seo

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

A Double Penguin Recovery (via 2.1 Update) – But Does It Reveal A Penguin Glitch?

Summary: I analyzed the first double Penguin recovery I have come across during my research (after the Penguin 2.1 update). But what I found could reveal a glitch in the Penguin algorithm. And that glitch could be providing a false sense of security to some business owners. If you have followed my blog and Search … Read more

Penguin 2.1 Analysis and Findings (Based on the October 4, 2013 Update)

On Friday, October 4th at 4:50PM, Matt Cutts announced that Penguin 2.1 was rolling out.  It was shortly after reading that update that I tweeted we could be in for an icy weekend (as the latest update would surely take out more websites).  But on the flip side, a new update also meant that more … Read more

A Wolf in Panda’s Clothing – How An Expired SSL Certificate Could Impact Organic Search Traffic

Summary: How I helped an ecommerce retailer recover from Panda in eight days, when it was never Panda in the first place. A few weeks ago, I had a business owner reach out to me about a potential Panda hit.  His initial email to me was similar to many others I have seen.  He noticed … Read more

Avoiding Dirty Sitemaps – How to Download and Crawl XML Sitemaps Using Screaming Frog

SEO Audits are a core service I provide, including both comprehensive audits and laser-focused audits tied to algorithm updates.  There are times during those audits that I come across strange pages that are indexed, or I see crawl errors for pages not readily apparent on the site itself.  As part of the investigation, it’s smart … Read more