August is a quiet month in most industries and the SEO world is no exception. Last month didn’t include too many earth-shattering developments from any corner of Google or the SEO industry as a whole.
Of course that doesn’t mean there wasn’t a steady stream of news coming from the industry during August, 2014. Here are a few of the SEO headlines you might have missed while you were out on your summer holiday.
What Panda Update? – Did Google roll out a Panda update at the beginning of the month? If they did, they’re not telling anyone. Though some SEOs speculated that some sort of Panda activity had gone down, but Google’s response is a firm, “no comment.” They really are all over the place on that, we’re-not-announcing-updates thing, aren’t they?
HTTPs Signal Boost – Enhancing web security for your readers via secured HTTPs protocol has always been a a good idea but now it can help enhance your overall SEO strategy. Google recently announced that its search algorithm will be increasing the weight it places on HTTPs sites. If you’re looking for a win-win value-add, this is a good one to consider.
Google Authorship Officially Dead – We hope you didn’t invest too much time and effort into making Google Authorship part of your overall marketing strategy. As of this month, the company’s experiment in making authors part of the quality content formula is officially dead. Sources say that low adoption rates were a major factor in pulling the plug on Authorship.
New Google Search Box Tested – Google’s top spot just got a lot more valuable as the company tests out a new search box for top-ranked sites. The enhanced search box is a lot bigger than the old version and will definitely draw more eyeballs than its predecessor.
Where’s Google Knowledge Graph Heading? – Is Google using Knowledge Graph to build, “the largest store of knowledge in human history,”? That depends on who you ask. A recent article on Searchengineland.com hinted that Graph would morph into a Knowledge Vault that would be the next step in intelligent search. Company officials threw cold water on the story saying it was based on a research paper and wasn’t a, “product in development.”
Record Google Takedown Requests – Google is a company that works on a scale that’s tough for us to imagine. For example, as of August 2014 the company is now processing more than a million DCMA takedown requests, every day. Even more mind-boggling is the fact that this number is growing every week. Good luck with that, Google.