Search Engine Roundtable Podcast

This week we had some fun bugs with both Google Search having some massive indexing issues and Google Ads going offline for a couple of hours. Google has confirmed that they ran a November 2021 local search ranking update between November 30 and December 8th. Next week is Christmas and the Google search ranking volatility is through the roof, in fact, we expect the product reviews update to continue through just before Christmas eve. Google local search results are still fluctuating and also look pretty spammy in some cases. Google launched a new full width autocomplete interface with additional search predictions. Google isa also testing a search interface they are calling “edge to edge” design. Google also is testing additional full width results like image packs, featured snippets and more. Google’s John Mueller provided SEO tips for fixing your Log4j security issues and not ranking issue. Google Ads said it is safe when it comes to the Log4j vulnerabilities. Google said it may finish the mobile first indexing by the first half of 2022. Google Search Console went down for many SEOs yesterday for several hours. Google Search Console mistakenly sent out coverage issue notifications over redirect errors. Google Search Console review snippets report was updated to show fewer objects. Google Analytics 4 now can sync with Google Search Console, something normal GA was able to do for a while. Google added video verification to the Google Business Profile add business workflow. Google Posts work now in a limited way for hotels. Google said it is almost impossible to tell which SEO efforts led to ranking success. Google said links are not mandatory for rankings and that it won’t likely penalize your site for affiliate links that are not nofollowed. Microsoft Bing is testing translating your query. And then Google AdSense support team is offline for 18 days for the holidays. 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: Loud Interactive

Search Topics of Discussion:

In part one, we spoke about Joseph Goldsmith and video production topics. In part two, we spoke about his views of SEO as a video guy. In part three, I asked him about his impressions about SEO personalities and the SEO industry. So we spoke about some personalities and discussions we had, some of my favorite people and interviews, including some of the ones that surprised me.

We went off on more tangents but this is about drones - they are so much fun.

Jo spoke about how he gets new business and how treating your clients well is important because word of mouth business is so important. Client relationships are almost as important as your work, Jo said. He also spoke about the importance of investing in yourself is super important.

So hit Jo up if you need any editing work - he is really a good and professional individual to work with!

This week, I did a bit of a look at what we are seeing around this big December 2021 Google products reviews update. I also spoke about a possible, unconfirmed, Google local search ranking update. Google also rolled out a new design for the local pack, with the map on the right. Google Search Console updated the news performance report at probably the worst time. Google has rolled out a new design for top stories also, right. Google iOS testing a new suggested clips featured snippet layout. Bing has new ways to search local stores, but I think it requires advertising. Google SafeSearch has a new notification for searchers plus we showed how a site took a month to be reclassified out of the SafeSearch adult filter. Google spoke about what to do if your author changes his or her name. Google said adding the name of your category or topic to your URLs won’t matter. Google spoke about inclusive language in search and how it impacts crawling, indexing and ranking. Google Ads had another spending bug, expect refunds if you were impacted. Google is showing two ads in the local panel. Google Ads image extensions are now on desktop;. Google Ads has updated the custom columns design and features. Google Ads updated its election and political policies. Google Ads experiments no longer require campaign drafts. Microsoft advertising has four new attributes for your Bing Ads Alexa.com is going away, I spoke a bit about its history in SEO and search. Google also posted its year end searches of the 2021 year. That was this past week in search 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 Joseph Goldsmith and video production topics. In part two, we speak more about SEO topics, mostly about what his clients do around SEO, what he thinks about SEO from editing these videos and more. He gave some examples of clients of his that do think about SEO but sadly, he said most of his clients, including himself, do not think too much about SEO.

I put Jo on the spot and asked him to define SEO, search engine optimization. I quizzed him a bit because I was curious what he thinks SEO is all about after listening to me for a couple of years talk to the community about. Hope you find this angle different and fun - asking a non SEO about SEO.

I asked him about some of the things that surprised him when editing the videos. He said early on, maybe things surprised him but he learned not to be surprised after learning so much from the videos.

We diverted back into video editing a bit more at the end of part two.

