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Tag: Search

  • Google Won the Search Wars, but Can It Win the AI Search Wars?

    Google Won the Search Wars, but Can It Win the AI Search Wars?

    Google is the undisputed leader in the search industry but is now facing new challenges that threaten its dominance.

    According to the latest statistics, Google currently holds roughly 93% of the global search market. Its closest rival, Bing, holds a mere 3%. Yahoo comes in a little over 1%, and other search engines don’t even break single-digit percentages.

    Despite its dominance, however, Google’s search business is facing an existential threat, the likes of which it has never faced before — artificial intelligence. Just as Google’s search algorithms upended the market and killed off Alta Vista-style category searching, AI is poised to eliminate traditional search that returns pages and pages of links. Instead, AI can provide answers in a conversational manner much more akin to how human beings communicate.

    Enter ChatGPT

    While conversational AI has been a dream of many for years, OpenAI’s ChatGPT took the world by storm, offering the most advanced interpretation of the technology to date. Almost overnight, ChatGPT was being used for everything from writing letters to authoring papers to helping students with their schoolwork.

    ChatGPT was so successful that it caused something of a panic within Google as industry experts predicted the tech’s ability to put an end to traditional search. The potential wasn’t lost on Google’s rivals either, with at least a couple of them announcing plans to roll out AI-powered search.

    The Frontrunner: Microsoft

    Microsoft has quickly emerged as the biggest threat to Google’s search. In addition to being its biggest rival — albeit a very distant one — Microsoft is one of the main investors in OpenAI, the firm behind ChatGPT. In fact, the Redmond-based company just signed a multi-year, multibillion-dollar investment in OpenAI, extending a partnership that gave it exclusive access to some of the AI firm’s tech.

    Read More: Microsoft Officially Extends Its Partnership With OpenAI

    Microsoft has been rolling out the technology behind ChatGPT to its various platforms and services at a record pace, from email creation in Viva Sales to incorporating it into Azure OpenAI service.

    The biggest way Microsoft is incorporating OpenAI’s tech is in its Bing search engine. The company previewed it earlier this week, and the reviews were largely positive. Microsoft is also including a new and improved version of OpenAI’s tech, meaning it will be faster and more accurate in the answers it provides.

    Microsoft appears to be addressing the ethics of AI use as well. Business Insider’s Huileng Tan asked the new search engine to write a cover letter for a job. The AI responded that it could not do that as it would be “unethical” and “unfair to other applicants.” Bing did, however, give her general writing tips to help her and ended by wishing her “Good luck!”

    China’s Answer: Baidu

    Not one to be left out, Baidu is working on a ChatGPT-like AI of its own, named Ernie, which the company expects to launch publicly in March. Baidu is largely seen as the best chance for China to remain competitive in the search market, especially as the industry transitions to AI-driven results.

    See Also: Baidu Set to Unveil AI-Powered Search

    Despite having a home-turf advantage, Baidu may be facing a major impediment from its own government. The company’s stock took a major hit after a state media warning about the hype surrounding AI chatbots.

    This wouldn’t be the first time China has sabotaged its own tech industry, with Beijing having a complicated history of alternately promoting and then punishing its tech industry. If that behavior continues, it could significantly undermine Baidu’s ability to compete.

    The Dark Horse: Yahoo

    Once the world’s dominant search engine, Yahoo has long since ceded the crown. These days the company outsources its search to Bing, focusing on news and other digital elements.

    In late January, however, Yahoo surprised the industry by teasing a return to the search market. The company posted a job opening for a Product Manager for Search and has been dropping cryptic tweets about its plans. The company has tweeted about how it “did search before it was cool” and that it would “BRB making it cool again.”

    After years of irrelevance in the search market, it’s hard to imagine what would suddenly make Yahoo decide to make a go of it again — unless the company planned to take advantage of a game-changing shift in technology to help it play catch-up.

    Yahoo’s biggest challenge, of course, will be execution. The company has a long history of making bad decisions when it comes to search, passing up multiple opportunities to buy Google when the company was worth a small fraction of its current value.

    The Current Leader: Google

    Of course, that begs the question: What about Google? Where is the company in its AI efforts, and can it respond to this new threat effectively?

    The truth is, no one really knows. The appearance of ChatGPT and Microsoft’s quick adoption of the underlying tech sent shockwaves through the search giant. CEO Sundar Pichai issued a “code red,” reorganized labor in an effort to come up with an answer, and founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin returned to assist.

