Google AMA Highlights

Google AMA Highlights

In case you might have missed the SMX Advanced keynote with Google’s Gary Illyes, our experts here at Carmel SEO have summarized some of the most important points made during the keynote.

1.RankBrain

By now you should know how important RankBrain is. However, Gary Illyes claimed that there was no way to optimize for RankBrain even though it is one of Google main ranking factors.

2.Authorship

Illyes officially announced that authorship is no longer being used by Google. Even though it has been two years since Google did away with authorship it is now completely out of the system.

3.Penguin

We know that Penguin will get an update, we just don’t know when. Illyes would not give any sort of timeline for the update release because it could still change.

  1. Panda

Panda is continuously updating, very slowly. Illyes could not give any sort of timeline for Panda updates either because they are so slow.

  1. Mobile Index

Illyes explained that Google is still working on their mobile index. As of right now, both desktop and mobile searches have the same index and ranking factors. Obviously, this is something Google is hoping to change sometime in the future with the help of a separate mobile-only index.

6.AMP

We’ve been talking about AMP for a while now, however, many have been cautious on making the switch to AMP because so little it known about this seemingly experimental search update. However, Illyes gave very different advice, explaining that AMP is going to blow up in the next year or so and SEOs should be preparing now.

  1. More Data in Google Search Console

After being promised years ago, Illyes claims that Google is finally making the proper adjustments to provide users with more data and a longer history of data in the Google Search Console. Again, Illyes could not give any sort of timeline, but this should be taking place in the near future.

  1. HTTPS Adoption

Lastly, Illyes explained that HTTPS has experienced major growth this past year and he urged webmasters to make the switch as soon as possible. He expects HTTPS to continue this pattern of growth.

Those are the highlights from the SMX Advanced keynote with Google’s Gary Illyes. A big thanks to Carmel SEO for putting this list together!

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