For years, there has been a relatively deafening klaxon in SEO: MOBILE SEARCH IS THE FUTURE This is not hyperbole. Here are some choice examples. First up, the top of this mobile SEO guide: And here is just one of the myriad of examples of it showing up on industry news sites like Search Engine Land.
Funny Kill It With Fire GIF from Funny GIFs Most SEOs I know hate sites with separate mobile URLs. They served their purpose back in the early days of mobile browsers, but over time the maintenance overhead combined with the SEO uncertainty brought on by having two different sets of near duplicate URLs has caused many of us to advocate for migrating to a single set of URLs for both mobile and desktop. But maybe we shouldn’t be the ones…
Then come check out my session at SMX East 😉 On Tuesday, I’m going to go over what the data truly says about ranking in local pack results. Do you need to focus on link building? Is there even such a thing as a “#1” ranking factor? What value do traditional local signals, like citations, still have the rapidly changing world of local search. I will also be teasing some data from the unreleased 2017 Local SEO Ranking Factors, so…
I just downloaded GBoard, the new Google iOS app that replaces the standard iOS keyboard with a keyboard that allows you to search Google from the board itself – and the results show up as cards at the bottom of the browser. Check it out: Gboard appears when you start to search in an iOS browser: Results show as a single card at the bottom. Scroll to the right for more results. If this thing catches on, you’d best be…
MobileGeddon: The MobileTastrophy is upon us and so far nothing has really happened. This is good news since I’m not quite sure Google understands what mobile friendly actually means. Remember this is an algo update that is supposed to run at the page, not site level. Here is an example of a page that I would not consider mobile friendly: It’s a ~5mb page that takes 11+ seconds to load when tested using Chrome on a Nexus 5. No way…
Update 4/11/15: According to a little birdie who spoke with Gary Iyles at the BrightonSEO conference, Gary “guaranteed” pack rankings won’t be affected. Guess we shall see… Google’s pending Mobile-Friendly algo update has become the Apple Watch of SEO – I can’t look at my Twitter feed without a blur of “How to get ready for Mobilegeddon” posts streaming by, so I might as well jump on in. Jennifer Slegg over at the SEMPost reports that Gary Iyles, a Google Webmaster…
Cori Shirk just shared a new Google mobile-local universal one box: This appears to be a test bucket as after several minutes of trying I am unable to trigger a similar looking result. For a quick comparison this is what the current mobile one boxes look like: The new design is much cleaner then the current one, it move the address and phone number information out of the the top of the box, minimizes the map and incorporates a picture.…
Today Waze introduced the ability to add “Places” to their mobile application. For any of you who aren’t familiar, Waze is a mobile traffic/mapping application that was acquired by Google in the not-too-distant past. Google-owned local applications are always on my radar, so here is a quick walk-through on how to list a business on Waze using the Android version of the application on a Nexus 5. 1) Download Waze The newest version of Waze, which has the ability to add…
The subhead of the session is “Right Time, Right Place, Right Ad” Greg Sterling moderating Eli Portnoy: CEO, ThinkNear Anne Bezancon: President, Placecast David Staas: CEO, JiWire Staas: Jiwire rolling out free wifi in exchange for engaging with the brand’s advertising. Launching with British Airways, Comcast & Hyatt. Oh joy. Portnoy: Finds stuff around you so you can interact with it on mobile. Bezancon: 10MM+ opted-in users. Portnoy: Traditionally local advertising was at the DMA level. We define hyperlocal as…
Pretty innovative use of QR codes by Tesco HomePlus in South Korea’s subways: This is the kind of thing that makes me think brick and mortar retail is doomed in the long run. Thanks To Don Campbell for pointing this one out.