Have you noticed ghost spam in Your Google Analytics data?

LinksFighting spam has always been a hard-fought, epic battle which has still yet to be conquered successfully. Google Analytics is one of the leading tools available for gathering and analysing data about your website but unfortunately, its data been compromised in the past through various hackers. This has left many website owners frustrated and confused about how to interpret their reports, since it was not known whether their statistics were not a true reflection of actual website traffic.

Back in 2014, several bots (website crawlers used by Search Engines) were hacked to visit websites and leave fake referral data within the Analytics reporting. Since then, there have been many similar instances from various sources including fake organic search terms or fake events being reported. Whilst Google’s spam defences are always improving, the fight is a tough one for  them. By not discussing their tactics and strategies to overcome this problem, they are keeping their security systems private, away from the hackers prying ears. Continue reading “Have you noticed ghost spam in Your Google Analytics data?”

The Impact of Voice Search for SEO

There has been a sharp increase in voice search queries being carried out instead of the traditional typed search queries. Voice search is now the fastest growing search technique for users, since it has many benefits for people. It is quicker, easier and more natural to speak to your mobile rather than having to manually type in the keyword(s) you require. Continue reading “The Impact of Voice Search for SEO”

SEO After Brexit: Techniques and Trends

How Britain post-Brexit could have an effect on search engine optimisation, its trends, techniques, and the industry itself

Brexit map by Nikola93
Living on an Island: how Brexit is set to pose a challenge for search engine optimisation techniques and the state of the industry. Image by Nikola93 (via Shutterstock).

What interesting times we are living in right now. Firstly, Thursday’s EU Referendum returned a narrow victory for leaving the EU (Leave 52%, Remain 48%). Secondly, at this time of writing, we have seen two high profile resignations. One being the Prime Minister, David Cameron, and England manager Roy Hodgson (for his unexpected result in the bagging area). Though Brexit seems inevitable, Cameron has left the job of confirming this to his successor. So for now, Britain is an EU Member State. Furthermore, a referendum isn’t as legally binding as a General Election, so the results could be void. Continue reading “SEO After Brexit: Techniques and Trends”

Yoast Boost Sees Grammar Rule the Roost

Update to popular WordPress plugin sees greater emphasis on spelling, punctuation, and grammar as well as SEO techniques

Yoast Grammar image by Luna2631.
Good grammar is next to godliness: the latest additions by Yoast sees good grammar at the forefront. Image by Luna2631 (via Shutterstock).

The Yoast SEO plugin has received a major update this week. Version 3.3 sees the addition of spelling, punctuation, and grammar features to its plugin. Till the release of 3.3, Yoast could calculate the Flesch Reading Ease score of your post or page. From 3.3 onwards, content creators can see how the Flesch score is calculated. For all languages, Yoast 3.3 is able to check: Continue reading “Yoast Boost Sees Grammar Rule the Roost”

Google Announce New Tool Which Tests Your Website Mobile Friendliness and Page Speed.

Gone are the days where you have to navigate to 2 different websites in order to find out how quick and how mobile friendly your website is. Google have recently launched a new tool where users can enter their website address and get the page speed and mobile friendliness score all on the same page. The report is simply a combination of the page speed insights and the mobile friendly testing tool; Continue reading “Google Announce New Tool Which Tests Your Website Mobile Friendliness and Page Speed.”

Search Engine Optimisation: Are You Getting It?

SEO strategy lost on one in two American small businesses

Search Engine Optimisation image.
Search Engine Optimisation matters: small to medium-sized businesses could be missing out on potential traffic and business. With half of the UK’s advertising budget spent online, it is foolhardy to neglect this sector. (Image courtesy of Shutterstock/Scandinavian Stock).

 

For over a decade, search engine optimisation has been in Net66’s DNA along with web design. In a 2015 survey from Smart Insights, it accounts for 45% of SME sector spending on digital advertising in the UK. On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, one in two U.S. small businesses has yet to implement an SEO strategy, according to a survey by Clutch. Continue reading “Search Engine Optimisation: Are You Getting It?”

Rumours of a Rival Search Engine

Is Wikipedia Discovery the next search engine set to steal a march on Google?

Possible Wikipedia Search Engine mock up.
The Shape of Things to Come? If the rumours are true, the Wikimedia Foundation could be taking on Google.

 

Holy citation needed or not, Batman… we at Net66 have learned of the Wikimedia Foundation’s latest announcement. Today, Jimmy Wales’ Wikimedia Foundation have declared their latest offensive on Google. This time, with the launch of a rival search engine. Continue reading “Rumours of a Rival Search Engine”

The Importance of Product Reviews in SEO

Product reviews and their role in consumers’ buying habits

Product Reviews chalkboard.

