Digital News

You may have noticed when searching for certain sites that have a built in search, the search box appears along with sitelinks on a Google SERP. Now, Google has updated these search boxes in three ways.

In July I posted about Twitter introducing analytics for organic tweets, however that was only for business and verified accounts, meaning if you had already run ads with Twitter, you could access this. Now Twitter has introduced analytics for everyone, giving people more information about their Twitter accounts without using a third party tool.

In June we reported that Google was dropping the images from Authorship results. This showed that Google was definitely moving away from authorship, so it is no surprise that now the entire authorship result has been removed. 

Facebook has announced two major improvements to the news feed. While these improvements are aimed at customers, it is beneficial for companies in the long run. They are taking a stand against click-baiting and a move toward video sharing in this update to their algorithm.

Now you can search any query and get the same effects that are returned when search for one of Google's "Easter Eggs". This makes for fun games with friends and messing with your colleagues!

Possibly the most significant update of 2014 has hit Google! Our Rank Risk Index has been showing fluctuations since August 8th and today a major spike is clear. Google has not yet made an announcement but it is clear that something is going on.

Twitter has come out with a new feature (currently only available on the mobile app) where you can "Copy link to Tweet", in other words embed another tweet into your new tweet. This is a great alternative to simply retweeting or even quote retweeting, because you now have the opportunity to give your own complete opinion on another tweet, while still giving your followers the reference of the original tweet. 

Google's July 24th algorithm update has been dubbed "Pigeon" by both Search Engine Land and some SEO professionals who feel their site rankings have been bombarded with pigeon droppings. This response is not unusual as most updates have caused a certain level of anxiety (refer to our Google Algorithm Updates History page for more details).

Twitter is bringing an analytics dashboard to organic tweets! This dashboard has a variety of information to view and analyse in order to make better decisions about your future tweets. 

Google is changing the SERP's look by removing the image showing who the author of the article is. The new results will remove the image as well as the number of Google+ circles the author is in. This means that only the author's name will appear, but it will still be a clickable link to take you to a search for the author.

Recently Google rolled out their My Business platform to make it easier for businesses (particularly local businesses) to reach their customers. It connects your Google+ page, Google Places and Search Results. Now they have gone a step further and connected the Google Places and Maps to become the one interface through Google My Business.

In the last six months, the number of videos being watched on facebook has doubled, meaning that the number of videos being uploaded is also steadily increasing. So, facebook has updated their algorithm to rank videos more effectively, showing more relevant content to users.