Will The Number Of Reconsideration Requests Drop With Google's Manual Actions Viewer?

Will The Number Of Reconsideration Requests Drop With Google's Manual Actions Viewer?
In a video by Google's Matt Cutts yesterday, Matt shared that Google receives about 5,000 reconsideration requests per week. Google has told us they review each and every request submitted individually. So as you can imagine, that can take a lot of man hours.

That being said, as you know, Google launched the manual actions viewer earlier this month and with that, moved the ability to submit a request only if you have a manual action.
So when Matt Cutts tweeted about the 5,000 number, I asked if the number dropped since the only way to submit a request is to have a manual action.

Matt Cutts didn't respond directly to my question but did say on Twitter "different people at Google actually had different opinions about whether reconsiderations would spike or not."
Of course, initially, it may spike because people who thought they did not have penalties now will know they did. But all those people thinking they had manual penalties submitting false reconsideration requests will now be prevented.
I wonder if this will reduce the number of requests submitted in the long term.

Author: Barry Schwartz

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Google's Matt Cutts Wants To Know Which Small Sites Should Rank Better

Google's Matt Cutts Wants To Know Which Small Sites Should Rank Better
The question of big sites vs small sites and how they rank in Google has always been one of those questions SEOs have asked. In fact, it seems that only 30% of SEOs believe web site size does not matter in terms of rankings.

That being said, Google's head of search spam, Matt Cutts, posted a survey on Google Docs asking you to tell them which small web sites are getting an unfair shot in Google and should rank higher.
I am glad Google is indeed looking into this.

Author: Barry Schwartz

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Google: Short & Basic Reconsideration Requests Won't Do It.

Google: Short & Basic Reconsideration Requests Won't Do It.
If you didn't get the memo yet, and we've covered what Google expects from reconsideration requests before - Google wants details in the request.
If you have a manual action and it shows up in the manual action viewer, you can submit the review request over there.
But don't go short and basic. John Mueller, Google's Webmaster Trends Analyst, said in a Google Webmaster Help thread in response to why one site that sent multiple requests didn't get a satisfactory reason.

It appears that in this case, that although the bad aspects of the site are mostly gone - Google did not grant the request because the request itself was way too short and basic.
So do your work, show you really mean it, and give Google what they want.

Author: Barry Schwartz

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6 Months Later, No Google Toolbar PageRank Update...

6 Months Later, No Google Toolbar PageRank Update...
It has now been over six months since the last widespread Google PageRank update. The last update was in early February, where users spotted changes to the Google Toolbar PageRank data.
Since then, I have not seen a major Toolbar PageRank update from Google. Which honestly, is not the norm.
Every 3-4 months or so, Google typically updates their toolbar PageRank data. Here are some of the most recent updates:

• February 2013
• November 2012
• August 2012
• May 2012
• February 2012
• November 2011

You see the pattern here, with the exception of the rate back to back PageRank update between May and August of 2012.

Author: Barry Schwartz

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Google: We Know You're Confused About Manual & Algorithmic Penalties

Google: We Know You're Confused About Manual & Algorithmic Penalties
There has always been a lot of confusion amongst none experienced SEOs about the difference between a manual and algorithmic action by Google. And Google is aware of that and promises to make changes to help clarify the difference between the two.
John Mueller, Google's Webmaster Trends Analyst, said in multiple Google Webmaster Help threads in the past twenty-four hours that they are aware and working to make it easier.

Specifically, John said, "We're looking into ways to make this process a bit clearer, more straightforward & consistent, I realize it's a bit confusing at the moment..."
I am not sure what their plans are exactly but it would be so sweet to have not just "manual actions" but "algorithmic actions" section in Google Webmaster Tools.

Author: Barry Schwartz

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Google's FAQ On Rel Author Says Not For Product Pages

Google's FAQ On Rel Author Says Not For Product Pages
Yesterday on the Google Webmaster Blog, Maile posted and FAQ on using Google authorship, rel=author, on your site.
The one that I am glad was brought up was not to use authorship on product pages. I see it all too often and it just doesn't make sense. Authorship should be used for stories and content that is specifically tied to an author as something he is adding his own opinion to or something very unique. Product pages are not that.