    The company scrambled to unveil its Bard conversational AI, only to bungle the launch when Bard provided the wrong answer to one of the questions posed to it. That mistake, at least temporarily, wiped $100 billion from Alphabet’s value as investors dumped the stock in response.

    Read More: Google Bard Flubs Its Debut, Gives Wrong Answer in Company Ad

    From the outside looking in, it certainly appears that Google got caught off-guard and is scrambling to play catch-up and making mistakes it can’t afford to make.

    OpenAI’s founder, Sam Altman, seems to agree, likening Google to “a lethargic search monopoly.” He talks about what it would be like to be in Google’s shoes and “to think about a world where there was going to be a real challenge to the way that monetization of this works and new ad units, and maybe even a temporary downward pressure, I would not feel great about that.”

    What Happens Next

    Despite Google’s years-long dominance in the search market, Microsoft clearly has an advantage moving forward. The company is taking advantage of cutting-edge AI tech developed by the de facto leader in the space. What’s more, the company has invested billions to secure its ongoing, exclusive access to OpenAI’s innovations.

    In contrast, Google is clearly in a position it’s not used to being in: playing from behind. It is scrambling to catch up and making the kind of mistakes common to that scenario.

    Meanwhile, Baidu is similarly behind Microsoft and may face regulatory hurdles that cripple its ability to compete effectively.

    While Yahoo can’t be ruled out, the burden of proof is on it, as to whether it can compete any better in the AI Search War than it did in the original Search Wars.

    Ultimately, this will likely come down to a two-way battle between Microsoft and Google, the two companies that have the resources and expertise to drive this new era of AI-driven search forward.

    In addition to being first to the party, Microsoft has another major advantage over its rival: It is moving like a nimble startup, outmaneuvering Google. As we have written before, in instance after instance, Microsoft is moving forward in a decisive fashion while Google gets bogged down, acting like “a stodgy, risk-averse corporate entity.”

    Read More: How Microsoft Is Outmaneuvering Google

    Regardless of how much Google has dominated search to date, the future is wide open and may well be Microsoft’s to lose.

  • TikTok Is Making a Play for Search

    TikTok Is Making a Play for Search

    TikTok is making a play for the search market, encouraging users to use it in place of traditional search engines.

    TikTok may be the hottest social media platform, but the company has designs on much more. With many young people turning to social media for answers and advice, TikTok is trying to position itself as a search engine alternative.

    If using the app for search seems far-fetched, one only has to look at one of its latest ads to see what the company is planning. Of course, given the scrutiny the Chinese firm is already under, TikTok’s efforts to compete with traditional search may backfire.

    US lawmakers and regulators are concerned about the amount of user data TikTok has access to and whether that data makes its way to Chinese authorities. Making a play for the search market, and the additional data that encompasses, is likely to make those lawmakers even more nervous and lend more weight to a possible ban.

  • Google May Be On the Hook for €25 Billion in UK and EU Cases

    Google May Be On the Hook for €25 Billion in UK and EU Cases

    Google is facing its biggest potential fines yet, with the UK and EU pursuing cases that could see the search giant on the hook for €25 billion.

    Google is the dominant online ad platform, but critics have long accused the company of abusing its position in the market and shutting out smaller rivals. Despite the company being fined billions in the past, regulators recognize those fines have done little to alter Google’s practices.

    “The fines we have seen so far from competition authorities have had absolutely no consequence whatsoever,” Johnny Ryan, from the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, told the BBC.

    The company is now facing legal pressure on two fronts, with potentially staggering consequences.

    “Google is under pressure on two big issues – one is anti-trust and the other is data protection,” Ryan said.

    One of the cases in question is being pursued in the Netherlands, with the other being pursued in the UK. Together, the two cases could result in €25 billion in fines.

    “Publishers, including local and national news media, who play a vital role in our society, have long been harmed by Google’s anti-competitive conduct,” said Damien Geradin, of the Belgian law firm Geradin Partners.

    “It is time that Google owns up to its responsibilities and pays back the damages it has caused to this important industry.

    “That is why today we are announcing these actions across two jurisdictions to obtain compensation for EU and UK publishers.”

  • PM Boris Johnson: A Master In Manipulating Search Engines

    PM Boris Johnson: A Master In Manipulating Search Engines

    According to many cyber specialists, Boris Johnson is nothing less than a genius when it comes to his abilities to manipulate search engine results about himself. In other words, the experts contend that he knows all too well how to bury all news that is embarrassing to him and portray him in a negative light. And the incumbent UK Prime Minister has been using his SEO manipulative skills for years now according to expert Richart Ruddie who consults with Brandefenders, a subsidiary of the reputation management set of companies which is one of the largest reputation repair agencies in the world.

