Welcome to episode #94 of the SEO Newsletter by #SEOSLY!
I’m on the path to recovery and excited to return to my regular activities this week. Topping my list is curating this SEO newsletter and diving into the latest SEO updates from the past fortnight.
My mission, as always, is to provide you with the most relevant and timely insights, ensuring you leave feeling more informed and a step ahead in your SEO journey.
🙏 Before we delve into the latest news, I’d like to ask a small, ongoing favor. Would you consider rating my SEO podcast? I pour immense effort into it, striving for continuous improvement. If you believe it’s worthy, a five-star rating would be immensely appreciated.
In return I will keep doing my best and allowing you to learn from me for free. Thank you for your support… ❤️
The SEO Newsletter by #SEOSLY is sponsored by JetOctopus
JetOctopus is a cloud-based website crawler and SEO log analyzer. The tool allows you to analyze your website structure, check for broken links, detect technical SEO issues, and monitor your website’s ranking in search engines.
JetOctopus is the fastest and most affordable SaaS crawler and logs analyzer without limits.
I would not be able to do my work the way I do it without JetOctopus (seriously).
Moz’s Top SEO – Cyrus Shepard – Spills His Best SEO Tips and Experiments
In this interview, I spoke with SEO expert Cyrus Shepard about his career and insights into search engine optimization today. Cyrus shared how he accidentally fell into SEO while trying to market his own websites in the early days. He started by doing SEO for his wife’s company, then got a job in customer support at SEO Moz, working his way up to become their lead SEO.
How to Actually Take Time Off When You’re a One-Person SEO Show [SEO Cash Flow #9]
Looking for tips on how to actually take time off when you’re a solo SEO consultant? Join Myriam Jessier and me as we dish out real-world advice in this episode of the SEO Cash Flow.
Subscribe to me on these channels
If you haven’t already, I invite you to follow me across all these channels (to never miss any important SEO news, tip, or article and stay up-to-date with the world of SEO).
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Top SEO news
Here is the most important SEO & AI news from last week.
The September 2023 Helpful Content Update
The dust from the last Google core update hasn’t even settled, and now there’s another one.
Changes to HowTo and FAQ rich results
To provide a cleaner and more consistent search experience, Google is changing how some rich results types are shown in Google’s search results. In particular, they are reducing the visibility of FAQ rich results, and limiting How-To rich results to desktop devices.
Associate Search Console to Merchant Center to discover growth opportunities
Search Console is launching a few enhancements to the Shopping tab Listings report to help merchants better manage their product offering. Last November, Search Console created a new section to help merchants show their products on the Shopping tab and grow their businesses across Google by creating a Merchant Center account. Today, Search Console is enhancing this section to further help businesses with a Merchant Center account to monitor the status of their products and discover opportunities to improve their visibility on Google.
Cora Pro SEO Software 25% OFF (my SEO tool of the year)
Cora SEO Software has been an absolute game-changer for me. I can honestly say that this the the ONLY tool you may need if you want to improve rankings and do it in the most efficient and effective way.
Cora SEO Software is capable of measuring thousands of factors and tells you exactly which ones appear to influence rankings and how much you need of each to compete with higher ranking competitors. More and more we are finding that having a broad diversity of ranking signals is the most important ranking factor and no SEO tool on the market handles factor diversity better than Cora.
You don’t need to believe what I’m saying. Just try for yourself! I have a special lifetime deal 25% OFF (and free training) for my newsletter subscribers.
Check my interview with Ted Kubaitis, the creator of Cora.
Watch my interview with Ted Kubaitis, the creator of Cora, to learn more about how game-changing this tool is.
More AI & SEO news
Here is other SEO news, less breaking but equally important.
Google search antitrust trial updates: Everything you need to know (so far)
The landmark court case brought by the US Justice Department could spell huge changes for Google and the future of the Internet.
New Google Merchant Center checkout_link_template Attribute
Google Merchant Center has added a new attribute named checkout_link_template. Including this new attribute lets you include a checkout URL in your product data which gives online shoppers the option to go directly to your checkout page from your free listings.
What’s new with the Google helpful content update
Now that Google has released the September 2023 helpful content update, let’s dig in to see what is new.
