Webcology

Jim and Dave speak with Navah Hopkins, a search industry veteran, has officially launched her consulting business, Navah Hopkins Consulting, LLC.

Bill Hartzer.com reports:Navah is a a highly sought-after paid media and digital marketing strategist with over a decade of empowering brands and the agencies. In her new consulting firm, she plans on providing Digital marketing strategy, Account audits, SAAS product strategy, and General business strategy.

In the past, Navah has worked for companies like Adzooma, Justuno, Hennessey Digital, and WordStream. I’ve known her for years as one of the world’s best Paid Media specialists, and I’ve seen her speak about paid search and paid media at conferences such as Pubcon and State of Search.

Navah has a passion for innovation, fueled by a hybrid of strategic partnerships, data analysis, and consumer engagement. She loves connecting people who can mutually benefit each other, leveraging innovation to solve socioeconomic issues, and maintaining bottom line thinking with an ethics driven perspective.

How The Pandemic Increased Demand for SEO

Joe Hall posted a Twitter poll asking the SEO community how the pandemic impacted their SEO business. The poll had 614 responses and most said that the pandemic has brought an increased demand in SEO.

83.2% said it is a true statement to say "the pandemic has brought an increased demand in SEO." 16.8% of those who responded said it is a false statement to say "the pandemic has brought an increased demand in SEO."

https://www.seroundtable.com/seo-pandemic-demand-32887.html 

Google introduces Google Ads API version 10-0

https://www.seroundtable.com/google-ads-api-version-10-32903.html

Google AdWords API expires in April 2022 

Notice bigger fonts in your query? Google’s testing...

https://www.seroundtable.com/google-larger-fonts-in-desktop-search-bar-32897.html

Chrome Journeys

https://www.seroundtable.com/google-chrome-journeys-rolling-out-now-32895.html

More Messages in Search Console

https://searchengineland.com/expect-more-messages-in-google-search-console-380136

Search Ads 360?

https://searchengineland.com/google-launches-revamped-search-ads-360-380043

Dates in title tags

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-on-the-seo-impact-of-dates-in-title-tags/437397/

Kristopher Jones on SEO for Amazon

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/amazon-seo-sellers-guide/436454/

Doing product reviews? Use original photos

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-recommends-original-photos-for-product-reviews/437050/

1+ Million WordPress sites affected by vulnerabilities that could lead to remote code execution attacks

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/wordpress-vulnerability-in-essential-addons-for-elementor/436179/

Webcology named as one of the 15 top SEO podcasts

https://ahrefs.com/blog/best-seo-podcasts/

New Google Partners Program: After nearly two years, the new Partners program requirements have taken effect and Google will notify all Partners of their current status.

https://www.seroundtable.com/new-google-partners-program-32867.html

Facebook lost users for first time in a decade. Stock declined by 22%

Jim and Dave welcome back Mark Traphagen and Mitul Gandhi to discuss the launch of ClarityAutomate a groundbreaking new platform that solves the most fundamental roadblock to achieving SEO results: execution.

ClarityAutomate empowers SEOs to take control of their results, tackling gaps in technology, skills and resources to execute SEO changes in real time through its innovative no-code SEO technology.

Equipped with flexible implementation and a powerful logic engine within seoClarity’s award-winning technology, users of ClarityAutomate can finally progress on their SEO project list with consistency, precision and ease — all within a matter of minutes — not days, weeks or months.

Danny Goodwin Talks to Jim and Dave About Joining Search Engine Land.

Search Engine Land is happy to welcome well-known search marketing journalist Danny Goodwin to the team as Senior Editor. Goodwin will join the editorial team, which also includes editors Barry Schwartz and George Nguyen, to help us to deliver best-in-class journalism on search and performance marketing to you – our global audience of digital marketers.

In addition to writing daily about SEO, PPC, and more for Search Engine Land, Goodwin will also manage and grow Search Engine Land’s roster of subject-matter experts. He will also help program our conference series SMX – Search Marketing Expo, working with our Events Content Director Kathy Bushman.