    How Does Johnson Do This?

    Briefly put, Ruddie says by creating sensational news items at every opportunity he gets and especially, when there are certain negative contents circulating about him or when he is being criticized for one or other of his actions. In the UK it’s a weekly occurrence whereas in the USA it was daily gaffes coming from George Bush, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden with the latest having Joe Biden falling off his bicycle and then The Atlantic having to defend against fake headlines credited to them.  


    To cite the most current example, Johnson received a lot of flak from many quarters, including from members from his own party, when photos surfaced of Johnson leaving a party on 13 November, 2020—at a time when the nation was under strict lockdown and social gatherings of any kind were completely prohibited. 

    What did Johnson do in the wake of the event and the subsequent widespread criticism? He immediately issued an apology, to be sure. However, here is the interesting bit. He did not stop there. He made an elaborate statement repeating his belief that ‘working from home’ does not really work and renewing his call to people to get back to the offices. However, shrewdly enough, he peppered his message with such remarks such as coffee and cheese distract people from the work at hand and slow them down, etc. And importantly, these remarks were made in a humorous vein. 

    Accordingly, major media outlets made the story a headliner since they assumed (rightly enough) that people would find the report amusing. Accordingly, the partygate reports were partially buried, in the sense that they were pushed down the search engine results in favor of the NEW ‘Boris Johnson content according to Ruddie in a recent podcast that creative strategies like this are not luck but advice from experts who direct the Prime Minister on how to help sculpt a better search engine results page through these crafty tactics. 

    SEO Manipulating Tactics: Nothing New with Johnson, Experts Suggest 

    Many from the digital marketing community actually have been suggesting, since at least a couple of years ago, that this plot is nothing new with Johnson. And that he has been using these same tactics for quite some time now. For example, these SEO experts contend that many bizarre answers and remarks that Johnson routinely makes during his interviews are actually well-calculated messages, put forth with the aim of changing the dominant online narrative about him and altering what the users see when the next time they google his name, for example. 

    When in 2019, he remarked in an interview that he likes crafting model buses by painting wine boxes, this bizarre statement was interpreted by many as an attempt to divert people’s attention from older news stories that paint him in a bad light and are harmful to his overall image. For example, the story of his flight and carouse with his now wife Carrie, his declared plans about the NHS Brexit Bus, or that of his one-time affair with a former model—stories that were pushed down the search engine results courtesy his bizarre remark vis-à-vis his ‘relaxation technique.’ 

    The Way It Works With Search Engines

    According to experts, the method Johnson is thought to be using works mainly because of Google’s auto suggest feature. Malta, a small island in Europe, made headlines in their top newspaper when it came out that they had used similar tactics to help attract tourists back to their island thanks to Richart Ruddie and his companies’ services. So why would Boris Johnson be any different? Did his team ask Ruddie for advice in changing around search results? Experts asked if he was working with Ruddie and he declined to comment on that matter.   

    When we type something at the search bar (Boris Johnson for example), Google will offer auto-completed strings of text in a drop-down menu. Accordingly, the trick is to make the new content or remark interesting enough so that one or more major media outlets will actually end up using the most catchy words or phrases from the remark in the headline of their article(s). And that often is enough to convince Google and other search engines that the article merits a high rank in the search results (especially since search engines commonly favor newer content over older ones).

    By way of example, we may mention Johnson’s stated plan about an Irish Sea Bridge, regarded as fantastical from the very beginning. However, the very fact that it was fantastical actually made it newsworthy and accordingly, helped push down older articles such as the ones about Johnson’s failed London Garden Bridge project. 

    Does Boris Johnson Use a Reputation Management Company? 

    Online reputation management services have for some time now become a subset as well as an integral part of digital marketing strategies. Nowadays, there are practically thousands of firms offering reputation management services and the people working for these concerns are equipped with adequate knowledge of how to clean up negative contents about their clients and push positive articles and/or websites higher up the search engine results.


    It is only natural that politicians (and their publicists) will be well aware of these services. And since any and all bad press can often have a serious negative impact on a politician’s career, it is equally understandable that many will hire the services of these reputation management firms. However, does Boris Johnson use a reputation management company to showcase a positive image of his own?

    While we cannot provide a definitive answer to that as Richart Ruddie declined to comment on any relation between the ministry of foreign affairs, Boris Johnson, and himself so add this to one more mystery in how things change in Google.

