Starting today, we’re updating our Top Search Queries feature to make it better match expectations about search engine rankings. Previously we reported the average position of all URLs from your site for a given query. As of today, we’ll instead average only the top position that a URL from your site appeared in.
An example
Let’s say Nick searched for [bacon] and URLs from your site appeared in positions 3, 6, and 12. Jane also searched for [bacon] and URLs from your site appeared in positions 5 and 9. Previously, we would have averaged all these positions together and shown an Average Position of 7. Going forward, we’ll only average the highest position your site appeared in for each search (3 for Nick’s search and 5 for Jane’s search), for an Average Position of 4.
We anticipate that this new method of calculation will more accurately match your expectations about how a link’s position in Google Search results should be reported.
How will this affect my Top Search Queries data?
This change will affect your Top Search Queries data going forward. Historical data will not change. Note that the change in calculation means that the Average Position metric will usually stay the same or decrease, as we will no longer be averaging in lower-ranking URLs.
Check out the updated Top Search Queries data in the Your site on the web section of Webmaster Tools. And remember, you can also download Top Search Queries data programmatically!
We look forward to providing you a more representative picture of your Google Search data. Let us know what you think in our Webmaster Forum.
Tag Archive for google
Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Update to Top Search Queries data
How to Build a (Nearly) Hack-Proof Password System with LastPass and a Thumb Drive
From Lifehacker:
It seems like every day there’s news that a new site or service has been hacked. The intruders make off with usernames and passwords, and even if they’re encrypted the service forces users to change them. This week it was DreamHost, and last week it was Zappos.
We’re big fans of LastPass, a cross-platform password manager that helps you create and manage secure, unique passwords for every site, but the point of failure is obvious: What happens if someone gets your master password? Here’s how you can beef up LastPass by turning a USB flash drive into a key you have to plug in to your computer before you can access your passwords. This way, the next time a service you use has been hacked—even if it’s LastPass—you won’t worry.
If you’re not already using LastPass to generate, maintain, and manage different and unique strong passwords for every site and service you use on the web, it’s time to get started. The beauty of LastPass is that it’s available for Mac, Windows, Linux, and even mobile devices, and you can choose and remember one strong password and then use that password to manage and access all of your other logins and services on the web. Still, LastPass keeps all of your passwords in the cloud, and while they’re as secure as they possibly could be, if someone gets a hold of your LastPass password, you’re pretty much screwed, right? Not if you have a spare USB drive with Sesame, a utility that turns your USB key into an actual key needed to unlock your LastPass vault. Once installed and set up, you’ll need both your LastPass master password and your key plugged into your Mac, Windows, or Linux PC in order to unlock your vault and access your saved passwords.
Google Abandons Anonymous Accounts With New Signup Form | Webmonkey | Wired.com
From Webmonkey:
Google is experimenting with a new signup form that eliminates the ability to create anonymous accounts. The new form is part of an effort to expand the Google+ social network by automatically adding every new Google account to Google+. Because Google+ requires a name and gender the new signup form effectively eliminates the anonymous Google account.
The new account creation page can be found by following the links on Google’s homepage. As the Google Operating System blog points out, the older Google account page, which does not require signing up for Google+ or Gmail, is currently still accessible through Google Reader, Calendar and other Google services.
The revamped Google account creation page adds some additional fields to the sign up form, including name and gender which are both necessary for creating a Google+ account. There’s also a new agreement — turned on by default — granting Google permission to “use my account information to personalize +1s on content and ads on non-Google websites.”
Page layout algorithm improvement – Inside Search
(Cross-posted on the Webmaster Central Blog)
In our ongoing effort to help you find more high-quality websites in search results, today we’re launching an algorithmic change that looks at the layout of a webpage and the amount of content you see on the page once you click on a result.
As we’ve mentioned previously, we’ve heard complaints from users that if they click on a result and it’s difficult to find the actual content, they aren’t happy with the experience. Rather than scrolling down the page past a slew of ads, users want to see content right away. So sites that don’t have much content “above-the-fold” can be affected by this change. If you click on a website and the part of the website you see first either doesn’t have a lot of visible content above-the-fold or dedicates a large fraction of the site’s initial screen real estate to ads, that’s not a very good user experience. Such sites may not rank as highly going forward.
We understand that placing ads above-the-fold is quite common for many websites; these ads often perform well and help publishers monetize online content. This algorithmic change does not affect sites who place ads above-the-fold to a normal degree, but affects sites that go much further to load the top of the page with ads to an excessive degree or that make it hard to find the actual original content on the page. This new algorithmic improvement tends to impact sites where there is only a small amount of visible content above-the-fold or relevant content is persistently pushed down by large blocks of ads.
Read more
Account performance at a glance with the AdSense Publisher Toolbar – Inside AdSense
We’re always looking for new ways to make it easier for you to use our tools, help you save time, and better understand account performance. With this in mind, we’re happy to share with you a new Chrome extension called the AdSense Publisher Toolbar. When viewing your website, this feature will show you a snapshot of your AdSense account performance as a widget in the corner of your browser window. It also includes ad overlays that describe the recent performance of specific ad units, and gives you the option to access AdSense directly. At the moment this toolbar is only available in English, but we’re working to make it available in additional languages in the near future.