An insane week to end an insane month of Google changes is how to sum up this SEO video recap. Google finished rolling out the November 2021 core update on Tuesday afternoon, November 30th. So you know, 60% of SEOs said they didn’t see changes with that core update. Then a day later, on Wednesday, December 1st, Google began to roll out the second product reviews algorithm update of the year - with new rules and changes. Google also told us they are doing away with the mobile first indexing deadline (I forgot to talk about this, so read that news below). Google admitted there are some rare cases a site can go into Google algorithm limbo or hell. I posted the big Google December webmaster report - it was an insane month. Google said site speed is not why your rankings dropped or increased in a significant way. Google said your URL changes from a year ago is not why your rankings are still down today. Google said human readable sitemaps are really not necessary for SEO. Google still does not index parts of a page. Google said links to or from small sites are fine. Google Ads performance planner added a bunch of features. Google Merchant Center has a new competitive visibility report and a report to show which badges you are eligible for. Google Shopping Ads displayed negative prices for some ads automatically. Google is rolling out an expandable snippet carousel. Google is also showing a language carousel in some countries. You can now filter healthcare providers by the insurances they accept in the U.S. Google has some neat Chanukah easter eggs, with donuts, menorahs and dreidels. And I am humbled to say it has been 18 years of me writing about search - it is the 18th anniversary of the Search Engine Roundtable. 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 Loud Interactive, a Chicago-based SEO firm led by Brent D. Payne.

Search Topics of Discussion:

This is a very special vlog, I interviewed the very person who has been editing these videos for the past couple of years, Joseph Goldsmith. And we did it overlooking the George Washington Bridge, from the Fort Lee Historic Park, looking out on New York City.

In part one of the vlog I ask Joseph Goldsmith about his history and background in video production and the practice of videography. He goes by Jo or Jo Jo, so if you see him on the street, you know how to call out to him. He was born and raised in New York but now lives in Tel Aviv, Israel. He does vlog editing but spends most of his time working for businesses doing higher end video production. He went from doing video work in house for another company and quit his full-time job five years ago to go freelance and he is loving it. With my vlogs, I do the filming and he does the editing but most of his work, he does both the filming and editing.

We went off on a COVID vaccine tangent for a bit - sorry about that but it was fun. You got to learn that I personally know someone who works at Pfizer, someone who worked on the COVID vaccine, and his last name is Needle - no joke.

I went through the process of how Jo and I work with the vlog recording, editing and our workflow. The process works smoothly and sending back and forth 70GB files with ease. The funny thing is while we were talking about, other vloggers were doing some recording at the same time.

Happy Thanksgiving - we had a surprise from Google again, where the second wave of the Google November 2021 core update happened on Wednesday and Thursday - yes, the busiest time for online shopping. Prior, there was a poll that said 50% of SEOs did not notice changes from the core update. Google rolled out a new design for the Search Console interface, it is more blue. Google confirmed a bug around crawling last week that impacted crawling the AMP cache, Google said it was minimal. Google issued credits for those impacted by the Google Ads Shopping Ads CPC bug, it impacted those with Smart Bidding on. Google Search Console has a bug where it is missing two days of crawl stats data. Bing officially rolled out the Page insights feature, which has scroll to text. Google updated its documents for reviews saying a mix of positive and negative reviews are more trustworthy. Google Shopping can show $0 prices if there are monthly fees. Google’s automotive search results have sliders and scales. Google has a bug with the sort by date tool on the news tab. Google AdSense is killing off the matched content feature in March 2022. Google Ads mobile app has new performance insights, review search trends and now to create campaigns. I wanted to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving and upcoming Happy Chanukah! 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, Bryan Cush, the co-founder of Tidal Health Group, and I spoke about how to use health data for content and search marketing and in part two we dug into using medical databases, local search and E-A-T & YMYL. In part three we talked about schema and structured data for health content. Here in the last part, part four we talk about health related searches and doctors that share the same name, plus reputation management for health brands.

How Consumers Search For Health Conditions Compared To How Professionals Talk About Those Conditions:

Bryan explained that typically 85% or so of the terms they track in search in the health space are layman searches and conditions. The client always leads with the doctor’s name, the device name or the technical term of the condition but they need to tell their clients that no, consumers do not search that way. Tidal has a ton of data already to use in order to bridge this information for their clients. Tidal often doesn’t need to tap into patient notes or testimonials but if they are in a blind spot, they will use that information. They often will look at the CPT codes, the Current Procedural Terminology codes they use for billing insurance companies and also look at the ICD codes, the diagnosis codes which is a bit closer to the layman terms used in search but still not close enough. Those are some of their research tools they use but more often than not, they have a place to jump off on.

