is the day of search marketing history: March 5,

Matt Cutts confirms Vince and calls it a minor change

Matt Cutts, Google’s 2009 webmaster, created a video to answer many queries about a recent “brand drive” in search results. It was launched in February 2009.

Cutts confirmed that there was a “minor” change, adding that Google’s algorithm might be factoring trust and quality into its ranking algorithm for generic queries. Cutts stated that it didn’t impact long-tail questions.

This change was created by Vince, a Googler. That is how the Vince Update was named.

You can read all about it at Google’s VinceUpdate Produces Big Brand Rankings. Google Calls It a Trust “Change”

This day, too


Google will switch to mobile-first indexing completely by September 2020

2020: Google stated that 70% of the sites displayed in search had been changed over.


Google Ads greatly simplifies reportingattribution.

2020: The name was also dropped “Search”.


Many WordPress SEO plugins are in trouble

2020: Google Analytics Dashboard For WP, Yoast Search Engine and Rank Math All had issues.


Recommendation for SEOs on Google E-Commerce Category: “I’ll stop doing that when it stops working.”

2019 John Mueller, Google’s webmaster, suggested that webmasters avoid putting content in the footers of e-commerce categories pages. However SEOs value performance more.


Google Images – More Shoppable Ads

2019 Sponsored images highlighted products which, when hovered over, revealed brand and price details.


Get More Bing Ads Clicks Now!

2019 This strategy automatically sets bids to increase click volumes. There were also manual control options.


Report: 51% website hacks that are related to SEO spam

2019 These hacks are designed to target websites and manipulate the success of an SEO campaign to boost a site’s rankings on Google and other search engines.


Voice is the top choice for mobile-based search

2019 Voice has been the first choice of more mobile search users since 2018.


Yelp now offers ‘Verified Licenses’ for local providers. This will allow to add paid products to its lineup.

2019:Yelp manually verifies that the business is licensed and in good standing.


Google sells Zagat to The Infatuation

2018: Google doesn’t need Zagat anymore


Google extends Search capabilities to iMessage, and other browser apps for iOS

2018: The search engine was integrated into more iOS apps with new extensions.


Bing confirmed support for JSON -LD Schema.org markup

2018 Although not yet in the toolset but being developed within Bing Webmaster Tools, verification support was in process.


Google’s “One Truth Answer” problem – when featured snippets go wrong

2017: Sometimes these answers were horribly wrong.


Google: Mobile Friendly Update Ranking Factor will be real time & on a page-by-page basis

2015: Google’s Gary Illyes answered questions about this new ranking factor at SMX West.


Google may discontinue its AJAX Crawlable Guidelines

2015: Gary Illyes stated that Google would be removing its guidelines.


Official: Google Compare for Auto Insurance Launches

2015 Google started in California with lead generation to get into car insurance.


What is the Most Popular Searched Google Thing? It turns out it’s “Google.”

2015: Trends Analyst Gary Illyes stated that Google’s most popular term was “Google” during an SMX West session.


Google Search Now Serving up Cocktail Recipes with Drink Ingredients and Directions

2015 A new search function for cocktail recipes was launched on mobile and desktop. It can be used to find a variety of cocktails.


Bing Listens: New Site Serves As A Suggestion Box For Bing Users

2015: Bing launched a virtual suggestion box to get feedback from users.


Spotted – Google Knowledge Graph Ad Tests New Google shopping PLA Display

2014 This was the first time that Google Shopping powered Knowledge Graph ads.


Deep: Product Listing Ad campaigns that only focus on top sellers get short changed [Study]

2014 Significant amounts of PLA revenue were generated from single-conversion SKUs, which had a higher return than ad spend.


Xbox One gets Bing Web Search

2014 Searching with “Xbox Bing” will return results from both the Bing marketplace and relevant web items.


BrightEdge Uses SEO Patents As “Sword,” Sues Searchmetrics

2014: BrightEdge sued Searchmetrics for using multiple SEO patents granted last year.


Google’s Cutts – We don’t ban sites critical of Google. But here’s why we do penalize sites…

2013: Matt Cutts responds to “Does Google have a standard for manually removing Webspam?”


Google’s Matt Cutts Awarded Patent On Detecting Hidden Text & Hidden Links

2013 A new Google Patent was granted, titled Systems and methods to detect hidden text and hidden hyperlinks.


Google Maps App for iPhone Upgrade Adds Local icons, Google Contacts and More Countries

2013 These changes include improved search for local venues and integration with your contacts.


Web Spam Archive Tool Saves Google Live Spam for More Than Just Recent Results

2013 This tool allows users to browse more than 2000 examples.


Stockpiled With Cash, Structured Data engine FindTheBest Is Ready To Move

2013: Company developed a “data platform”, which could handle large amounts of data and synthesize it into a user-friendly format.


