Welcome to episode #98 of the SEO Newsletter by #SEOSLY!
The last weeks have been very intensive for me and Barbados SEO is coming… Nevertheless, I am devoting Monday morning to going through everything that has been happening in SEO in the last two weeks and preparing an easy-to-digest recap.
Really a lot is happening and you don’t want to miss this episode.
The first SEO news I have for you is that my SEO podcast hasn’t been performing very well recently…😞 That’s why I have a small favor to ask.
🙏 Would you consider rating my SEO podcast? I pour immense effort into it. If you believe it’s worthy, a five-star rating would be immensely appreciated.
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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.
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😱 Ex-Googler Reveals The Truth About Search Quality & Predicts The Future Of SEO #65
Pedro Dias shares his unique perspective on search quality and the future of SEO in this fascinating interview. Pedro brings a thoughtful approach that combines technical expertise with focusing on real user needs.
Let’s Talk About The Biggest Google Update Ever, The Killer Whale… (With Jason Barnard)
I had an insightful conversation with Jason Barnard, The Brand SERP Guy, about Google’s biggest algorithm update ever – the Killer Whale update. We discussed how Google made massive changes to its Knowledge Graph in July 2023, focusing on people entities and EEAT credibility signals. This then rolled out into core updates in August and September 2023.
Top SEO news
Here is the most important SEO & AI news from last week.
Google November 2023 Reviews Update rolls out [Google]
The previously announced November 2023 Core Update is finally rolling out.
Generative AI in Search expands to more than 120 new countries and territories [Google]
Google is bringing Search Labs and SGE in English to more than 120 new countries and territories around the world, including Mexico, Brazil, South Korea, Indonesia, Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa.
The Holiday 100: A gift guide for everyone on your list [Google]
Google is sharing the Holiday 100, our annual list of 100 gift ideas and insights based on trending searches throughout the year. You’ll find shopping trends and gift inspiration across categories like Home & Garden, Apparel & Accessories, Electronics, Beauty, Toys & Games and Health & Wellness.
Google search antitrust trial updates: Google is ‘best in class’
Google questioned Jamie Rosenberg, former VP of Operations for Android and Google Play. Rosenberg praised Android’s open-source vision, but the focus was on Google’s requirements for OEMs and carriers through Mobile Application Distribution Agreement (MADAs) and Revenue Share Agreement (RSAs). Google sees these requirements, including search preinstallation and exclusivity, as a way to compete with Apple.
Learning video (LearningResource, VideoObject, Clip) structured data
When you explicitly provide learning-specific information with structured data, such as the educational level and concept and skills covered in the video, Google can better understand the content in your video, and provide an enhanced experience to help learners find the right content.
Google page experience report updated in Search Console
Plus the good page experience search appearance filter from the Performance report has been removed.
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.
How we taught Google Translate to recognize homonyms [Google]
In 2016, Google Translate started using a neural machine learning model for translations — and got a whole lot smarter.
Custom GPTs Now Available For All ChatGPT Plus, Enterprise Subscribers
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announces custom GPTs are now available for all ChatGPT Plus users on X.
Any impact of ChatGPT on Google’s search dominance is overblown at this point, as ChatGPT only has 2% of Google’s monthly traffic.
Google Claims Core Web Vitals Saved Over 10,000 Years In Load Times
Google claims optimizing Core Web Vitals saves over 10,000 years in load times. However, most sites don’t meet thresholds.
On Friday, Danny Sullivan, Google’s Search Liaison, shared on X some internal documents showing how he complies some of the feedback from SEOs online and then prepares that feedback to share with the Google Search teams.
Microsoft patent on website and site content reliability scores for Bing Search ranking
Having a patent does not mean that Bing is using these techniques in Bing Search – but it is fun to read. Microsoft has published a new patent application named Web Content Reliability Classification (US 20230350956 A1). It seems this patent describes how to figure out a reliability score for a website or portion of the content on a website for use in Bing Search.
7 must-see Google Search ranking documents in antitrust trial exhibits
Learn Google’s three pillars of ranking, the important role of end user data – how people interact with search – and more.
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 & Inights
And here are the Google SEO tips for you.
