Webcology

Jim and Dave interview Lily Ray, the Sr. Director, SEO & Head of Organic Research at Amsive Digital, where she provides strategic leadership for the agency’s SEO client programs. Born into a family of software engineers, web developers and technical writers, Lily brings a strong technical background, performance-driven habits and forward-thinking creativity to all programs she oversees. Lily began her SEO career in 2010 in a fast-paced start-up environment and moved quickly into the agency world, where she helped grow and establish an award-winning SEO department that delivered high impact work for a fast-growing list of notable clients, including Fortune 500 companies. Lily has worked across a variety of verticals with a focus on retail, e-commerce, b2b and CPG sites.

She comes on to discuss What Does it Take to Rank in Google Discover?
https://www.amsivedigital.com/insights/seo/what-does-it-take-to-rank-in-google-discover/

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Sometimes website quality can’t be fixed with technical changes
Maybe it’s not the Core Web Values. Perhaps it’s not links or that nasty pagination problem. You can make it fast and sometimes Google still doesn’t care. Sometimes a website’s quality isn’t found in the presentation. Sometimes it’s what’s being presented.
“if you want search engines to take your site more seriously, you really, really need to improve the game there."
So making changes to your site speed, core web vitals, changing your structured data, title tags, etc - is simply not enough. You need to look at your website as a whole and see what you can vastly improve on, including site content, navigation, user experience and much more. It is very rarely just one thing.” John Mueller via Twitter
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-website-quality-technical-changes-32058.html
Microsoft Start – Bing’s version of Discover
https://www.seroundtable.com/microsoft-start-32057.html

Syndicated Content be Damned. Don’t republish and expect to rank for that content
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-on-syndicate-or-republish-content-32052.html
14:03:37
Google Ads to start showing advertisers more search term data

•6.5X more data
•retroactively populated back to February 1, 2021 for applicable search terms.
•Google is going to remove search term data predating September 1, 2020 sometime in February 2022
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-to-begin-sharing-more-search-term-data-with-advertisers/419065/
It is historic query data for impression that didn’t result in a click
https://searchengineland.com/google-search-terms-report-adds-historical-query-data-for-impressions-without-clicks-374323


State of Search Survey from SEJ
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/state-of-seo-opportunities/418703/
Get the Lowdown on post-load activity from Project Fraggle Rock
Lightspeed updateds to version 8.3.0. It runs live on Page Speed Insights and will be added to Chrome90s Dev Tools, Sept 21.
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/lighthouse-pagespeed-insights-update/418957/

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Google’s Data’s Gone Dave it’s Gone, the Data’s Gone... the data’s gone away
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-search-console-performance-report-data-gone-32011.html
(read from page if necessary)

Twitter $uper Followers
Twitter is allowing a select group of creators (read, American residents) to charge a $3 premium to exchange $uper $pecial inspirations with their followers. Currently available to American users only, $uper Follower Creators need to be
•18 years old
•Have 10K+ active followers
•Have at least 25 tweets posted the previous month
•Be active for at least 3 months
•Have a fully tricked out Twitter profile
•Have a verified email address, and be double authenticated to offer account security
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/twitter-super-follows/418378/
Chrome Beta Continueous Search
https://www.seroundtable.com/chrome-beta-continuous-search-32023.html
The beta of a new version of Chrome reportedly displays search results in a scroll across the top of the browser. Glenn Gabe, who is testing the beta version, is noted in SERoundtable with a screenshot of a visit to the Dick’s Sports website. Just above the header containing Dick’s Sporting Goods logo is a Google ad for “The best men’s golf shoes...” at Golf Digest .com
Google Debugs Using Bing
John Mueller wrote he often uses Bing to check if an issue he’s working through is a problem at Google, or a problem on the website in question. SEOs very frequently optimize for Google, given that’s where around 4/5 of the traffic comes from. Though search engines crawl and refresh at different rates, over time you can judge a website’s health by the behaviour of both search engines. If a site is tanking on Google but not so much tanking on Bing, the problem is likely a Googley issue. If the site is having problems on both search engines, the issue is likely a site quality or content clarity issue.
“I often use Bing when debugging. It shows if it's just Google doing something weird, the site doing weird things, or if it changed over time (search engines index at different rates, faster/slower doesn't matter). One of the simplest & fastest checks to do.” John Mueller
https://www.seroundtable.com/john-mueller-debugs-google-using-bing-32022.html
Google’s now warning webmasters not to change title tags to the one’s Google replaced them with.
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-html-title-tags-with-google-titles-32007.html

