Stephen Mahaney's Articles

Stephen Mahaney

CEO & Founder of Planet Ocean
Virtual Space

Stephen Mahaney founded Planet Ocean in 1990, published 'The UnFair Advantage Book on Winning The Search Engine Wars' in 1996 (the Web's *original* $97 eBook) and established SearchEngineNews.com—the longest running membership-based publication site on the Internet—in 1997.

These days he's traveling and living in virtual space.


Articles by Stephen Mahaney

  1. DeepSeek—Interview With A Chatbot
  2. 28 Years of SEN
  3. The 12 Days of OpenAI: A Holiday Tech Wonderland
  4. Leveraging ChatGPT for SEO
  5. The Verge Is Laughing at Google's Guidelines
  6. The Man Who Killed Google Search
  7. The Answer Engine That Just Might Give Google A Run For Its Money!
  8. Beware The Japanese Keyword Hack
  9. 27 Years of SEN
  10. How to Build Your Own GPT Without Any Coding
  11. Bing Chat Introduces Multimodal Visual Search & Enterprise Pricing for Copilot
  12. Report: Generative AI is Quickly Evolving Superpowers
  13. Google Releases New AI Tools to Help Small Businesses
  14. ChatGPT Development Being Challenged by Advocacy Group
  15. A.I. Vaults Image Creation to a Whole New Level
  16. The Algo Masters Who Pick the Winners
  17. A.I. Bots Can Improve Your Work But They Cannot Critically Think
  18. A Virtual Army of A.I. Tools Are Marching Us Into the Future
  19. Interview with ChatGPT
  20. 26 Years of SEN & Counting
  21. Google Is Good! ...Very Good — but not as good as they pretend to be
  22. And the Award for 'Lame Advice of the Year' goes to...
  23. Lead Generation Sites Report Problems with Performance Max, and then...
  24. 5 Great Keyword Discovery Tools You Can Use for FREE
  25. Be Careful That AdBlockers Aren't Blocking Your Images
  26. Google's Launches Helpful Content Update
  27. Never Give Up!
  28. John Mueller Tells Us What He Really Thinks
  29. Google Updates Quality Rater Guidelines
  30. Google's Data Grab Masquerading as Minority Empowerment
  31. Google is Picking Winners & Congress has Noticed
  32. Startpage – Google Results Without Google's Crap!
  33. Finally! A Secure, Encrypted Email Provider That Doesn't Exploit It's Users
  34. If You Aren't Using a VPN, Maybe You Should Be
  35. Local Search Update in March Corrects "Vicinity" Update
  36. Never Mind Market Research, Just Pay Attention & Follow The Leader
  37. It's Time to Focus Your Efforts on Collecting First Party Data
  38. When Alt-Text is a Story in The NYTimes, THAT's Your Wake-Up Call
  39. Be Careful Your "Stop Lines" Aren't Crippling Your Conversions
  40. 25 Years of SEN & Counting
  41. Beware the Graphic Artist!
  42. Rare Penalty Limbo Can Last Several Years
  43. November Core Update 2021
  44. Google Ads Developer Blog Summary for November 2021
  45. Google says 'NeverMind' to Mobile-Indexing Deadline
  46. Google Officially Says Mixed Reviews Are More Trustworthy
  47. Google Logo Structured Data Changes
  48. Why do my pages keep falling in and out of Google's index?
  49. Can Googlebot crawl speed be controlled to avoid server overload?
  50. GMB becomes GBP
  51. High Profile Sites Slamming the Brakes on AMP Pages
  52. WordPress Sites At Risk Due to Plugin Vulnerability
  53. Do bold tags help SEO?
  54. Bonus Bytes from John Mueller
  55. Official Googlebot IP Addresses Now Available In JSON File
  56. Page Experience Algorithm Coming To Desktop
  57. How Key Moments Work In Videos In Search
  58. Place Videos on Dedicated Pages For Maximum Exposure
  59. MS Advertising Introduces Microsoft Clarity Insights
  60. UPI Limited Enforcement in Google Merchant Center
  61. Help Documentation Changes for October
  62. Google Aligns Search Console Testing Tools with URL Inspection Tool
  63. Google Ads Developer Blog Summary for October 2021
  64. Never "Meta" Worse Company in My Life!
  65. The Google "Unannounced Updates" Buzz for October
  66. Search Analytics API Now Supports Discover, Google News, and Regex
  67. Manual Deep Linking No Longer Required for Google Ads App Campaigns
  68. Microsoft Advertising Partners with Shopify
  69. BigCommerce Merchants Can Now Sync Product Catalogs to Google
  70. Job Posting Structured Data Errors Report Changes in GSC
  71. Search Quality Raters Guidelines Updated
  72. The One True Google Competitor Over Next 10 Years?
  73. Get Faster Indexing with IndexNow
  74. Google Search Adds Continuous Scrolling on Mobile
  75. On ecommerce pages, should the product name be put into headline tags?
