New info from Google

The following is information on Google and other sites that may help your rankings: The importance of having a secure website

Google made it clear that secure websites are important for them:

"At Google, user security has always been a top priority. Over the years, we’ve worked hard to promote a more secure web and to provide a better browsing experience for users. [...]

We also started giving a slight ranking boost to HTTPS URLs in search results last year. Browsing the web should be a private experience between the user and the website, and must not be subject to eavesdropping, man-in-the-middle attacks, or data modification.

This is why we’ve been strongly promoting HTTPS everywhere."

If your website does not use HTTPS, Google does not rank it as well as it could. Even if it did not affect your search engine rankings, a secure website is a good thing. Consumers prefer secure websites that they can trust.

Google: You can rank for medium competitive keywords without links 

"We've seen Googlers say time and time again that you can rank without links because Google will look at the content but most SEOs know that without links, you cannot rank for anything somewhat competitive. [...]

So someone asked [Google's Gary Illyes], is it possible to rank for a 'medium competitive' keyword phrase without any links. And get this, the domain is only one month old. Gary said, it is possible, but I guess he means, anything is possible?"

Does Google use Chrome to discover new URLs for crawling?

"The results are pretty simple: Googlebot never came to visit either page in the test. [...]

However, bear in mind that this test was specific to testing if they used Chrome to discover new URLs. [...] This does not mean that Google does not use Chrome data in other ways, such as to collect aggregate user behavior data, or other metrics

Some info about Google Adwords:

Location extensions help people discover local businesses as they use Google.com and Google Maps to find places they love. Starting today, eligible Google Display Network ads will automatically include information like photos, business hours, and your store location, making them more useful to shoppers who are nearby or show interest in your business location. For example, a foodie browsing cooking blogs might see local information for a bakery, making it easy for her to visit your physical store and make a purchase. In fact, early testing has shown that advertisers see an increase in clicks to their business, with 60% of clicks on this extension related to directions or store information.*

 

*More info to come soon. This info was courtesy of Axandra.