Search Engine Roundtable Podcast

This week was packed with algorithm and ranking topics but not the typical unconfirmed Google updates. We had Google officially begin rolling out the desktop version of the page experience update, it will take several weeks to fully rollout. I am also seeing an unconfirmed update start to roll out yesterday into today. Google quietly announced the Google Shopping experience scorecard that will give a ranking boost to those merchants that provide excellent customer experiences, it is a bit controversial right now. Google said it has strengthened the DMCA/Pirate update and if a site is hit by it, on average that site drops 89% in search traffic. Google Shopping search might not support keyword exclusions, which is weird. Google said while there is no EAT score, EAT is important and indirectly used for ranking. Google said when it comes to pagination, think about showing newer content closer to the first page of the pagination set. Google said your web stories performance in search is not indicative of your overall search performance. Google said the referring URLs in the URL inspection tool is not really important. Google said using the Indexing API for other content that it is not meant for, won’t hurt you. Google said it fixed the high latency issues and error messages in the Google Ads console. Over 70% of search marketers said their CPC costs are up from last year. Google said standard shopping campaigns will continue to be supported for the foreseeable future. Google is testing three images in search ads, each taking you to a different landing page. Google is testing a messaging feature for Google Merchant Center sites in Google Shopping. Google AdSense is adding an AdSense for YouTube section, which is really not a great thing. Microsoft Advertising launched dynamic descriptions for DSAs. Google image search is testing rounded corners on images. And if you want to help sponsor those vlogs, go to patreon.com/barryschwartz. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

SPONSOR: This week's video recap is sponsored by Duda, the Professional Website Builder You Can Call Your Own.

Search Topics of Discussion:

In part one we spoke about how Brian Wallace of NowSourcing got into infographics, how it is not just about links but much more and some cool scores he had with them. In part two, we talk about measuring the success of infographics and other uses for infographics. In part three we talked about what are good and bad infographics and the process of making them. Now the final part, part four, we talk about how to promote these infographics.

Brian said that they spend weeks and weeks on promoting the infographics. Brian explained a lot of people have an incomplete understanding how far a piece of content can go. There is a wide spectrum of outlets and organizations, both large companies and very niche organizations that can use the piece.

So the initial marketing is a couple of weeks but then you can likely repurpose that infographics, or pieces of that infographic in the future. This is the argument of timeliness versus evergreen content, and the evergreen content works forever and may spike in the future without you knowing. It depends on the client goals and the scope of the project.

Visual story telling is another name for infographics but it also applies to speeches, videos, VR, AR, etc. He said when it comes to infographics, PDFs seem to work way better than using AR or VR. We spoke a bit about this and also spoke about the conflict between data journalists and infographic artists. Making infographics interactive is something that makes him cringe because it can be anything.

Brian said some SEOs simply do not value design and when SEOs make their own infographics they cut short with the design. Brian said stick with your lane, do your SEO and hire someone who really knows infographics to do it.

Infographics in videos are often unnecessary he said, they can be amazing and cost a lot of money but are they worth it? He said it is about where to start, so make sure to start with PDFs and go from there. I discussed the YouTube channel The Infographic Show which I love because it is super educational and visual. Brian said it is super negative because it talks a lot about death, which is true - maybe that is why it like it. He also said not everyone is into videos and a lot of people like to scroll, which is probably why I personally stopped watching it.

We also briefly spoke about accessibility with infographics, he said they use alt text but they also will write out the blueprint in text on the page where the infographic is placed.

You can learn more about Brian Wallace @nowsourcing on social.

This week, we reported about a possible Google search ranking algorithm update brewing, after weeks of calmness. Google Ads may be mass disapproving ads, although Google says it is not. Google Search Console crawl stats report is missing a day of data. Google Ads reporting delay caused a lot of advertiser confusion. Google seems to be processing the Google Discover and Google News manual actions quickly. Google said there is not snippet wide ban in Google Search. Google Ads Editor will gain performance max campaign support in the next version. Google has no plans for a keyword tab in performance max but will bring negative keywords to the account level. Google Ads has a new destination not accessible policy. Google Ads now will create more ad extensions for you. Google Ads also said it needs at least 15 conversions in 30 days for machine learning to do its job. Microsoft Advertising expanded into 29 countries and 19 languages. Google AdSense launched related search for content pages. Google Business Profile manager seems to have dropped the appointment links. Google Business Profiles has a new API to get call history. Google is dropping the follow and welcome offers feature in local search. Google Ads is testing large site link block designs and Google is testing double site names in the search snippets. Google is asking searchers if they own the product before they review it. And guess what, 15% of all queries Google sees each day are still new.  That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

Search Topics of Discussion:

In part one we spoke about how Brian Wallace of NowSourcing got into infographics, how it is not just about links but much more and some cool scores he had with them. In part two, we talk about measuring the success of infographics and other uses for infographics.

