Affiliate Website Google Doesn’t Hate
Post Updated: August 13, 2017 - By
In over a decade of working on websites I’ve see a lot of affiliate websites. Some were good but a lot were very bad. In this post, I’ll share my experiences about what I think Google is looking for and the common traits of things I’ve seen fail.
The Role Social Media Plays In Crawling a Website
Post Updated: August 11, 2017 - By
There have been many debates about the value social media plays in having content rank. While nothing has been definitively resolved, it has been shown to be beneficial in the short term. In this post I’d like to take a look at a different aspect: the impact social media has on crawling and indexing.
Is Google Playing Monkey Games With Real Time Search
Post Updated: July 27, 2017 - By
Last week Google launched real time SERP’s, which included the possibility for twitter and facebook updates to appear in searches for popular information, news, or for someone’s name. The potential for libel and potential for spam has already been discussed. What hasn’t been addressed is the problems it can create for reputation management. Specificall, how it can create problems for … [Continue reading Is Google Playing Monkey Games With Real Time Search]
How Google’s Javascript Bot Can Kill Your Website
Post Updated: July 19, 2017 - By
In recent years due to developers misguided attempts to make the web a more interesting place with things like JavaScript and Ajax, search engines have had to come up with new tools to make the content that’s hidden behind these technologies accessible. While I’m sure the people at the Googleplex have nothing but the best intentions behind developing these advanced … [Continue reading How Google’s Javascript Bot Can Kill Your Website]