  76. How can I prevent Google from showing specific content in my search result description snippet?
  77. Search On '21 Reveals New Features, More Details About MUM
  78. New Budget Report in Google Ads
  79. Mysterious Google Search Ranking Algorithm Update?
  80. Google Ads Developer Blog Summary for September 2021
  81. Google Adds Some Data, Drops Some Data In Search Terms Report
  82. Unique Product Identifiers Now Required on Free Merchant Listings
  83. New Ecommerce SEO Guide Documentation
  84. Google Reveals How YouTube Recommends Videos
  85. Lighthouse 8.4 Upgrades LCD, FID, PageSpeed Insights
  86. Page Experience Tutorial - Improving First Input Delay
  87. Google Expands 'About This Advertiser' Initiative
  88. Is shared hosting ok?
  89. How long should it take for a site to get re-crawled and re-ranked after cleaning out low quality pages?
  90. What's the best way to redirect a short domain name to a longer one without having duplicate content issues?
  91. Titlepocalypse Update
  92. The SEO Impact of WordPress Themes
  93. Google Shows How to Optimize for Discover's Follow Feature
  94. Which page title is Google using for ranking, my original or their autogenerated one?
  95. GSC Permanently Loses Performance Report Data for August 23rd and 24th
  96. Google Ads Developer Blog Summary for August 2021
  97. Google Publishes Video on Getting a "Great" Page Experience
  98. Reporting Channel for Indexing Bugs in the US Now Available in GSC
  99. Titlepocalypse! Google Updates How They Generate Web Page Titles
  100. Google Removes Safe Browsing and Ad Experience Widgets from Page Experience Report
  101. Behind the Curtains of Google Search Console Insights
  102. Large Images in Discover Improve CTR and Increase Traffic
  103. 15 Tips for Getting the Most Out of Google Trends
  104. Why are most of my site's pages missing in a Google site query?
  105. Will changing an IP address or DNS cause us to lose our first page rankings?
  106. What's the best type of website for SEO optimization purposes?
  107. Why your GMB listing might be filtered out of Google Maps
  108. CWVs More Than "just" A Tiebreaker
  109. Google Publishes Copyright Guidelines Video
  110. Google Ads Developer Blog Summary for July 2021
  111. Multiple Instances of Fact Check Markup Not Allowed
  112. How to Succeed With Google Posts: Case Study
  113. Facebook Expanding Access to AR Try On
  114. Facebook Pay Extends Availability to Streamline Checkout on Your Site
  115. Microsoft Advertising Now Offering Video Extensions
  116. Multimedia Ads Now Available on Microsoft Advertising
  117. Microsoft Ads Expands Verticals For Dynamic Remarketing
  118. Link Spam Update Rolling Out Until Aug 10th
  119. Showcase Product Promotions Across More Surfaces during Seasonal Shopping Moments
  120. GSC Links AMP Debugging to AMP Page Experience Guide
  121. AdSense Releases Faster New Embed Code
  122. Google Graphs & Explains Search Traffic Drops
  123. Ad Policy Violators: Three Strikes, Yer Out!
  124. Google Announces New Privacy Sandbox Timeline
  125. Google's Search Rankings Explained
  126. How long should a 301 redirect be kept in place?
  127. July 2021 Core Update
  128. How can product schema be added to a page when the price of the product is variable?
  129. Are Local Services Ads a good deal for service type businesses?
  130. Are reciprocal links OK if they are relevant and useful?
  131. Here's How Long It Takes to Get New Content Indexed
  132. Core, Page Experience, & Spam Updates All Rolled-out in June
  133. New Guidance - Redirects, HTTP Status Codes, Network Issues, & DNS Errors
  134. WordPress 5.8 adds WebP Support
  135. Facebook's Publishes Ad Review Process Guidelines
  136. Google Ads Developer Blog Summary for June 2021
  137. AdSense Site Approvals Video Tutorial Series
  138. New Tutorial Workflow Shows SMB's How to Advertise on YouTube
  139. Google Expands GMB Profile Editing & Adds Pointy for FREE
  140. Create A Web Story in 5 Steps in 5 Minutes
  141. You Can Now Edit Robots.txt in Shopify
  142. RSS-Powered Follow Button Being Tested in Chrome Canary
  143. Sunsetting the Generic Rich Results Search Appearance on GSC
  144. Google Updates GSC Help Docs For Robots.txt & Structured Data
  145. Google Limits FAQ Rich Results to Two Max Per Snippet
  146. PageSpeed Insights Showing More Field Data
  147. Lighthouse 8.0 to be Released With Chrome 93 in August