I tried to get Brian to shame some infographics and he said he use to have a blog that did just that but now he doesn't want to do that anymore. Instead, he gave us a list of what not to do with infographics.

Brain explained that it is more about putting the story before the data because you can always run a survey later to get the data. You must start with a story to have a great infographic,. You can also always make your data say anything you want it. So first start with the stories people want to read, by using maybe Google Trends, Google's people also ask, ask journalists, see what people are writing or repurpose your content or someone else's content. You need to make sure you pull in interest from both the right and left side of the brain.

Brain then walked us through the process to make an infographic and it starts with ideation which is that one headline that you want to communicate with the infographic. Then the seed of the idea spreads out to the research team, where the research team does the blueprint, which is part narrative and data and weave it together. Then it goes to design from there but that is very subjective, so they try to fit the brand and also design it in a way so it catches. Then it gets Implemented and then tested and then is gets promoted out.

In short, NowSourcing makes ideas simple, visualize and influential.

You can learn more about Brian Wallace @nowsourcing on social.

The Google algorithm ranking tracking tools seems to be having fun, or maybe they are off, I am seeing mixed signals of Google ranking updates. Google is testing a way more visible Google ad label with a green curved border, shocking. Google had some weird crawling issue last week, they called it a temporary drop in calculation, whatever that means. Google Search Console performance reports once again had a data reporting loss. Google added more message types, well, all of them, to the message panel in Google Search Console. Google seems to be showing more product rich results even without structured data. Microsoft moved the Bing News PubHub into Bing Webmaster Tools. Microsoft has expanded its Bing cars and automobile search features. Google said normal CTAs are perfectly fine to have above the fold. Google said there is no such thing as code to text ratio as an SEO factor. Google is testing Google Ads in bulleted list format, I don’t know why. Microsoft Advertising launched new cruise ads. Google Ads released version 10 of the Google Ads API. Google Chrome is rolling out the Journeys feature, which is enhanced browser history. Joe Hall’s survey showed that SEO is more in demand since the Pandemic. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

SPONSOR: This week's video recap is sponsored by Semrush.

Search Topics of Discussion:

In part one we spoke about how Brian Wallace of NowSourcing got into infographics, how it is not just about links but much more and some cool scores he had with them. In part two, we talk about measuring the success of infographics and other uses for infographics.

I asked Brian how does one measure the success of infographics and often he said it is about the domain authority (DA Moz metric) is one of the metrics they use. How many links and what were the DA of those links, they resulted in. So they primarily look at the quantity and quality of the links the infographic generates. Sometimes they get traffic numbers but often they are unable to get that data.

He also mentioned a tool named CoverageBook and this tool measures a lot of the metrics around your PR efforts. He said his clients are pretty happy with the reports they get from that tool, in terms of showcasing the success of a specific infographic.

I almost hired Brian without any interest in DA but in driving awareness about a product or service that may be unknown by many. So to promote interesting data that a product or service may have, so that the product becomes more well known.

They also help newsrooms generate new ideas for content when there is a staff shortage. So it is not just about DA but also content generation ideas for news agencies. He also shared some successful infographics he had over the years.

Also we briefly discusses gating these pieces of content versus not gating them and the pros and cons. There is also the concept of infographic white papers, which is a longer form infographic that works in some cases.

You can learn more about Brian Wallace @nowsourcing on social.

I posted the monthly Google webmaster report for February 2022, so check it out. Google released a new API for the Google URL Inspection Tool - it is exciting. Google seems to be clearing out the manual action backlog. Google also issued a slew of new manual actions for Google News and Google Discover. Some are surprised to hear that Google really doesn’t use MUM in Google Search for ranking, they do use it for two specific purposes; COVID vaccine names and a related video feature. Google said that no one was infected with malware over the untitled search spam issue. Google said the location of an internal link on your page does not really matter much. Google also said it does not give full weight to all links and does not count links on a domain level. Google Search Console’s snapshot chart in web search now works for domain properties. Google Search Console changed how it handles breadcrumb and HowTo structured data. Google added a single help document for SafeSearch with some awesome troubleshooting tips. Did you know Google may share your Google Discover likes with publishers. Google Merchant Center added auto-tagging for free listings. Google launched its new Partner Program after two years of delays. Google Data Studio can now bring in your Google Ads Performance Max data. Google Maps posted more details about its review spam and review enforcement policies and actions. Google is testing buying guides in the search results. Web 3 won’t be killing off SEO anytime soon. Google and Microsoft both released earnings and showed 32% increases in ad revenues. And if you want to help sponsor those vlogs, go to patreon.com/barryschwartz. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

Sponsored by BruceClay who has been doing search marketing optimization since 1996 and also has an amazing SEO training platform.

