WebProNews

Tag: ranking signals

  • Google Launches New Ranking Signal, Sets Date For Another

    Google Launches New Ranking Signal, Sets Date For Another

    Google announced that it will be expanding its use of “mobile-friendliness” as a ranking signal beginning on April 21. That gives you a little less than two months to make sure your site fits the bill. The change will go into effect across all languages, and Google says it will have a “significant impact” in its search results.

    Are you looking forward to the mobile-friendly update? Let us know in the comments.

    You know if Google is saying the impact is going to be “significant,” it’s probably not something to take lightly. As a result of the change, Google says users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results optimized for their devices.

    “When it comes to search on mobile devices, users should get the most relevant and timely results, no matter if the information lives on mobile-friendly web pages or apps,” says Google in a blog post. “As more people use mobile devices to access the internet, our algorithms have to adapt to these usage patterns. In the past, we’ve made updates to ensure a site is configured properly and viewable on modern devices. We’ve made it easier for users to find mobile-friendly web pages and we’ve introduced App Indexing to surface useful content from apps.”

    Now, they’re getting ready to implement the expanded ranking signal and also, starting today, they’re using information from indexed apps as a ranking signal for signed-in users who have said apps installed. Users may start seeing more content from apps they use displayed more prominently in search results.

    With regard to mobile-friendliness, Google notes that it has talked about such an algorithm update in the past, but that this is the first time it’s attached a date to it.

    Throughout 2014, Google made quite a few moves showing it was focusing on improving the mobile search experience for users. In November, they added a mobile-friendly label to mobile search results for sites that meet the criteria. The company mentioned that it was experimenting with using the same criteria for a ranking signal.

    Last month, webmasters were getting warnings from Google when their sites weren’t mobile-friendly, suggesting that that ranking signal might be creeping up. It’s not a surprise that Google is about to implement it, though it is somewhat of a surprise that they gave a launch date. They’re not usually so kind in announcing these things.

    Here’s what the webmaster warnings look like:

    When Google announced the labels, it also laid out some criteria for earning them. For one, a site should avoid software that isn’t common on mobile devices. It specifically mentioned Flash, following its previous shaming of Flash sites in mobile search results when it started showing messages in mobile search results for sites that may not work. Messages said things such as “Uses Flash. May not work on your device.”

    Google says sites should use text that is readable without zooming, and should size content to the screen so that users don’t have to scroll horizontally or zoom. Links should also be placed far enough apart so that the correct one can be tapped easily.

    Google has a Mobile-Friendly Test tool here. You can enter a URL, and Google will analyze it and report if it has a mobile-friendly design.

    If a URL passes the test, it will tell you that the page is mobile-friendly, and give you some additional resources, including information about how Googlebot sees the page.

    If the URL fails the test, you’ll get reasons why the page isn’t mobile-friendly, as well as info about how Googlebot sees it, and resources to help you fix issues.

    Last fall, Google Webmaster Tools added mobile usability tracking. This includes graphs that look at mobile issues over time, so you can see any progress you’ve made.

    “A mobile-friendly site is one that you can easily read & use on a smartphone, by only having to scroll up or down,” said Google’s John Mueller at the time. “Swiping left/right to search for content, zooming to read text and use UI elements, or not being able to see the content at all make a site harder to use for users on mobile phones. To help, the Mobile Usability reports show the following issues: Flash content, missing viewport (a critical meta-tag for mobile pages), tiny fonts, fixed-width viewports, content not sized to viewport, and clickable links/buttons too close to each other.”

    “We strongly recommend you take a look at these issues in Webmaster Tools, and think about how they might be resolved; sometimes it’s just a matter of tweaking your site’s template!” he said.

    If you have a mobile app, don’t forget the app indexing signal. You can find a step-by-step guide on getting it set up here. This might be more motivation for some businesses to build mobile apps. On top of that, Google just announced paid search results in the Google Play store, so Android apps will get some new visibility opportunities there. This is only in the pilot phase for the time being, however.

    Are you happy with Google’s latest moves? Discuss.

    Images via Google

  • Get Ready For Google’s New Mobile Ranking Signal

    Get Ready For Google’s New Mobile Ranking Signal

    Throughout the course of last year, Google made a bunch of moves showing that it was focusing on improving the mobile search experience for its users by way of getting websites (otherwise known as search results) to make themselves more mobile-friendly.

