Rand Fishkin and Mike King have exposed over 14,000 Google Search ranking features from a leaked document, verified by Fishkin. This document reveals extensive details on how Google Search operates, contradicting many statements Google employees have made over the past two decades.   Key Points: – The leak challenges Google’s public denials about using click signals, dwell time, treating subdomains separately, and considering domain age. – Mike King contextualized these documents with past leaks and DOJ antitrust testimony, finding a wealth of information on data for content, links, and user interactions. – The documents describe features such as “siteAuthority,” click signals as votes, session click duration, “hostAge” for sandboxing new…

As most SEOs know, there was a substantial Google Update last week. SEO Journalist Barry Schwartz previously wrote an article in which he himself gave this update a name instead of Google. Yes, you read that well: He calls it the Google Maccabees Update. I needed some time to process that. I honestly did not know how to respond to this. As far as I know, it has been a while since someone who does not work for Google named an update. I’d prefer if Google did it. Earlier this year we already had to deal with the big Google Fred show and to be honest, I didn’t think it could get any worse. But…

A couple of days ago I received an email from Google Adsense promoting their new advertising format called  “Native ads”. Native ads are ads designed to match the look and feel of your site which makes it harder for users to distinguish ads from the content. Barry Schwartz of SER recently wrote that Native ads violate the Google Webmaster Guidelines principles based on a tweet by Glenn Gabe. They believe that these kinds of ads lead to a punishment by Google but I don’t think so.   Don’t get me wrong, I really appreciate what Barry does, I have been reading his articles for years and he has a lot of knowledge and…

In January 2016 I wrote an article with the title: Keyboost proves scraping, cloaking and other Black Hat SEO Techniques still work. The article was about a Black Hat link network called Keyboost. Keyboost is an automated link building service of a Belgian hosting company called “iPower”. You can find it by typing this word in your address bar and adding .eu behind it. They are active in multiple countries and on multiple domains using the name Keyboost (you can also find it by typing that word with .eu behind it). iPower Keyboost link scheme proves BlackHat is still working: https://t.co/5i9w58DHdL @JohnMu @methode @rustybrick were is our RT Penguin? — Kim Pittoors (@kimpittoors) 15…

Today I want to share a valuable Twitter marketing tip with you guys. I am going to explain how I got lots of influential people to follow me on Twitter by creating interesting content and making lists. Making lists of influential people from your sector doesn’t only help you to find interesting stuff, it also helps you to get influential followers. I actually figured this technique out by accident. I just wanted to make a good list for myself where I only see tweets of people producing interesting content. I didn’t know this would also help me get influential followers. They just came in and I realized that must be one of…

Most SEOs know that page speed is a Google ranking factor. But did you know that Google only measures the speed of your “Desktop site”? The speed of your mobile site does not matter at all, at least not for Google. This will change when the mobile-first index gets introduced, probably be in 2018.

Did you know that choosing an SEO can make or break your company? The Google Penguin updates (battling unnatural links) are a good example of this. Some companies got hit so hard by Penguin, that they actually needed to fire people or even worse, they went bankrupt. A good example of this is the SEO horror story of Pete Walter from Deal with the Media who almost went bankrupt because of Google Penguin. So think twice before you hire an SEO. SEO is risky business. If you need help selecting a good SEO I would recommend you to watch Googles video: How to hire an SEO

Did you ever hear the term “keyword cannibalization”? That doesn’t sound good, does it? Well, it’s actually one of the most common mistakes among starting SEOs. Keyword cannibalization occurs when a site has multiple pages about the same subject. Don’t do that! It’s completely senseless to add the same set of keywords to every page of your site. What I also see a lot is people adding the same keywords in every page title. While those words are not in the content and the page is about something completely different. This will only confuse Google… Make one page and concentrate on the quality of that page only.

Since Google announced that websites running on a secured HTTPS connection are getting a bonus, many websites owners have installed an SSL certificate and switched to HTTPS. But a lot of those sites have mixed content issues. I guess it’s safe to say that having mixed content is the most common mistake made when switching to HTTPS. What is mixed content? Mixed content is a term used to describe pages running on a (secure) HTTPS connection which contain sources that are loaded over an (insecure) HTTP connection. Want to know more details? Click here to read more about mixed content in a post from Google. Why is mixed content an issue? When accessing…

I am a firm believer in being yourself, I wouldn’t have come so far if I were not. A lot of entrepreneurs are afraid to show their selves for who they are. They are afraid that people will judge them and disapprove. And yes that does happen, but if you are neutral, flat and fake you won’t attract people either. My tip to all starters: Just be yourself. That’s the best personal branding you can get. Don’t try to be anything you are not. For example: If you are a freelancer or have a small company, then don’t pretend to have a big company. I see this a lot and it…