Google's John Mueller: Report Rich Snippet Spam To Me

Despite Google having a rich snippet spam form to report rich snippet spam to, Google's John Mueller said in a Google Webmaster Help thread that you can also let him know about spam and he will try to take care of it.

John said in the thread:

If you find more complicated cases that you can't easily fit into that form, feel free to send them to me directly through my Google+ profile ( http://google.com/+johnmueller ).

So, go ahead, use the form and John Mueller on Google+ to inform Google about rich snippet abuse.

This comes via the thread where John said testimonials are not reviews rich snippet worthy. And then people started reporting sites doing this.

Rich snippet spam is nothing new, it has been around since 2011. Basically since Google began fully supporting rich snippets.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Webmasters Talk About 2015 SEO & Search Trends & Predictions

There is a wonderful thread that is pretty deep right now, going on at WebmasterWorld talking about the 2014 trends in search, and what people expect to see in search in 2015 - mostly on the organic side.

To me, the big scare are more and more knowledge graph and quick answers showing up in Google's search results. This is a trend that is not slowing down at all and seems to be replacing the need for the ten blue links. Of course, mobile growth is massive. Matt Cutts being away from Google so long and the issues of transparency between webmasters and Google on the algorithm side is upsetting. This is evident in the latest Penguin updates that have shocked and hurt more than it helped. Of course, sites still are being hit by Panda, that clearly should not be - despite Google's efforts.

Here is just a short list of some of what is being discussed in the thread:

• Matt Cutts Leaves Google Temporarily, Where It Outreach?
• Bing Fires and Rehires Duane Forrester
• Panda Algorithm rolls out without much softening for those impacted
• Penguin was a mess this year and not getting any better.
• Mobile search growing beyond desktop search
• Social growth and traffic increases
• Schema more of a role
• Knowledge Graph and Quick Answers eating up search traffic
• Link networks and devaluing links
• Keyword density issue
• More user intent metrics
• Geo-specific ranking changes
• Personalization changes or less personalized results?
• More ads in place or organic results
• Will SSL make much of a dent?
• More mobile ranking factors?

What do you think will be the biggest trend in SEO in 2015?

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Pigeon Algorithm Rolls Out Globally In English Locales

Google revamped their local search algorithm, we named Google Pigeon, in July of this year. It was a significant change to how Google ranked and ordered the local search results both for local queries in Google search, and within Google Maps.

This update, the Pigeon update, has officially rolled out worldwide in all English locales with the exception of India.

Google gave me confirmation yesterday on Search Engine Land and then later in the day, added that this was a roll out that is still happening to all English locales with the exception of India.

So, Canada, UK, Australia and any other English language Google search results page is now powered by Google's Pigeon algorithm.

I am a very concerned they rolled this out during the holiday shopping season. Actually, I am a bit upset about it. Why not wait a week?

Forum discussion at Local Search Forum and Google+.

Google Panda Updates Go On Holiday Vacation?

It has been a while since we found much shuffling around Google Panda, which is not normal being that it most recently has been updating at least every few weeks or so.

Glenn Gabe said on Twitter he has not seen a Panda refresh since October 24th and @Marie_Haynes agreed. The last one we thought was really Panda related was in mid-October.

Truth is, Google has been known to give Panda a rest around the holiday seasons, starting back in December 2011 where Google tweeted:

This has been the case for the most part around most algorithms since the Florida update in 2003. But with the case of Penguin's ongoing optimizations, I guess they didn't care there? Although, since December 6th, I have not seen Penguin shuffles.

Forum discussion at Twitter.

Bing Reveals Their Panda Algorithm: Content Quality

The other day on the Bing search blog, Bing's Michael Basilyan posted a nice amount of detail around how their algorithms determine content quality. In the Google world, this may be similar to how Google's Panda algorithm works but not exactly, as you'd imagine.

Content Quality is a key component to Bing's ranking algorithm, in fact, it is the top three components along with topical relevance and context. So what makes up content quality?

Bing tells us it is made up of authority, utility and presentation.

I summed it up on Search Engine Land in detail, but here is the graphic that sums it up for you guys faster, since you guys understand this better.

Reading this is a must even if you dislike Bing or only care about Google.

Clearly, there are some links to Google's Panda algorithm here.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google: Those Penguin Fluctuations Are Our Ongoing Optimizations

We've been seeing an incredible amount of activity around sites impacted by Google's Penguin algorithm over the past few weeks, smack inside the busiest holiday shopping season.

When I asked Google about this, Google commented:

That last big update is still rolling out - though really there won't be a particularly distinct end-point to the activity, since Penguin is shifting to more continuous updates. The idea is to keep optimizing as we go now.

Now, many are interpreting this as the Penguin algorithm is now a rolling update that is happening by itself. I think that is not true.

What it seems to me is that we have engineers at Google that are finding things to tweak in the algorithm and are tweaking those things and pushing them out more quickly than we are use to.

So they pushed out the Penguin 3.0 in mid-October and since then, we've seen major fluctuations with sites hit by that algorithm. We've seen wide spikes in sites hit and then reversed, time and time again.

This to me, is Google testing or tweaking the algorithm, in the live environment. Why? I am not sure. I guess because we asked for it. We wanted a faster running Penguin algorithm and when Google told us 3.0 wasn't that we were upset. So maybe this Google's way of killing two birds (no offense to the Penguin) with one stone?

