What are HTTP response codes and why are they important in SEO?

HTTP response codes are standardized status codes that web servers return to indicate the status of a client's request. There are many different response codes, but some common ones include:

• 200 OK: The request was successful, and the server is returning the requested data.
• 404 Not Found: The requested resource could not be found on the server.
• 301 Moved Permanently: The requested resource has been permanently moved to a new URL.

HTTP response codes are important in SEO because they can affect how search engines crawl and index your website. For example, if a page returns a 404 error, search engines may remove it from their index, which can hurt your SEO.

On the other hand, if you use 301 redirects to redirect old URLs to new ones, you can preserve your SEO by ensuring that search engines and users can still find your content.

Twitter starts testing ‘Edit Tweet’ feature: how it works, eligible users and more

The feature will be limited to Twitter Blue subscribers initially.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Twitter has finally started internally testing the ‘Edit Tweet’ feature with limited users.
• Tweets can be edited a few times in the 30 minutes following their publication.
• Edit Tweet feature will be initially expanded to Twitter Blue subscribers in the coming weeks.

Microblogging site Twitter has finally started testing the most asked feature – the ability to edit tweets, named ‘Edit Tweet’. The feature will allow users to make changes to the tweets on the platform. The social media giant says that the feature is currently being tested internally and will be made available in the coming weeks. “If you see an edited Tweet it’s because we’re testing the edit button. This is happening and you’ll be okay,” said the company in a tweet announcing the new feature.

In a blog post, Twitter said the edit featyre is being tested internally and will be initially expanded to Twitter Blue subscribers, at least in the first few weeks. It says the feature will be localised to a single country at first and expand as it learns and observes how people use the Edit Tweet feature.

The Edit feature on Twitter has to be the most requested feature in a while and is a major addition since the character count for a tweet was increased to 280 from 140 in 2017. Prior to the edit feature, a tweet once made cannot be edited. One has to delete the entire tweet and repost it again.

Twitter edit button coming very soon

As said, the feature is currently under testing and probably only a limited section of users will have access to it. The edit tweet feature will join Twitter Blue’s undo button function that allows users to cancel sending a tweet for up to 30 seconds after hitting the send button. Furthermore, everyone on Twitter will be able to see if a tweet has been edited. There will be an ‘edited tweet’ indication that will appear with an icon, timestamp and label to make it clear to readers that the original tweet has been modified.

“We’re hoping that, with the availability of Edit Tweet, Tweeting will feel more approachable and less stressful. You should be able to participate in the conversation in a way that makes sense to you, and we’ll keep working on ways that make it feel effortless to do just that,” said Twitter in a blog post.

In the current state, Twitter doesn’t allow users to edit a tweet. Content once posted cannot be modified. Instead, users have to delete the entire tweet and post it again in case of any corrections. With the edit feature, this will change and will be easy for users to modify the content even after posting. Tweets can be edited a few times in the 30 minutes following their publication.”Think of it as a short period of time to do things like fix typos, add missed tags, and more,” the company explains.

Google Launching May 2022 Broad Core Algorithm Update

 Google is releasing a broad core algorithm update on May 25, 2022. It will take roughly two weeks to fully roll out.

 Google confirms a broad core algorithm update, called the May 2022 core update, is rolling out today.

Core updates are designed to make search results more relevant for users. Though the update is launching today, it will take 1-2 weeks for this update to fully roll out.

Danny Sullivan, Google’s Public Liaison for Search, notes that changes to site performance in search results are to be expected.

“Core updates are changes we make to improve Search overall and keep pace with the changing nature of the web. While nothing in a core update is specific to any particular site, these updates may produce some noticeable changes to how sites perform…”

When a core update rolls out, Google is known for pointing to the same guidance it published in 2019.

Nothing has changed there, as Google references the same document with respect to this update.

To sum it up, Google’s general advice regarding core updates is as follows:

• Expect widely noticeable effects, such as spikes or drops in search rankings.
• Core updates are “broad” in the sense that they don’t target anything specific. Rather, they’re designed to improve Google’s systems overall.
• Pages that drop in rankings aren’t being penalized; they’re being reassessed against other web content that has been published since the last update.
• Focusing on providing the best possible content is the top recommended way to deal with the impact of a core algorithm update.
• Broad core updates happen every few months. Sites might not recover from one update until the next one rolls out.
• Improvements do not guarantee recovery. However, choosing not to implement any improvements will virtually guarantee no recovery.