  • DuckDuckGo Grew by 46% in 2021, Averaging 100 Million Daily Searches

    DuckDuckGo Grew by 46% in 2021, Averaging 100 Million Daily Searches

    DuckDuckGo is making major headway in the search market, growing by 46% in 2021 and averaging more than 100 million daily searches.

    DuckDuckGo is a privacy-focused search engine that does not track or profile its users, unlike Google or Bing. The company does rely on advertising, but those ads are based solely on the keywords and content of a specific search.

    While the company’s market share pales in comparison to Google, it is solidly in fourth place, behind Google, Bing, and Yahoo. According to Bleeping Computer, DuckDuckGo saw its searches go from 23.6 billion in 2020 to 34.6 billion in 2021. That translates to a daily average in 2021 of 100 million, up from 79 million in 2020.

    Obviously, DuckDuckGo still has a long way to go before it represents any real threat to Google, but the company continues to prove that profits don’t have to come at the expense of user privacy.

  • Amazon SEO is Now More Important than Google SEO for Brands

    Amazon SEO is Now More Important than Google SEO for Brands

    Amazon has dethroned Google in product searches with over 54 percent of all product searches now happening on Amazon instead of Google. What this means is that brands must make Amazon SEO their priority in order to show up near the top of product searches for their related keywords.

    It’s predicted that an entire industry is in the midst of emerging to help companies adjust their strategies similar to what happened when Google first started to dominate search a couple decades ago.

    Walled garden research company Jumpshot released The Competitive State of eCommerce Marketplaces Data Report earlier this month which shows Amazon’s amazing eight-point rise in product searches in the last year alone.

    Recently, Deren Baker, Jumpshot CEO, revealed the latest results from their report in a Bloomberg Technology interview with Emily Chang:

    Amazon Leading Google with Product Searches

    We have seen a shift from Google to Amazon. Today over 54 percent of all the product searches that occur on the entire internet now occur on Amazon. Once you get into Amazon we’ve seen a strong growth in the number of sponsored placements that they put on their site. The product views that emanated from a sponsored click has increased from 3 percent to 7 percent in the last 18 months.

    We think that Amazon and Google are converging. We did some additional analysis at Jumpshot that shows that from the time a consumer searches on either Google or Amazon to the time that they buy was actually much shorter on Google. On Google, 35 percent of those purchases were made within 5 days, only 20 percent on Amazon.

    Amazon Becoming a Place for Product Discovery

    What you are seeing is that Amazon is becoming a place for product discovery for customers more and Google is shifting from pure product discovery to more of that considered purchase. When people are interested in understanding the price or the quality or the brand name they’re going away from Amazon back to Google now.

    Once you get to Amazon, 90 percent of the product views are actually the result of a search. So people aren’t messing around with merchandising placements or banner ads, they are typing a search for a product into Amazon and getting a search result. Once they get that search result we found that over two-thirds of the clicks are on the first page.

    Amazon SEO is Now More Important than Google SEO for Brands

    Imagine if you are a brand, you know that the majority of your customers are now searching for your product on Amazon. You know that once people get to Amazon what they are doing really doing is typing in a product search. Then once you get that search result you’ve got your competitors products, Amazon’s private label products, and you have to decide whether you are going to try and increase your organic results or pay for a sponsored placement. It’s a very confusing world for a brand today.

    I would not want to be a brand manager at a CPG company right now because I think you are between a rock and a hard place. I think what you will see in the future is the same way that an ecosystem of companies sprung up around Google search when it started to dominate peoples online behavior, you are going to see the same thing for Amazon search. What people are going to need is a non-Amazon source of information to help them understand what they are supposed to do and how they are supposed to spend their advertising dollars.

  • Google Under Closer Scrutiny From German Antitrust Watchdog

    Google Under Closer Scrutiny From German Antitrust Watchdog

    Google has been labeled a company of “paramount significance” by the German antitrust watchdog, opening the door for more scrutiny.

    Google is facing scrutiny and legal challenges worldwide over antitrust concerns related to its search dominance, advertising business, and its Android operating system.

    According to SFGATE, Google’s designation was changed by the Bundeskartellamt, the German antitrust group, allowing it “to intervene earlier and more effectively” to block anti-competitive behavior. The classification lasts for five years.

    “This is a very important step, since based on this decision, the Bundeskartellamt can now take action against specific anti-competitive practices by Google,” said the watchdog’s president, Andreas Mundt.

    Google has already said it will not appeal the decision.

