Google is now sending alerts and notifications from Google Search Console when it detects a “substantial drop” in clicks to your website from the Google search results compared to previous weeks data. Google is basically looking at week-over-week data in the Performance report and if the data is substantially off, Google can send a notification to verified property owners in Search Console of the change.

Google Search Console is now sending out alerts to notify you of any major fluctuations and for those of us who aren’t constantly checking performance reports this is great news. This new feature will make it easier to keep track of performance issues your site may be having so you can fix them faster.

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If you use Gmail, did you know that you actually have unlimited email addresses you can use? The secret is the + symbol.
Let’s say your email address is me@gmail.com. By adding a plus symbol after ‘me’ you can create unlimited variations of your email address and all will be delivered to your inbox. For example:
me+1@gmail.com
me+bank@gmail.com
me+whois@gmail.com
These will all be delivered to the me@gmail.com account.

Once you discover that you can multiply your Gmail address into several addresses, it just makes sense to start utilizing this feature. You can filter your Gmail, combat hacking and phishing attempts, and do much more. This is a smarter way to handle accounts online and will make your Gmail account much more proficient.

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In a competitive and increasingly online environment for brands, SEO matters more than ever. One-third of U.S. consumers in 2018 started their online purchases with Google or another search tool — more than three times the number who started at retailers’ sites or apps, and second only to searches beginning at Amazon. To do well in organic search results, brands must have a solid SEO strategy. Before you can take your SEO to the next level, you need to know where you are now and what to do next. Let’s look at four building blocks you can use to create a more competitive SEO program for your B2C or B2B brand.

You want to have a successful SEO strategy to improve your web traffic and promote your brand effectively. But you’ve got to start with the most basic building blocks first and work your way up from there.

Improving your sites crawlability, targeting specific keywords, creating inbound and outbound links, and adding new and relevant content to your site are the first steps towards your successful SEO strategy.

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Domain registry companies create top-level domains for Internet users to use in a specific way. To ensure these domains uphold their mission and intended purpose, domain registries will develop registration requirements. For example, to register a .bot domain Amazon requires your bot to be built with one of the approved preferred bot builders. .bank domains must pass a verification process with strict security criteria for .bank websites.
Google is on a mission to secure the Internet and also investing in some of the top new tech TLDs. We notice a trend that all new Google TLDs require HTTPS to function correctly in web browsers. For all Google domains
 SSL certificates are necessary to achieve a secure HTTPS connection. The new Google domains are unrestricted in the sense that anyone can register one. However, your website will not propagate unless you meet the SSL for Google domain requirements.

It’s very important to keep your data and your customers’ data safe. We already know that SSL is a must with our domains. So for Google to want to promote secure websites is a no brainer.

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Though web browsers are becoming more and more advanced, that doesn’t mean you should build websites that you know only the latest web browsers support, nor should you build websites that GoogleBot, Google’s web crawler, cannot fully crawl and index. That was the advice from Google’s John Mueller, when asked about Google’s status on modernizing GoogleBot to a more recent version of Chrome.

Mueller said it is of his opinion you should make your web pages “work with the status quo” of how GoogleBot currently crawls the web. He said it is best to do that than “rather than waiting for bigger changes, if you care for search.

Google is an essential traffic source for many and we need to make sure we aren’t building sites that’re so advanced that the current Googlebot can’t index them correctly. With Google it’s best to stick to the status quo.

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I am watching C-SPAN right now, listening to Google CEO Sundar Pichai respond to questions to various U.S. Representatives. I sincerely believe Pichai is doing a very good job answering the questions posed to him.
What is astonishing me as an SEO professional for almost 25 years (I was doing this work before Google came into the mainstream) are the representatives’ comments. In particular, Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX) and Steve Chabot (R-OH), in my opinion, have a considerable LACK of quality research about Google or any web search engine.

Nevertheless, I am grateful to C-SPAN for showing this hearing. It is showing me that members of our Congress have a considerable lack of knowledge about how search engines work and how website owners are also responsible for how their listings appear in search engines, not only Google.
The sense of entitlement is misplaced. If conservative news stations are not abiding by Google’s guidelines and are not working with a qualified SEO firm or consultant to optimize news listings, or a skilled link developer, then I don’t want to hear your opinion until you take responsibility for your own web documents. If you followed the guidelines, you might see your listings rank better in search engines.

