Google Says Switching To HTTPS Won't Change Your Page Rankings

Feb 17, 2014

A Google Webmaster Help thread has someone complaining that his site's rankings dropped and the one thing he noticed was that his home page and 56 other pages are indexed in Google with the https version.

To which John Mueller of Google responded:

Before you get too focused on technical issues, I'd just like to add that going from https to http, or the other way around, generally won't noticeably change your pages' ranking.

So he is implying that there may be something else here to blame for his ranking drop and not the HTTPS issue he is citing.

But is it true that switching from HTTPS to HTTP or the other way around "generally won't noticeably change your pages' ranking?"

Six months ago or so, we covered that making the switch is doable but you need to do it right. Matt Cutts also posted a video on the topic in 2011, of course, things change quickly in search.

Assuming the 301s are set up correctly - I'd say there may be a small down side for a short period of time, in switching from HTTP to HTTPS. Would I make the change here? Nope, not yet at least. I would in a second if Google passed me query data. ;-)

Forum discussion at Google Webmaster Help.

Article Courtsey :

http://www.seroundtable.com/google-https-rankings-18122.html

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SEO Computer Games: Madoogle & Donkey Cutts

This must be a new trend, SEOs making SEO games for the SEO community. Good link bait? Yes. Fun, somewhat.

We have two games:

(1) Donkey Cutts - a play on Donkey Kong, but the characters switched to be personalities in the SEO space. Including Matt Cutts, Pandas, Penguins, links, social, and much more.

(2) Madoogle - a play on Angry Birds, but the birds change to the faces of SEO personalizes and you hit black hats.

Here are pictures of both games:

It is hard to know exactly who the personalities are in Donkey Cutts, outside of Matt, but here they are:

Steve Webb thinks they are Danny Sullivan, Rand Fishkin, Wil Reynolds, and Barry Schwartz (me). I am not 100% sure.

In the other game it is easier:

You have Matt Cutts, Rand Fishkin, Lisa Barone and myself.

Forum discussion at Google+.

Article Courtsey : 

ttp://www.seroundtable.com/seo-computer-games-18121.html

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The Top Five SEO Mistakes According To Google’s Matt Cutts

In a recently published video, Matt Cutts, Google’s head of search spam, listed off the Top Five SEO Mistakes webmasters make.

Matt said these are not the most devastating mistakes, but rather, the most common mistakes.

1. Not having a website or having a website that is not crawlable is the biggest mistake he sees.
2. Not including the right words on the page. The example Matt gave is: don’t just write, “Mt. Everest Height” but write, “How high is Mt. Everest?” because that is how people search.
3. Don’t think about link building, think about compelling content and marketing.
4. Don’t forget to think about the title and description of your most important pages.
5. Not using webmaster resources and learning about how Google works and what SEO is about. 

Article Source :  http://searchengineland.com/the-top-five-seo-mistakes-according-to-googles-matt-cutts-157574

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Hold Your SEO Client Hostage With Negative SEO Threats

A WebmasterWorld thread has a story of a webmaster who received a phone call from someone with an Indian accent threatening to use negative SEO on their site if they don't pay up. A form of search pirates, if you will.

This is what the webmaster's client said:

"So I had a client phone me today and say he had a call from a guy with an Indian accent who told him that he will destroy his website rankings if he doesn't pay him £10 per month to NOT do this. What the hell... "

This is not new, we've covered stories like this before. Threats to use the disavow tool against you, well you can't. Threats of negative SEO and much more.

What can you do? Well, you can monitor your new links in Google Webmaster Tools and anything that looks bad, add them to your disavow link file. It shouldn't cost or take too much time to do that.

Of course, Google has said time and time again that while negative SEO is hard it is possible.

Which is why they came out with the disavow link tool.  So track your new links in Google Webmaster Tools and disavow the bad new links.

Source from: http://www.seroundtable.com/seo-client-hostage-threat-17973.html

Jan 17, 2014 • 8:05 am | by Barry Schwartz | Filed Under Google Search Engine Optimization

 

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Know about Zemanta Links and Google's Guidelines

Zemanta is a content discovery platform, they have a popular WordPress plugin that helps bloggers find related posts and related images while you write your post.

It does mention a bit on links on the plugin page:

• Link Love by linking to other bloggers' related posts. In turn, we'll recommend your posts to other bloggers. Then find out how much love (links, tweets, likes) your posts received via Zemanta Dashboard.

So the links are not automatically added, they are suggested to the bloggers and the bloggers can add it. Is that an issue? Probably not.

What might be an issue, as WebmasterWorld martinibuster said in a WebmasterWorld thread, the links to Zemanta's web site.

Chris Boggs noted in a Facebook post, which is private, but martinibuster cited it in a public thread, that a Forbes article has links to Zemanta's web site for the keyword anchor text of "SEO" and "PageRank." How is Zemanta related to those keywords he asks.

I thought it was all good until Chris Boggs, in a Facebook post, noted the dofollow links to Zemanta embedded within a Forbes article, using the anchor text, "SEO" in one place and the phrase "PageRank" in another spot within the article. Really? Zemanta feels it is relevant for the phrase, "PageRank?"

Is this going to get Zemanta in hot water with Google? 

Source from: http://www.seroundtable.com/zemanta-links-google-17915.html

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High PR Social Bookmarking Sites 2013 List

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UK Data

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