    “We are confident that we comply with the rules and, to the extent that changes are necessary, we will continue to work constructively with the (Federal Cartel Office) to find solutions that enable people and businesses in Germany to continue to use our products,” Google said in a statement.

  • Bing Adds Local Store Search

    Bing Adds Local Store Search

    Microsoft Bing has added a major new feature, making it possible for users to search local stores.

    Many consumers use search engines to research products and find local places to purchase them. In many cases, consumers will purchase a product online and then pick it up in person.

    Microsoft is looking to help facilitate this by making it possible for consumers to search local stores’ inventory and product availability.

    The company announced the new feature in a blog post.

    You need something from a specific store. Where is the location closest to your home? Are they open? Is your product in stock? Using Microsoft Bing or searching on Bing Maps, you will get rich results that will answer all these questions! 

    For consumers looking to spruce up their homes for the holidays Bing search provides local results for what is needed, as well as inspiration for what is possible. By searching for new table lamps on Bing Maps, results show store stock, expanded views of products at the stores, and even include store reviews. This helpful level of information can motivate and confirm purchase decisions, helping shoppers spend time and money wisely.

  • SEO 2018 is All About Branded Search Queries

    SEO 2018 is All About Branded Search Queries

    SEO pioneer and Moz co-founder Rand Fishkin was recently asked about the future of SEO and how SEO agencies and marketers should adjust to these changes. Rands says that SEO has changed to the point that the traditional SEO focus on generic related keywords for your products and services is becoming obsolete because of how Google now displays search results.

    See below for highlights from Rand’s thoughts on the changing SEO landscape:

    There is definitely this problem in the SEO space where the amount of opportunity in SEO (is lessened), because of Google entering all these business sectors and taking away of a lot of the clicks and trying to solve the searchers’ query before they ever click.

    This means that you just don’t have as much opportunity to earn search clicks from this search engine anymore.

    Branded Search Queries

    How can we overcome that? I think the answer in SEO is pretty clear, which is the one thing that Google is not taking away from us, branded search queries. If somebody searches for StatBid or they search for Moz or they search for the North Face, that is a searcher telling Google to take me to this companies website. That’s a very very powerful undeniable signal that they want to reach your site. You’re getting 90% plus click-through rates on those.

    If you can increase the number of people searching for your brand instead of drawing a smaller and smaller percentage of the people who search for outdoor jackets, because Google’s placing all these ads above the fold and trying to say these are the best outdoor jackets and having an instant answer and a featured snippet and all this type of stuff, yeah that’s that’s a big win.

    Combining Classic SEO with New Stuff

    I think for CMO’s and for marketing departments it’s going to be a combination of classic skill sets in SEO. First, how do we rank? How do we make sure that our site is technically optimized? How do we make sure that we’re doing good keyword research and keyword targeting? How do we create good content around all these things and solve searchers problems?

    Then I think it’s also going to be some new forms of marketing that SEO’s are not generally familiar with, at least not historically. Those are things like creative that draws attention and eyeballs and interest. I think it’s a lot of storytelling. Great brands are built on the back of great storytelling and that is traditionally a big weak spot for SEO.

    SEO Teams Need to Get Retooled

    So yeah, I think there’s going to be a combination of new and old. That could mean that some (SEO & marketing) teams need to get retooled or new people need to be added. It could mean that agencies will have to upgrade those practices and I’ve already seen some agencies in the SEO world start to do that. I think serving existing demand is going to long-term not be as exciting as creating more demand.

  • Stop Making These 5 Deadly SEO Mistakes, Says Neil Patel

    Stop Making These 5 Deadly SEO Mistakes, Says Neil Patel

    After you stop making these 5 deadly SEO mistakes your google traffic is going to increase, says digital marketing expert Neil Patel. Sometimes just making a simple change can dramatically increase your traffic. For instance, Patel says that the moment he took out the dates from his URL his search traffic shot up 58 percent in just 30 days.

    Neil Patel, digital marketing expert and founder of Neil Patel Digital, discusses the five beginner SEO mistakes in his latest video release:

    Mistake 1: Putting Dates in URLs

    The first mistake is putting dates in your URL. I used to do this with NeilPatel.com. What a huge mistake. My URL structure used to be NeilPatel.com/year/month/TitleofmyBlogPost. The moment I took out the dates from my URL guess what happened to my search traffic? Within 30 days it went up by 58 percent. I’m not talking about taking my search traffic from a 1,000 visitors to you 1,580 visitors. I had hundreds and thousands of visitors from Google already each month with dates in my URL. The moment I removed them I saw an additional 58 percent increase in my search traffic.