  148. Google Adds Negative Match Option to RegEx Filter
  149. Google Launches Search Console Insights
  150. Google Pauses FLoC & Extends Third Party Cookie Support Until Late 2023
  151. Yelp Releases New Yelp for Business Features
  152. Google Ads Developer Blog Summary for May 2021
  153. May 7th Digest - John Mueller's Hangouts - Search Central Office Hours
  154. May14th Digest - John Mueller's Hangouts - Search Central Office Hours
  155. May21st Digest - John Mueller's Hangouts - Search Central Office Hours
  156. May 28th Digest - John Mueller's Hangouts - Search Central Office Hours
  157. Project Starline Brings The WOW Factor to Video Conferencing
  158. MUM's The Word On Search
  159. Breakthrough in Conversation Technology - LaMDA
  160. Google Reveals Four Pillars of User Experience
  161. Google Wants Everyone to Just Get FLoC'ed!
  162. Google I/O Showcases Data-Hungry Apps & Long Overdue Privacy Controls for Android 12
  163. 17 Pro-Tips You Need to Know About Core Web Vitals Going LIVE
  164. Facebook Rolling Out New Ad Measurement Protocols
  165. Indexing Issues Can Now Be Reported to Google
  166. Google Ads Developer Blog Summary for April 2021
  167. Google Discover Nixes Satire
  168. The Only Reasons Google Will Remove a Page
  169. Algorithm Update - Google Product Reviews
  170. Google Updates Cumulative Layout Shift Scoring
  171. Page Experience Algorithm Launching Mid-June
  172. Google Is Going All-IN on Web Stories
  173. April 23rd Digest - John Mueller's Hangouts - Search Central Office Hours
  174. April 16th Digest - John Mueller's Hangouts - Search Central Office Hours
  175. April 9th Digest - John Mueller's Hangouts - Search Central Office Hours
  176. April 1st Digest - John Mueller's Hangouts - Search Central Office Hours
  177. March 26th Digest - John Mueller's Hangouts - Search Central Office Hours
  178. March 19th Digest - John Mueller's Hangouts - Search Central Office Hours
  179. March 12th Digest - John Mueller's Hangouts - Search Central Office Hours
  180. March 5th Digest - John Mueller's Hangouts - Search Central Office Hours
  181. WordPress Elementor Vulnerability
  182. Google Ads Developer Blog Summary for March 2021
  183. Static Headlines Now Available for Dynamic Search Ads
  184. Bing URL Submission Plugin for WordPress
  185. Bing Upgrades Search to Include Visually Rich Imagery
  186. Sketchy One Star "Fake" Review Ratings Win in Court
  187. New GMB Review Management Tool
  188. Check your Business Profile Performance in GMB
  189. Best Practices For Videos
  190. Mueller on Image Optimization
  191. How To Get Your Products Into Search
  192. HTTP/2 Magically Improves Core Web Vital Scores
  193. Core Web Vitals: How Prepared Are Leading Industries Today?
  194. Google Ads Developer Blog Summary for February 2021
  195. Facebook Breaks the News in Australia to Prove a Point
  196. Facebook Knew for Years Ad Reach Estimates Were Based on 'Wrong Data' But Blocked Fixes Over Revenue Impact
  197. Facebook Puff Piece Stirs Controversy For NYTimes Writer
  198. GMB Auto Populating Services
  199. GMB Messaging Rolling Out For Desktop
  200. Years in Business Feature Added to GMB
  201. GSC Changes To Web Story Performance Report
  202. Search Console Discover Report Adds Chrome Data
  203. Updated Metric Boundaries for Core Web Vitals
  204. Use 503 To Avoid Losing Rankings While in Social Statement Mode
  205. Official Google Video On Duplicate Content
  206. New Manual Action Penalties for Google News and Discover Policy Violations
  207. Google Expands Phrase Match To Include Broad Match Modifier Traffic
  208. Google Launches Passage Ranking
  209. Google Announces Price Enforcements for Merchants
  210. February 26th Digest - John Mueller's Hangouts - Search Central Office Hours
  211. February 19th Digest - John Mueller's Hangouts - Search Central Office Hours
  212. February 12th Digest - John Mueller's Hangouts - Search Central Office Hours
  213. February 5th Digest - John Mueller's Hangouts - Search Central Office Hours
  214. WebSite Cleanup Tips for a faster, better-indexed site
  215. How to relocate a GMB attorney listing
  216. Tips for getting listed in People Also Ask
  217. Does using the disavow tool indicate to Google that a site might be shady?
  218. What, exactly, is Core Web Vitals?
  219. DuckDuckGo Hits 100 Million Searches Per Day -- Updates Privacy Protections
  220. GMB Updates Flag Review Options
