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Google will keep in secret the number of search quality algorithms Oct 08 How many search quality algorithms does Google use? This question was put to the John Mueller, the company’s employee during the last video conference with webmasters. The question was: "When you mention Google's quality algorithm, how many algorithms do you use?" Mueller responded the following: "Usually we do not talk about how many algorithms we use. We publicly state that we have 200 factors when it comes to scanning, indexing and ranking. Generally, the number of algorithms is a casual number. For instance, one algorithm can be used to display a letter on the search results page. Therefore, we believe that counting the exact number of algorithms that Google uses is not something that is really useful [for optimizers]. From this point of view, I can’t tell you how many algorithms are involved in Google search."

Gary Illyes shares his point of view on how important referential audit is Oct 08 At the Brighton SEO event that took place last week, Google rep called Gary Illyes shared his opinion about the importance of auditing the website's link profile. This information was reported by Jennifer Slagg in the TheSEMPost blog. Since Google Penguin was modified into real-time update and started ignoring spam links instead of imposing sanctions on websites, this has led to a decrease of the value of auditing external links. According to Gary Illyes, auditing of links is not necessary for all websites at the present moment. "I talked to a lot of SEO specialists from big enterprises about their business and their answers differed. These companies have different opinions on the reason why they reject links. I don't think that helding too many audits makes sense, because, as you noted, we successfully ignore the links, and if we see that the links are of an organic nature, it is highly unlikely that we will apply manual sanctions to a website. In case your links are ignored by the "Penguin", there is nothing to worry about. I've got my own website, which receives about 100,000 visits a week. I have it for 4 years already and I do not have a file named Disavow. I do not even know who is referring to me. Thus, in the case when before a website owner was engaged in buying links or using other prohibited methods of link building, then conducting an audit of the reference profile and rejecting unnatural links is necessary in order to avoid future manual sanctions. It is important to remember that rejecting links can lead to a decrease in resource positions in the global search results, since many webmasters often reject links that actually help the website, rather than doing any harm to it. Therefore, referential audits are needed if there were any violations in the history of the resource. They are not necessary for many website owners and it is better to spend this time on improving the website itself, says Slagg.

Googlebot still refuses to scan HTTP/2 Oct 08 During the last video conference with webmasters Google rep called John Mueller said that Googlebot still refrains to scan HTTP. The reason is that the crawler already scans the content that fast, so the benefits that the browser receives (web pages loading time is decreased) are not that important. "No, at the moment we do not scan HTTP / 2. We are still investigating what we can do about it. In general, the difficult part is that Googlebot is not a browser, so it does not get the same speed effects that are observed within a browser when implementing HTTP / 2. We can cache data and make requests in a different way than a regular browser. Therefore, we do not see the full benefits of scanning HTTP / 2. But with more websites implementing push notification feature, Googlebot developers are on the point of adding support for HTTP in future.” It should be recalled that in April, John Mueller said that the use of the HTTP / 2 protocol on the website does not directly affect the ranking in Google, but it improves the experience of users due to faster loading speed of the pages. Therefore, if you have a change, it is recommended to move to this protocol.

Google does not check all spam reports in manual mode Oct 08 Google employee named John Mueller stated that the search team does not check all spam reports manually during the last video conference with webmasters. The question to Mueller was the following: "Some time ago we sent a report on a spam, but still have not seen any changes. Do you check each and every report manually?" The answer was: No, we do not check all spam reports manually. " Later Mueller added: "We are trying to determine which reports about spam have the greatest impact, it is on them that we focus our attention and it is their anti-spam team that checks manually, processes and, if necessary, applies manual sanctions. Most of the other reports that come to us is just information that we collect and can use to improve our algorithms in the future. At the same time, he noted that small reports about violations of one page scale are less prioritized for Google. But when this information can be applied to a number of pages, these reports become more valuable and are prior to be checked. As for the report processing time, it takes some considerable time. As Mueller explained, taking measures may take "some time", but not a day or two. It should be recalled that in, Google received about 35 thousand messages about spam from users every month. About 65% of all the reports led to manual sanctions.

Google adds tags for recipes, videos and products in the image search Aug 03 Google added tags for recipes, videos, products and GIF to the image search results. Now when searching for images, users will immediately see which type of content the individual results are related to. The Google rep commented on the new feature saying the following: "These badges will help you find those images that involve additional actions or contain more detailed information." To display a label on a website page, appropriate marking of structured data should be added: for recipes, goods or video. GIF-images Google algorithms will recognize and mark automatically, thus, markup is not needed for them. New badges will not always be displayed just like extended snippets. Filling in the fields for the recommended properties of the markup increases the chances of getting them. Google also updated its structured data verification tool. Now it processes markups for images. It should be recalled that Google started showing videos and recipes in the search results for pictures starting from last month.