It has been six months since the last Google core update, which rolled out in November 2021.

Those who have been working hard on their site during that time may start to see some noticeable improvements to search rankings.

On the other hand, those who have left their site sit idle may begin to see themselves outranked by sites with more relevant content.

It’s too early to start assessing the impact, however, as this update will take a week or longer to roll out.

Your rankings may fluctuate during that time, so don’t be alarmed if you notice changes right away.

Google will confirm when the update is finished rolling out, then it will be time to start doing your analysis.

Google November 2021 Core Update

Google is rolling out a new broad core update today named the November 2021 Core Update. This is the third core update Google released in 2021.

The announcement. Google announced this rollout on the Google Search Central Twitter account, not the Search Liaison account, which it has done for all other previous announcements on core updates.

The November 2021 Core Update is now rolling out live. As is typical with these updates, it will typically take about one to two weeks to fully roll out.

— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) November 17, 2021

Rollout started at about 11am ET. Google updated us that the rollout has begun at about 11am ET. Google said “The November 2021 Core Update is now rolling out live. As is typical with these updates, it will typically take about one to two weeks to fully roll out.”

Timing before holidays. It is a bit shocking to see Google rollout this update before, and likely during (assuming this is a normal two week rollout), the biggest online holiday shopping season. Black Friday and Cyber Monday is less than two weeks away and Google is rolling out this update starting today.

Previously Google took breaks before the holiday shopping season, it was Google’s gift to webmasters said former Googler Matt Cutts.

Previous core updates.

The most recent previous core update was the July 2021 core update and before that it was the June 2021 core update and that update was slow to roll out but a big one. Then we had the December 2020 core update ands the December update was very big, bigger than the May 2020 core update, and that update was also big and broad and took a couple of weeks to fully roll out. Before that was the January 2020 core update, we had some analysis on that update over here. The one prior to that was the September 2019 core update. That update felt weaker to many SEOs and webmasters, as many said it didn’t have as big of an impact as previous core updates. Google also released an update in November, but that one was specific to local rankings. You can read more about past Google updates over here.

What to do if you are hit.

Google has given advice on what to consider if you are negatively impacted by a core update in the past. There aren’t specific actions to take to recover, and in fact, a negative rankings impact may not signal anything is wrong with your pages. However, Google has offered a list of questions to consider if your site is hit by a core update. Google did say you can see a bit of a recovery between core updates but the biggest change you would see would be after another core update.

Why we care.

Whenever Google updates its search ranking algorithms, it means that your site can do better or worse in the search results. Knowing when Google makes these updates gives us something to point to in order to understand if it was something you changed on your web site or something Google changed with its ranking algorithm. Today, we know Google will be releasing a core ranking update, so keep an eye on your analytics and rankings over the next couple of weeks.

BERT Explained: What You Need to Know About Google’s New Algorithm

Google announced that it has been rolling out a new update called BERT.

To give you an idea of how big of an update this is, it’s the biggest update since Google released RankBrain.

In other words, there is a really good chance that this impacts your site. And if it doesn’t, as your traffic grows, it will eventually affect your site.

But before we go into how this update affects SEOs and what you need to adjust (I will go into that later in this post), let’s first get into what this update is all about.

What is Bert?

Bert stands for Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers.

You are probably wondering, what the heck does that mean, right?

Google, in essence, has adjusted its algorithm to better understand natural language processing.
Just think of it this way: you could put a flight number into Google and they typically show you the flight status. Or a calculator may come up when you type in a math equation. Or if you put a stock symbol in, you’ll get a stock chart.

Or even a simpler example is: you can start typing into Google and its autocomplete feature can figure out what you are searching for before you even finishing typing it in.

But Google has already had all of that figured out before Bert. So let’s look at some examples of Bert in action.

The new changes this algorithm update brings makes it much more relevant for searchers and it creates a better experience for you and me and everyone else who uses Google.

But how does it affect SEOs?

You need to change your SEO strategy

There are three types of queries people usually make when performing a search:

1. Informational
2. Navigational
3. Transactional

An informational query is like someone looking to lose weight. They aren’t sure how so they may search for “how to lose weight”.

And once they perform the search, they may find a solution such as different diets. From there they may search for a solution, using a navigational query such as “Atkins diet”.

Once someone figures out the exact solution, they then may perform a transactional search query, such as “the Atkins diet cookbook”.

