The Month Google Shook the SERPs
In the month between June 28th and July 28th, Google made four major changes: (1) dropping authorship photos, (2) doubling In-depth, (3) removing many video snippets, and (4) the "Pigeon" update.
Search Engines
Understanding how search engines work, Google in particular, is important when working in SEO. The basics of crawling and indexing are amazingly useful to understand if you want to rank your own content.
Additionally, Google updates its algorithm several times a year. Understanding the more significant updates, and how they work, can help you to craft content and SEO strategies that are up-to-date.
We've written extensively about how search engines work, and included some of the top resources here. You can also browse the latest posts on search engines from the Moz blog below.
How Search Engines Work : New to SEO? Start with the basics of how search engines operate with our free beginner's guide.
Search Engine Ranking and Visibility : Learn the fundamentals of how search engines rank content on search engine result pages.
Google Algorithm Update History : A complete history of Google algorithm updates since 2000. This includes important links and references for understanding how Google works.
How Search Engines Value Links : Search engines work off a number of signals, but two of the most important are content and links. In this video, Rand Fishkin explains the basics of link evaluation.
MozCast : Is Google updating it's algorithm as we speak? MozCast is the Google algorithm weather report, so you can see how much Google results are changing each day.
Most Recent Articles on Search Engines
Unraveling Panda Patterns
I'm going to be asking you to take over as Panda for a little while to see if you can identify the kinds of things that Google's Navneet Panda addressed when faced with what looked like an incomplete patent created to identify high quality sites.
Dear Google, Links from YouMoz Don't Violate Your Quality Guidelines
Recently, Moz contributor Scott Wyden, a photographer in New Jersey, received a warning in his Google Webmaster Tools about some links that violated Google's Quality Guidelines. One example was from a-moz.groupbuyseo.org.
Google Announces the End of Author Photos in Search: What You Should Know
Many of us have been constantly advising webmasters to connect their content writers with Google authorship, and it came as a shock when John Mueller announced Google will soon drop authorship photos from regular search results. Let's examine what this means.
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Your Google Algorithm Cheat Sheet: Panda, Penguin, and Hummingbird
Google Panda, Penguin, and Hummingbird: Do you have questions about the Panda algorithm, the Penguin algorithm, or Hummingbird? This guide explains in lay terms what each of these Google algorithm changes is about and how to improve your site so that it looks better in the eyes of the big G.
How to Rank Well in Amazon, the US's Largest Product Search Engine
The eCommerce SEO community is ignoring a huge opportunity by focusing almost exclusively on Google. Amazon has roughly three times more search volume for products, and this post tells you all about how to rank.
Panda 4.0, Payday Loan 2.0 & eBay's Very Bad Day
Preliminary analysis of the Panda 4.0 and Payday Loan 2.0 updates, major algorithm flux on May 19th, and a big one-day rankings drop for eBay.
Knowledge Graph 2.0: Now Featuring Your Knowledge
Google's latest Knowledge Graph expansion is built on search, and with it, your data. See how this expansion impacts answer boxes, knowledge panels, and Google's relationships with webmasters.
Google's 2014 Redesign: Before and After
Google's SERP and ad format redesign may finally be rolling out, after months of testing. Before we lose the old version forever, here's the before-and-after of every major vertical that's changed.
The Future of Search: Search IS The Future
From “basic” keyword recognition to natural language processing, search engines have made huge leaps in their ability to understand both online content and what users want and look for. I believe that understanding where search is going is fundamental if you are going to stay ahead of it.
Google's December Authorship Shake-up
Before the holidays, we spotted a significant drop-off (roughly 15%) in searches display authorship. I take a deep dive into that data, including 30- and 60-day views, an analysis of authorship counts, and queries that lost out.
6 Predictions for the Marketing World in 2014
It's time, once again, to continue my annual tradition of analyzing my predictions from 2013, and if I score high enough, predicting what will happen in 2014. I use this process because it keeps me honest, and keeps you informed as to my relative levels of accuracy (or failure)....
The Shape of Things to Come: Google in 2014
How will Google evolve after the acquisition of Wavii, Behav.io, PostRank, Grapple, and machine learning and neural computing technologies? Gianluca Fiorelli paints a picture of Google in 2014, based on entity search, semantic, and über-personalization, covering how Google's recent acquisitions will interact with one another in order to shape our search experience.
4 Lessons From a Year of MozCast Data
I wanted to take a big step back and analyse the cumulative effects of Google's updates. To do that, I asked four questions and analysed a year of MozCast data to find the answers.