Google is speeding up the mobile pages in the ranking June 17 Google is changing its approach to assessing the speed of page loading. In the near future, the ranking will take into account the speed of mobile pages and not desktop. This was reported by the Goole search representative Gary Illyes at the SMX Advanced conference. As you know, at the moment Google measures only the loading speed of the desktop pages. These data are used both in desktop ranking and mobile. However, mobile speed is more important for Google. Therefore, it was decided to make changes to the search algorithm. This approach is already under consideration. Illyes also stressed upon the fact that Google will actively inform webmasters about any changes before launching the mobile-first index. So not to make a surprise for specialists. Earlier it was reported that Google has not been planning to take into account the downloading speed for mobile pages in the ranking.

Google My Business has added a tool for website creation June 17 Google My Business has launched a new tool using which users will be able to create a free business card website for their company. You need to verify ownership of the company page in My Business to access the tool. The data and photos placed on it will be used to create the website. The website appearance can be configured, and its contents supplemented. If you change the company’ data, the website will be automatically updated. In addition, it will be optimized for cross-platform devices. Having created a website you can publish it immediately or do that later. A window that offers you to create a website appears after the confirmation of the company page. This function is also available in the "Website" menu. For more information about this feature see the Help Center. According to Google, 60% of small businesses do not have their own website. With the help of a new tool they will be able to create them.

Google intends to improve the interaction of a person with AI July 25 Google announced the launch of a new research project, which goal is to study and improve the interaction between artificial intelligence (AI) and human beings. The phenomenon was named PAIR. At the moment, the program involves 12 people who will work together with Google employees in different product groups. The project also involves external experts: Brendan Meade, a professor of Harvard University and, Hol Abelson, a professor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The research that will be carried out within the framework of the project is aimed at improving the user interface of "smart" components in Google services. Scientists will study the problems affecting all participants in the supply chain: starting from programmers creating algorithms to professionals who use (or will soon be using) specialized AI tools. Google wants to make AI-solutions user-friendly and understandable to them. As part of the project, Google also opened the source code for two tools: Facets Overview and Facets Dive. Programmers will be able to check the data sets for machine learning for possible problems using the tools mentioned. For instance, an insufficient sample size.



Google Image Search loses market share to Amazon and Facebook Aug 14 The share of Google in the search market grew from 58.84% in October last year to 64.8% in March. At the same time, the share of Google Image Search fell to 21.8% in favor of Amazon and Facebook. This information has come from analysts of the American company Jumpshot in partnership with co-founder Moz Rand Fishkin. During the research, they analyzed search data in Google Search, Images, Maps, YouTube, Yahoo, Bing, Amazon, Facebook, Reddit and Wikipedia for the period from October to May with a sole purpose to determine the resources that accounted for the largest number of search engines Sessions and traffic. Generally, at this period Amazon's share went up from 0.4% to 2.30%, and Facebook's 0.8% to 1.5%. Bing and Yahoo both showed growth of up to 2.4%, while Google Maps was ranked up to 1.2%. The activity of Google Search, Bing, Amazon and Facebook showed growth, while Google Images, YouTube, Yahoo and Google Maps lost their positions. The report also included data on search volumes and CTR in the US. The number of search sessions in Google has exceeded 30 billion a month (as of October). By May, the growth trend remained at the level of 10-15% compared to the previous year. The results of the organic search in went down to the bottom. In December they were ranked at 54% (despite the fact that in January and February of the same year their level was at 57% and 56%, respectively, and taking into account the traditional activity stop after the winter holidays). November gave the highest rates of search activity without clicks and was ranked at 45.5%. At the same time, the lowest indicator was in October, which is only 40.3%. According to Jumpshot, the largest traffic is generated by Google: about 63% in May, with about 60% in October. During this period, YouTube also showed better results and went up by 0.2%, while Amazon rose by 0.1%. Traffic from Facebook, Yahoo, Reddit, Imgur and Bing almost died, and that’s only Wikipedia that remained at the same level.

Google will no longer trust WoSign and StarCom certificates July 25 Google reports that in the coming months, it will completely stop cooperation with certificates issued by WoSign and StarCom certification centers. The change will take effect with the release of Chrome 61, which is expected in mid-September. It will affect the certificates issued before October 21,, the period of validity of which has not yet expired. Last year, Google Chrome 56 stopped trusting the certificates from WoSign and StarCom, released later October 21,. After the release of Chrome 57, the browser partially stopped trusting the old certificates. An exception was made for websites that are among the first million in the Alexa rating. From now on, all certificates from these centers will be banned. "Starting with Chrome 61, the white list will be removed, which will lead to a complete cessation of trust in the existing root certificates of WoSign and StarCom and all certificates that they have given out. Websites that still use certificates from StarCom and WoSign should urgently consider replacing them, so as to minimize any inconveniences to Chrome users," reports Google. It should be recalled Mozilla announced about freezing its cooperation with WoSign and StartCom in September. Starting with the Firefox 51 the certificates are considered to be invalid. At the same time, the support of certificates issued before October 21, is still preserved.