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Rumour has it TikTok might have just bought a Virtual Reality company – Robert Scoble FB Tease
The metaverse is quickly gentrifying from a virtually real place to a very real place. I think people really need to think about this space.
UK, as part of Brexit to do away with many EU privacy laws, including the laws covering use of cookies. The plan is to create a more flexible data environment with less bureaucracy and very probably less transparency.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9928843/Britons-rejoice-Government-promises-post-Brexit-end-EUs-GDPR-rules-cookies-pop-up.html Google is not only rewriting title tags, they’re asking you to help them improve!
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-search-title-complaint-form-31988.html
Google Title Complaint Forum
https://support.google.com/webmasters/thread/122879386/your-feedback-on-titles-shown-in-search-results (pre-open - read a few bits of feedback)
Titlepocolypse
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/titlepocalypse/417472/
New Title tag system is dyanamic and responsive, says Google’s Danny Sullivan
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/googles-page-title-update-is-dynamic-and-reactive-to-changes/417432/
The Google Link Spam Algorithm finished its scheduled two week rollout two days ago (August 24), two weeks after it was supposed to complete. https://www.seroundtable.com/google-link-spam-update-done-31980.html
Clicks on Email, social media, and paid ads do not have any effect on your website or landing page’s SEO whatsoever. https://www.seroundtable.com/newsletter-email-clicks-seo-google-31987.html
Desktop and Mobile pages don’t need to match, they just have to do the same thing. (16 pages vs. 8 pages as example) https://www.seroundtable.com/google-desktop-mobile-match-fulfill-31971.html
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-search-console-performance-report-stuck-31984.html
It’s not you, it’s Goog. Google Search Console was sorta stuck for a couple days. If you see weird data for August 23 and 24, it’s not you it’s Google. According to Google Webmaster Support,
GSC Goes Gaboinki - August 23-24 (Search, Discover)
An internal problem caused a data loss in Search and Discover performance during this period. Users might see a significant data drop in their performance reports during this period. This does not reflect any drop in clicks or impressions for your site, only missing data in Search Console.
Listeners should know, we rewrote the title as applied by Google because we thought ours was more descriptive.
Google Keyword Planner not showing Keywords
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-keyword-planner-tool-no-data-31978.html
(you can export the data to Excel or Google Sheets, even if it doesn’t appear on screen)
Most canonicalise – SEO poll shows 58% of SEOs canonicalise in the case of dupe content. 18% will rewrite everything, 12% will use a noindex, and a further 12% will do something other.
https://www.seroundtable.com/most-seos-canonicalize-their-duplicate-content-issues-31969.html

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Core Update Recovery – How do you know you’re on the right track?
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-core-update-quality-changes-track-31940.html

Keep Rollin’ Rollin’ Rollin’ Rollin’ – Google Spam Update still rolling out after three weeks
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-link-spam-update-still-rolling-out-31948.html

Google using H1 tag to form title tags
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-header-tags-vs-title-tag-snippet-change-is-not-related-to-passaging-ranking-31954.html

Write content to cover all searcher’s needs
https://www.seroundtable.com/cover-all-your-bases-seo-google-31930.html

Facebook Content Report
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/facebooks-first-ever-report-on-most-viewed-content/416808/
https://transparency.fb.com/data/widely-viewed-content-report/

The 15 areas of knowledge webmasters must master to be competent SEOs
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-areas-of-knowledge/273873/

Wordfence reports a vunerablilty in SEOPress Plugin
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/seopress-vulnerability/416610/

