Industry News

Catch up on interesting new discussion and industry news.

    Google’s Related Questions Patent or ‘People Also Ask’ Questions

    by Bill Slawski
    Mar 6, 2017
    When you search at Google, the answers you receive sometimes now include additional questions, that often have the label above them, “People Also Ask.” I was curious if I might be able to find a patent about these questions, and I saw that they...

    FAQ: How to get Google Assistant on your Android phone

    dannysullivan
    by dannysullivan
    Mar 6, 2017
    Excited to get Google Assistant on your Android phone? Until last week, it was only available for Google Pixel phones. Now, it’s rolling out slowly to Android phones beyond that. Here’s how it may come to your phone or why it might not be on it already.

    Google Assistant is Google’s new digital assistant to take on the likes of Siri. It allows you to easily speak what you want and get back answers. It’ll even have a conversation with you and complete some actions like movie ticket...

    Google’s “One True Answer” problem — when featured snippets go bad

    dannysullivan
    by dannysullivan
    Mar 5, 2017
    Here we are again. Google’s in hot water because of what I call its “One True Answer” feature, where it especially highlights one search listing over all others as if that’s the very best answer. It’s a problem because sometimes these answers are terribly wrong. When Google gets facts wrong

    At the end of last month, Google was spotted listing several US presidents as being members of the Ku Klux Klan, even though there’s no conclusive evidence of any of this:

    What’s happening there...

    March 2017 Google Webmaster Report

    rustybrick
    by rustybrick
    Mar 3, 2017
    This past month, we had a fairly significant Google algorithm ranking update on February 7th which Google did not confirm so we suspect it was a Phantom update. Then shortly after...

    Aren't 301s, 302s, and Canonicals All Basically the Same? - Whiteboard Friday

    Mar 2, 2017
    Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high-resolution version in a new tab!
    Video Transcription

    Hey, Moz fans, it's Dr. Pete, your friendly neighborhood marketing scientist here at Moz, and I want to talk today about an issue that comes up probably about every three months since the beginning of SEO history. It's a question that looks something like this: Aren't 301s, 302s, and...

    Using AMP? A known bug is probably screwing up your Google Analytics

    dannysullivan
    by dannysullivan
    Mar 2, 2017
    If you are using the Google-backed Accelerated Mobile Pages, there appears to be an excellent chance that those AMP pages are not being tracked correctly, if you use Google Analytics.

    Christian Oliveira, a technical SEO consultant, posted a long, technical explanation of the issues AMP is giving with proper tracking in Google Analytics. Malte Ubi, Google’s technical lead for the AMP project, confirmed the problems and that they have no easy solution, in tweets today.

    In summary,...

    Emojis In Google AdWords Titles

    rustybrick
    by rustybrick
    Mar 2, 2017
    Thomas shared a screen shot with me on Twitter of emojis showing up in the Google AdWords ads on Google Germany for a query on [autohaus mainz]. I was finally able to replicate it and I do see emojis cars in one of the AdWords ads titles...

    After 18 Years, DMOZ, The Web Directory, Is Closing Down

    rustybrick
    by rustybrick
    Mar 1, 2017
    DMOZ, one of the oldest and most trusted web directories announced on their home page yesterday that they are closing up shop. The site is going offline March 14, 2017.

    DMOZ launched on June 5, 1998...

    RIP Dmoz: The Open Directory Project is closing

    dannysullivan
    by dannysullivan
    Feb 28, 2017
    DMOZ — The Open Directory Project that uses human editors to organize web sites — is closing. It marks the end of a time when humans, rather than machines, tried to organize the web.

    The announcement came via a notice that’s now showing on the home page of the DMOZ site, saying it will close as of March 14, 2017:

    Dmoz was born in June 1998 as first at “GnuHoo” then quickly changed to “NewHoo,” a rival to the Yahoo Directory at the time. Yahoo had faced criticism as being too powerful...

    Natural News Is Back In Google After Penalty Is Revoked

    rustybrick
    by rustybrick
    Feb 28, 2017
    Looks like NaturalNews.com is back in Google. A site command returns 440,000+ pages including the home page.

    As you know, last week...