From what we are seeing on our end is that Bert is mainly impacting top-of-the-funnel keywords, which are informational related keywords.

Now if you want to not only maintain your rankings but gobble up some of the rankings of your competition, a simple solution is to get very specific with your content.

Typically, when you create content, which is the easiest way to rank for informational related keywords, SEOs tell you to create super long content.

Yes, you may see that a lot of longer-form content ranks well on Google, but their algorithm doesn’t focus on word count, it focuses on quality.

Source: Neil's Blog

Google Core Update Finished Rolling out on 8 June 2019

June 2019 Core Update Roll Out

Google Core Algorithm Update (June-2019)

As warned, the June 2019 core update is slowly being rolled out from Google’s data centers that are located in different countries. The announcement about the roll out was made from the same Google SearchLiaison twitter account that made the pre-announcement.

The June 2019 Core Update is now live and rolling out to our various data centers over the coming days. — Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) June 3, 2019

The algorithm trackers have started detecting a spike in their graph. This indicates that the impact of the latest broad core algorithm update that has been officially named June 2019 core update, is starting to affect SERP rankings.

Since Google has updated its Quality Rater Guidelines a few days back with much more emphasis on ranking quality websites on the search, the latest update may be a quality patch for the search results page.

We will give you a detailed stat of the impact of the algorithm update on SERP as soon as we get the data from the algorithm trackers. Also, our detailed analysis of the websites hit by the update and the possible way to recover will follow.

June 2019 Core Update Pre-announcement

It has been officially announced that the search engine giant will roll out an important Algorithm Update on June 3rd. The latest update, which will be a Broad Core Algorithm Update like the one released in March, will officially be called the June 2019 Core Update.

It is the first time that Google is pre-announcing the launch of an Algorithm update. Here is the official Twitter announcement:

Tomorrow, we are releasing a broad core algorithm update, as we do several times per year. It is called the June 2019 Core Update. Our guidance about such updates remains as we’ve covered before. — Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) June 2, 2019

Unofficial Google Update of March 27th 2019

Yes, you heard it right. Google has made some significant changes to the algorithm during the final few days of the month of March.

We have seen Google making tweaks after the roll-out of Broad Core Algorithm updates, but the one we are witnessing now is huge, and some algorithm sensors have detected more significant ranking fluctuation than the one that happened on March 12th when Google launched its confirmed March 2019 Core Update.

The fluctuations that started on March 27th is yet to stabilize, and more and more webmasters are taking it to forums after their website traffic got hit.

The latest tweak has come as a double blow for a few websites as they lost the traffic and organic ranking twice on the same month.

Source: Google SearchLiaison

Google Algorithm Update 2019

A rare Google confirmation came related to a Google search algorithm update this week (12 march 2019). Google restated previous advice that there is no fix if your site was negatively impacted.

Google released a broad core search algorithm on March 12 - AKA Florida 2

Why it matters:

Google does several core ranking updates per year and confirms very few updates throughout the year. Specific to broad core updates, Google has said numerous times that you cannot do anything specific to fix your rankings. Google’s previous advice is, "there’s no ‘fix’ for pages that may perform less well other than to remain focused on building great content. Over time, it may be that your content may rise relative to other pages."
If your rankings did change recently, it may have been related to this broad core ranking update and not necessarily related to a technical change you made on your website.

What changed?

Right now it is very early and it is hard to guess what has changed. Based on the SEO chatter around this update, prior to Google confirming the update, some are saying this was again targeting the health/medical space. But, Google has said there was no specific target at medical or health sites with that August 1st update.
It is hard to know which types of sites were impacted the most right now. We will continue to monitor the situation and keep you updated on any insights we see related to this update.

Google’s previous advice.

Google has previously shared this advice around broad core algorithm updates:
"Each day, Google usually releases one or more changes designed to improve our results. Some are focused around specific improvements. Some are broad changes. Last week, we released a broad core algorithm update. We do these routinely several times per year.

As with any update, some sites may note drops or gains. There’s nothing wrong with pages that may now perform less well. Instead, it’s that changes to our systems are benefiting pages that were previously under-rewarded.

There’s no "fix" for pages that may perform less well other than to remain focused on building great content. Over time, it may be that your content may rise relative to other pages."
Source: To see more advice from Google around Google updates, see this Twitter thread.

Google's Medic Update 2018 - The Core Search Update

The big Google algorithm update, nicknamed the Medic Update, here is everything we know about it, including official information from Google and non-official insights from across the industry.

