This is the first edition of the AmpKnob newsletter and there’s still a ton I’m figuring out. I’d love to hear what you think of these stories, the format, pretty much anything. My goal is to make every week better than the last, and your thoughts will help make that goal a reality.

You signed up for a brand new newsletter with complete faith in me, and I take that really seriously. Thank you.

And now, on to the stories.

Changes coming for mobile search results

Back in August, Google announced a few big changes for mobile search users.

First, Google started using mobile-friendliness as a positive ranking factor in April 2015. Pages from mobile-friendly websites got a nice little tag in their Search Engine Results Page. Google said this update only impacts searches made on mobile devices, which means basically means there have been at least two indexes people can use to find your site. One for mobile searches and one for desktop searches.

Then in August, Google announced a couple of new changes for mobile search. First, they will be dropping the mobile friendly tag in search results on mobile devices. They’ve said that 85% of search results now meet their mobile friendly criteria.

Which is kind of like having a pie contest, giving an advantage to square pies, and then being surprised when 85% of people show up with square pies. Google waves their hands, but this is no magic trick.

The second change is a penalty for sites showing full page interstitials to mobile visitors. Since many sites use responsive elements, this change will also have an impact beyond mobile.

This penalty goes into effect January 10, 2017 so if you (or someone you know) are using interstitials to collect email addresses be sure to turn those off before this deadline.

Shane’s Google prediction corner

Prediction 1: Google will consolidate their indexes. I mentioned Google has pretty much admitted to running to unique indexes for mobile and desktop searches, and over the next two years my guess is we’ll see them consolidate this back to one as mobile traffic continues to gain ground.

Prediction 2: Google will incentivize dates on blog posts. Google has the power to improve user experience across the web, and I think in the next couple of year we’ll see them find a way to encourage people to include a visible publication date on their blog posts. SEOs using this as a trick to appear evergreen are going to attract the Google’s gaze and get this trend relegated to the scrap heap of bad UX.

Set support hours for your Twitter handle

Twitter announced this week they’re going to let products set availability for their handles. You can mark your account as a ‘Support Account’ and set support hours in your settings.

AdBlock Plus gets skeezy

AdBlock Plus made it’s name by blocking ads for users and this week courted controversy as they announced plans to test a programmatic ad platform within their Acceptable Ads program.

AdWeek reported Sridhar Ramaswamy, SVP of ads and commerce at Google, told reporters at the DMEXCO conference in Germany on Wednesday that Adblock Plus “erects toll booths on a public road and siphons off advertising dollars that should be going directly to publishers."

People block ads because their intrusive and ad platforms are abused by scammers. Company makes money by offering to block ads for free with a premium upgrade edition, and sells ads to people who use their free edition. Shakedown city.

“Would be a shame if these perfectly nice ads started showing up in your browser again.”

Brian Dean at SumoCon

I had a chance to attend SumoCon, and was floored by Brian Dean’s presentation. Reading Backlinko can feel like trying to drink from a fire hydrant sometimes, so hit this link and CMD+F ‘Sprinkle LSI Keywords’ to read his tip on how to find Latent Semantic Indexed keywords to sprinkle into your posts.

It’s really, really good. I’m sure you’ll be seeing many more tips from Brian on AmpKnob.

Tweets you shouldn’t miss

Brandon Mathis pointed out you can manage updates to apps in iOS 10 with Force press.

Scott Kerr shared an email chain between LEGO and a 7 year-old who lost a minifigure. It’s the kind of customer support story you hope your kid encounters.