Over the past several weeks we have learned several major revelations about search in 2015 — including news about mobile search, authorship, and more.
In addition, now you can use Google Maps to enhance your Pinterest marketing and you can worry less about finding hacked web pages in search results.
Catch up on all of these search headlines in this week’s SEO news roundup.
Latest SEO News – Week Ending 10/22/2015
Google Says Over 50% of Searches Come From Mobile
Amit Singhal, senior vice president of Google Search, recently revealed that over half of all searches conducted on Google each month come from mobile devices.
In total there are 100 billion searches each month — which should give you an idea of the number of searchers you’re leaving out if your website is not mobile friendly.
Singhal also made the distinction that Google is not counting mobile devices with screens exceeding 6 inches in size, such as tablets. That’s an incredible amount of searches coming from smartphones each month, with the number sure to rise as time goes on.
Desktop is slowly losing its status of being most peoples’ primary computing device. We can expect to see more and more search volume coming from mobile devices.
Google Introduces Instant-Loading Web Pages
Google has introduced a new way to deliver web pages that is said to be able to load content faster than ever before.
Google’s new content delivery platform promises instantaneous loading of web pages on mobile devices — so if you notice links from Google are loading faster on your phone, there’s a reason for that.
Currently only 30 publishers have signed up to deliver content through Google’s “Accelerated Mobile Pages”. Soon, all content found in Google News is said to be able to load instantly as well.
The new content delivery platform is open source, meaning other developers can use the technology and/or manipulate it how they wish.
We’re in the very early stages of what can be done with Accelerated Mobile Pages. It will be interesting to see what becomes of it once it’s more integrated into Google search.
Google Says Keep Authorship Markup, May Use It Again
We’re often touting the future potential of Google’s Authorship markup and suggesting clients use it if their website allows for it.
Previously, Google had been using it to add photos and author bylines to content in search results. There had been much speculation that Google would eventually use the information obtained from authorship markup to rank articles.
The company has since stopped using authorship markup, removing the photos and bylines from search results. Even though Google is technically not using it at the moment, there’s evidence to suggest that they might in the future.
Google’s Gary Illyes recently spoke at a search marketing conference and was quoted saying website owners should keep authorship markup on their sites.
According to Illyes, you never know when Google may decide to use it again.
As a follow up to that statement, Illyes was asked on Twitter if Google would use authorship markup again if more people had it on their sites. The answer was yes:
@methode so if more people were using rel=author you might use it again? @marktraphagen @katykatztx @bhartzer
— Mark Traphagen (@marktraphagen) October 6, 2015
Google Rolls Out Hacked Spam Algorithm
Google has begun aggressively targeting hacked spam with algorithm changes that will affect roughly 5% of queries when fully rolled out.
The company says it’s stepping up its efforts against hacked spam in order to protect searchers and site owners — a perfectly legitimate site can become dangerous if the wrong hands seize control of it.
The problem with hacked sites is that they can lead to malware downloads, marketing of illegal goods, or can be used to redirect people to other sites. It’s understandable why Google wants these sites out of its search results.
Now it has become even more important to protect your site from hackers — not only for the safety of your site, but also to ensure you stay in Google’s index.
This is not just a singular update, Google says it is an ongoing effort from Google to continuously fine tune its algorithms to remove dangerous content.
Google Maps + Pinterest Integration
For local businesses, the potential for marketing on Pinterest has just increased tenfold.
Now on Pinterest, place Pins will be able to provide directions to pinned locations via Google Maps. Location info, available through either Google Maps or Apple Maps, will be automatically added to all existing and future place Pins.
Place Pins contain addresses, store hours and phone numbers of the location in the Pin, as well as a little location preview similar to what you’d see in one of Google’s knowledge panels.
Tapping on the Pin will reveal more information about the location, such as tips from other Pinterest users and suggestions for nearby places.
The all new place Pins are now available on iPhone and iPad, with Android and desktop soon to follow.
Wrapping it Up
There have been a lot of important events in search lately. Here’s a quick recap:
- Mobile search is becoming more important than ever
- Google may use authorship markup in the future
- The search giant is rolling out instant-loading web pages
- A new hacked spam algorithm is going to clean up the web
- Google Maps is going to enhance your Pinterest marketing
If you have any questions or concerns about this week’s top stories, please leave a comment below and I will be sure to respond.
Pam Aungst
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