It does feel that people in power often throw out accusations and outrage about topics they know very little or even nothing about. It seems they think their opinions are actually facts and it’s harmful when misinformation is being spread as truth. Congress should have done more research on how search engines and search engine optimization actually work prior to having a hearing on the exact subject.

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Timing is of the essence when purchasing domain names. Domain names are a very unique product in the fact that the product doesn’t exist until someone creates it with a domain registration. Many people purchase domain names with the intent of reselling them for a profit to those who were too late to the game. The domain industry can be extremely lucrative for experienced trend forecasters and others who find themselves in the right place at the right time when buying and selling domains. 
Domain investing is a niche market. The domainers who have been in the industry since the Internet began, have profited from selling premium one-word domain names for six figures and higher. Take, for example, Insurance.com, one of the highest recorded domain name sales of all time.

If you’re looking to become a successful domain investor, you need to understand how the domain market works. From understanding how to not infringe on a trademark to keeping a “paper trail” of all your interactions and conversations that have to do with buying and selling, make sure you’re following the proper steps to ensure your domain purchases and sales are legal and safe.

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Domain privacy or WHOIS protection (different registrars sometimes refer to it by different names) hides the domain registrant’s personal information from the public WHOIS database.
WHOIS is an organization that manages all data regarding domain registration. All registrant details are considered public information, in addition to the nameservers and other simple details regarding domain registrations (e.g. registration, renewal, and expiry dates).
If someone knows a registered domain name, they can enter it into any WHOIS search tool on the web to retrieve this public information. With privacy protection in place, all of this information becomes masked.
This includes hiding your personal name, address, phone, email, and business name. Instead, a generic registrar-generated information set is displayed.

If you don’t want all your personal data exposed to the world you need domain privacy protection. WhoIs privacy protection is a service that will keep your personal data hidden and therefore safe.

Without WhoIs privacy protection your information is out there for the world to have access to and to manipulate. This becomes an issue when you start getting unwanted emails from scammers, sales people and even those who want to hijack your domain.

Do yourself a favor and always get domain privacy protection. It’s a small step to ensure that your personal information is safe and not in the hands of hackers and scammers.

The post What is domain privacy protection & why do you need it? appeared first on Domains.org.

People often don’t know this but domain names cannot be transferred within 60 days of registration. You won’t be able to transfer a new domain to another registrar until day 61 after the domain registration. In addition, you also cannot transfer a domain name that has been transferred within the past 60 days. These 60-day domain name transfer rules are brought to you by ICANN (the governing body of the global generic domain name system). So if you tried to be cheeky and register your domain name at a cheap registrar you’ll have to stay put until your 60 days is up. 

You might be looking to transfer your domain names and not sure how to start the process. First thing you want to do is make sure you fall within the guidelines of ICANN. Are you even eligible to transfer? If your domains are past 60 days of your current registration, then you’re good to continue to the next rule.

The post Thinking of transferring your domains to a new registrar? Here are the rules. appeared first on Domains.org.

In a world where everyone’s fighting for relevance in search, technical SEO is a Swiss army knife you can use to improve your site’s usability, crawlability, indexation and ultimately rankings.
But it’s easy to get lost in the weeds while working through technical SEO fixes — many SEOs reach a point of diminishing returns where they keep making small changes that achieve frustratingly little. That’s why it’s important to understand what to prioritize as well as how to accomplish your goals.

Websites site:domain.com and robots.txt are extremely useful tools for reviewing your sites indexation status and ensuring your important pages are crawlable by search engines.

Making sure you website is structured and easy to navigate is another very important technical SEO tip. Clean up your sitemap or if you don’t have one, build one now. A good sitemap will definitely improve the crawlability of your website.

Another SEO tip is to increase your Optimization Score by making small technical upgrades to your website to increase site speed. By delivering faster user experience you’ll have higher conversion rates.

These technical SEO tips will strengthen your sites framework. In addition to technical SEO your on-page SEO is just as important to improve your sites SEO ranking.

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