Adobe issues 33 security enhancements to fix cracks in Magento2
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/magento-vulnerabilities/416590/
Commercial Magento Versions that are Affected:
•2.4.2 and earlier versions
•2.4.2-p1 and earlier versions
•2.3.7 and earlier versions
Open Source Magento Versions that are Affected:
•2.4.2-p1 and earlier versions
•2.3.7 and earlier versions

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Maximize Discover results with the Max Image Preview tag.https://www.searchenginejournal.com/increase-google-traffic-with-max-image-preview-tag/416123/

Explaining Google’s new Work at Work or Lose at Home Pay Scale Plans
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/pay-cut-google-employees-home-100348715.html

In which Google gives three options on audit plans for Core Web Vitals. (First they say it’s a thing and they say it’s not such a thing and then they say it’s much more than that and then they say... . I think it’s more than that)
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-recommends-this-core-web-vitals-audit-workflow/416132/#close

Wix beats WordPress in CWV competition
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/wordpress-vs-wix-core-web-vitals/416029/

Kris Jones with Six Ways to Optimize User Review Pages for Google
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/product-review-page-seo/414409/

Roger Montti covers Cumulative Layout Shift
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/core-web-vitals/cumulative-layout-shift/

Google continues to move sites into Mobile First Indexing. (Not a big deal but sort of surprising. Thought they finished this in the spring after pushing back from last autumn)
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-mobile-first-indexing-not-done-31904.html

Google and Authorship, a strange relationship
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-spam-author-url-31913.html
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-author-article-31889.html

Yahoo Sign Begowned from Sunnyvale
https://www.seroundtable.com/photos/yahoo-sign-taken-down-from-headquarters-31882.html

Martin Splitt reminds SEOs that Alt Text is important for SEO.
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-alt-text-important-seo-31872.html

Google Enforcing Business Address on some GMB listings as means of spam protection
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-my-business-physical-addresses-31891.htm

Google Drops Safe Browsing as a ranking signal
https://searchengineland.com/google-drops-safe-browsing-as-a-page-experience-ranking-signal-350995

Structured Data test tool gone -> Landing page directs users to Google Rich Results tool or to Schema.org tool.
https://searchengineland.com/googles-legacy-structured-data-testing-tool-now-is-gone-351128

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Google: If You Remove A Part Of Your Site, The Site Will Rank Differently
https://www.seroundtable.com/remove-part-of-site-google-seo-31854.html
User Queries Help Google Determine What To Show In Knowledge Panels
https://www.seroundtable.com/queries-google-knowledge-panels-31869.html
Make Every feature Binary: A 135B parameter sparse neural network for massively improved search relevance
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/make-every-feature-binary-a-135b-parameter-sparse-neural-network-for-massively-improved-search-relevance/
Data: Most Popular Google Search Features Are People Also Ask & Local Pack
https://www.seroundtable.com/popular-google-search-features-31867.html
Google: You May Get Some Ranking Benefit If Someone Steals Your Original Images
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-stolen-images-benefit-31846.html

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Webcology – July 29, 2021

We have another sad announcement to start the show with this week. Erik Stafford, the witty and well loved Creative Director at aimClear passed away last night. He had a heart attack two months short of his 48th birthday. If you grew up in Chicago in the 80s and 90s, you might have known him as the guerilla street artist, GEAR. Eric was a frequent writer and conference speaker. He was a father of two children and passed way too young. Erik D. Stafford, rest in peace, you’re going to be missed.