Google's Medic update and how to deal with it

The Google search algorithm update from August 1 is now fully rolled out, and here is what we know about the update, who we think was impacted and some of the analysis of what, if any, actions you may want to consider taking if you were negatively impacted.

In summary, Google is calling this a broad, global, core update, but based on much of the analysis done thus far, there seems to be a focus on health and medical sites and YMYL Your Money Your Life sites. But many sites besides those were impacted by the update. Google is telling us that there is nothing you can do to fix your site, so you should just focus on making a great experience, offer better content and a more useful website. This update has taken on the name the Medic Update because of its focus on the medical and health space. This specific focus is something Google will not confirm.

Why is it called the Medic update?

It’s called the Medic update because Barry Schwartz, one of the most prolific writers in the search industry, called it that. It doesn’t mean this update only affected medical sites.

Google has said that this update was a "broad core algorithm update" and that it does these updates "several times per year."

Google references its advice from the previous core updates, saying there’s "no ‘fix’ for pages that may perform less well, other than to remain focused on building great content. Over time, it may be that your content may rise relative to other pages." Google also said, "As with any update, some sites may note drops or gains. There’s nothing wrong with pages that may now perform less well. Instead, it’s that changes to our systems are benefiting pages that were previously under-rewarded."

Who was impacted by this update

As we explained above, Google said this is a “global” update, which implies every niche and every type of site could have been impacted. But based on the data that I’ve been seeing from surveys, multiple data companies and SEO consultants, there seems to be a focus on medical and health niches, as well as “Your Money Your Life” types of sites, with creeping into the entertainment and gaming niches as well. I’ve shown Google this data and a Google spokesperson responded by referencing the statements made above.

Source: Google Blog

3 Major Advantage of https in SEO.

http vs https - understand the basics

What You Need to Know to Stay in Google’s Good Graces?

No matter what side you are on—being the user of a website or developing your own site—a good online experience tends to involve a trusted third party and good encryption.
In order to understand how to achieve this and better understand why Google favors these website elements (and why you should too), it’s important to first learn the difference between HTTP and HTTPS. Below explains the basics of the two options:

HTTP: HyperText Transfer Protocol

Hypertext Transfer Protocol (http) is a system for transmitting and receiving information across the Internet. HTTP is an "application layer protocol," which ultimately means that its focus is on how information is presented to the user, however, this option doesn’t really care how data gets from Point A to Point B.

It is said to be “stateless,” which means it doesn’t attempt to remember anything about the previous web session. The benefit to being stateless it that there is fewer data to send, and that means increased speed.

When is HTTP beneficial?

http is most commonly used to access html pages, and it is important to consider that other resources can be utilized through accessing http. This was the way that most websites who did not house confidential information (such as credit card information) would setup their websites.

HTTPS: Secure HyperText Transfer Protocol

HTTPS, or "secure http", was developed to allow authorization and secured transactions. Exchanging confidential information needs to be secured in order to prevent unauthorized access, and https makes this happen. In many ways, https is identical to http because it follows the same basic protocols. The http or https client, such as a Web browser, establishes a connection to a server on a standard port. However, https offers an extra layer of security because it uses SSL to move data.

For all intents and purposes, HTTPS is HTTP, it’s just the secure version.

To get technical on you, the main difference is that it uses TCP Port 443 by default, so HTTP and HTTPS are two separate communications.

HTTPS works in conjunction with another protocol, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), to transport data safely (which is really the key difference that Google cares about).

Remember, HTTP and HTTPS don’t care how the data gets to its destination. In contrast, SSL doesn’t care what the data looks like (like HTTP does).

That is why HTTPS really offers the best of both worlds: Caring about what the user sees visually, but also having an extra layer of security when moving data from point A to point B.

An Extra Note: People often use the terms HTTPS and SSL interchangeably, but that isn’t accurate. HTTPS is secure because it uses SSL to move data. The technicalities can seem complicated, so visit here if you need more detailed information. For most companies, understanding that https is more secure than http is enough.

HTTPS & Google's Opinion

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Google prefers sites that are trusted and certified.

This is because users can be guaranteed that the site will encrypt their information for that extra level of security. However, you should understand that getting a certificate can be an involved task (which is why it allows for higher ranking benefits).

