https

Whenever you click on a link to visit a site a request gets made to the server. The server answers with a status message (header) and a file list for that website. After viewing that list, the browser asks for the files one at a time. On the ‘old’ HTTP1.1 protocol, this process takes ages …

Imagine visiting an online shop, and receiving a notification from your browser that this site is not secure. You’re probably not so eager to buy something there and provide this website with private or sensitive information. Well, both your visitors and Google most likely agree. In 2014, Google announced that HTTPS would become a ranking signal. …

HTTPS secures the connection to the website you are visiting. I’m sure you have seen this in action; look at the address bar in the browser and find the lock icon on the left-hand side. Is the lock closed? Then the connection is secure. Is it open or is there another type of icon or …

In 2014, we decided to switch over to the (now) commonly-used HTTPS to encrypt sensitive data that’s being sent across our website. This post describes some useful tips based on our own experiences that might come in handy if you’re considering switching.  A little backstory Back in 2014 HTTPS became a hot-topic after the Heartbleed …

A revolution is currently going on in the underpinnings of the web. HTTP, the protocol your browser uses to connect to your site, has a new version: HTTP/2. This is not something that should concern the average user, but for web developers, it changes how we do performance optimization entirely. In this short article, I want to …

This week we had a few interesting things happening, from a potential update to some new features and an important change in Google Suggest. Let’s dive in! Google adds disambiguation to Suggest In a very interesting move this week, Google added disambiguation results to their suggest box, basically forcing you to choose for a specific topic …

This was very much the “week after” for us. Yoast SEO 3.0.4 saw the light, but other than that most of us are still recovering. It was also a week full with tiny little nuggets of newsy niceness. From SSL on WikiPedia to AMP to Penguin. Let’s dive in! SSL all the things This is a …

A couple of interesting small tidbits this week, that all together show the direction (Google) search is heading in. Let’s dive into this weeks news: Google bolding answers to questions Remember the Hummingbird update? Google worked on being able to parse questions better so it knew what you were searching for. This week, some people noticed …

I write this knowing that next week I’ll be in Munich with many friends of the SEO industry for SEOktoberfest, a conference unlike any other. We’ll talk shop with some of the best and brightest minds in our industry and to say I’m excited is an extreme understatement. Google loses antitrust case in Russia These headlines …

An interesting week this one, including an update that seems to have quite a bit of impact. There are also some nice new features in Google Trends, possible labels for slow loading sites and some more annoying news about Bing and keywords. A Google update It wasn’t Panda, it wasn’t Penguin, though both are still “to come”, but …