With Core Web Vitals prominent in the SEO community dialogue, we wanted to take a moment to dive deep into understanding the issue.  We researched and found a world of caching and optimization tools, and then tripped across and tested one that had somewhat of a contentious discourse in the public square.  We reached out to the author of an article crying “FOUL!”.  Let's learn about the CWV issue and find out about Black Hat Core Web Vitals today on the EDGE.

[00:08:04] What is the problem with WordPress sites?

[00:11:14] Google has a history of trying to help people recognize the speed problem

[00:14:29] The difference between PSI scores and Core Web Vitals 

[00:18:58] Google understands that the time of the hand-coded websites is finished and we're in the era of bloat

[00:23:31] It's simple: You have to make sure that JavaScript is not render-blocking

[00:26:19] What about shared hosting applications and platforms?

[00:30:48] The new world of caching tools in the battle for speed

[00:31:50] Field Data and Lab Data

[00:35:34] A New Solution: Nitropack?[00:38:35] Of course your site will be lighter if you remove ALL JavaScript![00:44:13] Nitropack's Response

[00:45:53] Be prepared for a penalty from Google, because you're cheating.

It was an all-skate for Google topics this week on the EDGE.  The EDGE team covered articles from Search Engine Land and Search Engine Journal with a sidebar regarding Shaquille O’Neal’s appearance without podium on a Formula 1 race (serious squirrel chasing). Dive into the potential serious connotations of alleged ad throttling from Google related to AMP.  Find about this and Mordy’s helpful tips on how to pace one’s own liquid intake on this episode of the EDGE.

[00:04:00] Up and down, up and down- More Volatile search results this year

[00:09:51] Quality Rater Guidelines add 5 new important updates

[00:24:06] Could there be Corruption and Anti-trust at Google?

Rollin, rollin, rollin...keep that mobile search rolling!  Mordy, Jacob and Erin review the biggest news from last week - the Infinite Scroll on Google’s mobile search:  did we just lose a psychological barrier that kept us in query revision mode?  Are long tail phrase optimization strategies going to lose here?  Also covered in our episode this week is the low performance of WordPress in Core Web Vitals and Google’s podcast knowledge panels discoveries!  Yup - we’re in there.  Have a seat around the campfire and listen in.

[00:03:55] WordPress Proposes Team to Improve Core Web Vitals

[00:13:16] Podcast knowledge panels go live in Google Search

[00:17:38] Google rolling out continuous scroll on mobile

Mordy’s back in the second chair to discuss Google’s SearchOn event from last week and join Erin in basking in all of the great reveals that Google had in store for us.  We cover articles from Search Engine Land and The Verge, deep diving into the challenge that Google has as it tries to move users away from the Ten Blue Links.

[00:06:26] MuM’s the word at Google’s SearchOn event last week

[00:17:47] Google search gets larger images, enhances so much.

[00:22:33] Google wants to bring a richer, deeper search experience to its users. 

George Nguyen of Search Engine Land joined Erin on the show this week to cover the news this week in Mordy’s absence. We always love George’s take on the digital marketing fronts. This show focused on an article that PPC marketers need to pay very close attention to. Check your match types, everyone, things are changing.

[00:03:15] Ad Transparency from Google Ads by way of the “About This Advertiser” page [00:12:08] Google Ads also now preferring phrase match or broad match keywords that are identical to a query [00:20:44] TikTok and Instagram might get indexed by Google

News from Search Engine Land [00:28:05] SMX Next: November 20-22nd, 2021 [00:31:12] Search Engine Land Award for Diversity and Inclusion in Search Marketing

Mordy gave the 450 episode his own 450 response code (yes, check out server codes all of you SEO geeks)!  He’s away on holiday and we brought it to the pre-eminent SEO auditor, Andy Drinkwater to come alone side Erin to discuss the news of the week.  We’re talking Title tags yet again, but there’s much more in this episode.  450 episodes and still going strong!

