The Saga Of John Mueller’s Freaky Robots.txt
The weird robots.txt file of Google’s John Mueller’s personal site became an object of curiosity after the site was deindexed
About
I have 25 years hands-on experience in SEO, evolving along with the search engines by keeping up with the latest research, patents and what’s happening in the search results.
Need a consultation? Contact me at roger@martinibuster.com or use the contact form at: Martinibuster.com
I recently presented at Pubcon Vegas in October and March 2024, and over the past 20 years have presented at search conferences across the United States: Pubcon, SMX, Affiliate Summit & SES (Search Engine Strategies) and have served as a Head Judge at the U.S. Search Awards .
Articles
Google Now Says Core Web Vitals Used In Ranking Systems
Google updated their documentation to make it clear that CWV is used in their ranking systems (without explicitly calling them ranking factors)
WordPress Site Builder Addon Allegedly Adds “Backdoor” To Disable Websites
WordPress developers accuse a Bricks Builder add-on plugin of intentionally adding a backdoor that unpublishes entire website
Google’s Algorithm Hates AI Content? How To Make Google Love It
The March 2024 core algorithm update is penalizing AI content. Here’s how to make Google love it instead.
Google’s Website Cache Is Still Available (For Now)
Google’s recent update of its cache documentation highlights that the cache is actually still available
WordPress Announces Bluehost Managed Cloud Hosting
New managed WordPress cloud hosting built on top of Automattic’s WP Cloud infrastructure delivers speed and security with a 100% uptime
Google March 2024 Update: 6 Insights On Manual Actions
Insights from sites receiving manual actions suggests this update may reach historic levels not seen since the Panda & Penguin Updates
Google March 2024 Core Update: 4 Changes To Link Signal
Google’s Core Algorithm update contains 4 changes to the link signals
WordPress Site Builder Closes – Devs Forced To Rebuild Client Sites
Cutting edge WordPress site building toolkit Cwicly announces shut down, citing harsh criticism demoralized the company
Facebook And Instagram Hit By Massive Outage
Massive outage hits Facebook and Instagram
Google Announces New Structured Data Carousels (beta) Rich Results
Google announced a new scrolling carousel that displays as a rich result that can be used for products, local businesses and events
E-E-A-T’s Google Ranking Influence Decoded
How should SEOs implement E-E-A-T in their strategies according to recent statements from Google’s SearchLiaison?
Google Testing AI Tool That Finds & Rewrites Quality Content
Google’s beta AI content rewriting tool is said be “incentivizing the production of AI-generated slop”
Google Confirms That Filetype Search Operator’s Missing – Fixed
Google’s SearchLiaison responded on Twitter to confirm that the filetype search operator is missing
NYTimes “Paid Someone To Hack OpenAI’s Products”
Court filing alleges The New York Times paid someone who made “tens of thousands of attempts” with “deceptive prompts”
WordPress, Wix & Squarespace Show Best CWV Rate Of Improvement
Squarespace, Wix and WordPress are the fastest improving content management systems out of six CMS platforms compared by HTTPArchive
Google Answers A Crawl Budget Issue Question
Google’s John Mueller answers a Reddit SEO question about a crawl budget problem and offers advice about crawl budgets in general
Does AI Democratize SEO Or Amplify Incompetence?
This is what AI can realistically do for SEO and what should be expected in terms of results
Google Gemini Failure Offers Lessons For SEO
Gemini Image Generator flaw offers insights into how Google’s search ranking algorithms can also fail
Google Announces Deal To Show More Reddit Content
Google reached a deal to license Reddit data to for displaying in search and training models
Why Google Seems To Favor Big Brands & Low-Quality Content
An exploration of what could cause Google’s algorithms to favor big brands and low-quality content
Google Announces Gemma: Laptop-Friendly Open Language Model
Google releases a powerful open model AI based on Gemini technology that is also laptop-friendly
Google Responds To Evidence Of Reviews Algorithm Bias
Google responds to detailed exposé of Reviews System Algorithm bias towards big brands at the expense of small publishers
5 Questions Answered About The OpenAI Search Engine
Five questions reveal what’s probably behind the OpenAI search engine announcement
Bricks Builder For WordPress RCE Vulnerability
Critical vulnerability in the popular Bricks visual website builder being actively exploited
Google Updates Guidance On Image Removal From Search Index
Update to the image removal guidance clarifies multiple points
Google Updates Rel=Canonical Documentation
The newly updated rel=canonical documentation better explains how Google uses rel canonicals
WordPress User Survey Indicates Rising Frustration
Respondents to the annual WordPress survey express frustration with the Gutenberg editor and poor site performance
Google On 404 Errors And Search Console Validation Fix
John Mueller answers questions about fixing 404 errors and validating fixes for 404s when they still exist
OpenAI ChatGPT Is Testing A Memory Feature
OpenAI is rolling out a test of a new memory feature for ChatGPT that can improve responses and become more efficient