Search Topics of Discussion:

Brian Wallace is the Founder and President of NowSourcing, an industry leading infographic design agency and he was in my neighborhood, which is actually his old neighborhood and stop by to talk shop. He now kind of jumps between Louisville, Kentucky and Cincinnati, Ohio. Brain is in a unique spot that touches on SEO and content marketing but specializing in infographic design.

Brian has been in the internet world since the early 2000s, doing some blogging early on, he is also even a Google Small Business Advisor but started his agency back in 2006. In 2008 or so, he said he realized that infographics are a great way to generate signal - not noise - around a company and service. His company just focuses on infographics and they do it incredibly well, so stick with that niche.

So we spoke about some of the controversy around infographics and Brain explained it super well. We got into the topic of did SEOs or marketers ruin infographics, the answer is no. And while a lot of the appeal is about how infographics drive links, it is more than that. It is not about creating cheap content and infographics, those who create amazing content and infographics stand above the rest.

His company even helped an NBA player land a new contract through infographics. And it worked - this player got a $64 million deal - more on that here! So infographics works well beyond just link building.

You can learn more about Brian Wallace @nowsourcing on social.

This week, we had another unconfirmed Google search ranking update on January 22nd. Google has admitted defeat with its FLoC cookieless proposal and is now going with Topics API. Google launched a new robots tag named indexifembedded that controls indexing of embedded content. Google Search Console had an image search reporting bug it is working to fix, it is just a reporting issue. Google Ads has new tools to help you transfer from smart shopping and local campaigns to performance max. Google probably won’t go live with a label in the search results that meet the page experience update criteria. Newzdash data shows that 67% of Google search results have duplicated top stories and web search results. An SEO poll shows that most SEOs agree that if Google gave 100% transparency in the search results it would lead to poorer quality results. A dental office is named Dentist Near Me but is that a good local SEO strategy? We also have an SEO poll on near me queries. Google’s John Mueller said there is no schema for product images in search. Google launched a new search refinement named People Search Next. Google Maps now shows “updates from customers” which might be a concern for review management. Google is deprecating the Google My Business API on April 20th, it will be replaced. Google is once against testing search results without snippet descriptions. Google confirms it is testing showing favicons in the search ads. Google image search related colored theme design. Google is discontinuing Cameos on Google. Google AdSense is separating out YouTube earnings with other earnings. Google Assistant now lets us say “stop” without saying “hey Google” first.And if you want to help sponsor those vlogs, go to patreon.com/barryschwartz. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

Sponsored by Sponsored by Duda, the website building platform ranked #1 in Google's recent CWV report, is offering 15% OFF their annual plans with a special promo code for you at agency.duda.co/barry.

Search Topics of Discussion:

In part one Riley Hope and I spoke about her SEO career, how she did her thesis on ethics in SEO and we spoke about the automotive SEO space. In part two we talk about women in SEO and more on the automotive space and search results. In part three, we talk about how COVID has changed searcher behavior.

Riley said we all saw an uptick in internet usage and led to searches around mental health, depression, anxiety, sleep issues, dealing with kids being home and people buying online, curbside pickup and more general business being done online. She said some of the dealers would drop cars off at your home, which was big. But small businesses, some, weren’t able to adapt as quickly as some bigger businesses. This led to larger companies profiting more, like Walmart, Target and Amazon - leaving smaller businesses in the dust.

Riley’s masters was in “social enterprise” and it involved studying the impact on COVID’s impact on small businesses and using SEO to help these small businesses recover. I gave some examples of my personal experiences and Riley explained how things changed right after COVID compared to months after. Many companies were offering digital based services, like selling cars online, and not doing everything face to face.

We then moved into discussing how marketing had to change to be more sensitive towards COVID’s mental health changes. Companies had to change their commercials to adapt to the new world. We didn’t only speak about commercials but how online reviews are taking a beating with disgruntled customers who don’t want to wear masks or other issues.

A lot of small businesses did not know about Google Search Console, Google My Business (now Google Business Profiles), Google Analytics and so forth. Plus, a lot of these businesses do not have websites, they might be on Instagram but no where to funnel these customers. Most these small businesses don’t know about SEO, they don’t have CRM set up, plus they have a really unprofessional website. Google did try to release features to help businesses perform and generate revenue during the pandemic.

Small businesses should utilize what you can, like social media. Small businesses don’t have a big staff to do everything. So just do what you can with what resources you have, and you will learn as you go and keep growing from there. Make sure to be consistent with whatever you do.

You can learn more about Riley Hope at RileyHope.com or follow Riley on Twitter @reillyhope13.