With a recent update to Instagram, the app will now show users when people they’ve direct messaged online. The post Instagram Shows Users When Friends Are Online by @MattGSouthern appeared first on Search Engine Journal

As I reported on at Search Engine Land based on Sergey Alakov spotting another test, Google is testing a new location tab that not only shows you location specific information around a hotel listing but also scores the location based on factors such as proximity to top sights…

Posted by randfish A searcher’s first experience with your brand happens on Google’s SERPs — not your website. Having the ability to influence their organic first impression can go a long way toward improving both customer perception of your brand and conversion rates. In today’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand takes us through the inherent challenges of reputation management SEO and tactics for doing it effectively.

YouTube now displays hashtags on videos that can help users search for and discover other videos about the same topics. The post YouTube Shows Searchable Hashtags Above Video Titles by @MattGSouthern appeared first on Search Engine Journal .

Google My Business has started sending notifications when new listings go live on the web. The post Google My Business Sends Notifications When New Listings Go Live by @MattGSouthern appeared first on Search Engine Journal

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today…

People upset with Trump’s recent actions and policies have used several SEO techniques to get pictures of the president at the top of image search results for the word “idiot” Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

Google’s John Mueller said this morning on Reddit that even if you have HSTS (HTTP Strict Transport Security) which kind of by default forces a domain to go from HTTP to HTTPS, that you should still set up the 301 redirects from HTTP to HTTPS as well…

Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.

A Reddit thread asks folks to share their favorite SEO related podcasts.