Last week Matt Cutts made a post about how to connect your Linux computer to a Wii balance board using Bluetooth. This post happened to make the Digg homepage, however what was really interesting is the way he did it, which has exposed an exploitable hole in Digg.
How Google Profiles SEO’s
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.
Wikipedia Invades Google News
The following screen shot has to be seen to be believed 7 wikipedia articles listed as news sources in google news (picture after the jump click to enlarge)(link if you can’t see it)
The Only Real Hoax is that Google Treats Everyone The Same
Lately there’s been quite a bit of brouhaha over a fairly popular bit of hoax marketing involving a teenager, stolen credit cards, and prostitutes. I’m no stranger to hoax marketing in fact I advocated it back in 2006 and have been debating it with Matt Cutts for at least as long. While I don’t expect either of our viewpoints will … [Continue reading The Only Real Hoax is that Google Treats Everyone The Same]
How To Figure Out What Parts of Your Website Aren’t Being Crawled
When Google took away the supplemental index last year, they killed one of the key diagnostic tools in the SEO’s toolbox, the ability to identify which parts of a site were unimportant (and being infrequently crawled) in a search engines eyes. However with the use of some structured text and clever searches I’m going to give you back that valuable … [Continue reading How To Figure Out What Parts of Your Website Aren’t Being Crawled]
Why You Should Be Worried About Google Search Wiki
I’ve been beating the drum about why personaized search and google’s search wiki are bad since their rollout. Even though I understand why google does it, and get that why they push it’s adoption. But I still think it’s a bad idea, and late last week I saw an example of why it’s bad and dangerous, and why it’s something … [Continue reading Why You Should Be Worried About Google Search Wiki]
HCards, Microformats and Address Data does it Matter for SEO
A few weeks ago @etnainteractive asked me a question on twitter about HCards and Microformats, and do they matter for SEO. I’m going to explain what they are for those of you who don’t know what thay is. I’m also going to be taking a bigger look at address data and SEO implications.
Dear Matt Cutts, What We Have is a Failure to Communicate
Dear Matt Cutts, I know you and I don’t always see eye to eye on everything, but I think we’ve got enough of a working relationship that I feel comfortable saying, that the way the brand update/ Vince change, went down could have been better. Indulge me while I make an analogy to prove a point.
Helping Google Build a Better Bookmarking Tool
A lot of the time I’m pretty critical of Google, and while I may not agree with everything they do, or every agenda they push, there is no denying that have made the web a better place, and have provided us with some really helpful tools. One of the areas that they have missed the mark on is bookmarks, off … [Continue reading Helping Google Build a Better Bookmarking Tool]
Google FINALLY Admits That GWO Could F*** Up Your Rankings
Google’s official line on their Google Website Optimizer (GWO) A/B testing tool was that using it would not make your site trip a cloaking filter (since essentially A/B or MVT testing shows different versions of the same page to different people). They claimed it was SEO-safe in other words. BULL****.
Tips to Prevent Negative SEO
In mid July of 2012, Google sent out a wave of “unnatural linking warnings” to many webmasters. They later said you could ignore these warnings. This was followed up by a Microsoft clippy style passive aggressive letter saying they were going to discount the “unnatural links” but that you should file a re-inclusion request anyway. The whole situation is insane … [Continue reading Tips to Prevent Negative SEO]
How Google is Filled With Hypocrisy and Will Steal Your Intellectual Property
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 Google’s Javascript Bot Can Kill Your Website
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]
The Importance of Testing in SEO
As a WebmasterWorld Moderator for the Google SEO section I am asked questions everyday and honestly most of them really upset me. I don’t mean a little upsetting, I mean like turning into a big green monster that starts saying “me hulk smash tings”. Why am I so worked up? Because the questions are simple and already answered? Nope. Just … [Continue reading The Importance of Testing in SEO]
The Role Social Media Plays In Crawling a Website
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.
How to Build an Affiliate Website Google Doesn’t Hate
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.
Why Simple Websites Will Always Lead to Better SEO
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
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 Google Plans to Steal More of Your Traffic
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.
How to Turn Off Personalized Search in Google Chrome
With the impending arrival of Google OS I’ve been spending more time in Google Chrome, and figuring out how to customize things to my liking. Here’s a tip on how to turn off personalized search in Google Chrome.