Google Webmaster Tools Beta International Targeting Reports

Google is currently beta testing a new international targeting report within Google Webmaster Tools.
The new International Targeting report is designed to help webmasters who have international sites and use href lang markup understand common mistakes and learn what errors they need to fix, in order to better communicate the language settings across the webmaster’s internationalized web site. The tool offers debug details on missing return links from specific language codes, to unknown language codes in general.
Here are some screen shots of the beta tool that was shown by Google during their SEO hangout last night.

Google On Mobile Redirection: Use 302 Redirects

A couple weeks ago, Google has vastly improved their site move documentation, while also updating their mobile smartphone documentation.
Alistair Lattimore posted on Google+ asking why the documentation for smartphone guidelines specifically recommends using 302 redirects over 301 redirects? 301s have always been the recommended path for SEO purposes because they pass the best link equity from URL A to URL B.
But no, Google specifically wrote a 302 in the documentation on purpose:

Screen Shot Of Google’s New Rejection Notices For Reconsideration Requests

At SMX Advanced last week, Google’s head of search quality, Matt Cutts, announced that they will be revising their reconsideration requests rejection notices with more detailed responses in some cases.
We’ve now located an example of the new rejection notices, as shared with me on Twitter.
The new notice has a new section at the bottom titled “A note from your reviewer.” Then the Google reviewer was able to give specific advice that, at least in this case, would be extremely helpful to the webmaster with the manual action.

The MetaFilter Google Update Is In Process Says Google's Matt Cutts

As you may remember, MetaFilter got nailed by an unconfirmed update on November 17, 2012 that Google denied.
Google has now confirmed that update, 1.5 years later. Not only that, Google's Matt Cutts said on Twitter, in response to  story on IBL Web Solutions that they are working on updating that unconfirmed update from 1.5 years ago.
Specifically, MetaFilter doesn't have to make any changes to their site, but when Google releases the update in the next few weeks or so, MetaFilter will see an increase in referrals from Google.

The update from November 17, 2012 seemed to have had a major impact on many forum-like web sites. Google wouldn't talk about it then, but now, they are talking.
I suspect any of you hit on that date, will want to follow to see when the MetaFilter update (naming it that) is released and see if you are also released from that unconfirmed update.
Google's Matt Cutts will not give us more details on that update.
Another side note: When Google does not confirm updates, it clearly doesn't mean there was no update. So I will keep reporting unconfirmed Google updates - just in case years later Google confirms them.

Google Spam Algorithm Version 3.0 Launches Today

As I reported last night out of the SMX Advanced keynote with Matt Cutts - the third version of the Google Spam Algorithm, also known as the PayDay Loan algorithm, is launching today.
Didn't we just have version 2.0 a couple weeks ago? Yes we did.
Matt Cutts explained that 2.0 was targeting specifically spammy sites, while 3.0 targets more spammy queries. So the algorithm looks more at the query versus looking at the site. You are smart SEOs, so you can figure out what that means.
Matt also explained that version 2.0 also added some negative SEO factors, to reduce the amount of negative SEO that can happen. If you believe that.
I do not believe this launched just yet, it may launch today sometime, or maybe tomorrow - but likely today, Matt Cutts said. Based on the lack of complaints in the black hat forums, I do not think it launched at the time I am writing this.
Reminder, this will look specifically spammy queries, such as terms like [payday loans], [casinos], [viagra] and other forms of highly spammy queries.

Google Reconsideration Rejection Requests More Details

Google’s Matt Cutts, the head of search spam, announced at SMX Advanced that they are updating how they handle reconsideration rejection requests with more details from Google Search Quality analysts.

That means when a Google search quality representation reviews and responds to a reconsideration request with a rejection notice, that Google representative has a new box where they can enter more details.
Hasn’t Google provided more detailed responses to webmaster who have submitted these requests? Yes.
Matt Cutts explained they have offered a couple link examples for link issues and general categorization for other issues but now they are going to offer more.
Specifically, it seems that part of the internal reconsideration request response on Google’s end will prompt Googlers to type out specific advice or recommendations for the webmaster.
So webmasters should expect to get more specific and detailed responses starting today from their reconsideration requests.

10 Questions To Ask When Creating A Link Building Campaign

One of the most common questions I hear related to link building is, “Where do I start?”
Whether in a blog post or a conference presentation, link building experts often focus on specific tactics when giving advice. The message can sometimes come across as, “Here are some things — go do them, and you’ll be set.”
But that’s not the case.
It’s important to realize that while these individual tactics are great, they are really part of a much bigger picture: a link building campaign. That’s where we must start.
When setting up a link building campaign, here are a few questions to ask

1. What Are My Goals?

It’s one of the most basic, yet frequently overlooked, questions when it comes to link building: Do you know what your goals are?
I often see businesses putting content out there with the idea that it will simply generate links. However, links alone don’t necessarily mean success. Some questions to consider:

Google: Keywords In Domain Aren't Needed For Ranking Well

Google's John Mueller posted a response in a Google Webmaster Help thread responding to someone asking if they need their keyword in their domain name.
In short, John said no, you can rank fine without having a keyword in your domain name. Heck, my company, RustyBrick, doesn't have our money keyword in our domain name. Not that I rank that well for our money keywords. :)
That being said, John Mueller said it isn't needed.

You don't need your keywords in your domain name. Websites without them in there rank just fine. 

Webmaster: I've Tested Negative SEO Through Links & It Works

Last week we reported that most webmasters are claiming negative SEO is easier now than ever. If you look at the conversation there, you will see it is somewhat of a hot topic.
That being said, since then, one webmaster decided not to just say it works but also said how he implemented the technique. Sadly, it was not too difficult, according to this webmaster.
The steps?
 The first month, contract a couple $5 guest blog posts [make sure the posts are in broken English of course], then go back to what you were doing.
Second month, try a few more [4-8] $5 [broken English] guest blog posts and add some forum link drops to the mix. Go back to what you normally do -- Nothing will happen.