Here are some of the questions answered by the FAQs on the blog.

1. What kind of pages can be used with authorship? Short answer: Author based content.
2. Can I use a company mascot as an author and have authorship annotation in search results? For my pest control business, I’d like to write as the “Pied Piper.” Short answer: No.
3. If I use authorship on articles available in different languages, such as example.com/en/article1.html for English and example.com/fr/article1.html for the French translation, should I link to two separate author/Google+ profiles written in each language? Short answer: No.
4. Is it possible to add two authors for one article? Short answer: No.
5. How can I prevent Google from showing authorship? Short answer: Block Google.
6. What’s the difference between rel=author vs rel=publisher? Short answer: publisher is company related, author is person related.
7. Can I use authorship on my site’s property listings or product pages since one of my employees has customized the description? Short answer: No.

Author: Barry Schwartz

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Google's Matt Cutts: +1s Don't Improve Rankings

Google's Matt Cutts: +1s Don't Improve Rankings
Moz published a story yesterday showing a high correlation between Google +1s and Google's search rankings.
Shortly after, Google's head of search spam, Matt Cutts, went over to Hacker News and debunked it. He said, +1s do not have any impact on search rankings at Google.

Truth is, Google is to blame for the confusion. In August 2011, Wired published a story suggesting Google+ was tied to ranking. Google's chairman suggested it as well in February 2013. Matt Cutts did say at conference it is not used but did say that authorship is a good signal, which can be confusing for users.
Anyway, I do believe Matt when he says +1s are not used directly in the ranking algorithm.

 Author: Barry Schwartz

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Google On Why Links Within Webmaster Tools May Or May Not Be Enough

Google On Why Links Within Webmaster Tools May Or May Not Be Enough
Back in early June I reported how Google told us that the only links you need are the links in Webmaster Tools for reconsideration request purposes. Then about a week ago, we showed a clear example of Google showing us the opposite, where links in Webmaster Tools did not show up even though Google themselves called out a bad link.

Honestly, I am not 100% clear what to make from this.
Can we as webmasters and SEOs rely on the links within Google Webmaster Tools? Doesn't seem like we can. Right? Well, maybe not fully.

Author: Barry Schwartz

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Webmasters Fear Linking Out After Google's Warnings

Webmasters Fear Linking Out After Google's Warnings
A WebmasterWorld thread has some fears that I see are beginning to worry some publishers and webmasters - the fear of linking to external sources.

With Matt Cutts and the Google spam team pretty much saying you need to nofollow everything out there, well, with the exception of real editorial links (who is to decide what is editorial), webmasters are simply scared.

I see questions popping up left and right. Can I link to this site? If so, should I nofollow it anyway? Should I make sure to not use keyword rich anchor text when linking.

Author: Barry Schwartz 

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Google Analytics Alerts Of Increase In 404 Pages

Google Analytics Alerts Of Increase In 404 Pages
Daniel Waisberg, a Google Analytics expert and now a new Googler, posted on the Google Analytics Google+ profile a tip on how to set up custom alerts for increases in 404 page requests.
There is nothing worse for the user experience than to land on a 404, page not found, error page. And if a page is 404ing and you want that page to be in the search results, that will be a very very bad bug. So monitoring 404s is an important task.
Most either check their error logs or monitor a specific page in Google Analytics. But why not have Google Analytics alert you when your 404 errors increase?

Daniel explains how to on Google+.
1. Login to Google Analytics
2. Click on "Admin" on the top-left navigation (orange bar)
3. Click on the profile you want to create the alert
4. Create a Goal using the 404 URL
5. Click on "Custom Alerts" and create a new alert
6. See image attached

Author: Barry Schwartz

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All Of Google's Manual Actions For Search Spam

All Of Google's Manual Actions For Search Spam
As I mentioned a few minutes ago in my story about Google's new manual spam action viewer - Google has documented all of the manual actions a site may receive for spamming their search results.
Here are the eleven documents from Google on these manual spam actions:

• Manual Actions
• Cloaking and/or sneaky redirects
• Hacked site
• Hidden text and/or keyword stuffing
• Pure spam
• Spammy freehosts
• Thin content with little or no added value
• Unnatural links from your site
• Unnatural links to your site
• Unnatural links to your site—impacts links
• User-generated spam

With that, Google produced a total of nine videos, I believe only seven being new videos, on these manual actions.