    In November, Google added a “mobile-friendly” label to mobile search results for sites that deserve such a title. It also said it was experimenting with using the same criteria that would earn a site the label for a ranking signal to give mobile-friendly sites even more love in the search results.

    Are you concerned about Google’s potential mobile-friendly ranking signal? Is this a positive step for Google? Let us know what you think in the comments.

    Now, webmasters are getting warnings from Google when their sites aren’t mobile-friendly, which may suggest that Google is about to implement that ranking signal. According to Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Roundtable, who says several of his clients received the warning over the weekend, these are being sent out at mass scale by way of email and Webmaster Tools.

    Schwartz shows a screenshot of one of the warnings, which says, “Fix mobile usability issues found on http://www…..” and then:

    Google systems have tested 3,670 pages from your site and found that 100% of them have critical mobile usability errors. The errors on these 3,670 pages severely affect how mobile users are able to experience your website. These pages will not be seen as mobile-friendly by Google Search, and will therefore be displayed and ranked appropriately for smartphone users.

    The message goes on to tell the webmaster to find problematic pages, learn about mobile-friendly design, and fix the mobile usability issues on the site. There is a link to view a report on the non-mobile-friendly pages, as well as one point to Google’s mobile-friendly guidelines. It also has links to a guide to making a CMS mobile-friendly, a page on Google’s Developer site about building mobile-friendly sites, and the Webmaster Central Forum, where webmasters are encouraged to ask more questions.

    Here’s another of the messages Martin Oxby shared on Twitter:

    Schwartz says Google had previously only notified sites that were “supposedly mobile friendly” when they had usability issues, but now they’re targeting sites that just aren’t at all mobile-friendly.

    The mobile-friendly labels should be fully rolled out on a global basis by now. In mid-November, Google said it was rolling it out over the next few weeks. When the company made the announcement, it also laid out some criteria for earning the label as detected by Googlebot.

    For one, a site should avoid software that isn’t common on mobile devices. It specifically mentioned Flash as an example. This actually follows Google’s previous shaming of Flash sites in mobile search results. Last summer, Google started showing messages for results that may not work in mobile results, such as “Uses Flash. May not work on your device.”

    Google says sites should use text that is readable without zooming, and should size content to the screen so that users don’t have to scroll horizontally or zoom. Links should also be placed far enough apart so that the correct one can be tapped easily.

    Google has a Mobile-Friendly Test tool here, which webmasters should find particularly helpful. You can simply enter a URL, and Google will analyze it and report if it has a mobile-friendly design.

    If a URL passes the test, it will tell you that the page is mobile-friendly, and give you some additional resources, including information about how Googlebot sees the page.

    If the URL fails the test, you’ll get reasons why the page isn’t mobile-friendly, as well as info about how Googlebot sees it, and resources to help you fix issues.

    After Google gave the news about using mobile-freindly as a ranking signal in November, the company said it would continue to use desktop signals for ranking mobile results. Google’s John Mueller said this in a Webmaster Central mobile office hours hangout:

    We need to focus on the desktop page for the search results for the most part. That’s also the one that you use with the rel canonical. As we pick up more information from mobile-friendly pages or from mobile pages in general, then I would expect that to flow into the rankings as well. So that’s something to keep in mind there.

    I’d still make sure that your mobile friendly pages are as fast as possible, that they work really well on mobile devices, that you’re going past just essentially the required minimum that we had with the mobile friendly tool, and really providing a great experience on mobile. Because lots of people are using mobile to kind of make their decisions, to read content, and if your site is kind of minimally usable on mobile, but really a bad user experience, really, really slow, then that’s something that users will notice as well and they’ll jump off and do something else or go to a different site.

    You can listen to him talk about that subject about 18 minutes and 50 seconds into the following video.

    Google has been asking random mobile users to rate their search results based on a five-star rating system ranging from poor to excellent.


    Last fall, Google Webmaster Tools added mobile usability tracking. This includes graphs that look at mobile issues over time, so you can see any progress you’ve made.