Google Launches “Search Plus Your World” Beyond the USA Most likely, Secure Search Sets To Expand

2012: This meant that search marketers could expect a significant increase in the proportion of “(not supplied)” data.


Google Sent Over 700,000 Messages Via Webmaster Tools In Past Two Months

2012: This was almost as many messages that Google had sent in 2011 than Google Webmaster Tools, and more than any message center Google has launched since then.


Google Keeps Up with You: Bing Launches a New Series of “Search Quality Insights”

2012: Bing has announced the “Search Quality Insights Series” to give a deeper look at its search engine.


Google enables Cross-Platform Local Search (As a Carrot To Relinquish your Privacy)

2012: Google enabled people to access PC search history on their mobile browsers (Android and iPhone).


Google Faces an “Innovator’s Dilemma” as It Prepares For Response To Siri

2012: Google has released a mobile-optimized version its PC experience. Siri is more task-oriented and “transactional”, than Google Voice Actions.


Yahoo Soon To Support Canonical Tag

2010 Bing stated that canonical tag support should have been in place by March or April. Yahoo stated that they are rolling out support for the tag but warned that Yahoo would only use it as a hint.


Bing, Yahoo Discussing Future Of Yahoo Site Explorer

2010: Yahoo was involved in discussions about the future of Yahoo!’s Site Explorer SEO tool.


Bing Maps Rolls Out Its Largest Image Update

2010: Aerial and Bird’s Eye imagery for many countries across several continents.


Yahoo Updates Desktop Search Marketing Tool

2010: Upgrades for bulk editing, campaign transfers, keyword research, and more.


Yahoo Loses TMobile Search Deal

2010, T-Mobile switched Yahoo for Google as the default search engine in the T-Mobile portal.


Google Applauds the Wisdom of Crowds for Financial Assistance

2009: Google launched TipJar. This is a place where users can submit answers to the question “How can I save my money?”


Inquisitor Debuts On iPhone

2009 Very clever search tool by Yahoo for iPhone.


Utah Lawyers Hate Search Ads

2009: Utah tried to regulate keyword advertising for the third consecutive time by proposing a new law.


Google Adds Pageload Time To Quality Score Algorithm

2008 Google will give you a low “load time grade” if your destination URL is very slow to load.


Oops! Google’s SSL Certificate Sends Out Scary Warnings

2008 Google: Some web pages containing AdWords Conversion Tracking Code snippet presented visitors a browser message informing them that a Google server certificate was expired.


Google Introduces the “Search Within A Site” Search Box Feature

2008 Google: This feature will be activated when we find that the user is looking for more specific search results on a particular site.


Matt Cutts and The Search Community Interview

2008: The questions included how Cutts became Google’s face for webmasters, how Googlers helped him, and how he had to prove that he wasn’t the only answer at Google for search engine optimizations.


Google Analytics Benchmarking Feature, Data Sharing & Audio Ad Charting

2008: Site owners can now compare their sites’ performance with industry benchmarks. However, this is only possible if they agree to share their data in order to create such aggregate benchmarks.


Yahoo Celebrates its 13th Birthday. Will there be a 14th?

2008: Spoiler Alert: Yes.


Obit: A West Coast Digerati Deadpools Ask.com

2008: Goodbye, Ask.com.


Pew: Mobile phones more important than Internet, TV, and email

2008: An increasing number of people were using their phones for other purposes than voice communications. They also used them to access mobile internet content.


Google Testing Yellow Background Colour Behind AdWords Ads

2007: These ads usually had a light-blue background.


Google Rises to UK’s 2nd Largest Ad Earner

2007: Google UK earned $1.6 Billion (PS825 Million) in 2006. This was more than Channel 4 and less than ITV.


Local Shopping Search Stalks E-Commerce

2007 Many companies wanted to establish an online-offline shopping link.


Pandia Offers Custom Search For Search Information

2007: Pandia provided a free custom search called Search Engine Detective. This meta search engine allows you to do specialized searches related to search engines.

Search Marketing Expo ( , SMX).

Past contributions by Search Engine Land’s Subject matter Experts (SMEs).

These columns represent a snapshot of time. They have not been updated since publication, except where noted. These articles do not reflect Search Engine Land’s views.

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The post This Day in Search Marketing History: March 5 was first published on Search Engine Land.

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