Webcology On Webmasterradio.fm

[During the livestreamed keynote at Google Marketing Live in San Jose, California, on Tuesday, Google executives announced several initiatives, all of which are powered by machine learning and take automation to another level. A study of billions of dollars in Pay Per Click (PPC) expenditures reveals insights into spending trends, particularly between the platforms hosted by Google and Amazon. The study was conducted by Marin Software, extrapolated from billions of dollars of PPC budgets. In February, Apple hired then Google SVP of Engineering John Giannandrea to oversee its machine learning and artificial intelligence efforts. In his eight years at Google, Giannandrea was responsible for machine learning improvements to various Google products, including search, Gmail and the Google Assistant. At the time, we wrote that it wasn’t clear what Giannandrea’s involvement with Siri would be, but the virtual assistant definitely could definitely use his help. Indeed, earlier this week, Apple merged Siri and its mac

[Jim and Dave welcome Yext’s VP of Industry Insights, Duane Forrester to talk about the rise of artificial intelligence and SEO. Plus, we learn about his work on Digital Knowledge Management, which gives businesses control of all of the public facts that they want consumers to know across the intelligent ecosystem./>

[​Google AdWords and DoubleClick​ to be rebranded as Google Ads and Google Marketing Platform. Google not punishing​ keyword stuffing, harshly. Reasons for HTML validatio​n – Roger Monti who seems to be challenging lots of what GG says. Google says they managed​ to reduce spam links by half in 2017 and that less than 1% of traffic now ends up on spammy pages./>

[Google’s local pack, the local results that show up in the main search results page, now may show different business categories next to a business’s name based on the category the user queried. Google has removed the ability for users to book rides with Uber directly through the Google Maps app. This is a feature that has been around since 2017, and was removed without any announcement other than an update to the “Request a ride” help page. Google has started showing store return policies within Google My Business listings in local search results. This was first spotted by Sergey Alakov, who posted about it on Twitter. July is shaping up to be a big month for Google. Earlier this month, the company announced its Speed Update set to roll out in July, and today announced it will then also mark all sites that have not migrated to HTTPS as “not secure.” Facebook is now monetizing groups by giving admins the option to implement monthly membership fees. Subscriptions are currently being piloted with a select numbe

[No Follow Links for SEO Ranking​; Stars, ratings, and surveys ​are not ranking factors​; Local SEO agencies new agency dashboard​ Plus, Matt Cutts gets a lifetime achievement award​ at the SMX US Search Engine Award ceremony in Seattle at SMX Advanced. Googleoffers clarification​ on some points mobile. Google doesn’t index images​ found within DIV tags. Anti-Social Media – the Three ways​ Facebook spies on you. Plus, a return appearance by acknowledged expert, sought after speaker and article contributor.​Roger Montti ./>

[Previewing the Rocks Digital Marketing Conference with featured speakers Roger Montti, Lissa Duty, Michelle Stinson Ross, and Bill Hartzer. Business owners, brand mangers and digital marketers from agencies and enterprise corporations around the United States will converge on Dallas, Texas for this national digital marketing conference later this June./>

[A comparison of mobile speed metrics of the Internet from 2017 to 2018 reveals that websites are less mobile friendly today than they were a year ago. This is bad for the Internet. But it can be good news for you. Russian search engine Yandex has introduced a smart speaker, marking the company’s first foray into the world of hardware. The company’s smart speaker, called Yandex Station, is designed to compete with the likes of Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Apple HomePod. Scammers claiming to represent Google continue to prey on small business owners. They often also make threats about removing listings or outrageous claims about ranking improvements. Sometimes they try to charge for things that are free on Google. Android Police reports Google is testing a new Google Maps interface for Android showing category search suggestions based on where you are looking at the map. Google announced notes were coming to the new AdWords interface in March at SMX West this year. The new feature has arrived. Here’s a look

[Google has a bias towards scientific truth; Google sues SEO company​ BeyondMenu, Point Break Media, and Supreme. Plus, The Ultimate Guide to WordPress and GDPR Compliance – Everything You Need to Know​. Plus, Google’s New Algorithm Creates Original Articles​ From Your Content​. />

[Kim Krause Berg, the owner of Cre8asite Forums and founder of Cre8pc, talks to Jim Hedger and guest host Kristine Schachinger about how the revered Cre8asite Forums are being close down after 20 successful years. She had recently announced: "There is no easy way to say this, so I'll make it simple. On May 25, 2018 these forums will close down. I'll make an announcement in public next week. For now, the only people who are regulars here can be found here in LABS, and it's you that I feel should learn first.  No need to read much into it. It's been over 20 years.  It's time."/>

[Gannett on Thursday announced an agreement to acquire search marketing and advertising company WordStream for $130 million in cash and up to an aggregate of $20 million earnouts during the next 24 months based on achieving certain revenue targets. Google will be deactivating AdWords accounts with no recent ad spend starting in mid-May. Previously, the company stated it would begin deactivating accounts back in March. Google Images is a way to visually discover information on the web. Users can quickly explore information with more context around images with new features, such as image captions, prominent badges, and AMP results. By adding more context around images, results can become much more useful, which can lead to higher quality traffic to your site. You can aid in the discovery process by making sure that your images and your site are optimized for Google Images. Follow our guidelines to increase the likelihood that your content will appear in Google Images search results. Google has updated the mobil

[For the first time, Google is letting agencies register accounts on Google My Business. Agencies registered with GMB will also get access to an all-new dashboard designed to meet the needs of agency partners. One of the key benefits of the new agency dashboard is the ability to manage an unlimited number of locations. Non-agency accounts are limited to 100 locations. User groups can be created that will allow agencies to manage internal teams and control access to locations. This week we reported how Google began sending out notices of sites moving to the mobile-first indexing process as part of the second batch of those sites it is rolling out to. Google has officially begun sending out email notices to site owners confirming their change from desktop indexing to mobile first indexing. And we do have some clarification on mobile friendliness being criteria or not for sites changing over. Microsoft announced a new display network, the Microsoft Audience Network (MSAN). Though the company has had the “Bing A

