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