Google Webmaster Tools - SEO Updates 2012

I would like to highlight & include the summaries of SEO Updates in 2012 which are published on Google webmaster central official blog.

1. Google https search is faster now on modern browser             - Mar 19th 2012
2. SEO Friendly Pagination algorithm update from Google           - Mar 13th 2012
3. Better Crawl Errors reporting in Google Webmaster tools         - Mar 12th 2012
4. Filtering Free hosting spam websites from search results          - Mar 06th 2012
5. User & Administrator access are now available in GWT           - Mar 05th 2012  
6. Video markup language for better indexation of Videos             -  Feb 21^st 2012
7. Optimize your site to handle unexpected traffic growth              -  Feb 09^th 2012
8. Webmaster tools sitemaps interface with fresh look                  -  Jan 26^th 2012
9. Few changes on Top search queries data in Webmaster tools    -  Jan 25^th 2012      
10. Google Algorithm update to Page layout structure                     -  Jan 19^th 2012
11. Page Titles Update in Search Results                                       -  Jan 12^th 2012

1. Faster HTTPs Search:
Google made some changes to its https search. If you are logged in to your gmail account and searching for some thing on Google, When you click on a specific result for a keyword then you will reach that web page little faster compared to earlier https search. Google Team has reduced the latency of https search in modern browser like chrome.

2. SEO Friendly Pagination:
Most of the eCommerce and content portals will usually have pagination issue. Due to pagination most of the duplicate pages will be created with product titles in eCommerce portals and with article titles in content portals. Now Google came up with updated algorithm i.e. following are the two ways to fix pagination issue.

• Insert View all page and use rel="canonical" in sub pagination pages
• Use rel="prev" and rel="next"

3. Upgraded Crawl Errors Reporting:
Crawl Errors is a feature in Webmaster tools which will report all errors in your website. Google webmaster team started detecting new errors and reporting all errors in a better way. Categorized crawl errors in to two types i.e. "Site Errors" and "URL Errors".
 
4. Filtering Free hosting spam websites:
We know that "few of the hosting providers will offer free hosting services". Due to free hosting most of the spammers will create low quality content websites dynamically. Google started filtering this kind of websites from search results and also requesting free hosting providers to show patterns of spam to Google team, so that Google team can effectively update their algorithm and filter these spam sites from search results effectively.


5. Now Webmaster tools have both admin & user access:
Earlier we do not have an option to give user access to our webmaster tools account to any other user. Only admin access should be shared to other users, which isn't safe. With the latest update we can give webmaster tools user access to other users now onwards.

6. Schema.org Video Markup:

We all know that Google, Yahoo & Bing are supporting schema.org common markup language to make a better web. Now schema.org released mark up for Videos i.e. http://schema.org/VideoObject. Follow this markup while adding videos to your site. It will help search engines to crawl these videos effectively.

7. Handle sudden traffic spike:

Usually popular sites face downtime issues due to sudden increase in traffic, websites will crash often in such cases. So, it’s better to plan “lightweight version of the website or mobile version” to handle traffic in difficult times. Also we can use third party services to land that particular page which is receiving higher traffic. 

8. New interface for sitemap section:

Earlier sitemap section used have normal interface with some basic content stats. Now added videos, images sitemap statistics with colorful interface. Compared to old interface, new interface looks pretty clean and easier to understand with better usability. Now users can delete sitemaps, which were submitted by another webmaster owner. 

9. Search queries data update:

Normally in webmaster tools search queries data rankings will show average position of the keyword. Now onwards it will display top position of that keyword.

10. Page Layout Structure algorithm Change:

We often see websites with too many ads and it’s difficult to find out the difference between real content and ads. Few sites will have completely ads about the fold, users will have bad experience with these sites. As per new page layout algorithm, these sites will lose rankings and bring down from top search engine results.

11. Page Titles update in search:

Page titles will have higher impact in CTR. Usually Google pick the title tag from