[Today on Webcology we talk about how Google parent Alphabet Inc. has announced financial results for the first quarter of 2018. The company reported $31.1 billion in quarterly revenue, which was down sequentially but up year over year. Revenues beat Wall Street consensus estimates by about $870 million, and earnings also beat analyst expectations. Bill Slawski published an article noting that Google updated a patent related to PageRank. This is an important algorithm because it affects how sites are ranked and explain why some sites rank well while others do not. A Drupal core vulnerability was announced on the official Drupal website. This is called the SA-CORE-2018-004 vulnerability. This vulnerability allows a remote attacker to execute code on a Drupal website through “multiple attack vectors.” The official Drupal site recommends upgrading to the most recent versions of Drupal 7 or 8. Attacks based on this vulnerability have not yet been observed in the wild. So it’s important to get ahead of it and up

[Net Neutrality remains alive and legislated in California​; Google and Anchor Text​; The last available IPv4 address block has gone​​; Hmmmm - Google Generally Prefers One Stronger Page Versus Many Smaller Pages​; Google loses ‘right to be forgotten’ case in UK High Court.​ The decision likely to spark other appeals to courts by those denied de-listing. />

[​Facebook said Wednesday​ that as many as 87 million people might have had their data accessed — an increase from the 50 million disclosed in published reports. Apple Hires Google’s A.I. Chief​ as Ben Gomes To Take Over Search At Google​, John Giannandrea Steps Down​. John Giannandrea who replaced Amit Singhal as head of Google Search is going to Apple.​ Plus, how structured Data helps a site rank​, SEO for Rich Results: How to Find & Fix Structured Data Errors​ and Blockchain and SEO​./>

[Jim Hedger and guest host Kristine Schachinger welcome Alicia Wanless-Berk – Digital Propaganda Expert @ La Generalista. La Generalista is an online publication that investigates influence and propaganda in a digital age. Plus, With Google pushing into retail and Amazon into advertising, where should you invest your ad budget and No Reset button for penalized sites/>

[Google will start deactivating AdWords accounts next week if they have not spent any money in the past 15 months. This will occur automatically in an attempt to “speed up” the AdWords experience. An email notification will be sent to individual AdWords users when their account has been deactivated. Mike Blumenthal reports that Google is now slowly rolling out the new Google My Business dashboard that it announced back in November 2017. I have had the new dashboard for my account for a month or so, but according to Mike, who watches the space closely, it is rolling out to more people slowly now. Google's new Search Console which is live for all just got some upgrades Google wants to share with you. Google shared on Twitter that the upgrades are mostly "visual updates" to the reporting in the tool./>

[According to a report from Reuters, the European Commission has proposed new rules that will require search engines, commerce sites and online platforms to explain how they rank results and to reveal why companies are penalized or removed from listings or results. Google is showing answers in the search results without showing any organic listings or ads or anything but the answer. Yehoshua Coren posted on Twitter a screen shot of him going to Google and Google returning the answer and a button to show search results. Google's John Mueller said on Twitter that Google does not "pass signals through a lot of different kinds of links," when asked if Google automatically nofollow Amazon affiliate links.Google has confirmed a core algo update happened last week. Google’s Danny Sullivan stated that Google was not targeting low quality websites. He explicitly confirmed that there is nothing wrong to fix in sites that lose rankings. This announcement is important because it squashes the usual Phantom Update speculat

[Yoast WordPress SEO Plugin creator Joost de Valk opens a Diversity Fund. It aims to cover the cost of travel and accommodation for speakers that increase the diversity of speakers at a given conference. ​Plus, Site or page update frequency is not a ranking signal​ Occlus Wrecked?​​ Google: Titles & Descriptions​​ Are Easy Wins For SEO​; Bing has confirmed​​ support for JSON-LD formatted Schema.org markup​; Google Image Search​​ Product Schema Shows New Product Filter​/>

[Backlinko has done an extensive analysis of “voice search ranking factors” and identified 11 variables tied to appearing in Google Home results. The company examined 10,000 results delivered over the smart speaker. What Backlinko found was consistent with what many others have been saying but there were also a few surprises. For example, the study discounts the impact of Schema to some degree and page authority. Eric Bidelman from Google posted a PSA, public service announcement, that since GoogleBot is based on Chrome 41, Google is unable to crawl CSS Custom Properties. Using CSS custom properties (variables) CSS variables are entities defined by CSS authors that contain specific values to be reused throughout a document. They are set using custom property notation (e.g. --main-color: black; ) and are accessed using the var() function (e.g., color: var(--main-color); Eric said he ran into the issue himself when he was deploying a layout or design that relies on vars. He said make sure you are compiling CSS

[RIP Jill Sampey; Google: Content Order, Position & Placement Matters​. Where you place your content on your page can impact your rankings. Daron Babin got a couple cats. WebmasterRadio.FM just wanted to be sure everyone knows that. We’re one of the 12 best!​We’re one of the 12 best! Vote early, vote often. Vote like a Ruskiebot with a stolen VPN. China cracks down on funeral strippers hired to entertain mourners, attract larger crowds​ Vahan Petrosyan explains how to take a WP site​ from http to https and offers a bunch of shortcuts in an article that runs like a checklist. Great resource to bookmark, especially for newer SEOs Avoid an SEO Disaster During a Website Redesign​ and Pubcon Austin is on – SMX Advanced is upcoming! June 12 – 13 Seattle/>