Erin has traveled west this week for some much needed summer relaxation. Thankfully Andrew Cock-Starkey stepped in to help Mordy and Jacob deliver the news for this episode. 

Universal Analytics takes its final ride into the sunset this month. Google announced that on July 1st, 2024 they will fully discontinue and shut down this web traffic metrics tool. We sure hope you have, but if you haven’t, don’t forget to migrate to GA4 ASAP!

A recent study has unveiled a rise in authority for E-Commerce and User-Generated Content indicating that these forms of content are being prioritized by Google on the SERP as affiliate marketers are losing visibility fast. 

Google has released their June 2024 Spam Update. The update is intended to continue to penalize low-quality content by identifying and targeting sites with keyword stuffing and unnecessary backlinks. 

Tune in as we say goodbye to our friend Universal Analytics and discuss all that’s new in the search realm this week here on the EDGE of the Web!

News from the EDGE:

[00:04:54] Universal Analytics Ends on July 1: Essential Information You Need

[00:06:44] SEO Visibility in 2024: Review Sites Decline, eCommerce and User-Generated Content Rise

[00:12:59] EDGE of the Web Title Sponsor: Site Strategics

[00:14:11] Google Releases June 2024 Spam Update

[00:18:35] Lily Ray’s New Rabbit Hole: a post on LinkedIn

AI Blitz:

[00:22:55] Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas responds to plagiarism and infringement accusations

[00:25:05] AIs are coming for social networks

[00:27:56] Google using ML to review Local Service Ads (LSA) and "automatically review all leads"

[00:30:01] EDGE of the Web Sponsor: Inlinks

Barry Blast from Search Engine Roundtable:

[00:31:08] Google Search Tests Black Sitelinks

[00:32:01] Google AI Overviews FAQs Including Why You Can't Disable AI Overviews

[00:34:14] AI Overviews and Reddit 

[00:37:25] Local SEO - Google Maps exploit