Breaking it down: When a site goes through the motions of obtaining a certificate, the issuer becomes a trusted third party. When your browser recognizes a secure Web site, it uses the information in the certificate to verify that the site is what it claims to be. A user who knows the difference between HTTP and HTTPS can now buy with confidence, and thus, businesses can get started in electronic commerce because of this credibility.

With the announcement I addressed in the beginning, Google is now using HTTPS as a ranking signal. It is pretty clear from data analysis that HTTPS sites have a ranking advantage over http-URLs so this switch will now benefit all companies, confidential information or not.

To get a little bit more detailed, data sent using HTTPS is secured via Transport Layer Security protocol (TLS), which provides three key layers of protection:

• Encryption. Encrypting the exchanged data to keep it secure.
• Data Integrity. Data cannot be modified or corrupted during transfer without being detected.
• Authentication proves that your users communicate with the intended website.

Google claims that websites who use HTTPS will have a small ranking benefit because of these security aspects.
Still, HTTPS sites will only have the benefit of a "very lightweight signal" within the overall ranking algorithm, carrying less weight than other signals such as high-quality content.

According to Search Engine Land, Google said that based on their initial tests the HTTPS signal showed “positive results” in terms of relevancy and ranking in Google’s search results.

That same article predicted that this may change eventually, and Google may decide to strengthen the signal, or give more ranking benefit to HTTPS sites because they want to keep online users secure.

SEO Advantages of Switching to HTTPS

It is clear that HTTPS offers security, so it is definitely the choice to put you in Google’s good graces. There are also some additional SEO benefits for you to consider.

1. Increased rankings.
The obvious one. As stated, Google has confirmed the slight ranking boost of HTTPS sites. Like most ranking signals, it is very hard to isolate on its own, but this is still something to keep in mind. On the plus side, the value of switching to HTTPS is very likely to increase over time.
2. Referrer Data.
When traffic passes to an HTTPS site, the secure referral information is preserved. This is unlike what happens when traffic passes through an HTTP site, and it is stripped away and looks as though it is "direct."

3. Security and privacy.
HTTPS adds security for your SEO goals and website in several ways:

• It verifies that the website is the one the server it is supposed to be talking to.
• It prevents tampering by third parties.
• It makes your site more secure for visitors.
• It encrypts all communication, including URLs, which protects things like browsing history and credit card numbers.

So Are There Any SEO Concerns in Switching to HTTPS?

You really shouldn’t be concerned with switching from HTTP to HTTPS in terms of SEO. Google has been telling webmasters it is safe to do so for years. However, you do need to go through the motions to ensure your traffic doesn’t suffer.
Make sure to communicate to Google that you moved your site from HTTP to HTTPS.

Google has provided the following tips for best practices when switching to HTTPS:

• Decide the kind of certificate you need: single, multi-domain, or wildcard certificate
• Use 2048-bit key certificates
• Use relative URLs for resources that reside on the same secure domain
• Use protocol relative URLs for all other domains
• Check out our site move article for more guidelines on how to change your website’s address
• Don’t block your HTTPS site from crawling using robots.txt
• Allow indexing of your pages by search engines where possible. Avoid the no index robots meta tag.
• Google has also updated Google Webmaster Tools to better handle HTTPS sites and the reporting on them.
• Track your HTTP to HTTPS migration carefully in your analytics software and within Google Webmaster Tools.

In addition to the Google Support resources, I highly recommend reading a condensed introduction to HTTP/HTTPS and some tips on changing over to SSL/HTTPS here before getting started.

This is usually something an IT professional can get done quickly, but it can sometimes be overwhelming for someone who may not have an IT background.
Below is a quick list of steps to get an outline of the process:

• Provide your CSR: You need to generate a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) on your webserver.
• Select the server software used to generate the CSR.
• Select the hash algorithm you prefer to use.
• Select the validity period for your Certificate.

Note: You will be licensed to use this Certificate on an unlimited number of servers. It is beneficial to work with a company that establishes SSL connections, as this is all automatically generated once you input information.

The Takeaway

The clear conclusion here is that switching to HTTPS will help you stay in good graces with Google. Along with all of the SEO benefits we discussed (which are only going to increase), HTTPS is a far more secure system for your website to operate. Security for your site and your users is the most important aspect of making the switch from HTTP to HTTPS.

HTTPS is not only good for security but also for referrer data and other SEO strategies. When looking at the issue holistically and considering the future of what Google is likely to do with HTTPS, I recommend switching over to HTTPS, ASAP, to keep up with Google.

Source: Ahref Blog