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