Google’s Pigeon Update Solves Yelp Problem, Boosts Local Directories

As the analysis continues on yesterday’s Google local search algorithm changes — that we’re calling the Pigeon update — one thing appears to be clear: Local directory sites are getting better visibility in Google’s search results. More specifically, it looks like…

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The EU’s Right To Be Forgotten Is A Mess & How Google’s Making It Worse

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions,” the saying goes. There are plenty of good intentions with the EU’s Right To Be Forgotten mandate, as well as Google’s attempt to meet new obligations under it. Things are still going to hell regardless. Thanks to the new…

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Head Of Google’s Web Spam Team Matt Cutts Is Going On Leave

Google’s Matt Cutts – who holds the title of “distinguished engineer” — is taking a break from his duties as Google’s chief web spam fighter. Cutts has announced on his personal blog that he’s taking leave through October. It will be the longest break Cutts…

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Former Googler: Links That Change Are Trusted Less By Google’s Algorithms

A former member of the Google search quality and web spam team, Pedro Dias, said publicly on Twitter yesterday that “Google is less likely to trust a link once it has changed from the first time it was seen.” So if you changed the anchor text or URL path of the link, the value and…

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YP Joins Google’s Premier SMB Partner Program

YP is the largest of the major US yellow pages publishers (and local search providers), with roughly 4,000 sales and support reps and 575,000 (mostly small business) advertisers. The company has now joined the ranks of the Google AdWords Premier SMB Partner Program. Also on the list are fellow…

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Is Your Local Business Ready For Google’s Neighborhood Algorithm?

While doing some research in Costa Mesa, CA last week, I hit a Google test bucket that specified the East Side Costa Mesa neighborhood as my location in Search Tools: Google has long understood super well-known dense neighborhoods like SoHo, NY. But there’s a good reason why neighborhoods,…

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Does Google’s “Search Ads Lift Brand Awareness” Study Mean What It Says?

Google is touting a new study this week that concludes “Search Ads Lift Brand Awareness.” What the study should be titled, though, is “The Top Search Ad Lifts Brand Awareness”. This was a meta-study in which several studies were conducted by Google and Ipsos MediaCT across a…

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SearchCap: Google’s Detailed Reconsideration Requests, Yandex Block Referrer & New AdWords Policy Center

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Russian Search Engine Yandex Now 100% “Not Provided,” Blocks Referrer Data Yandex announced (in Russian) today that they have now went 100% secure, encrypting all…

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Google’s Payday Loan Algorithm 3.0 Rolling Out Now

Google is now rolling out the 3rd version of the PayDay Loan algorithm. Last night we reported that Google is going to be launching PayDay Loan 3.0 and Google’s Matt Cutts posted on Twitter moments ago that it is now rolling out. Cutts, Google’s head of search quality said,…

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Google’s Matt Cutts: MetaFilter Hit By An Algorithm But Not Panda Or Penguin

Last month, MetaFilter, a news and discussion site from back in the old days, told us they got hit by a Google penalty years ago that had a major impact on their business. We posted our theories and details on this penalty in our post named On MetaFilter Being Penalized By Google: An Explainer….

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