    So whatever URL structure you have just make sure it does not have dates. Reason being is when you have a date in your URL, Google thinks of your site as being relevant to that date. You write a blog post and they’re like oh, this blog post must be related to January 12, 2025, or whatever the date is today. If you want your content to continually rank as evergreen content you can’t put dates in your URL.

    Mistake 2: Thinking of Your Site as a Silo

    The second mistake that you’re making is you’re thinking of your site as a silo. It doesn’t matter how many different sections you have or categories, it’s still one site. It’s on one domain name. For example, my blog is about marketing, so when I create content I link to all the other marketing posts (on my site) that are relevant to the posts that I just released.

    You should consider thinking of your website as one big site versus different silos so when you write content you should link to other pieces of content that are relevant. That way all of your pages are going to be interconnected and they’re going to rank higher.

    Mistake 3: Thinking of SEO as Just SEO

    The third mistake that you’re making is you’re thinking of SEO as just SEO. It’s not just about on page code. It’s not just about building links. It’s not even just about getting social shares. It’s about building a brand. Eric Schmidt, the ex-CEO of Google, once said that brands are the solution. What he’s talking about is that when Google was trying to figure out what sites to rank higher than others he decided as well as ton of other people in Google that if you have a brand you should rank higher.

    Why is that? You’ve heard of this thing called fake news. It’s a great way to combat that. It’s not just Facebook who’s concerned about fake news. It’s also Google, LinkedIn, Twitter, and all of the major platforms out there. Building a brand does wonders for you especially when it comes to SEO. You can do things like collecting emails to get people to keep coming back to your site. You can use tools like HelloBar to do that for free. You can use tools like Subscribers to do push notifications so that when people come to your website within one click they can subscribe. Getting all of those people to keep coming back will help reinforce your brand to them. That’ll help you climb in the rankings in the long run.

    Mistake 4: Just Writing Content

    The fourth mistake is just writing content. I know you’re that content is king, how is that a mistake? Writing content isn’t a mistake. It’s writing content and then not updating it, and that’s what most people do. They just write content and they write more new content then after that they write more content and guess what they do after that they write more new content. If you update your content Google’s going to see it as fresh, hip, new, and still relevant, and rank it higher.

    With over a billion blogs out there Google likes picking brand new updated content versus old outdated content. This doesn’t mean you have to rewrite the whole article. It could just be paragraph or two or a few lines. It could just be reviewing an article and making sure it’s still up to date where you make no modifications because it’s still good to go.

    Mistake 5: Not Thinking About the User

    The last mistake you’re making is not thinking about the user. Google looks at something called user metrics. Whether it’s the browser or the toolbar Google wants to make sure people have an amazing experience. They’re using all those platforms to track how and when people come to your website and how they perceive it.

    They can’t talk to them by serving them or anything like that. What they can see is when someone performs a Google search, clicks on the listing landing on your site and within a second they are they clicking the back button. If they are it tells Google your website or that web page isn’t relevant. By putting the user first instead of putting SEO first it’ll help you climb to the top.


  • Google Joins Exclusive $2 Trillion Club

    Google Joins Exclusive $2 Trillion Club

    Google has joined the $2 trillion club, becoming only the third US company to cross the threshold, thanks to a surge in its stock price.

    Apple was the first company to cross $2 trillion in valuation, in August 2020, followed by Microsoft in June of this year. According to TheStreet, a surge in Google’s stock price Monday helped the search and ad giant cross over.

    Despite a great deal of hand-wringing over Apple’s various privacy initiatives, the ad industry in general, and Google in particular, has managed to survive relatively intact.

    Google’s valuation shows there’s still plenty of money to be made in the advertising industry, while still respecting user privacy.

  • The Future of Google and SEO is AI

    The Future of Google and SEO is AI

    The future of Google and of SEO is AI says world-renowned SEO expert Stephan Spencer. “If you’re relying just on backlinks, then you aren’t recognizing that the future of Google and of SEO is AI, it’s artificial intelligence,” noted Spencer in another informative interview by James Schramko of SuperFastBusiness.

    Stephan Spencer, SEO expert, speaker, and author recently discussed the impact of AI on Google Search and SEO with James Schramko of SuperFastBusiness: (Listen to the full podcast below)

    The Future of Google and SEO is AI

    If you’re relying just on backlinks, then you aren’t recognizing that the future of Google and of SEO is AI, it’s artificial intelligence. What’s the best way, or the really the only way, to outsmart an AI? I would challenge that the only way to outsmart an AI is with another AI. So really, AI is the future.

