Google Updates Webmaster Guidelines!

This is an important piece of news for all webmasters. Google has announced that they have released and updated version of their Webmaster Quality Guidelines. As per Google, the updated quality guidelines have many more articles on specific issues like links schemes etc. The entire information directory is updated so that webmasters can create websites that are in line with what Google expects to be followed in terms of quality standards.

As the search engine giant said, “the main message of our quality guidelines hasn’t changed: Focus on the user. However, we’ve added more guidance and examples of behavior that you should avoid in order to keep your site in good standing with Google’s search results. We’ve also added a set of quality and technical guidelines for rich snippets, as structured markup is becoming increasingly popular.”

Do check out the new updates guidelines and let us know how you find them.

Bing Search Result Pages Gets A New Look!

The Bing search results page has a whole new design. Bing’s new design goes for a de-cluttered clear look so that users can scan results easily without being distracted. The design is a result of Bing’s experiments on the same post user feedback. The clean new look aims for better search experience.

As Bing says, "We’ve tuned the site to make the entire page easier to scan, removing unnecessary distractions, and making the overall experience more predictable and useful. This refreshed design helps you do more with search – and gives us a canvas for bringing future innovation to you"

The new look is somewhat like this:

 

And here is the old look:

As you can see, there is no left sidebar in the new look. This bar had related searches, search refinement options and search history settings. In the new look, you can find related searches in the right-sidebar and at the bottom of the results. Images, Videos, Finance and Maps have been placed in the top navigation along with login information. There is also a 5-pixel high fragment of the Bing home page image in the top margin.

Bing has also revealed that they plan to bring in further changes based on user feedback- “The new experience is more than skin-deep. You will also notice faster page-load times and improved relevance under the hood. After all, our goal is to help people spend less time searching and more time doing. And changing how we look is the next big step in doing just that.”

Do you like the ‘uncluttered’ look? Or do you think it reduces the relevancy of the page? Do share your comments.

Source: pagetrafficbuzz.com

Video Insights into SEO Pagination by Google!

During the SMX East in September 2011, Google revealed their solution for pagination issues in SEO and search – view all & rel="next" and rel="prev".

This complex and technical topic has proved to be helpful for large sites with a lot of pagination. Google’s Maile Ohye posted a video about it on the Webmaster’s YouTube channel as an attempt to make it easily understandable.

Do you find the video helpful? Leave your comments below