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