So what have we documented thus far? Penguin 3.0 on October 17, 2014, Penguin 3.1 on November 27, 2014, Penguin 3.2 on December 2, 2014, Penguin 3.3 on December 5, 2014 and Penguin 3.4 on December 6, 2014. I have not seen any changes since the 6th around this.

Of course, why during the holiday season? I am not sure. I think if Matt Cutts was running things, there is no way we would see this happening now.

Forum discussion at Google+ and WebmasterWorld.

Friday's Google Penguin Changes Revert Back Again

Friday morning we reported more fluctuations around Penguin hit sites. Well, those changes seemed to have reverted themselves 24-hours later.

Let me give you the timeline I am working on and yes, I know some of you are sick of this, but I track this stuff with reason.

(1) Penguin 3.0 rolled out mid-October, we got confirmation after the fact.

(2) We reported lots of fluctuations around that for a few weeks and then it died out a bit.

(3) On Thanksgiving day, we saw massive changes around this and Google actually confirmed it was part of 3.0.

(4) The following Thursday, those changes seemed to have reversed themselves

(5) Then this past Friday morning, we saw things change again, making webmaster hit by Penguin happy again.

But as of Saturday, many reported those Friday morning changes reverted back again!

Here are some quotes from both WebmasterWorld and Black Hat World:

Checked a keyword seems like Google may have reverted back to before the last Penguin update again.

This morning im seeing the serps return to normal and my sites are back where they were prior to Dec 5th. Not happy as iv lost those rankings again.

Yup, I've just seen the same thing.

There's no way this is an update or even a rollback - its literally Google just f'ing with everyone.

I've asked Google for comments on this but have not heard back.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Black Hat World.

Google: 56.1% Of Ad Impressions Not Even Seen

Google released a study claiming that the majority of ad impressions are unseen by users.

Google said "A small number of publishers are serving most of the non-viewable impressions. 56.1% of all impressions we measured are not seen, but the average publisher viewability is 50.2%."

Meanwhile, a study done by Association of National Advertisers and ad fraud detection firm White Ops shows that "11% of online display ads were prompted to appear by bots" and "23% of video ads purchased were wasted on fraudulent traffic." This translates to a potential loss of 6 billion globally to ad fraud in 2015 according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.

This makes the online ad space scary. Measuring online ads is what makes online ads so awesome. It is hard to measure offline ads. But at the same time, you can fake stuff online and that is the scary part.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld and Cre8asite Forums.

Automated Google Maps Short Business Descriptions

Google Maps has been generating summaries of your reviews for about six-month snow but now, with the new 3-pack after dropping the carousel, those short business descriptions based on reviews are more prominent.

Here is a screen shot showing how when you click on a listing, it shows the auto-generated short business description.

It also shows directly in the Google Maps search results:

Linda from the Local Search Forums explained:

Google now in some cases actually writes their own editorial summary. 

This Google help doc explains how all the various snippets are generated.

Short business descriptions on Google 

Editorial summaries are short descriptions compiled by experienced editorial writers designed to give Google users a quick snapshot of popular businesses. These summaries are phrases or sentences (such as the example on the map above: “Southwestern fare in a modern setting”), which you will often see when you click the business on Maps. 

Editorial summaries show on the map or alongside review and rating information, such as in the “review summary” section.

So your reviews are critical to your business and short description on Google.

Forum discussion at Local Search Forums.

More From Google On Hidden Content Within Tabs & Expand All

There has been a lot of confusion around content within tabs or "expand all" links. We covered it two different times and I thought I embed the latest John Mueller from Google had to say on this.

It is pretty fresh, from just a couple hours ago via a Google+ hangout. 50 minutes and 10 seconds into the video he said this is nothing new. They have always discounted hidden content within tabs or expand all links. If you want that content to rank well, then include it on its own page or include it outside of the hidden part of your page.

Here is the video, so you can watch it yourself:

Watch it yourself and take what you want from it.

Forum discussion at Google+.

Links Within Google Webmaster Tools Missing

There are several reports within Google Webmaster Help forums and on social media that Google Webmaster Tools link reports are coming up blank.

I am personal able to replicate this on a few verified sites I personally have access to.

The link tool report shows "No Data Available" when you load the internal or external link report.

Here is a screen shot:

I assume this is a bug, it has no impact on your rankings, and that Google is looking into it to be fixed.

Do not worry, you are not alone with this issue, many sites are reporting this.

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Google Confirms Penguin Rollout Continued Into Thanksgiving Day

On Thanksgiving weekend, I reported a lot of buzz and chatter around a possible Thanksgiving day Penguin refresh from Google.

This morning, Google has confirmed that what SEOs and webmasters noticed was indeed Penguin related but as a result of the "ongoing" Penguin rollout. Yes, Penguin 3.0 rollout that started in October is still not complete.

Google told us on record:

The Penguin rollout is ongoing, and this is just the effect of that.

In short, Penguin 3.0 is rolling out still, even 6 weeks later. This rollout had a major shock wave on Thanksgiving day for some reason. But that shockwave seemed to be mostly reversals of sites that got hit initially by 3.0, which is why 

I named it Penguin 3.1.

In any event, I guess this is still Penguin 3.0 but still rolling out.

Forum discussion continued at Black Hat World, WebmasterWorld and Twitter.