Industry News

For the past week or so, I've been seeing chatter within the community about Google search algorithm updates. Truth is, the chatter is very limited but those who are complaining are seeing huge changes for their sites in Google search. But again, it does not seem very wide spread.

Since the Penguin 4.0 update Google devalues bad links versus demoting the pages they link to. So when John was asked why Google Search Console doesn't have a way to notify webmasters of bad links pointing to their site, John said "If we recognize them, we can just ignore them - no need to have you do anything in most cases."

Back in January, we reported that when you look at the new Google Search Console Performance report and compare it to the old Search Analytics report, they do have the same data but the day they plot the data is a day off from each other. With Google shutting down the old Search Analytics report in two days from now, this is a concern for some.

Google posted on the data anomalies page that Google Search Console AMP error reporting starting today, December 10th, will become more generic in nature. Specifically Google said "AMP enhancement report will now combine some over-specific issue types into fewer generalized issue types."

Mike Monteiro isn’t always everyone’s cup of tea, but I really like his views in Design Ethics & the Truth About Who Designers Really Work For. In short, designers need to work for users:

When you hire me as a designer, I do not work for you. I may practice my craft at your service, but you haven’t earned the right to shape how I practice that craft. One, you don’t want me designing at your level, you want me designing at mine, which means you don’t get to pull the strings. I do. Two,...

I was going to cover the chatter and signals of a Google update this past Friday on Friday but when the Search Engine Land spectacle touched down, I decided to wait it out and see how things settle over the weekend. There are still strong signs both in terms of community chatter and tracking tools around a Friday, November 30th update.

15 years ago today was the first time I wrote a blog post on this site, the Search Engine Roundtable. Since then I have continued to write daily, almost without any time off, every single day of the work week. It is a passion I had no clue would last for 15 years, but I continue to love doing on a daily basis.

I woke up this morning to probably close to a hundred messages across email, social media and other channels that Search Engine Land is not currently in the Google Index. People want to know why. I honestly do not know why. I do not have access to the code base or Google Search Console access.

There are a nice number of SEOs and webmasters in the forums claiming they saw huge changes in terms of their rankings in Google starting on November 22nd or so. Since it was Thanksgiving day and traffic is always off on holidays, I wanted to wait it out. But there are many claims of an update, possibly a reversal of the Medic Update for some that were originally hit.