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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.

Instagram launches tags for sponsored posts June 17 Instagram added a new feature to mark the paid posts with the "Sponsor of publication" label with the indication of the partner company. This information was reported by the service press. In the coming weeks, the new label will begin to appear in advertisements and bloggers’ “stories” all around the world. When you click on it, users will be able to go to their business partner account. The content creator and its partner will have access to statistics for each publication when the label is used. This will help them understand how subscribers interact with similar materials. Content creators will see this information in the Statistics section in Instagram, as well as their partners on their Facebook page. Instagram authorities believe that the innovation will strengthen the atmosphere of trust inside the service. To date, a new feature is only available for a small number of companies and content authors. In the coming months, developers are planning to launch it for a wide audience along with official rules and guidelines.

Google tests a new search results format with ready-made answers July 11 English-speaking users noticed that Google is testing a new format for the search results that would include ready answers. From now on the website, the content of which was used to generate a response will no longer be displayed in the search results. The reference to it is contained only in the block with the answer. "Google removed the result from the search on the page that was already shown in the block with the answer for this query. Now the block with the answer is the only result for the page on a specific request, "says The SEM Post blog It is noted that the new feature is currently available for many users, but not all of them. This can mean a large-scale testing or a gradual launch.

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.

Google updates the guidelines for assessors third time this year Aug 05 It's third time this year that Google has updated the guidelines for assessors (experts assessing the quality of search results and the pages displayed in it). This time, the changes are even smaller than in the previous version of the document, which was published in May. The latest innovations will mainly be interested to SEO specialists who work with non-English pages. For instance, the pseudoscientific and fake content details have been clarified, comments displaying pornographic ads on websites that do not contain adult content have been removed, new examples of pages with the lowest quality have been introduced, as well as a completely new section on the display of results in English for non-English-speaking locales. There are changes that are purely of a natural style: for example, the selection of some words in italics has been removed. The section on using the Foreign Language label for pages in a foreign language like Ukrainian and Russian is replaced with an example of Catalan and Spanish. A complete guide for assessors Google is a 160 pages book. It should be recalled that the Google assessors guide has already been updated in March and May this year. The main changes aimed at combating dubious content in search results took place this March. The largest May updates affected the assessment of the quality of news websites, in particular the use of the "Upsetting-Offensive" label that was introduced in March.

Google uses ccTLD for geotargeting and Search Console settings July 25 John Mueller, Google spokesman described the way the search engine targets search results for users living in different regions of the globe. According to Mueller, geographic targeting uses factors such as ccTLDs or Search Console settings. For geotargeting we use mostly the ccTLD or search console setting, so place the server. — John ☆.o(≧▽≦)o.☆ (@JohnMu) July 7 Earlier Google analyzed the server location determining the region where the website should be ranked best. Apparently, now this factor is not counted.

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.