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In this episode, we discuss our advice on what to do if you’re declining in traffic, the algorithm turbulence of this month, needs met and why it’s important, domain authority, image optimization and lots more!

Marie’s Podcast for this episode

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It’s well worth the $18 per month. Want to see a sample premium newsletter episode? View it here.

The following topics are covered in the premium version of this episode:

• Full analysis of Google’s algorithm turbulence, including another mini-update April 30/May 1
• Is your content skimmable?
• Bloggers are victims of Domain Authority (ie. the metric that Google doesn’t care about)
• Thread on image optimization
• How do you measure Core Web Vitals?
• Three ways to add copy to your eCommerce category pages
• Brodie Clark breaks down Google’s “Price Drop” rich result for eCommerce sites
• Does building links on Q&A sites like Quora help with SEO?
• New feature available in this tool
• Do Google My Business Posts help or hurt rankings?
• Traffic to UK local news websites have surged in 2020 but digital revenue has plummeted — here’s an analysis
• Keywords mapping cheat sheet
• Here’s a list of SEO tools to measure Core Web Vitals
• Our tl;dr summary of some awesome recent SEO articles

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Google’s algorithm turbulence, including another mini-update April 30/May 1

If you have been following along in past newsletter episodes, you’ll know that since January of this year we have been reporting a new significant Google update almost every week. This week is no different. Barry Schwartz noted an uptick in chatter in SEO forums with many people reporting big ranking and traffic changes around April 30 and May 1, 2021. Premium subscribers will be able to read this summary in full. 

EAT-ing with Marie: a new segment!

We like to have fun here at MHC, so we’ve decided to take it to a whole new level by creating our own version of Hot Ones. If you know Marie, you know that she loves a good kick, so we figured why not talk SEO while Marie tests her luck with a variety of spicy wings? Submit your questions using the hashtag #eatingwithmarie for a chance to have your question answered!

So excited to share that @Marie_Haynes will be hosting our very own Q&A segment where you can ask her your *burning* questions while she tests her luck with hot wings.

Submit your questions using the hashtag #eatingwithmarie to be the first to E-A-T with her. pic.twitter.com/KZzHY76JNj

— Marie Haynes Consulting 🐼 (@mhc_inc) May 3, 2021

How Google fought Search spam on Google in 2020

We all know Google has gotten really great at identifying and ignoring spammy links, but did you know they discover over 40 billion spammy pages each day? That is a lot of deceptive content! So how do they do this? They’ve created their own anti-spam AI that detects spammy patterns to have them removed from search. They crawl, index, and provide manual actions to sites that have this high-spam content. If it is detected as spam, it won’t be added into Google’s index. This also includes content that spammers have requested indexing for via GSC. They’ve come a long way, but this is just another reason not to do any manipulative link building – Google will likely catch it, and either flag you for a manual action or pay it no attention meaning it might not be indexed or ranked. 

Every day, we discover 40 billion spammy pages! 🤓

Here’s how we used innovation, AI, and more in 2020 to keep that spam away from your search results →https://t.co/S5SWWXgMjA pic.twitter.com/LkyI3vxys2

— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) April 29, 2021

Suspicious behaviour related to featured snippets (confirmed bug)

Barry Schwartz from Search Engine Roundtable reported on this earlier this week: Google appeared to be adding links to featured snippets, which acted like a query refinement in that it would take the searcher to a new set of search results. This was only able to be replicated for SERPs in India.

If you're seeing internal links appear in your featured snippets, that looks exciting…until you realize that these links don't point to your site but just open up yet another search. https://t.co/VDy2draU0h

— Marie Haynes (@Marie_Haynes) May 3, 2021

A lot of SEOs were not thrilled with this since it could be potentially redirecting searchers away from the page, however, Barry reached out to a Google spokesperson who confirmed with him that “this is a bug and is not intended behavior for links on featured snippets”. Currently, Google is working on a fix for this. Hard to say whether this is an indication of things to come, but for now it looks like this new type of query refinement was just a bug and not a test.

Sustainable Monetized Websites: useful tools for publishers

In the most recent Sustainable Monetized Websites video, Daniel Waisberg and Mariya Moeva talk about useful tools for publishers.