    Muller had this to say when announcing that: “A mobile-friendly site is one that you can easily read & use on a smartphone, by only having to scroll up or down. Swiping left/right to search for content, zooming to read text and use UI elements, or not being able to see the content at all make a site harder to use for users on mobile phones. To help, the Mobile Usability reports show the following issues: Flash content, missing viewport (a critical meta-tag for mobile pages), tiny fonts, fixed-width viewports, content not sized to viewport, and clickable links/buttons too close to each other.”

    “We strongly recommend you take a look at these issues in Webmaster Tools, and think about how they might be resolved; sometimes it’s just a matter of tweaking your site’s template!” he added.

    Google continues to look for ways to improve Webmaster Tools as the nature of search results continues to shift. Last week, it launched a new structured data tool to help webmasters author and publish markup on their sites. The company says it will better reflect Google’s interpretation of your site.

    Google is also asking webmasters for some ideas for new tools and features. The company wants to know what people want from it in 2015, and has a Google Moderator page where you can add your own suggestions or vote on others.

    What would you like to see Google add to Webmaster Tools? Let us know in the comments.

  • Google Under Review In The UK For Not Doing Enough To Stop Piracy

    Google and the entertainment industry go back and forth over how much of the Web should be downgraded in search results. Google implemented a new ranking signal back in August that downgrades sites based on the number of DMCA notices the site receives. The search engine has also removed The Pirate Bay from autocomplete. All of that is still not enough it seems.

    The Guardian reports that the entertainment industry has called on its buddy, the government, to review Google’s efforts to downgrade piracy sites in search results. The same entertainment groups think that Google isn’t doing enough to stop the proliferation of pirated material. The groups point to Google’s search results in the UK still being dominated by sites dedicated to piracy.

    To put their claim to the test, I searched for “Maroon 5 free mp3” on Google UK and Google US to see if pirated material shows up. Lo and behold, every result is from a free MP3 site. It’s the same across both territories:

    Google Under Review UK Stop Piracy

    It should be noted that both searches resulted in numerous DMCA takedown requests being listed. Interestingly enough, Google UK has 12 DMCA takedown requests on the front page compared to only nine on the US page. Both search results bring up the same three YouTube videos that contain links to free MP3 downloads in the description.

    In a perfect world, a search for free MP3 would bring up links to Spotify or other free streaming services. Of course, using the word “free” in the search result may be what’s causing the pirate links to show up. What if we just searched for “Adele Skyfall MP3?” Surely legitimate sources would show up, right?

    Google Under Review In UK Stop Piracy

    As you can see, the only legitimate source to show up is Amazon’s MP3 store. Even then, the link to Amazon doesn’t show up until you’re halfway down the page. The first five results all point to illegal sources including the YouTube video that’s not the official video, but rather a video that points to a free download in the description.

    Speaking to The Guardian, a Google spokesperson said that the company “continue[s] to work closely with the industry to protect rights holders and their material.” The spokesperson reiterated that Google’s new ranking signal makes “sites with high number of removal notices” appear lower in the results. The spokesperson also said that Google now takes down “more than seven million infringing links per month.”

    The sheer number of DMCA takedowns in Google results shows that Google is indeed removing links at a furious pace. The entertainment industry, however, still insists that it’s not enough. Geoff Taylor, chief executive of the British Phonographic Industry, told The Guardian that Google itself publishes the “most infringing domains” in its transparency reports, yet those sites still show up in search results. He says that the BPI is now in talks with Google to build a “genuine partnership” with the company’s Google Play service to offer legitimate music downloads to consumers.

    So what’s going to happen now? The UK government, specifically the UK’s DCMS, may introduce legislation that forces Google to censor search results. The department already gave search engines a voluntary code of practice at the beginning of the year that outlined how search engines should handle infringing links. They’re now putting Google under review for the above complaints, but it might also be because Google has not necessarily followed the “voluntary” code of practice.

    The Guardian says that the DCMS will meet with Google, rights holders and ISPs before Christmas to discuss possible agreements and strategies to combat piracy in search results. The DCMS will publish a white paper on creative industry policies in early 2013. The paper may contain the results from its meetings with Google and rights holders.

    At this point, I don’t think rights holders will be satisfied until every search result directs users to legitimate results. Doing that would require Google to outright censor its results. I’m sure the entertainment industry would love it, but other groups would cry foul. At this point, all we can do is sit back and watch how it unfolds. If the UK really does implement pro-censorship legislation, you can be sure that the Internet will find its way around it.