  221. Google to Invite Advertisers to Test Alternative to 3rd Party Cookies
  222. URL Removal Tool in GSC Doesn't Actually Remove Pages
  223. Price Drop Added to Google Rich Results
  224. Google to Stop Collecting Ad ID's To Avoid Pop Up Warning in iOS Apps
  225. Google Notifies Site Owners About New HTTP/2 Protocol Crawling
  226. Google Wants Web Stories, not Web Teasers
  227. Google Threatens to Leave Australia
  228. WordPress Launches New Website Building Service
  229. High-severity Vulnerability in WordPress Plugin Contact Form
  230. Facebook Moving UK Users to US Privacy Terms & Conditions
  231. Facebook Attacks Apple's Plan to Give Users a Privacy Choice
  232. Twitter Relaunching Verified Accounts
  233. Update on the Structured Data Testing Tool
  234. Noindexed Pages Can Impact Core Web Vitals
  235. Google Placing UK Users Under U.S. Jurisdiction
  236. Why Ad Heavy Pages Might Still Rank Well in the SERP
  237. Copied Content is Sometimes More Relevant
  238. Request Indexing Tool Reenabled in GSC
  239. Google Rolls Out Dec 2020 Core Algorithm Update
  240. Top Google Searches for 2020
  241. An Important Message from The Founder of Planet Ocean / SEN
  242. Would owning a new top level domain (TLD) with keywords provide a ranking advantage?
  243. Are keyword heavy titles a problem?
  244. Free Online Video Converter Tools
  245. Editorial: Subscribe With Google / The Google News Initiative
  246. Google for Jobs is LIVE & Based on Schema Markup
  247. Google Launches 'Ad Experience Report Tool' in their Fight Against "Bad" Ads
  248. Google Launches Free 'Website' for GMB Participants
  249. AdWords Expands Language Options for Structured Snippets Globally
  250. Need to Know Details of 'Ads Added by AdWords'
  251. SEO for Voice Search: Digital Assistants
  252. SEN Celebrates 20 Years!
  253. OMG! Here Comes A Whole New Can Of Black-Hat Whoopass!
  254. Why is America so polarized? ...it's the Echo Chamber!
  255. A Virtual Paradi$e of Low Hanging Fruit
  256. Search Engine Book - Chapter Eleven
  257. Search Engine Book - Chapter Ten
  258. Search Engine Book - Chapter Nine
  259. Search Engine Book - Chapter Eight
  260. Search Engine Book - Chapter Seven
  261. Search Engine Book - Chapter Six
  262. Search Engine Book - Chapter Five
  263. Search Engine Book - Chapter Four
  264. Search Engine Book - Chapter Three
  265. Search Engine Book - Chapter Two
  266. Search Engine Book - Chapter One
  267. How to track customers without hurting your Local Listings in Google
  268. Once They Find Your Page How Do You Get Them to Take Action?! Common Mistakes Marketers Make.
  269. Once They Find Your Page How Do You Get Them to Take Action?
  270. The Missing Link To Writing Effective Ad Copy
  271. The Missing Link To Writing Effective Ad Copy
  272. How to Easily Analyze your Competition in Seconds Using the Site Strength Indicator Tool
  273. The 'Local Search' Gold Rush Begins
  274. The Top 12 Link-Offenders You Should Avoid Like A Ticking Bomb!
  275. Google's Local Business Center
  276. Advanced SEO Tutorials
  277. Essential Title Tag Strategies for Top Ranking Pages in 2009
  278. Entrepreneurial Thoughts on the so-called Financial Meltdown
  279. 7 Ways to Boost Your Sales and Build More Links By Increasing Your Site's Speed!
  280. 9 Critical Steps to Evaluating Incoming Link Quality
  281. Proof Positive that Run-of-Site 'Paid' Links are BAD for your Website!
  282. How to Use Flash in Top Ranking Pages
  283. Your 4 Week Step-by-Step Link Building Task Planner
  284. Wikia Search Launch
  285. The Ultimate Link Building Quick-Start Guide, Part II
  286. How to Legally and Instantly Download All of Your Competitor's Top-Secret PPC Keywords!!!
  287. How to Leverage Your Company's Most Powerful Asset
  288. How to Automatically Build an AdWords Campaign
  289. How to Craft a Money Making Home Page
  290. There are Some Lists You Just Don't Want to be On
  291. "The Most Effective, Yet Overlooked, Marketing Strategy on the Internet"
  292. Are you ignoring 350,000 potential customers?
  293. Check your Popularity!
  294. Guide to Infoseek's ESP Search Engine
  295. How to get your pages to "Stick" in Excite
  296. The Best Kept Secret on the Internet?
  297. Making Money the Easy Way
  298. The Best Way to Sell Products or Services On The Internet
  299. Mining "Gold" from your "Back-End" Market
  300. Creating Web Sites that Load Fast & Sell
  301. Once they find your page how do you get them to take action?