1: Google: Stop Thinking What Should I Do For Google When Writing Content
Danny Sullivan, the Google Search Liaison, said that you need to stop thinking, “What should I do for Google” when you are writing content. He said just think what you need to do for your readers and leave everything else out of mind when it comes to the content you are writing.
2: Google: Keyword Stuffing Isn’t About The Number Of Times A Word Is Repeated
While Google has a clear definition of what keyword stuffing is on its spam policies page, Danny Sullivan, Google’s Search Liaison, explained that it is not about the number of times a word is repeated on a page. Rather, it is about how the words on the page read, he explained.
3: Google Video Structured Data Docs Now Recommend Time & Timezone Inclusion
Google had made some small adjustments to its video structured data documentation to recommend that you include time and timezone information in video structured data. Google has recently been stressing time as an important element in crawling and other structured data components.
4: Google’s Helpful Content Update Is Sitewide; A Single Character Change Won’t Help You
As a reminder, the Google helpful content system/update is a sitewide algorithm. It looks at your site as a whole when applying its ranking system to the Google Search results. So changing a character on one page of your site, won’t do anything to help you recover from this Google ranking algorithm.
5: Google’s 3 Pillars Of Search Ranking Via DOJ Documents
The SEO community is buzzing about some recent U.S. Department of Justice documents released that hint at some ranking concepts at Google. One slide is named “The 3 Pillars of Ranking” and discuss body, anchors and user interactions.
Wix Studio [Sponsor]
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Videos to watch this week
Here are the latest videos from other SEOs I find especially interesting and worth watching.
Barry’s weekly recap of SEO news
Recovery After Google Updates
The Killer Whale Google Update
Features and deprecations on Steve
How to get Freedom as SEO Manager
Do Big Brands Dominate SERPs?
Must-read articles
And you need to allocate some time to read these articles from other SEOs. They are brilliant.
Some thoughts about The Verge article on SEO
I found myself part of The Verge’s article about SEO today, and I wanted to address some of the things that are specific to me. For background, this is my personal blog. What I’m writing here in this post isn’t officially from Google. No one at Google has reviewed it. These are my personal thoughts.
By Danny Sullivan
Top 5 SEO data pitfalls to avoid for accurate analysis and reporting
Flawed data assumptions lead to flawed optimization decisions. Learn to critically assess your SEO data to produce accurate insights.
By Sara Taher
Why you shouldn’t measure SEO performance by ROI
Learn why ROI may not be the most accurate metric and how to assess the effectiveness of your SEO efforts instead.
By Andrew Holland
7 must-see Google Search ranking documents in antitrust trial exhibits
Learn Google’s three pillars of ranking, the important role of end user data – how people interact with search – and more.
A complete guide to preventing keyword cannibalization
Anyone that works on a medium- or large-sized website for long enough will inevitably run into keyword cannibalization—which refers to competing against yourself for website rankings (i.e., two or more pages competing against one another for the same set of keywords).
By Lazarina Stoy
Google’s Helpful Content Update (HCU) and the danger of low-quality AI user-generated content
Including tips and recommendations for helping site owners navigate the AI UGC triple (detection, volume, and pace of lower-quality AI user-generated content.)
By Glenn Gabe
Core Update, Reviews Update November 2023 -Status, Examples and Data
The November 2023 Core update was announced on the 2nd November. Our data shows that the SERP movements started on the 2nd November.
By Steve Paine
There’s a good chance we’ll see more Google updates in December
As I write this, Google has just released the November 2023 Core update, just a couple of weeks after the October 5-19 Core Update. And I am still studying the September 2023 helpful content update!
By Marie Haynes
The Location Landing Pages Salad Bar: Making Smart Local Business Content Choices in 2024
For all the uncertainty local business owners may feel at the outset of creating a set of location or city landing pages on their websites, the truth is, the options for what to include on those pages to make them valuable are as loaded as a stocked salad bar.
By Miriam Ellis
Location Page Strategies for SEO Success
Location pages target consumers interested in a local business. They can help increase the chances of appearing in local Google search results and drive customers to your website.
By Semrush Team
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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.