Prior to joining us, Goodwin was Executive Editor at Search Engine Journal, where he led editorial initiatives for the brand.

Goodwin is a respected member of the search community going all the way back to 2007 when he began as an editor for Search Engine Watch. He has spoken at many major search conferences and has been sourced for his expertise by a wide range of publications and podcasts. He’s seen first-hand how this industry has evolved over the years and we are thrilled that he will bring his intelligence and perspective to Search Engine Land and SMX.

Google Union Busting

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/01/google-hired-union-busting-consultants-to-convince-employees-unions-suck/

Project Vivian.” In the words of one senior manager, Project Vivian existed “to engage employees more positively and convince them that unions suck.”

National Labour Relations Board judge Paul Bogas

Content Priority

https://www.seroundtable.com/poll-seos-to-allocate-resources-32726.html

Aleyda Solis @aleyda

55.3% Content

23.7% Technical

17.1% Link Building

Google doesn’t understand fluff content.

“So much duplicated content about duplicate content” John Mueller, Jan 7, 2022

https://www.seroundtable.com/google-seo-fluff-content-32747.html

Interesting conversation about how much information Google should (or will) share about Core Updates.

https://www.seroundtable.com/google-debates-sharing-details-core-updates-32737.html

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-cant-provide-details-about-core-algorithm-updates/432651/ - Matt Southen

Search Off The Record podcast with John Mueller, Gary Illyes and Martin Splitt

Don’t block slow countries to improve Core Web Vital Scores

https://www.seroundtable.com/block-slow-regions-google-core-web-vitals-32723.html

I don’t think Google measures it like that...

Disavow is a machete. Only use it as such

https://www.seroundtable.com/google-disavow-whole-domains-links-32738.html

“Search Quality Guidelines are not for SEOs”, John Mueller, Jan 13 2022

https://www.seroundtable.com/google-search-quality-rating-guidelines-not-seo-32744.html

Cloudflare for SEO Guide/Article at SEJ

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/cloudflare-seo/429887/

by: Ludwig Makhyan

Moving into the New Year I have a strange sense of déjà vu. Tonight we’re gonna party like it’s 2020 Two, the updated edition.

This is the sixth day of January, 2022. A year ago, before the attempted coup, we were all so much younger. Now it just feels numb, and dumb, and sometime sort of pointless. It feels like we’re entering the new year running it petal to the metal, full tilt in neutral. The incredible spikes in COVID infections over the last few weeks from Omicron is so far beyond believable it makes knowledge of what is coming in the next two weeks unfathomable. Happy New Year eh? I got Omicroned for Christmas. Myself and my partner Shana both got exposed and infected over the two week holiday period. I think it might have happened in a cell phone store. For me, it was very very mild. I had a nasty cold sore and a half day of sniffles. I would have been exposed 10 – 14 days after getting my third dose booster shot of SpikeVax, the punkrock name given to the Moderna vaccine. Shana, who as many of you know was infected early in April 2020, caught her second bout of Covid. In her it manifested as one of the harshest flues she’s had in years. She had yet to receive a booster shot.

The next two weeks are likely to be crazy. I hope I’m wrong but expect a lot of people to phone in sick and a lot of services and shops to be shut down for lack of staff. If we’re smart, four to six weeks from now could look very different but, if there’s one thing I am absolutely sure of, we’re not nearly smart enough when it comes to existential emergencies. 2022 is going to teach us all a lot of lessons, some good and some bad. I think how things work out will have a lot to do with how we learn them.

Blackberry old goes dark

(Mr. Jones, we’ve solved your Crackberry addiction...)

Bing IndexNow WordPress Plugin available

https://www.seroundtable.com/indexnow-wordpress-plugin-released-32709.html

Migration advice – don’t drop AMP during migration

https://www.seroundtable.com/migrate-domains-remove-google-amp-seo-32696.html

Ways to generate some Soft 404s

https://www.seroundtable.com/error-like-pages-soft-404-google-32690.html

Language quality can impact multilingual sites

https://www.seroundtable.com/google-language-version-site-quality-impact-32686.html

Danny Goodwin leaving Search Engine Journal Why? We don’t know but we’re gonna get the scoop on it. Danny’s joining us on January 20th to talk about a life editing decision and a life editing some of the largest and most read search news websites.