Author: Barry Schwartz

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2013 Local SEO Ranking Factors Released

2013 Local SEO Ranking Factors Released
 David Mihm and the folks at Moz released their 2013 local search ranking factors last night. They polled dozens of local SEO experts on 104 different ranking factors and asked hundreds of questions to come up with this report.
You can read the details at moz.com/local-search-ranking-factors but here is just an overview chart:

Author: Barry Schwartz

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Google's Matt Cutts: Don't Worry About Bad Links, Just Disavow Them

Google's Matt Cutts: Don't Worry About Bad Links, Just Disavow Them
In one of his shortest video responses, Matt Cutts, the head of search spam at Google, answered the question:

Should I be worried if a couple of sites that I don't want to be associated with are linking to me?

He said as long as you disavow the links or the domain that has the links pointing to your site that you do not want to be associated with, then it will all be fine. He said, as long as you've taken those steps [disavow] then "I wouldn't worry."

Matt did warn that when you do disavow, you should do so likely at the domain name like you would when you use a machete.
I am sure many webmasters have disavow and still didn't see much of a difference and there are plenty of reasons for that.

Author: Barry Schwartz

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Google In-Depth Articles Goes Live, Here Is How To Be Included

Google In-Depth Articles Goes Live, Here Is How To Be Included
A month ago, we reported tests of in-depth search snippets from Google - well that test is now a reality. Google announced last night that they will show these in-depth articles in the search results when the query is about understanding a broader topic. Google said this will help 10% of the queries that are seeking more than just a quick answer, really dive deeper into broader topics.

This is launching on google.com in English to start but Google promises to expand this feature to other regions and languages.

Author: Barry Schwartz

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Google: We Fight Spam All Around The World But English Spam Gets More Attention

Google: We Fight Spam All Around The World But English Spam Gets More Attention
Google's Matt Cutts said Google does indeed fight spam at a global level both algorithmically and manually.
In a recent video, Matt said they have Googlers who fight spam manually in over 40 different languages and regions. He added that with most of their algorithms, they do their best to make sure they work in all languages and not just English.

If you remember, Panda first rolled out on English queries only and then began rolling out to other languages such as Asian languages later. But with Penguin it launched in most all of the countries.

Google's Matt Cutts did admit that English language queries in Google.com do get more attention because (1) there are more searchers there and (2) there are more engineers who speak the language and use Google.com.

Author: Barry Schwartz

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Google's Page Speed Insights Tool Updated

Google's Page Speed Insights Tool Updated
Ilya Grigorik, Google's Developer Advocate for Google Chrome and all things speed on the web, has announced on Google+ that Google has updated the PageInsights Tool.

The major change you may notice is that you can now see a visual representation of the web site. I.e. how it looks in mobile versus desktop. You still get the useful tips on how to improve your page speed for both mobile and desktop. I do wish they would also validate that you are properly doing the right SEO set up for your mobile or responsive design site. I know it is not a speed thing but I assume it is easy for them to validate.

Author: Barry Schwartz

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Google Tests Sitelinks That Expand Out

Google Tests Sitelinks That Expand Out

Two SEOs spotted Google testing a new design for Google Sitelinks. The new design has sitelinks that expand and show sub-sitelinks in a gray background area. Google tested something similar on mobile sitelinks a few months ago.

Author: Barry Schwartz

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Google's Matt Cutts On Using ccTLDs

Google's Matt Cutts On Using ccTLDs
Matt Cutts, Google's head of search spam, in another video answer, responds to the question about using ccTLDs (country code top level domain names). The question was "Should I use ccTLDs for sites not targeted to those countries?"

The answer is pretty straight forward. If it is part of the list of generic ccTLDs that Google has specifically said there is enough use to warrant them to be generic, then go ahead and use them. If they are not on that list, then be warned, the site on that ccTLD may be localized to the country of the ccTLD.

Author: Barry Schwartz

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