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There is no more request indexing feature in the Google Search Console.

Hello, and thanks for listening to SEO tips today.

Google has Temporarily Disabled the "Request Indexing" feature of the URL Inspection Tool.

In case you go to the Google Search Console and can't use the "request indexing" feature, it's now not there because it has been temporarily disabled. Here’s what Google has said about the feature:

 "In order to make some infrastructure changes. We expect it will return in the coming weeks."

As a side note, if you’re heavily relying on the request indexing feature from Google, perhaps there are some issues with your content or the crawl control on your site.

Here are some other ideas around how to nudge Google to index your content:

• Have a clean XML sitemap with all of your 200 status, canonical, indexable URLs in it. 
• Update your XML sitemap as you publish new content
• Have a launch plan for new content where you:
  • Share it on social media.
  • Have an embargo with the press (and lift it on launch date).
  • Have a pitch plan to drive links to the content.
  • Send a note to your email list to notify them of the new content.
  • Use a Facebook chatbot that delivers your content via RSS feed to your chatbot followers…
  • Launch a YouTube video that talks about the new content.
  • Talk about the new content on a podcast.

The ideas here to get visibility on your content are endless.

So that’s your tip for today - and FYI that the request indexing feature with Google is gone, but there are still ways you can budge Google to find and index your new content. 

Thanks for listening. Come back tomorrow for another SEO tip.

Here are the ways you can support the SEO Tips podcast.

You can send me a donation at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katherinewong. Any and all levels of donations are appreciated and will help offset the cost of producing the podcast. You should also subscribe to our newsletter so that you don't miss a future episode. 

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Learn more about Google's mobile indexing deadline and how to find any content that might be dropped from the index in today's SEO tip.

Here are the ways you can support the SEO Tips podcast.

You can send me a donation at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katherinewong. Any and all levels of donations are appreciated and will help offset the cost of producing the podcast. You should also subscribe to our newsletter so that you don't miss a future episode. 

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Struggling to persuade as an SEO? It might be your interpersonal communication skills. Learn more in today's SEO tip.

Here are the ways you can support the SEO Tips podcast.

You can send me a donation at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katherinewong. Any and all levels of donations are appreciated and will help offset the cost of producing the podcast. You should also subscribe to our newsletter so that you don't miss a future episode. 

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Hello, and thanks for listening to SEO tips today.

Most of this comes from a  super informative  Kalicube Tuesday interview with Tim Schmoyer from VideoCreators.com. 

Here are my crib notes:

I think the most insightful bit was when Tim answered this question:

Should you ask for subscribers? And can you get subscribers with your video strategy without directly asking for subscribers?

He started off with a quick reminder: 

YouTube looks at the following related to your video:

• What is the video watch time?
• How does this video contribute to the overall viewing session on YouTube?
• How satisfied do your users feel at the end of the view session? Youtube measures this with how likely your viewers are to come back to YouTube the next day, or with a satisfaction survey to users. 

But here’s the real eye opening nugget (at least for me):

At the end of your video, you want to make sure you don’t give the user any signal that your video is almost over as it impacts your overall watch time. You want them to keep watching your videos to extend their YouTube session time. 

So, they recommend:

• At the end of your video, use the end screens while you’re still delivering value - quickly give a 10 second pitch for the next video you want them to watch. Or a playlist. 
• And say: “I’ll see you in the next video”. Don’t say goodbye.

Tim from VideoCreators sees a normal click through rate on end screens of  .7% and he has seen (with this new approach) a CTR get as high as 42% on that end screen link.

And what if the “next” related video is not published?

Here’s his recommendation:

• Do a verbal and visual call to action, but on screen put a “coming next Thursday” note in the end screen box. 
• Then when the video is published, put it in that end screen spot on top of that box on the video.

And a note that YouTube has a “best for viewer” option on the end screen, but it's not as high as if you do a verbal pitch and pick something strategically. 

Also, you can put up someone else’s video if you don’t have a relevant video as it still increases the YouTube viewer session.  Great stuff!

So that’s your tip for the day. Make sure that you don’t say “goodbye” to your YouTube viewers and instead entice them to watch another video by saying something like “I’ll see you in the next video” and link that video in your end screen card. 

Thanks for listening. Come back tomorrow for another SEO tip.

Here are the ways you can support the SEO Tips podcast.

You can send me a donation at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katherinewong. Any and all levels of donations are appreciated and will help offset the cost of producing the podcast. You should also subscribe to our newsletter so that you don't miss a future episode. 

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Hello, and thanks for listening to SEO tips today.

First a few updates from the world of podcast marketing:

Amazon has entered the Podcasting Market
Amazon Music now lets you discover and play podcasts - in its iOS and Android apps and on the web, as well as via Amazon Echo smart speakers. You can also pick up where you left off in any podcast.  FYI. This does not mean that you’re immediately in Audible, but it will allow your podcast to be available to Amazon Music’s 55 million users. To submit your podcast via your podcast host, or (if you can’t do that) directly with Amazon Music

Signs of a podcast test- podcasts are surfacing in Google Discover
Google Discover is testing surfacing podcasts episodes. I am not surprised by this as for the last three years I’ve been saying that Google is working toward providing audio only answers for questions and has a goal to double podcast listening. 

Spotify is creating algorithmic and editor curated playlists for podcasts
And if you don’t have a Spotify account for podcasters, you should as they promise metrics on your listeners and notifications if you get added to those playlists.

And a few other podcast marketing tips:
Everyone who has a podcast should conduct keyword research using their favorite keyword research tool (mine is SEMRush) to see what podcast episodes folks are looking for. You can either put a keyword + episode into the tool or your keyword + podcast and see if that generates any ideas for future guests or episodes for your podcasts. 

Also, I’m really enjoying the Headliner app - which allows for easy creation of video from your audio content - creating a sharable visual asset for your social media posts. 

So those are your podcast marketing tips for today - conduct keyword research for future episodes, register your podcast with Amazon Music, and look at the data in your Spotify podcaster account.

Thanks for listening. Come back tomorrow for another SEO tip.

Here are the ways you can support the SEO Tips podcast.

You can send me a donation at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katherinewong. Any and all levels of donations are appreciated and will help offset the cost of producing the podcast. You should also subscribe to our newsletter so that you don't miss a future episode.