Blog

The Google Europe Blog have very kindly transcribed the whole of a speech Eric Schmidt (founder of Google) gave when in Berlin today.

Here are a few choice Quotes:

On Innovation:

When Karl Benz invented the petrol car, he didn’t just create an engine with three wheels (it really was three wheels to start with!) … he created an entire industry. It was the same with Tim Berners-Lee. He didn’t just build the world’s first website, he paved the way for the World Wide Web.

On the Progress of Google:

Maps now feel like such an integral part of search that most users probably can’t imagine Google without them. It’s the same with many of our changes. Your search just gets better and better over time. Google “Berlin weather” and you’ll no longer get ten blue links that you need to dig through. Instead, you’ll get the weather forecast for the next few days at the top result, saving you time and effort. Or Google “bratwurst” … and at the top will be images, nutrition facts, and a web page with a recipe.

There really are some great quotes so read the blog post if you’ve got some spare time.

Blog Post by: Greg McVey

Yesterday I wrote that Google were testing a way to let users know whether a website was mobile friendly or not by adding a little icon next to the website listing in the results. Check out the icon for a mobile friendly site below:

And the icon for the non search friendly results:

But not happy with the icons, they want to see how users react to text displaying the fact sites are mobile friendly. Check out the image below:

Which one do you prefer?

Blog Post by: Greg McVey

PageRank has long been something to talk about and was at one point important. These days however it seems that Google’s Toolbar page rank is just another statistic that doesn’t really mean anything. This is probably why Goole will be killing it off.

OK, not actually killing it off and removing all support for it etc, but in a recent Webmaster video John Mueller did say that they wouldn’t be updating it going forward.

Last year we heard straight from Matt Cutts’ mouth not to expect another pagerank update that year. However a few months later, a technician was working on something in the pagerank software place (i’ve no idea how else to describe it) and whilst there, decided to push a Toolbar Pagerank update. Which caught everyone by surprise.

Now though, this isn’t a “we’re not updating it for a while” it is a ” We probably won’t update it ever again”. If so, what does this mean for SEOs? Not much really. With Google shifting their focus to high authority sites, there will be something completely new used to decide this and it looks like Google isn’t giving the game away. Check out John Mueller in the video below:

So although PR Toolbar might have gone the way of the dodo, there’s nothing to suggest we won’t see something similar rolled out at some point.

Blog Post by: Greg McVey

Google have secured a new patent this week. Their patent states as follows:

A computer implemented method for using search queries related to television programs. A server receives a user’s search query from an electronic device.

The server then determines, in accordance with the search query and television program related information for television programs available at a location associated with the electronic device during a specific time window, a television program currently being displayed in proximity to the electronic device, wherein the television program related information includes program descriptions for a plurality of television programs being broadcast for the associated location.

How do you think this will impact search results?

Google has long been committed to increasing the quality of search for its users. None more so than the “Quick Answer” boxes that sometimes show at the top of Google Search Results. Although this is great news for users, getting what they want much quicker, it is not the best news for publishers.

For example if you run an SEO Blog and write up a very detailed explanation of what SEO is, you can miss out on traffic as Google very succinctly sums things up on their knowledge graph box at the top of the page. See below:

As you can see in this box, the above is used to show a generic definition of SEO and a link to Wikipedia for those looking to secure more information on the subject. Now this is great if your blog used as the source and will no doubt add a fair amount of traffic to your blog.

But what about other queries? Such as “How old is Boris Johnson?”. Take a look below:

As you can see, the Google Knowledge Graph box is used again and his age is displayed. What you’ll also notice is that no source is given? Why?

Well according to Google, Boris Johnson’s age is “Basic Factual Information” so doesn’t really warrant a source. But SEO is deemed as “not widely known information” so requires a source. This also occurs when “relevant snippets are shown from a website”.

There are very few exempt cases, but with Apple launching their new iPhone 6 this week, Google credited the Apple website directly after receiving certain information about the phones from their rival.

Have you seen any cases like this before?

Blog Post by: Greg McVey

Google is constantly telling webmasters that quality of content is one of the best things to help you rank. They stop short of telling you exactly what the quality is that they’re after though. Blog posts can be powerful things and a great place to add quality content.

Neil Patel over at Quicksprout has put together the following infographic which helps detail out just what make a powerful blog post:

Blog Post by: Greg McVey