Imagine you’re going on holiday or about to make a major purchase. Among the first things you look at after price is the customer reviews. For your next trip, you look at customers’ experiences of the hotel, tour operator or airline. If purchasing white goods, you weigh up their responses to the item’s performance. The first place they turn to for product reviews is the internet. Continue reading “The Importance of Product Reviews in SEO”

Google Search Location Filter Axed

Lack of demand cited as reason behind discontinuation

A useful yet underappreciated part of Google’s search tools has been axed with little protest this week.  The Google Search Location Filter allowed its users to filter results by location.  For example, browsers living in the United States were able to narrow results down to State level.  They could search for products and services within Detroit and narrow results down to businesses in Michigan. Continue reading “Google Search Location Filter Axed”

Net66 says: ‘Prepare for Penguin’

Only 24 indexing days till Christmas – and 31 till 2016

King Penguin Chick at Salisbury Plain
Stand out from the crowd: we at Net66 have proven success with whatever algorithm Google sends our way, from the Florida Update up to Penguin.

Winter has come to Manchester courtesy of Storm Clodagh.  For December, it is usually colder in these parts, but the weather has been more autumnal.  This apart from 80 mph winds in nearby Rochdale and Denton and heavy rain throughout the UK.  At this moment, too warm for seeing penguins in Albert Square, yet Olaf and Elsa managed to appear in Stalybridge (but that was for a Christmas lights switch-on). Continue reading “Net66 says: ‘Prepare for Penguin’”

Net66 Would Like to Thank Our Client

Net66 like to be there for our clients and strive to go above and beyond what “traditional companies” would do. We never ask for anything in return other than a continued business relationship.

That’s why it’s always nice when we receive something back from our clients. The Space Collective have been working with Net66 for years now and enjoy a great relationship with ourselves. We’ve presided over the rebuild of two of their websites and successfully optimise both of them. Continue reading “Net66 Would Like to Thank Our Client”

Keep Calm & #followrand





followrand
Introducing our “Keep Calm and #followrand” graphic. Each of the four images +1 can be uniquely downloaded (see the links at the end). Inspired by Rand Fishkin’s very English looking twirly moustache. Partly a touch of very English humour but also more seriously both by the prominence of Rand and Moz within the SEO community, so we thought we’d run a series of posts to review the top 5 features of Moz with the graphic to promote the series.

For those of who who don’t know, other than stating where have you been? Mr Rand Fishkin himself has been a vital personality in the SEO sphere for many years, indeed I remember hearing Rand speak at a SMX conference years back while I was just a wee bright eyed and bushy tailed SEO freelancer. Rand started Moz, or what was called SEOMoz back then and now is no doubt the premier suite of SEO tools available to SEO’s and non-SEO’s alike. We also quite liked the notion of promoting Rand’s Britishness, although of course (and sadly) he’s not British!

We’ll be publishing a series of reviews with what we think are the best 5 features of Moz and we’ll also be writing some follow up pieces. The SEO sphere has been shaken in the last couple of years, particularly though not exclusively by the Penguin updates. For me personally Moz has always been a place of stability in all of the chaos that working in SEO involves. Continue reading “Keep Calm & #followrand”

Net66: Penguin Goes Panda, Moves to Continuous Updates

There’s been quite a bit or furore over the latest penguin algorithm. Initially it rolled out, and then continued to roll out even over Thanksgiving which Google usually tries to avoid doing.

It now seems that there will be no “end” to the algorithm rollout. A Google Spokesperson has today confirmed that the rollout of Penguin will be continuous.

Here’s what they had to say:

That last big update is still rolling out — though really there won’t be a particularly distinct end-point to the activity, since Penguin is shifting to more continuous updates. The idea is to keep optimising as we go now.

This means that we’re likely to stop getting updates from Google when they do update the algorithm. As we all know Google stopped confirming Panda updates some while ago. And now it looks like they’re set to do the same for Penguin. Continue reading “Net66: Penguin Goes Panda, Moves to Continuous Updates”

Net66: Yahoo! Usurps Google as the Default Search Provider for Firefox

Firefox has been very busy updating itself as a Web Browser recently. Not long ago it announced an update to itself and also added support for DuckDuckGo to be a default browser.

With the news that Yahoo were going to be the default browser, they’ve changed the layout of their search results and it’s eery how similar they are to Google’s own results. Check out the images below:

Yahoo Results

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virgin-flight-27-800x562

sf-49ers-800x562

Google Results

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Screen-Shot-2014-11-19-at-3.02.33-PM-800x440

Screen-Shot-2014-11-19-at-3.02.19-PM-800x509

Blog Post by: Greg McVey

Net66: Google Finally Announce Launch of Mobile Friendly Labels in Listings

We all know that Google have been testing mobile friendly and none mobile friendly labels for search results. They initially tested out different formats such as icons and then written labels.

Well now, in an official blog post, they’ve confirmed the support is rolling out. They’ve added some best practices, an example mobile friendly listing and even a mobile friendly testing tool.

Check out the example image Google sent out:

mobile-friendly

They also offered a bit of advice on what you can do to get these labels and advise that your website will get the mobile friendly label if it:

  • Avoids software that is not common on mobile devices, like Flash
  • Uses text that is readable without zooming
  • Sizes content to the screen so users don’t have to scroll horizontally or zoom
  • Places links far enough apart so that the correct one can be easily tapped

They’ve even released a tool that can use to test your mobile website friendliness.

Net66 Qualifies as Mobile friendly, does your site?

Blog Post by: Greg McVey