Webcology

For the first time, Google is letting agencies register accounts on Google My Business. Agencies registered with GMB will also get access to an all-new dashboard designed to meet the needs of agency partners. One of the key benefits of the new agency dashboard is the ability to manage an unlimited number of locations. Non-agency accounts are limited to 100 locations. User groups can be created that will allow agencies to manage internal teams and control access to locations. This week we reported how Google began sending out notices of sites moving to the mobile-first indexing process as part of the second batch of those sites it is rolling out to. Google has officially begun sending out email notices to site owners confirming their change from desktop indexing to mobile first indexing.  And we do have some clarification on mobile friendliness being a criteria or not for sites changing over. Microsoft announced a new display network, the Microsoft Audience Network (MSAN). Though the company has had the “Bing Audience Network,” the new offering brings together a number of elements that weren’t previously available: Bing search-intent signals, Microsoft’s AI capabilities and the Microsoft audience graph.

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Today on Webcology we talk about how Google parent Alphabet Inc. has announced financial results for the first quarter of 2018.  The company reported $31.1 billion in quarterly revenue, which was down sequentially but up year over year. Revenues beat Wall Street consensus estimates by about $870 million, and earnings also beat analyst expectations. Bill Slawski published an article noting that Google updated a patent related to PageRank. This is an important algorithm because it affects how sites are ranked and explain why some sites rank well while others do not. A Drupal core vulnerability was announced on the official Drupal website. This is called the SA-CORE-2018-004 vulnerability.  This vulnerability allows a remote attacker to execute code on a Drupal website through “multiple attack vectors.” The official Drupal site recommends upgrading to the most recent versions of Drupal 7 or 8. Attacks based on this vulnerability have not yet been observed in the wild. So it’s important to get ahead of it and update soon. Google parent Alphabet Inc. has announced financial results for the first quarter of 2018.  The company reported $31.1 billion in quarterly revenue, which was down sequentially but up year over year. Revenues beat Wall Street consensus estimates by about $870 million, and earnings also beat analyst expectations. Also, Google has confirmed rumors that a search algorithm update took place on Monday. Some sites may have seen their rankings improve, while others may have seen negative or zero change.

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Net Neutrality remains alive and legislated in California; Google and Anchor Text; The last available IPv4 address block has gone;  Google Generally Prefers One Stronger Page Versus Many Smaller Pages; Google loses ‘right to be forgotten’ case in UK High Court.  Decision likely to spark other appeals to courts by those denied de-listing.

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Facebook said Wednesday that as many as 87 million people might have had their data accessed — an increase from the 50 million disclosed in published reports. Apple Hires Google’s A.I. Chief as Ben Gomes To Take Over Search At Google, John Giannandrea Steps Down. John Giannandrea who replaced Amit Singhal as head of Google Search is going to Apple.
Plus, how structured Data helps a site rank, SEO for Rich Results: How to Find Fix Structured Data Errors and Blockchain and SEO.

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Jim Hedger and guest host Kristine Schachinger welcome Alicia Wanless-Berk – Digital Propaganda Expert @ La Generalista. La Generalista is an online publication that investigates influence and propaganda in a digital age. 
Plus, with Google pushing into retail and Amazon into advertising, where should you invest your ad budget, and No Reset button for penalized sites

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Google will start deactivating AdWords accounts next week if they have not spent any money in the past 15 months. This will occur automatically in an attempt to “speed up” the AdWords experience. An email notification will be sent to individual AdWords users when their account has been deactivated. Mike Blumenthal reports that Google is now slowly rolling out the new Google My Business dashboard that it announced back in November 2017. I have had the new dashboard for my account for a month or so, but according to Mike, who watches the space closely, it is rolling out to more people slowly now. Google's new Search Console which is live for all just got some upgrades Google wants to share with you. Google shared on Twitter that the upgrades are mostly "visual updates" to the reporting in the tool.

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According to a report from Reuters, the European Commission has proposed new rules that will require search engines, commerce sites and online platforms to explain how they rank results and to reveal why companies are penalized or removed from listings or results. Google is showing answers in the search results without showing any organic listings or ads or anything but the answer. Yehoshua Coren posted on Twitter a screen shot of him going to Google and Google returning the answer and a button to show search results. Google's John Mueller said on Twitter that Google does not "pass signals through a lot of different kinds of links," when asked if Google automatically nofollow Amazon affiliate links.Google has confirmed a core algo update happened last week. Google’s Danny Sullivan stated that Google was not targeting low quality websites. He explicitly confirmed that there is nothing wrong to fix in sites that lose rankings. This announcement is important because it squashes the usual Phantom Update speculation. Google is not targeting “low quality” signals.
Jim Hedger and Dave Davies catch up with welcome MobileMoxie founder Cindy Krum. Learn more about what Cindy is working by checking out the following...
Mobile Search Simulator
Mobile-First Indexing Article Series --- Article 1: Voice, Traditional Search Entity Understanding:
Article 2: Media with PWAs, Apps, Instant Apps Voice:
Article 3: Image Search, Shopping, Schema Payments:
Article 4: International SEO, Languages, Local SEO Maps:

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Joost de Valk opens a Diversity Fund. It aims to cover the cost of travel and accommodation for speakers that increase the diversity of speakers at a given conference. Plus, Site  or page update frequency is not a ranking signal   Occlus Wrecked? Google: Titles Descriptions Are Easy Wins For SEO; Bing has confirmed support for JSON-LD formatted Schema.org markup; Google Image Search Product Schema Shows New Product Filter

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Backlinko has done an extensive analysis of “voice search ranking factors” and identified 11 variables tied to appearing in Google Home results. The company examined 10,000 results delivered over the smart speaker. What Backlinko found was consistent with what many others have been saying but there were also a few surprises. For example, the study discounts the impact of Schema to some degree and page authority. Eric Bidelman from Google posted a PSA, public service announcement, that since GoogleBot is based on Chrome 41, Google is unable to crawl CSS Custom Properties. Using CSS custom properties (variables) CSS variables are entities defined by CSS authors that contain specific values to be reused throughout a document. They are set using custom property notation (e.g. --main-color: black; ) and are accessed using the var() function (e.g., color: var(--main-color); Eric said he ran into the issue himself when he was deploying a layout or design that relies on vars. He said make sure you are compiling CSS so your page renders properly. As you know, the mobile first index is getting ready to expand in the upcoming weeks and some webmasters that still have desktop only sites are a bit nervous. If you still haven't read the official Google tips or the what you need to know you might not understand that desktop sites will be fine.

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RIP Jill Sampey; Google: Content Order, Position Placement Matters. Where you place your content on your page can impact your rankings.  Daron Babin got a couple cats. WebmasterRadio.FM just wanted to be sure everyone knows that.
We’re one of the 12 best!We’re one of the 12 best! Vote early, vote often. Vote like a Ruskiebot with a stolen VPN. China cracks down on funeral strippers hired to entertain mourners, attract larger crowds
Vahan Petrosyan explains how to take a WP site  from http to https and offers a bunch of shortcuts in an article that runs like a checklist. Great resource to bookmark, especially for newer SEOs
Avoid an SEO Disaster During a Website Redesign and Pubcon Austin is on – SMX Advanced is upcoming! June 12 – 13 Seattle

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