Did SEOS work over Xmas?

19.5% Yes, a lot

33.3%, Yes, a little

47.2%, Nope, not at all

https://www.seroundtable.com/seos-work-over-the-christmas-holiday-break-32662.html

Some basic questions answered by John Mu

https://www.searchenginejournal.com/does-domain-extension-affect-seo/431956/#close

2021, a year of changes and updates

https://searchengineland.com/google-algorithm-updates-2021-in-review-core-updates-product-reviews-page-experience-and-beyond-378017

The Google Developers Style Guide, on

https://developers.google.com/style/headings

Jim and Dave speak to Mike Rhodes, a serial entrepreneur and founder of one of Australia's largest digital marketing firms, Websavvy about his book, the Ultimate Guide to Google Ads. 

Rhodes had immigrated to Australia from the UK and founded and exited three other businesses before founding Websavvy in 2006. He is now a conference speaker, an investor, and a father. He joins us from Melbourne Australia.

Covering the latest breaking news in Google AdWords, the book's fifth edition introduces revised, expanded and new chapters covering Enhanced Campaigns, Google AdWord's Express, Google's Product Listing Ads, and the introduction to Google's Universal Analytics. Nuances in Big Data advertising are also revealed and expanded sections and necessary updates have been added throughout.

Readers are given the latest information paired with current screenshots, fresh examples, and new techniques. Coached by AdWords experts Perry Marshall, Mike Rhodes, and Bryan Todd advertisers learn how to build an aggressive, streamlined AdWords campaign proven to increase their search engine visibility, consistently capture clicks, double their website traffic, and increase their sales. Whether a current advertiser or new to AdWords, this guide is a necessary handbook.

The SEO Who Wasn’t or You Don’t Need Links to Rank.

The SEO who wasn’t (learned a few tricks)

https://www.seroundtable.com/seo-learned-a-few-tricks-job-32596.html

Google <3’s affiliates just like affiliates <3 Google – No nofollow? No Problems

https://www.seroundtable.com/google-wont-penalize-no-nofollowing-affiliate-links-32597.html

You don’t need links to rank. Links are not mandatory. 

https://www.seroundtable.com/links-are-not-mandatory-for-ranking-in-google-search-32558.html

Susequently ... Google: You Can't Tell Which SEO Efforts Led To Ranking Success

https://www.seroundtable.com/google-seo-success-mystery-32599.html

G4 now supports GSC data https://www.seroundtable.com/google-analytics-4-now-supports-google-search-console-data-32604.html

Log4J https://www.seroundtable.com/google-seo-log4j-32605.html

Google wasn’t crawling or indexing new content for a few hours this morning

https://www.seroundtable.com/google-not-indexing-crawling-new-content-32606.html

Plus, Google Search Console was down intermittently for some. Two different sources received a 429 error. 

The Effect of Expired Landing Pages and other items from your website’s landfill on SEO https://searchengineland.com/how-expired-landing-pages-kill-your-google-rankings-377055

Great piece by Kasper Szymanski at SEL.Google local search algo update last week – coinciding with the introduction of the new Google (my) Business environment 

https://www.seroundtable.com/google-local-search-ranking-algorithm-update-32562.html

Relevancy and Core Update Factors, 

John Meuller refers SEOs a blog post Google posted in August 2019 https://www.seroundtable.com/google-help-advice-core-algorithm-updates-27984.html

(https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2019/08/core-updates.html) 

The recent Google Products Algo update is said to be larger than the one that ran six or seven months ago in April

https://searchengineland.com/googles-december-2021-product-reviews-update-was-bigger-than-the-april-product-reviews-update-say-data-providers-377056