[00:06:14] Google speaks out about recent title changes, it’s not nearly as bad as we think it is….

[00:19:45] Are your website redirects a ranking factor?

[00:27:02] What should you be aware of for eCommerce websites into next year?

Olga Zarzeczna appears on the EDGE for her second segment as we discuss her recent articles, a list of 52 SEO tools from Google and 79 Best Chrome Extensions for SEO as well as the incredible success she has had with your consultancy, being that her site has only been indexed for a year.  This is how you do content, folks!  Providing value every step of the way, here on the EDGE.

[00:07:28] What spurred you to actually start your own business? 

[00:09:26] Olga’s initial strategy for her site. The uniqueness of her content.

[00:16:30] How she’s keeping her knowledge sharpened.

[00:24:06] Google Tools: Google Search Console Insights

[00:25:19] Google Tools: Core Web Vitals

[00:31:25] Google Tools: Page Speed Insights and Lighthouse

[00:35:05] Google Tools: Google Chrome Dev tools

[00:36:47] Google Tools: Data Highlighter

[00:38:48] SEO Chrome Extensions: Olga’s Best Pics!

Let’s regroup. Erin Sparks, Mordy Oberstein and Andrew “Optimisey” Cock-Starkey hold the first EDGE of the Web SCRUM to discuss the growing concern of Google Search dominance and content aggregation overreach.  Is Google taking too much of our own content for its uses?  Where do we, as content providers, stand when it comes to our goals of visits to our websites as opposed to data purveyors to Google?  Is there a Plan “B”? Welcome to the SCRUM!

[00:05:48] Perspectives of Google domination

[00:09:40] Taking you away from websites and keeping you on the SERP itself.

[00:14:28] An old media consumption pattern

[00:16:10] Is Google taking too much? 

[00:19:44] Google Ads eroding away the separation of Ad versus Organic

[00:26:35] Are they giving us what we’re asking for?

[00:29:45] Can Google be replaced?

Olga Zarzeczna appeared on the SEO radar in August of 2020 with an incredible series of contributions to the community.  With incredibly crafted posts such as “Technical SEO Audit (188+ Steps)” and “SEO Audit Tools: 65 Tools For SEO auditing” and spending upwards of 40 - 60 hours of meticulous writing, Olga is clearly defining herself as a thought leader in our digital marketing community.  Give a listen as we go through her SEO Audit Tools list as Erin tries not to be a SEO Veruca Salt! 

[00:11:49] The Fail of SEO Auditing: Relying on a Single Tool Too Much

[00:16:47] What Factors Kept Some Tools Out of the List?

[00:20:19] First Tools: Errors, Warnings and Notice Audit Tools: Screaming Frog and Site Bulb

[00:24:16] A Focus on the Semrush SEO Technical Audit Tool

[00:25:29] The Requirement of SEO and Site Context When Reading Audit Results

[00:28:24] On Crawl

[00:29:00] Net Speak

[00:30:28] DeepCrawl: The Enterprise-Level SEO Audit Tool

[00:32:34] AHRefs Website Analysis Tool: Best Site Monitoring Tool

[00:34:20] Check My Links

[00:35:12] Link Redirect Trace

[00:36:01] Why Javascript Rendering Analysis is So Important as an SEO Audit Tool

[00:38:20] Log Analyzer Tools:  Why is it so important to focus on the logs?

[00:40:30] Volatility Sensors

[00:44:37] Great Guidance: How to Start Your SEO Audit Process

Mordy and Erin tear into the topics this week (except for the Google Algorithm changes this weekend...missed that). We even got Mordy to pipe in about Google Ads, great info about impression-only data from your ads.  The State of SEO 2021 from Search Engine Journal was The guys cut up again, so dive in today!

[00:03:23]

Twitter’s Communities might be different - and have better context

[00:08:37]

Historical Query Data without Clicks from Google’s Search Terms report

[00:15:34]

Search Engine Journal’s State of SEO 2021 Report