Latest News
Whats new with Google – July Update
Algorithm Updates
I last posted about Google news back in January, and over the last 6 months there has been a number of broad algorithm updates which happen several times a year and won’t generally impact most sites as they don’t target any specific niche or a specific type of low quality content.
In June, however, there was a different update and this was a Search Engine Results Page Diversity Change. This change is designed to provide more diverse results which means you won’t see more than 2 listings from the same site in Google top results anymore, however, Google may flex this if the search conducted is a branded search, and it may then show 2 results from the same domain.
Google My Business
It would appear that businesses are experiencing a number of issues with their Google My Business profiles at the moment. Google recently launched the GMB Short Name, which is a customised name option for the profile listing. There is apparently a bug associated with creating a short name and this is causing some businesses to lose all of their reviews when the short name is requested.
I have been updating my client GMB profiles with Short Names and haven’t had this issue. It seems adding an underscore into the name can trigger this bug. If you haven’t yet grabbed your GMB short name, it may be wise to wait until Google resolves this issue.
Google has also added a new Services section into the dashboard for GMB listings and if you may also be given the option to provide product information too. The more content you can add to your GMB profile the more likely it will be to gain visibility for relevant searches.
Google Shopping
Google has launched a new personalised homepage in Google Shopping. It is currently only available in the US, but it will be rolled out to other countries in 2020. Users are greeted with a ‘Lets Go Shopping’ message and category tiles for Electronics, Home & Garden, Health & Beauty, Toys & Games and Household Supplies. The rest of the page is comprised of banners and carousels which include ‘Picks For You’ which is inspired from your Google search history. Amazon provides a similar personalised home page. Google will also show ‘Stores near you’ to help improve the user experience further.
Mobile Indexing
From July 1st 2019, Google now defaults to Mobile-First Indexing for all new websites. You will need to create a Google Search Console account and get your site verified with Google. Once verified the site will be ready to be indexed. It is also recommended to submit an xml sitemap via Search Console as this works as a signpost to search crawlers and will help the search bots better understand and find relevant website content more easily. Read more about the Mobile First Index
Whizz Marketing is an established SEO Company in Hampshire who delivers a remote SEO and online marketing support service to clients across the UK. If you would like a free website audit, please contact Louise at Whizz Marketing. We will help your business to get found online.
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