Will My Organic Rankings Suffer If I Don’t Have a Blog?
A blog can be a major investment, but the SEO benefits can make it worth the effort. Read more
Google Releases New Video on How to Hire an SEO Consultant
This 11-plus-minute video by Google’s Maile Ohye explains what questions to ask and what to look for during that hiring process of an SEO consulting firm, including useful insights, red flags and more. Read more
Google Search Algorithm Update February 7th
We just had some Google algorithm update a week ago potentially targeting spammy links I believe. And now a week later, around February 7th, yesterday, it seems there was another algorithm update. This update doesn’t seem specific to links or spam but rather just a normal unconfirmed Google update where ranking changes shift based on something changing at Google.
I do not believe it is related to the mobile bug because most of the automated tracking tools only track desktop search.
There is some chatter, the chatter in the SEO community is not YET that hot but it might heat up throughout the day as people check their analytics and tools.
An ongoing WebmasterWorld thread has these posts:
SERPs movements again in our vertical. We’re seeing some recoveries from previous penguin casualties and some domain crowding. Spam STILL having a huge positive impact.
Yesterday (Tue 7th) I saw a huge spike in organic traffic, ~30% over avg, and 18% increase from previous record day in November. It’s a Canadian financial-related site. Increases from both Google.ca as well as other search engines/
Here is a post on Twitter that even caught Gary Illyes attention:
And here are the tracking tools showing changes on the 7th, note Mozcast is well behind in terms of tracking so this might be related to the link spam update we covered last week?
Have you noticed any changes over the past 24 hours?
HT SE Roundtable
Introducing the Mobile-Friendly Test API from Google
Google has finally released Mobile-Friendly Test API for webmasters so developers can now build their own tools around the mobile-friendly testing tool to see if pages are mobile-friendly.
Google’s John Mueller said, “The API method runs all tests, and returns the same information — including a list of the blocked URLs — as the manual test.” He added, “The documentation includes simple samples to help get you started quickly.”
With so many users on mobile devices, having a mobile-friendly web is important to us all. The Mobile-Friendly Test is a great way to check individual pages manually. They’re happy to announce that this test is now available via API as well.
The Mobile-Friendly Test API lets you test URLs using automated tools. For example, you could use it to monitor important pages in your website in order to prevent accidental regressions in templates that you use. The API method runs all tests, and returns the same information – including a list of the blocked URLs – as the manual test. The documentation includes simple samples to help get you started quickly.
Google hopes this API makes it easier to check your pages for mobile-friendliness and to get any such issues resolved faster.
We know the importance of mobile friendliness. It is one of the most important SEO trends in 2017. Google has given enough signs that mobile friendliness is critical for your website. For example, Mobilegeddon, mobile-first index, mobile friendliness warning, and so on.
So, If you still don’t have a mobile friendly website, Mobile-Friendly Test API is another reason to make one now. This proves Google is serious about mobile friendliness of your website.
For more information on how we can improve your website to become more mobile-friendly, contact a Digital Marketing expert at Onimod Global today.
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