Amazon sellers can now use AI to write product titles, descriptions and listing details
The new technology aims to alleviate the workload of brands by streamlining the product listing creation process into one step.
SEO Interviews
New amazing interviews with SEO stars like Cyrus Shepard, Barry Adams, Kaspar Szymanski, Kristina Azarenko and more are coming! Stay tuned! Get notified when they air.
100 SEOs to follow
☝️ THROWBACK: One of the resources I’m creating is the list of 100+ SEOs to follow. I initially wanted to publish my own version, but that wouldn’t be objective enough, so I want to ask you to suggest SEOs to put on my list.
If you haven’t already done it, please fill in this Google form, and I will add you to the list together with a link to your site and your social media profiles. Thank you!
Top SEO Tips
And here are the Google SEO tips for you.
#1: Google: Meta Description Length Does Not Matter For Ranking Algorithms
In case you were wondering, John Mueller has answered this question again.
#2: Google: Fix Your INP Issues? Don’t Expect Visibility Changes Search Rankings.
Google’s John Mueller reiterated what Google has been saying for some time around Core Web Vitals and the specific metrics within the page experience system. In short, if you fix INP issues, John Muller said, don’t “expect it to visibly change search ranking.”
#3: Google: Why You May See A Spike In Indexed URLs
Google’s Gary Illyes answered a question on why one might see a sudden spike in indexed URLs by Google Search. The short answer is that there can be a ton of reasons, so it is hard to answer the question without the specific domain. Gary did say these three reasons why Google might increase the URLs it indexed on your site from one day to the next. They include Google got more hard drives, Google freed up some space, and Google newly discovered those URLs,
Videos to watch this week
Here are the latest videos from other SEOs I find especially interesting and worth watching.
Must-read articles
And you need to allocate some time to read these articles from other SEOs. They are brilliant.
How Plural Keywords Impact Search Intent For Ecommerce [Data Study]
How does the use of singular and plural keywords influence search intent and results? Lidia conducted a unique data study analyzing keyword choice for ecommerce queries.
By Lidia Infante
GenAI and the Future of Branding: The Crucial Role of the Knowledge Graph
In this article, you will learn how brands can optimize content for AI search and chatbots while avoiding pitfalls like hallucinations by leveraging knowledge graphs.
By Sara Moccand-Sayegh
Greenwashing: The Truth Behind the Hype
Many of us have heard of greenwashing, but how many of us actually know what it is, and the responsibility we as marketers have to ensure that we’re not guilty of it?
By Natalie Arney
The most common technical SEO issues that lower your rankings
You have your website, you have been working on it for a while, you thought you are doing a great job, and then… the search engine rankings do not reflect the effort you put in. What happened?
By Renata Gwizdak
How To Bulk Export GSC Performance Data For A Specific List Of URLs Using The Google Search Console API, Analytics Edge, and Excel
In this article, you will learn how to bulk export Google Search Console performance data for a specific list of URLs using the GSC API, Analytics Edge, and Excel. This allows you to analyze groups of pages, like those affected by an algorithm update, in greater detail by pulling only the data you need.
By Glenn Gabe
BrightonSEO September 2023 Edition Presentations
Here is the list of BrightonSEO presentations. I was unable to attend this time, so those presentations are a real life-saver for me.
How to Optimize Your Google Business Name for Better Ranking
Did you know that your business name is the #2 ranking factor according to Whitespark’s 2023 ranking factors study?
By Joy Hawkings
How Long Should An SEO Migration Take? [Study]
Discover insights from 171 domain migrations to help you mitigate risks for your company’s migration project.
By Dan Taylor
Google Core Update August 2023 – Data and analysis
In this article you’ll learn from examples of winners and losers along with a closer look into news media and retail domains. The data here applies to Google Search UK.
By Steve Paine
Multi-location local SEO: A framework for organizational success
Over my 10+ years of experience in local SEO, I’ve found that the most successful multi-location brands may approach their strategies differently, but they all follow the five steps I’ll explain in this blog post.
By Miriam Ellis
Thank you for reading my newsletter! I hope you found the information useful. If you enjoyed this issue, be sure to check out the next one next week.