This week on #SustainableMonetizedWebsites

📝 Take notes as @Aurora_Morales, @danielwaisberg and @marrrr discuss useful tools for publishers:

🔧 Google Search Console
📊 Google Analytics
💰 Ad Manager, Ad Mob, & AdSense
🧰 Site Kit

…and more!

📺→ https://t.co/NqIEphijfh pic.twitter.com/yJtzcFNjet

— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) May 4, 2021

Scroll to text fragments related to featured snippets gone in Google Search Console

Scroll-to-text data is no longer being reported in the GSC Performance Report. Since August 2020, you used to be able to filter by scroll-to-text parameters, but this appears to be no more (although you can still filter by jump links). For more on this story, Barry Schwartz has you covered on Search Engine Roundtable. 

Heads-up: Remember when you could see scroll to text in GSC for featured snippets? Yep, they are gone. Google said they were thinking about removing that, & they did. Also, jumplink tracking remains in GSC. So if you are using jumplinks, you can still see that in the reporting. pic.twitter.com/2mT0PIXVZv

— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) May 3, 2021

Something is cooking over in the local algo world. We’re seeing an even higher increase in flux the past week but the local experts have not recorded any changes on their end with their clients. Barry even asked if the tool was broken, but it appears to be working fine. So don’t panic, but keep an eye on your traffic and we’ll let you know if anything else comes of it.

Importance of Prestige and Popularity for a News Source Rank in Google Algorithm – Koray Tuğberk GÜBÜR
https://www.newzdash.com/guide/importance-prestige-and-popularity-news-source-google-algorithm
April 22, 2021

This is a fantastic in-depth read with tons of insights gleaned from Google patents on the possible inner workings of Google’s “breaking news” and “source ranking” systems. Parts of this article shed more light on a couple of areas we have learned are now critical in News search in recent years, in addition to the established importance of expertise, authoritativeness, and trust more generally: Topical authority and topical “completeness.” There is so much detail in this article on how source ranking of news publishers could function that we really recommend a full read.

Case study: More content is not always better for ranking in Google – Joy Hawkins
https://searchengineland.com/case-study-more-content-is-not-always-better-for-ranking-in-google-348324
April 30, 2021

That one myth still circulates among the SEO community that the more content on a page or across a site, the better. Or as long as there is content on a page, you’re golden. Here’s an excellent case study by Joy Hawkins that proves otherwise; it’s about the right type of content.

Do Citations Still Matter for Local SEO? – Darren Shaw
https://whitespark.ca/blog/do-citations-matter-local-seo/
April 28, 2021

In the new Sparktoro episode, Darren Shaw talks about the importance of citations for local SEO and if they still hold value today. This topic came to surface when citations were listed as a factor that local SEOs are focusing less on today. Further, many have flagged citations as a strategy that once worked well, but now have been found to hold less of an influence in local search. If you’re still questioning the value behind citations in local search, we recommend you read this article in full. And if you’re looking to develop or improve on your citation building strategy, Darren continues with his very own 2021 DIY citation strategy.

We have three open SEO Product Manager roles open right now! If anyone is interested, or knows someone feel free to DM me.

— Tessa Bonacci Nadik (@tessabonacci) April 30, 2021

Premium members also get the following:

It’s well worth the $18 per month! Want to see a sample premium newsletter episode? View it here.

The following topics are covered in the premium version of this episode:

• Full analysis of Google’s algorithm turbulence, including another mini-update April 30/May 1
• Is your content skimmable?
• Bloggers are victims of Domain Authority (ie. the metric that Google doesn’t care about)
• Thread on image optimization
• How do you measure Core Web Vitals?
• Three ways to add copy to your eCommerce category pages
• Brodie Clark breaks down Google’s “Price Drop” rich result for eCommerce sites
• Does building links on Q&A sites like Quora help with SEO?
• New feature available in this tool
• Do Google My Business Posts help or hurt rankings?
• Traffic to UK local news websites have surged in 2020 but digital revenue has plummeted — here’s an analysis
• Keywords mapping cheat sheet
• Here’s a list of SEO tools to measure Core Web Vitals
• Our tl;dr summary of some awesome recent SEO articles

⎋ SUBSCRIBE NOW

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Search News You Can Use (from @mhc_inc ) is the only #SEO podcast i listen to. I almost want to force it into my team's ears because it is SO insightful. https://t.co/kRgqOx7ezH

— Andrew Martin (@AndrewDoesSEO) February 27, 2020