Doctors Who Share Names Or Family Doctors:

I then brought up the concept of how Google knows which doctor with the same last name is a different or the same doctor. Because many doctors do end up working at multiple practices or in a practice and also in a hospital. How does Google know that doctor is the same doctor or a unique doctor. Bryan said there is an authority aspect to this where that specific doctor might now have a Wikipedia page but his father may, and they map that in Wikipedia, in the medical directors and through structured data to convey this information on the web.

Brand Defense In The Healthcare Space:

Bryan spoke about the challenge of defending your brand in the healthcare space because often practice names are generic. Such as Urgent Care Nyack, there are many brands with that name, and some without that name but also offer urgent care services in that area. So paid search comes in handy here but also you need to be great at local search for this reason. But you need to test and retest to see what works for your clients in this space.

You can learn more about Bryan Cush at Tidal Health Group.

What a week - Google actually launched a broad core update days before the big online holiday shopping season - the Google November 2021 core update is live and rolling out. I share my thoughts on the timing, the release, more on core updates and the impact thus far. SiteGround, a hosting platform that powers 2 million domains, had DNS issue for about a week causing issues with Googlebot crawling sites it hosts - that is fixed. Google Shopping Ads had a bug where CPC prices spiked over last weekend. Google said it is promoting local news and local publishers more in search. Microsoft Bing released its list of IP addresses that BingBot crawls with. I love how Microsoft Bing emails site owners about their sites no longer being blacklisted. Google published help docs on how Google can translate the search result snippets and how to make sure your ads load when someone gets translated results on your web pages. Google also updated its logo structured data help docs to say your logos must look good on white backgrounds. Google said bolding text can be a signal for SEO and SEOs went nuts. Google published an interactive SEO checklist which is fun. Google revamped the Google PageSpeed Insights tool. Google Search Console has a confirmed bug with user and permissions and also there are complaints about performance report delays. Google search has a “found in video” carousel. Google is testing a Google Lens button in the searcher. Google Maps added more pickup with Google, restaurant price ranges, more indoor mapping and more. Google Ads customer match s now available to more advertisers with a new preview tool. Google Ads added new features to the Insights tab including demand forecasts, consumer interest insights, audience insights, and change history insights and auction insights. Google Merchant Center now lets you list medical test kits. Microsoft Bing has a snowman GIF near the shopping tab on the search bar - how cute. And Edward Snowden is not a fan of Google Search, to say the least. 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 www.Loud.us

Search Topics of Discussion:

In part one, Bryan Cush, the co-founder of Tidal Health Group, and I spoke about how to use health data for content and search marketing and in part two we dug into using medical databases, local search and E-A-T & YMYL. In part three (hint, there is a part four) we talk about schema and structured data for health content.

Google: Schema, Trust, Authority & Unsupported Structured Data

Bryan all into schema and using schema, even the unsupported schema, for client content. It is a win - win - even if Google does not use it, having it there, if they support it in the future - great. Making the content, adding structure to it, is helpful for other reasons outside of search.

Google's Shift With Health Content & Requiring More E-A-T

Bryan said he first saw this big shift to Google requiring more E-A-T in the health space in local search. He said clients were doing well nationally but then saw that go away and only saw it locally. He then said authorship was key here and every doctor or brand they treated like a media brand, to showcase who they are with the content and structured data. This shift came around 2013 and 2014, Bryan said. They keep doubling down on treating everyone like a media brand. It does seem to be big in the health space but they are expanding it beyond the health space.

Structured Data In Showcasing E-A-T

I told him I disagree with the theory that structured data helps you showcase the E-A-T in your content. I explained why and then he explained why he thinks it does and ultimately why it doesn’t matter. Bryan said either way, it is a tool his company uses to build the relationship database for building the content. So it is great for that reason, and they use it for annotations and eventually if Google does use the structured data, if they are not using it yet, it is there already and it is a big win.

This includes not officially supported schema. One example is that they use case study schema and they have been using that a lot now. I argued that the content itself for the case study is the content play, not the schema aspect of it. I do wonder if that can be tested but it seems more work to test adding the content without the schema, at least in his case. Another example is the also known as schema and they use it a lot for their purposes.

More to come in part four next week.

You can learn more about Bryan Cush at Tidal Health Group.