Stephen Mahaney's Articles

Stephen Mahaney

CEO & Founder of Planet Ocean
Washington State / Hawaii

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.

Today he splits his time between Kona, Hawaii and the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State.

Articles by Stephen Mahaney

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