SEO 

Building links in boring industries

Fresh out of ideas on how to build links to a boring site? Contributor Jeremy Knauff walks us through his process for creating a successful link-building campaign for even the dullest of sites. It’s safe to say that most search engine optimization (SEO) practitioners today understand the role that relevant, high-quality links play in achieving organic ranking and traffic. What is less understood, however, is how to earn those links in sufficient volume to achieve and maintain results — especially when it comes to industries that some may consider boring. Recently, I…

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SEM 

Google’s current FLoC tests aren’t GDPR compliant

Questions about whether a browser assigning users into cohorts counts as a use of personal data, without consent, may be a privacy violation. FLoC, Google’s alternative to third-party cookies, will not be tested in Europe, according to a report by AdExchanger. FLoC is set to open to advertiser testing beginning in Q2 of this year, but countries that fall under GDPR and the ePrivacy Directive will not participate. “During a meeting of the Improving Web Advertising Business Group (IWABG) at the World Wide Web Consortium on Tuesday, Michael Kleber, a Google engineer, acknowledged that…

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google 

Google clarifies the SharedArrayBuffer notification

After much confusion, Google explained why it send out these notifications and what your next steps should be. Earlier this week, Google sent out a notice through Google Search Console with SharedArrayBuffer warnings to site owners. And honestly, it caused a huge amount of confusion and concern amongst those who received it. Today Google published a blog post with clarifications around why Google sent out the message and what site owners can do to address the potential issue. Google defines SharedArrayBuffer. Google has defined what a SharedArrayBuffer is by explaining, “SharedArrayBuffer is a…

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Bing 

Bing’s new robots.txt tester can help SEOs identify crawling issues

The new Bing Webmaster Tool can also be used to edit robots.txt files and check URLs for errors instantly. Bing has added a robots.txt tester to its Webmaster Tools, the company announced Friday. The new feature allows SEOs to analyze their robots.txt files and highlights issues that may hinder Bing from optimal crawling. The robots.txt tester and editor within Bing Webmaster Tools. How it works. SEOs can use this tool to test and validate their robots.txt file, or to check whether a URL is blocked, which statement is blocking it and for which…

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Marketing 

Walmart Making Digital Vaccine Records Available to Customers

Walmart is the latest company pushing for digital vaccine records as a way for people to prove they have received the COVID-19 vaccination. As the US and the world move to reopen and return to normal, vaccinations are seen as the key ingredient to making that happen. Many experts believe, however, that a form of vaccination passport is necessary for people to be able to prove they have been vaccinated. Such a passport could be required for airline travel, crossing borders, entering crowded events and more. Different companies and governments…

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Latest News 

Microsoft 365 Down, Microsoft Working On Fix

Microsoft 365 has been down for many users throughout Monday, with the company working on mitigation efforts. Shortly after 3:00, users started reporting issues with Microsoft 365, according to DownDetector. Users reported issues with virtually every aspect of Microsoft 365. The company confirmedthe issue, and how widespread it is. Any service that leverages Azure Active Directory (AAD) may be affected. This includes but is not limited to Microsoft Teams, Forms, Exchange Online, Intune and Yammer. Admins may also be unable to access the Service Health Dashboard. Microsoft has rolled out mitigation efforts,…

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google 

Google Hotel search showing free listings in results

Google opens the door to more hotels by offering free hotel listings, separate from paid results. Just like it did with Google Shopping and also with Google Flights, Google announced it is now opening up free listings within Google Hotel search. There is a new section in Google Hotel search for “all options” that is below the paid results, that shows unapid listings from hotels and travel companies. Free hotel listings. “We’re improving this experience by making it free for hotels and travel companies around the world to appear in hotel booking links, beginning this week…

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SEO 

Should you keep your best content on your site or send it away?

Contributor Julie Joyce looks at the pros and cons of keeping content on your site versus sending it away. Recently, I’ve had some very enjoyable discussions with other search engine optimization specialists (SEOs) about where to place promotional content. Opinions vary and are dependent on the goals of the webmaster. Some webmasters openly ask for guest bloggers since they need content and don’t have a writing staff. Others who are just starting out want to write guest posts or columns for sites other than their own as a way to…

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SEM 

5 Incredibly Practical Reasons To Do PPC In 2015

The competition for visibility in the search results is fierce, which is all the more reason that big brands should stake their claim as a presence to be reckoned with online. Alongside search engine optimization, pay-per-click (PPC) can garner more real estate for your brand on the results page — and if you’re not there, your competition surely […] The competition for visibility in the search results is fierce, which is all the more reason that big brands should stake their claim as a presence to be reckoned with online. Alongside search engine…

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Bing 

Microsoft Bing updates search results interface to make it more visually immersive

Microsoft Bing updates recipe results, similar looking items, expandable carousels, infographic panels and local answers design. Microsoft announced several updates to Microsoft Bing Search that make the search experience more “visually immersive,” the company said. This update goes across many different search features including recipe results, image search’s similar looking items, expandable search result carousels, infographic knowledge panels and the local answers design. Let’s go through each update briefly below. Infographic-like search panel experience Microsoft launched these new knowledge panel designs that have very visually appealing. Microsoft said it’s goal…

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