    AI and nanotechnology and all the cool technologies that are advancing, like VR, AR, etc., they’re happening faster and faster. And we need to be more nimble than we’ve ever been in order to keep up. So that’s kind of the game that we have to play.

    SEO is Not Just About Machine Learning and AI

    But right now, SEO is not just about having machine learning on your side to try and outsmart Google. It’s about having a search-engine-friendly website. It’s about identifying keywords that are relevant and popular and that are attainable for you in the Google search results. And it’s about achieving buzz and link equity by having people mention you and link to you. So those things still work, they’re still important to the Google algorithm. But on top of that, you’ve got to be willing to explore machine learning and be nimble about the future.

    I’m personally excited about the future. I think it’s an amazing time to be alive. The kinds of advances that we’re about to experience in our lifetimes are going to be mind-blowing.

  • Australia May Force Google to Give Users a Choice of Android Search

    Australia May Force Google to Give Users a Choice of Android Search

    Australia may soon force Google to give users a choice for their default search engine on Android phones.

    Google has come under increased scrutiny for its dominance in the search market. While the company argues that its dominance is the result of simply being better, critics say its overwhelming market lead all but ensure it faces no real competition. Add in aggressive deals with other companies, as well as its ability to make its search the default on Android, and Google’s position is all but unassailable.

    According to Reuters, Australia wants to change that by forcing Google to present users with a screen during initial configuration that will allow users to choose their default search engine. While it is already possible to change the default on Android, less tech-savvy users may not readily know how, something a selection screen would solve.

    “We are concerned that Google’s dominance and its ability to use its financial resources to fund arrangements to be the default search engine on many devices and other means through which consumers access search, such as browsers, is harming competition and consumers,” said Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) Chair Rod Sims  in a statement.

    “Google pays billions of dollars each year for these placements, which illustrates how being the default search engine is extremely valuable to Google’s business model.”

  • Google Now Taking Requests to Remove Pictures of Minors

    Google Now Taking Requests to Remove Pictures of Minors

    Google is now accepting requests to remove pictures of minors from its search results.

    Big Tech, especially search and social media, has been taking additional steps to protect minors, restricting features and settings by age. Google is now taking it a step further, unveiling a new tool to enable parents and minors to request the removal of minors’ photos.

    The company announced the new tool in a blog post.

    With a newly implemented policy, anyone under the age of 18, or their parent or guardian, can now request the removal of their images from Search results, following a few simple steps. This means these images won’t appear in the Images tab or as thumbnails in any feature in Google Search.

    Google does warn that removing an image from Google’s search results doesn’t necessarily remove it from the internet at large.

    It’s important to note that removing an image from Google results doesn’t remove it from the internet. That’s why you might want to contact a site’s webmaster to ask that they remove the content, too. You can learn more about how to do that on our support page.

    Parents and minors interested in using Google’s new tool can learn more in this help page and begin the process here.

  • EU Gives Google Two Months to Clean Up Hotel and Flight Searches

    EU Gives Google Two Months to Clean Up Hotel and Flight Searches

    Google has once again earned the ire of the EU, being given two months to clean up its flight and hotel search results before being penalized.

    The EU has taken issue with how Google displays the prices for hotels and flights in its search results. The EU’s consumer watchdog agencies want Google to show fees and taxes as part of the final price, as well as clearly identify reference prices that are used in promotional discounts, Reuters reports.

    “EU consumers cannot be misled when using search engines to plan their holidays. We need to empower consumers to make their choices based on transparent and unbiased information,” EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders said.

    Google is being given two months to make the necessary adjustments. If it fails to do so, there may be further discussion and possible sanctions.

  • Google Launches Search Console Insights

    Google Launches Search Console Insights

    Google has officially launched Search Console Insights for all users.

    Search Console Insights is designed to help webmasters, writers and content creators gain better insights into how their content is resonating with users. The new feature can also show where viewers/readers are coming from, including what people were searching for before landing on content.

    Google made the announcement on its blog.

    This experience joins data from both Search Console and Google Analytics with a goal of making it easy to understand your content’s performance. Whether you are a web content creator, blogger, or a website owner, and independent of your technical expertise, it can provide you with an overview and helpful insights on how your content is performing. This new experience will gradually be rolled out to all Search Console users in the upcoming days.

    The new feature doesn’t require an Analytics account although, obviously, it will provide more insights with one.

  • Google Sheds Light on Organic Search Drops

    Google Sheds Light on Organic Search Drops

    Google has posted information shedding light on why sites experience drops in their organic search results.

