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Today on Webcology Google is sending out new Google Search Console notifications to some webmasters asking them to "provide a manifest and high resolution favicon for" their web sites. I guess Google wants higher resolution favicons to show up in the Chrome browser. Google announced they have a new AdWords policy around ticket resellers. Specifically they now "require all event ticket resellers to be certified and to radically increase their transparency." Also today they announced a new ranking algorithm designed for mobile search. The company is calling it the “Speed Update,” and it will only impact a small percentage of queries, Google reiterated to us. Only pages that “deliver the slowest experience to users” will be impacted by this update, the company says. Most recently, Google has partnered with open-source content management system (CMS) WordPress, arguably the largest, with market share nearing 59 percent and an estimated 1/3 of all web content published through the platform.

In 2007, a year after having sold his first online business, a friend asked Mark if he would be willing to help him sell his web hosting company. During the previous year, Mark was evaluating whether or not to start a consultancy firm to assist owners of profitable websites who wanted to divest of their websites. With the call from this friend, Quiet Light was officially born. Mark retained his friend’s business, put the listing out to market, and within two months had found a buyer at a price that was higher than average web hosting companies were fetching in the marketplace.

Since that first business in 2007, Mark has personally helped dozens of small business owners and entrepreneurs and has also expanded Quiet Light to the team it has today. In building out a team of advisors to help other small business owners, Mark has always emphasized the importance of honesty, working in the client’s best interest (even if that means not working in his own best interest), and thorough preparation of all listings before they are brought to market.

Before Quiet Light Brokerage, Mark founded an online publication and grew it’s subscriber base to 220,000 members. Mark has been a presenter at top conferences and seminars as well as a guest author for numerous publications.

Our host Peggy Anne Salz from MobileGroove catches up with Thomas Hopkins, Director of Marketing at Penn Interactive Ventures, to discuss how mastering the discipline and drive essential to his career in water polo prepared him to excel in app and mobile marketing at his company where he oversees all mobile and web marketing across 50+ apps, including two of the top 50 grossing social casino apps on the market today. We go for gold in a candid discussion about the *real* value of app store optimization (ASO), invaluable lessons he learned launching an app a week, and the marketing achievements that earned him the title of Mobile Hero as chosen by Liftoff, a full-service mobile app marketing and retargeting platform.

In this episode of PressThis, we interview mega WordPress personality Syed Balkhi about lessons he's learned buying and selling multi-million dollar plugin businesses. Syed gained notoriety in part due to WP Beginner, but since those "humble" beginnings, Syed has gone on to purchase and grow popular plugins like Monster Insights & WP Forms, build and grow his own plugin Optin Monster, and sell popular plugins he owned which didn't align with the purpose of his business. In total, Syed's plugins are run on 4 millions sites! We'll be talking to Syed about what went right, what went wrong, and how he sees the role his products play in supporting his customers' businesses. If you own a plugin or are looking to create a plugin business, you can't miss this episode of PressThis. Listen now!

James Martell discusses the Secret to Monetizing a Blog with Affiliate Programs with Christen Evans, Social Media and Influencer Manager for ApogeeAgency.com

Christen Evans (@theonlychris10) is the Influencer Manger and Social Media goddess at Apogee, a renowned affiliate marketing agency. She is also the owner/editor/consultant/unicorn wrangler behind Bourbon & Sparkle, which aims to educate bloggers about affiliate marketing — the good way. Presented with the Affiliate Marketing Advocate of the Year Pinnacle Award in January 2017, Christen is passionate about bridging the gap between bloggers and merchants and managers. In her spare time,

Search ad click growth fell, ad spend rose 23% across Google, Bing, Yahoo as Bing and Yahoo saw search ad spend jump 32 percent over prior year in Q4 among Merkle's client base. Google spend growth slowed slightly from Q3. David Szetela, host of PPC Rockstars weighs in. 

Plus, There’s a difference between indexing and ranking, Google gets all Amped UP over words, and Ranking in Google by aligning around search content

In The Gifted Generation, historian David Goldfield examines the generation immediately after World War II and argues that the federal government was instrumental in the great economic, social, and environmental progress of the era. Following the sacrifices of the Greatest Generation, the returning vets and their children took the unprecedented economic growth and federal activism to new heights. This generation was led by presidents who believed in the commonwealth ideal: the belief that federal legislation, by encouraging individual opportunity, would result in the betterment of the entire nation. In the years after the war, these presidents created an outpouring of federal legislation that changed how and where people lived, their access to higher education, and their stewardship of the environment. They also spearheaded historic efforts to level the playing field for minorities, women and immigrants. But this dynamic did not last, and Goldfield shows how the shrinking of the federal government shut subsequent generations off from those gifts.

David Goldfield brings this unprecedented surge in American legislative and cultural history to life as he explores the presidencies of Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Lyndon Baines Johnson. He brilliantly shows how the nation’s leaders persevered to create the conditions for the most gifted generation in U.S. history.

Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google have all come under scrutiny for anticompetitive behavior and market domination, with increasing calls that it may be necessary to break up one or all of these entities.  This debate was fueled by commentaries by Matt Stoler and Lina Kahn from the Open Markets Institute (“OMI”).  See Antitrust and the Tech Giants: A Reader.  OMI reporter Kevin Carty joins us to discuss this debate.

Join us as we interview the super-smart head of SEO of tronc Carolyn Shelby. Carolyn manages search visibility on WordPress media properties for the LA Times, Chicago Tribune, and more. In this episode, we'll be talking ad monetization strategy. We'll discuss how content may be king, but actual meaningful content rules all. Meaningful content is well researched, delivered with elegant presentation, and is a refined expression of a dedicated professional. Meaningful content isn't a top 10 list and it certainly doesn't come cheap. WordPress digital properties looking to support a business creating meaningful content need to create monetization strategies to fuel the quality of their content and continue to grow their audience. Listen now as Carolyn shares some of her thoughts on the strategy of delighting visitors and providing an engine of revenue to support meaningful content and growth for the properties you manage. Listen now!

Today on PPC Rockstars David is joined by Mark Irvine. Mark is chiefly responsible for creating WordStream’s data-driven industry research, analyzing data and spotting trends within AdWords, Google Analytics, Bing Ads, and Facebook. Mark regularly publishes on the Wordstream blog whenever a new ad format, feature, or major change to the SERP is announced. He regularly presents his research on trends in the SEM industry on webinars and at conferences around the country, such as SMX and Pubcon. His work has also been featured on CNET and CNN. In 2016, Mark was named one of the 15 most influential PPC Experts in 2016 by PPC Hero.