Google To Warn Searchers When A Mobile URL Redirects To The Homepage

Don’t annoy mobile searchers. That’s the message behind a new warning that Google is showing in mobile search results on smartphones.
On the Webmaster Central blog, Google alerted webmasters late yesterday that it will let smartphone searchers know if it thinks a website has a “faulty redirect” in place that sends the searcher to your home page, not the page they clicked on.

We’d like to spare users the frustration of landing on irrelevant pages and help webmasters fix the faulty redirects. Starting today in our English search results in the US, whenever we detect that smartphone users are redirected to a homepage instead of the page they asked for, we may note it below the result. If you still wish to proceed to the page, you can click “Try anyway.”

June 2014 Google Webmaster Report

May was an incredibly busy month for Google SEO related topics, specifically seeing Panda 4.0 roll out, the Google Spam algo being updated, press release sites taking a dive and several unconfirmed updates that Google wouldn't talk about.
We also saw eBay get slapped, a popular site named MetaFilter talk about their Google penalty and a Nest competitor call out Google.
So it was a busy month!

Press Release Sites See Huge Drop In Google Ranking After Panda 4.0

Couple Of days Ago I reported at Search Engine Land that Panda 4.0 may have hurt press release sites and showed SearchMetrics data for PRWeb, PR Newswire, BusinessWire and PRLog all losing between 60% to 85% of their SEO visibility.
This drop seems to have come right after the Google Panda 4.0 update. The controversy around press release sites were mostly about links flowing from those releases, not necessarily the issue with the duplicative nature of that content. But let's be honest, many many press releases issued are content thin and spammy on the content end, not just on the link end. So maybe, just maybe, Panda 4.0 adjusted for it and the big sites felt it?
Sean from SEER also documented the drop via SEM Rush data and screen shots of before and after rankings for some press releases.

Google’s Matt Cutts On Assessing Quality Of A Page Without Links

In the latest video by Google’s Matt Cutts, he talks about how Google may determine the quality of a page of content without there being many links.
By Matt’s expression, he seemed to give off the feeling that without links, it is really hard for Google to determine the quality of the page. He said, you have to go to pre-Google days, how search engines worked before links, and look at the words on the page.
Matt explained you need to judge the content based on the words on the page and the more often the words are on the page, in a diminishing scales type of way, the more likely the page is about that word.
Google also uses a factor to see if the domain itself has value, but that brings in links.
Without links, Google simply needs to look at the quality of the content on the page, which may or may not be enough depending on the competitive nature of the keyword phrase.

Google: In 2009 We Selected Only One Of Your Anchor Text When...

Back in 2008, Moz published a report claiming the first anchor text counts - meaning, if you have a web page that has two or more links going to the same page, but the anchor text of those links differ, Google would pick the first anchor text and ignore the ones in the past.
We covered that back in 2008 and then SEOs began debating the validity of the study. Later on Branko confirmed the claims, questioning the scientific nature of the other studies.
Now, Google's Matt Cutts comes out with a video saying in 2009, Google may (which means did, imo) have picked one of the anchor texts and not counted the other. He did not say the first, but it is likely the first. First how? First in source code or based on skipping the navigation. That is unsure, but watch the video:

Either way, SEOs like to obsess about these things - Cutts says, don't.
It changes and he clearly didn't check to see what Google does now, in 2014.
Forum discussion at Google+ and Twitter.

Google May Be Pushing Out A New Update: Possibly Penguin?

I am seeing very early signs of another possible Google update both based on chatter at the WebmasterWorld and in other forums and social media spaces. I am also getting private data shared with me by those who are tracking this closely.
Update: Google tells me this is not Penguin or any spam quality control change.
The feeling is that Google is testing a new Penguin refresh and that it may be rolling out slowly. Or that it might be something else. So you know, we had a Panda 4.0 update last week, and then last weekend (before Panda 4) we had a Spam algorithm update. Prior to that we reported on tons of ranking shifts which Google denied despite all the signs of an update.

Google Hits eBay With Manual Penalty In Search Results

What really happened to eBay dropping in Google’s search results this week? A source familiar with the situation tells Search Engine Land that Google hit eBay with a manual penalty this week.
A manual penalty is when a human being at Google reviews a site and decides that it deserves some type of slap. Previously, it was assumed eBay was hit by the Panda 4.0 Update that rolled out this week, where a wide-range of sites were with with automatic penalties.
That might also be the case — eBay might have been hit by Panda in addition to a manual penalty, which was reported earlier by Re/Code.

Google Webmaster Tools Adds Fetch & Render By Device Type

Google has announced they have added a new feature to the Fetch as Googlebot tool in Google Webmaster Tools. Now, you can see how Googlebot renders the page.
Instead of using the Fetch as Googlebot to just see an output of code and HTML, Google will show a visual representation of what Googlebot sees. It will also show you errors on what resources Googlebot was unable to access, preventing them from fetching and rendering everything on the page.
Here is the new “fetch and render” button on the Fetch as Google feature:

Those Google Ranking Shifts Are Not A Google Update, Google Denies Any Algorithmic Changes

Over the past week or so, there has been a lot of various signals across the search community that Google’s algorithms and rankings were updating; so much so that people were bracing themselves for a major Penguin or Panda-like algorithm announcement from Google. Google never made the announcement, and so I asked Google if anything was going on. Google told me that nothing was going on, that there is nothing going on at their end that would result in what is being reported by the community.