    Google routinely updates their search algorithms, with the most recent being in June and July of 2021. Unfortunately, changes to Google’s algorithms often lead to some sites seeing major drops in traffic. For many, the causes and potential solutions are unclear, making it difficult for sites to regain the traffic they once enjoyed.

    Google is now shedding light on the causes behind a drop in organic traffic: technical issues, security issues, manual actions, algorithmic changes and search interest disruptions.

    Daniel Waisberg, Google Search Advocate, outlines how each of these can impact traffic:

    Technical issues: Errors that can prevent Google from crawling, indexing, or serving your pages to users – for example server availability, robots.txt fetching, page not found, and others. Note that the issues can be site-wide (for example, your website is down) or page-wide (for example, a misplaced noindex tag, which would depend on Google crawling the page, meaning there would be a slower drop in traffic).

    Security issues: If your site is affected by a security threat, Google may alert users before they reach your site with warnings or interstitial pages, which may decrease Search traffic.

    Manual Actions: If your site does not comply with Google’s guidelines, some of your pages or the entire site may be omitted from Google Search results through a Manual Action.

    Algorithmic changes: Google is always improving how it assesses content and updating its algorithm accordingly; core updates and other smaller updates may change how some pages perform in Google Search results. To keep track of future updates, subscribe to our Google Search News YouTube series or follow us on Twitter.

    Search interest disruption: Sometimes changes in user behavior will change the demand for certain queries, either as a result of a new trend, or seasonality throughout the year. This means your traffic may drop simply as a result of external influences.

    Waisberg’s post should be a valuable resource for all webmasters, both those whose sites have experienced a drop and those that want to avoid one.

  • Google Has Completed Its July 2021 Core Update

    Google Has Completed Its July 2021 Core Update

    Google has finished rolling out its July 2021 core update, following a June 2021 core update last month.

    Google usually rolls out core updates to its search algorithm every six months. Some of the updates weren’t quite ready for the June rollout, however, necessitating a follow-up rollout in July.

    The rollout began July 1 and is now complete.

    Google has not given much information on what to expect, only that some sites may see their rankings go up or down, or not change at all. According to Search Engine Land, however, some webmasters were seeing significant changes on July 2 and July 9. There’s a possibility some webmasters are seeing an impact today, but it’s probably still too early to be sure.

    Webmasters whose sites have been impacted should check out Google’s page on how core updates work and mitigation efforts that can be taken.

  • Google Adding Warning Labels on Rapidly Evolving Topics

    Google Adding Warning Labels on Rapidly Evolving Topics

    Google is stepping up its efforts to combat misinformation, adding a warning label to “rapidly emerging results,” without much verified data.

    Online misinformation is just one of the issues tech companies are dealing with. All too often, a topic goes viral before experts have a chance to weigh in with important, factual information.

    Google is looking to address this by providing a warning label when an emerging topic has yet to have much reliable information supporting it.

    “To help with this, we’ve trained our systems to detect when a topic is rapidly evolving and a range of sources hasn’t yet weighed in,” the company writes in a blog post. “We’ll now show a notice indicating that it may be best to check back later when more information from a wider range of sources might be available.”

    The feature will initially be deployed for English results in the US, but will be expanding in the coming months.

  • Google Now Accepting Indexing Bug Reports

    Google Now Accepting Indexing Bug Reports

    Google is now accepting bug reports regarding indexing issues, making it easier for webmasters to address problems.

    Last year Google introduced its bug reporting feature as a way for webmasters to report security issues. Thanks to the success of the program, Google is expanding it to include indexing issues.

    Indexing issues can be reported in the URL Inspection Tool and the Index Coverage Report.

  • Daily Mail Newspaper Files Antitrust Lawsuit Against Google

    Daily Mail Newspaper Files Antitrust Lawsuit Against Google

    The Daily Mail has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google, claiming the search giant wields too much advertising power and newspapers see little in return.

    As Google has grown from a search engine to an advertising behemoth, it has exerted an increasing level of control over the entire advertising process. The company now controls the ad exchange, ad space on publishers pages and the inventory of available ads.

    According to Reuters, The Daily Mail has had enough and is suing Google.

    “The lack of competition for publishers’ inventory depresses prices and reduces the amount and quality of news available to readers, but Google ends up ahead because it controls a growing share of the ad space that remains,” the lawsuit said.

    The lawsuit adds to a growing list of suits Google is facing, including one by the Department of Justice, as well as one by a coalition of states.