Updated: October 27, 2015
Reverberations were felt throughout the SEO community earlier this month when industry analysts noticed major fluctuations in Google’s search algorithms. In the aftershock, nearly everyone concluded that a big Google algorithm update was at the center of the disruption. However, when asked about the shift, Google said otherwise.
According to Search Engine Land:
“[Google] told us that, ‘as usual,’ it is ‘continuing to make tweaks’ to the search results but at this time, it has no specific ‘update’ to announce. Google also confirmed that whatever the community and the tools spotted, it was unrelated to the Google Panda Update or the Google Penguin update.”
So what was it? Some have speculated it could have been targeting mobile responsive websites, but data seems to suggest not. Others believe the “tweak” mostly impacted brand e-commerce terms. For now, thanks to Google’s silence, it remains a mystery. At least they have confirmed that Penguin and Panda were not involved.
Keep scrolling below for some more major headlines and SEO advice from the last couple weeks:
SEO
- For starters, review these 5 trends to expect in 2015 according to Stone Reuning, president and founder of SEO Advantage.
- Ever find yourself needing good keyword research in a pinch? One keyword shark gives his tips for how to conduct keyword research in 90 minutes or less, along with some great tools to use for coming up with the most effective keywords for organic search, no matter who your client is.
Content Marketing Corner
- Suffering from a bad case of blogger’s block? Check out these 8 tools that can help you generate fresh blog topic ideas for you and your clients.
- It’s always good to reduce, reuse, and recycle when you can, and the same goes for your content. Repurposing old content is an efficient way to reach a new demographic, bring back the old favorites and get the most results for your efforts. Take a look at these 11 ideas for when and how to repurpose content.
- In the third installment of their Next Level blog series, Moz tackles the tricky topic of content duplication. If you have a few minutes, it’s worth watching these short videos about how duplicate content happens, why it’s important to fix, and a bit about how you can uncover it.
Social Media
- Did you know that the best time post on Facebook is Thursday or Friday, between 1pm and 3pm? Find out why, as well as when you should post on other popular social media sites, courtesy of this infographic.
- Pinterest has reportedly leaked that they plan to launch a “Buy” button later this year, giving users the ability to make purchases without ever having to leave the site. Pinterest is staying quiet about the announcement for now, but it makes perfect sense in light of the fact that Facebook and Twitter are currently working on similar features.
- Out of all the social media networks, Instagram is arguably the least friendly for business-specific use. However, this hasn’t stopped companies from trying to wrestle into the trending social platform regardless. Here are 10 ways you too can promote your business’s brand and products through Instagram.
Google News
- On Feb. 1, Google released a beta report for its popular Analytics suite called “basic cohort analysis.” The new report is aimed at helping marketers and analysts test the effectiveness of forms, content, products, ads or other time-based trends. Click here and here to learn more about what this could mean for you if implemented to standard Analytics.
- If you’re a visual learner like me, then you’ll find this guide on how to use Google Maps Engine to visualize organic rankings simply ingenious.
- The title of this article, “A Beginner’s Guide to Finding New Customers with Google Display Network Targeting,” says it all. It’s a must-read for AdWords aficionados.
- We can learn a lot about the future by looking at the past, and Search Engine Watch does just that by seeing what none other than the face and voice of Google searching, Matt Cutts, has said about SEO over the past few years. Look back at some of Cutts’ blog posts, videos, and thoughts to get a better understanding of where Google’s been and where they (and therefore SEO) may be going next.
Wherever SEO takes you in the next couple weeks, we hope to see you back here for the next SEO roundup powered by SEO Advantage – now ranked #4 out of over 40 million Google listings for “search engine optimization company”! Until then, if you have any feedback, feel free to leave it in the comments section below.
