Tag: google

March 7, 2016

Domain Related

Reading Time: 3 minutes

For the past 1-2 weeks your Google desktop search results pages have begun looking a little different; depending on how much you notice the ads. Google has begun to stop displaying ads on right-hand side of the search results page on desktops. Google has officially has confirmed the development as well. Instead of showing ads on the right-hand side of the desktop view - Google’s search results pages will now show “4” ads on the top, and some on the bottom of the results page. Google AdWords, the company’s advertising service, will be displaying 4 ads above organic search results; 0 ads on the right of search results, and 3 more ads below search results. Google had tested displaying 4 ads atop search results; as we observed in December. The removal of these ads from the right sidebar of results makes Google’s desktop search results pages look a lot more like mobile search results pages; which are displayed in a device-wide column. It also means advertisers will have to pay a premium for the smaller number of available ad-slots on search results pages; especially the 4 spots atop search results. Google’s “Product Listing Ads” (P.L.A.s) is the only possible tenant of that page space and still appears in the right column of more commercial search results. The Knowledge panel, which shows business information, will also appear in the right sidebar of desktop search results. read_more “We’ve been testing this layout for a long time, so some people might see it on a very small number of commercial queries,” a Google spokesperson said. “We’ll continue to make tweaks, but this is designed for highly commercial queries where the layout is able to provide more relevant results for people searching and better performance for advertisers.” According to a statement that Google put out, the change is global and will affect all regions in all languages. This news has shocked many that the company was limiting the number of adverts to only the top and bottom of search results pages shows. Although some adverts are being removed - an additional advertisement will be shown at the top of the page for advertising; and...

November 23, 2015

Hosting Related, SEO Related

Reading Time: 2 minutes

A representative from Google tweeted out something many Webmasters and SEO-minded people have usually presumed there was no issue with. However, in the case of having your page content indexed by the Google search engine, for best results your content should be plainly visible on the page as it loads, instead of being hidden in on-screen widgets that are typically programmed in Javascript. The representative, Gary Illyes, said in his tweet that Google doesn’t consider (or ‘index’ in search engine lingo) content that is programmed into Javascript. So, basically if important parts of your content are embedded in Javascript code, then you may want to reconsider the design of your website. This doesn’t imply that Javascript functionality isn’t ‘worth it’. It most likely is. Only if say 20% of your content is hidden by it until the viewer clicks “see more” or “expand”, then it might be worth trying another design technique. Google “won’t see the content behind tabs if the content under the tab is dynamically generated.” What did Google precisely admit in their most recent statement? Gary Illyes of Google said on Twitter: “ If you put content in a Javascript array and only expand them when you click e.g. ‘…’, those contents won’t be indexed by Google.” Here is a snapshot of his November 4th tweet: How can you check if Google is indexing your web pages? If Google cannot index your web pages fully or correctly, your web pages probably won’t rank as high as they probably would rank otherwise. It is a good idea to check if Google, and other search engines, are indexing your pages in full - and that your pages contain everything that the various search engine robots expect or require when spidering over your website. If you’d like help with your SEO efforts, please write us at support (at) 4goodhosting.com and we’d gladly consult and provide a quote to you for SEO optimization for your website.

March 25, 2014

SEO Related

Reading Time: 2 minutes

comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) published a monthly analysis of the US search market for February 2014. Following are the key points and the figures correspond to the number of explicit core searches. • Google's sites topped the list with 67.5% (11.9 billion). • Microsoft scored 18.4 % (3.3 billion) • Yahoo sites' scored 10.3 % (1.8 billion). • Ask Network scored 2.4 % (431 million). • AOL, Inc. earned 1.3 % (235 million). In terms of change in points (when compared to January 2014), only Microsoft's sites showed a positive change (up 0.1 %). Google and Yahoo! had a negative change - 0.1 % each. Ask Network and AOL, Inc. showed no change. In terms of percentage change (when compared to January 2014), following were the scores – all had negative scores. • Google's sites: -10 % • Microsoft's sites: -9 % • Yahoo Sites: -10 % • Ask Network: -10 % • AOL, Inc.: -7 % According to comScore, an explicit search involves “user engagement with a search service with the intent to retrieve search results.” And “Explicit Core Search” does not take into consideration 'contextually driven searches'. Contextually driven searches do not reflect specific user intent to interact with the search results. As for organic search results, Google's score was 69.0 % of the total number of searches and Bing had 27.0 %. About comScore comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in digital measurement and analytics, presents insights on web, mobile and TV consumer behavior to help clients maximize the value of their digital investments. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com/companyinfo. Contact: Adam Lella comScore, Inc. +1 (312) 775-6474 press@comscore.com

March 11, 2014

Hosting Related, SEO Related

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Google's “disavow links” is a useful tool. It helps you improve the ranking of your website in Google search results. However, there are exceptions: this tool can affect your search results adversely if you do not use it with proper caution. We have listed here a few things that you should know about Google's “disavow tools”. “Nofollow links” need not be disavowed Google's rankings of a website and other linked pages is not affected by nofollow links. Hence, there is no need for you to add these links in the disavow links file you send to Google. read_more This has been made clear by Google's John Mueller that we can avoid nofollow links. “You don't need to include any nofollow links [...] what happens with links that you submit as a disavow, when we recrawl them we treat them similarly to other nofollowed links.” Google Webmaster Tools still shows the disavowed links Google takes disavowed links as nofollow links. Thus, even the links are disavowed, they continue to be on display in Webmaster Tools. John Mueller of Google has admitted this in an interview and it is not a matter of concern if these links appear in Google webmaster tools. Google overlooks comments in “disavow file” The comments in the disavow file are for the own use of the user and Google ignores these comments. This has also been made clear bu John Mueller in an interview. “The disavow file is something that is processed completely automatically. If you put a lot of text in those comments in the disavow file, then nobody will be looking at them. Those comments are essentially for you, to help you understand the file a little bit better and those comments are not used by the webspam team.” Mind swings can be dear If you do not want a link to be disavowed, you remove that link from your disavow file and reupload the file. If you so do, the issue is Google considers the reavowed link unnatural. Google can penalize your site and harder than ever before they remove the penalty. John Mueller explains it thus: “Links are essentially only disavowed as long...