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https://searchengineland.com/googles-universal-search-results-bid-for-placement-and-may-be-influenced-by-clicks-350858?utm_source=webcology
https://searchengineland.com/googles-universal-search-results-bid-for-placement-and-may-be-influenced-by-clicks-350858?utm_source=webcology
Yo Dawg, I hear you like search engines so Google built a search engine full of search engines that all flow to a master search engines to figure out which result set is more relevant than the others. But, uhhh, what would ya tell me if I told you it was influenced by clicks?
Gary Illyes’ on how Google compiles results by having elements of search “bid” for placement against each other. Barry explains it well in today’s SEL.
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Google Link Spam Update ran on Monday
https://www.seroundtable.com/quiet-google-link-spam-update-31836.html
From jim hedger to Everyone: 02:06 PM
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Nofollows are universal signals in places you’d think a nofollow should go. You don’t need to specify why. https://www.seroundtable.com/google-switch-rel-nofollow-to-rel-sponsored-31830.html
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https://www.seroundtable.com/edge-of-google-quality-threshold-31832.html
The Quality Threshold Cliff – Falling off but reappearing through manual submission is apparently a clue that you’re about to fall off. Confused?
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Google Page Experience – This update replaced what was the Google speed update. https://www.seroundtable.com/google-page-experience-update-replaced-speed-update-31817.html
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Both Google and Facebook will require staff to be fully vaccinated before returning to work at all US offices. Google has also pushed back its reopening to October. https://www.npr.org/2021/07/28/1021798222/google-mandates-vaccines-for-workers-pushes-back-return-to-office-date
Other firms like Microsoft have not made vaccines mandatory for employees but all are strongly recommending staff get vaccinated before returning to work.

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SEO Bob Gladstein – died last Friday at age 57.
https://www.seroundtable.com/bob-gladstein-rip-31788.html
Bob was one of the originals. He’s one of the guys who taught second gen superstars like Aaron Wall and Rand Fishkin. He was QWERTY in the early community spaces like Jill Whalen’s High Rankings Forums or the IHelpYou community. On Twitter he was @bubba_ji.

His employer, Overdrive Interactive suggested honouring Bob with donations to the Mass SPCA in his name: @MspcaAngell – a renowned leader in animal protection and veterinary medicine.

Google Tells You Why...
https://searchengineland.com/google-now-shows-why-it-ranked-a-specific-search-result-350659

Consider your Redirects solid after a year has passed
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-redirect-signals-stick-year-31797.html
Slight differences in how 301 and 302s are treated by Google. 302s eventually become treated like 301s but you’ll get a better bang for buck by using correct one at correct time.

Deal Page or Site? Google just published a Best Practices Guide
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-seo-best-practices-for-deal-pages-31795.html
-Read top few
-More to come? – e.g. Back in October 2020, Google created a best practices guide for Black Friday promotions.

Search Traffic Drop visualizations
What different patterns might mean and how to diagnose and deal with them (simplified)
https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2021/07/search-traffic-drops

Google’s three strikes and you’re out ad policy
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-ads-three-strikes-and-your-out-policy-31784.html
(X) Warning: First instance of ad content violating our Enabling Dishonest Behavior, Unapproved Substances and Dangerous Products or Services policies. No penalties beyond the removal of the relevant ads.
(1) First strike: Violation of the same policy for which you’ve received a warning within 90 days. The account will be placed on a temporary hold for three days, during which ads will not be eligible to run
(2) Second strike: Violation of the same policy for which you’ve received a first strike within 90 days of the first strike. The account will be placed on a temporary hold for seven days, during which ads will not be eligible to run. This will serve as the last and final notice for the advertiser to avoid account suspension
(3) Third strike: Violation of the same policy for which you’ve received a second strike within 90 days of the second strike. Account suspension for repeat violation of our policies.
Strikes expire (or get renewed) after 90 days. If you’ve cleaned up and have no new issues, consider yourself in good standing. The plate’s clean.
The Forced Acceptance – G4 is the new Default
Luckily Brie E Anderson from SEJ is there with, 7 GA4 Features that Make it Worth Trying Out
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/useful-google-analytics-4-features/413920/?ver=413920X3

Mueller on how long it takes to rerank a rehabbed site
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/how-long-to-rerank-website/414181/

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July 2021 Core Update is over
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-july-2021-core-algorithm-update/413204/
seroundtable.com/google-local-core-update-31739.html

Yandex SEO Comrad
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/yandex-seo-guide/252885/

Google hit by fine by French Government
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-fined-e500-million-for-french-news-negotiation-breach/413436/

News Corp Website set up as reaction to Google./Facebook deal in Aus. Fails
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/news-site-created-to-oppose-google-and-facebook-fails/413326/

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