seo

April 2014 Google Algorithm Updates Heavily Targeted Song Lyrics and MP3 Websites (4/05 and 4/18)

Summary: Google has rolled out multiple algorithm updates in April that heavily impacted song lyrics and mp3 websites. This post provides more information about those updates, documents specific sites that were hit, and provides some possible problems that the algo targeted. I plan to update this post as I analyze more sites impacted by the … Read more

I’m Speaking at the Weber Shandwick Data Salon on April 24th – Learn About Google Algorithm Updates, Manual Penalties, and More

I’m excited to announce that I’ll be speaking at the Weber Shandwick Data Salon on Thursday, April 24th in New York City (from 6:00PM to 7:30PM).  Each month, Weber Shandwick invites leaders from various areas of digital marketing to speak, to spark conversation, and to share ideas.  I’m thrilled to be presenting next week to … Read more

Did the Softer Panda Update Arrive on March 24, 2014? SMBs Showing Modest Recovery Across Industries

As a consultant helping a number of companies with Panda recovery, I’ve been eagerly awaiting the March Panda update.  Based on the data I have access to, I was able to pick up and analyze Panda UJan14, UFeb14, and the infamous UFeb14Rev (where Google re-rolled out the algorithm update after mistakenly hammering movie blogs).  Needless … Read more

Smartphone Rankings Demotion in Google Search Results Based on Faulty Redirects [Case Study]

In June of 2013, Pierre Far from Google explained that providing a poor mobile experience could impact a site’s rankings in the smartphone search results.  Basically, if a site is making mistakes with how it is handling mobile visits, then that site risks being demoted in the search results when users are searching from their smartphones.  … Read more

Flawed Google Algorithm Updates, Movie Blogs, and Copyright Infringement – Tracking The Panda Updates From February 2014

Summary:  Google ended up rolling out two major algorithm updates in February of 2014.  The first, which seemed like the monthly Panda update, caused serious collateral damage with a number of prominent movie blogs. After hearing from one movie blog owner, Matt Cutts of Google got involved, and Google refined the algorithm.  Two days later, … Read more

Panda UJan14 – Uncovering the Panda Update from January 11, 2014 (with a note about Expedia)

As of July 2013, Google will not confirm Panda updates anymore.  And as I explained in my post about unconfirmed Panda updates, this can lead to serious confusion for webmasters.  For example, if Panda updates are not documented, then it becomes that much harder to understand why a serious drop in organic search traffic occurred. … Read more

In-SERP Hover Cards – How Google Could Surface Your Answers, Products, Downloads, Reviews, Events, and More Directly in the Search Results

Last Wednesday, Google rolled out new functionality in the search results, which sure got the attention of SEOs across the industry.  Now when searching for information, you will sometimes see an additional link directly in the search results for specific organizations and/or websites.  Users can click on that link to view additional information about that … Read more

Rap Genius Recovery: Analyzing The Keyword Gains and Losses After The Google Penalty Was Lifted

On Christmas Day, Rap Genius was given a heck of a gift from Google.  A penalty that sent their rankings plummeting faster than an anvil off the Eiffel tower.  The loss in traffic has been documented heavily as many keywords dropped from page one to page five and beyond.  And many of those keywords used … Read more

Panda Report – How To Find Low Quality Content By Comparing Top Landing Pages From Google Organic

Note, this tutorial works in conjunction with my Search Engine Watch column, which explains how to analyze the top landing pages from Google Organic prior to, and then after, Panda arrives.  With the amount of confusion circling Panda, I wanted to cover a report webmasters can run today that can help guide them down the … Read more

Google’s Pirate Algorithm and DMCA Takedowns | Exploring the Impact Threshold

In August of 2012, Google announced an update to its search algorithm that targeted websites receiving a high number of DMCA takedown requests.  The update was unofficially called “The Pirate Update”, based on the concept of pirating someone else’s content like music, movies, articles, etc.  With the update, Google explained that “sites receiving a lot … Read more