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In this episode, we discuss May algorithm turbulence, the Content Submission API tool, link building tips and advice from MHC, the Trust Project, the ultimate guide to redirects, how Google uses machine learning for ranking, and a ton more!

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

• Lots of turbulence in Google’s algorithms in the first week of May
• Uptick seen in the SERP presence of these boxes
• What impact do the Trust Project guidelines have on how Google measures E-A-T?
• Google comments on whether or not images on your webpage influence rankings
• Link building tips from a pro
• Google discusses internationalization and the topic of duplicate content
• Testing suggests that First Contentful Paint doesn’t work as a cross-browser metric
• The ultimate guide to redirects
• Here are some handy site commands to help you with your keyword/content research
• Google has updated their documentation to give more clarity on the requirements for logo structured data for AMP articles
• John Mueller fields a question related to how Google may use machine learning for adjusting the weights of various ranking signals
• Google comments on above the fold content
• How does Google handle ‘scroll events’ or ‘click to load more’ buttons?
• SEOs voice their displeasure with Google’s ‘Mobile Usability’ data
• Google My Business dashboard showing this
• Schema.org’s markup validator is live!
• Our tl;dr summary of some awesome recent SEO articles

⎋ SUBSCRIBE NOW

MHC’s advice on disavowing has changed!

Stay tuned as very soon we will be publishing our annual report on our use of the disavow tool. We have a lot of experience using this tool. After reviewing our last year of data surrounding disavow cases, we still do recommend using it for some sites, but you may be surprised to hear that we no longer recommend a thorough link audit and disavow for most of the sites that we review. 

There is a LOT to discuss on this topic. Our article this week will share how Google’s manual actions for unnatural links have changed in the last decade or so. We’ll discuss whether negative SEO via link spam is still working and also whether disavowing could help sites with no manual action. Teaser: We believed it used to help, but we reserve disavowing now for cases with link profiles that show extremely widespread attempts at manipulating Google’s algorithms.

If you can’t wait for the article to come out, you can catch Marie talking in depth about her thoughts on disavowing in 2021 in this week’s podcast episode.

Reminder: Google I/O is happening next week

Google’s annual developer conference is kicking off next week and we’d suggest you save the date! Here’s a glimpse into some of the topics that’ll be discussed:

🎉Google I/O is back and so are we! 🎉

🏎 Prepare for the Page Experience update – https://t.co/HPEIzIakIi
🧙 Immersive storytelling on the web – https://t.co/axKLnO0FaN
📢 What's new in Search – https://t.co/i5WgF3uNC9
📈 Core Web Vitals AMA – https://t.co/YFFKyM0GKA

— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) May 12, 2021

Bing announcement: Content Submission API as beta is open

After almost 2 years in development, Bing has released their Content Submission API into beta. 

It is important to note the difference between this API and the URL Submission API. The URL submission API only alerts BingBot to crawl and index the page, similar to submitting your URLs in GSC for crawling. 

Whereas, the Content Submission API allows you to essentially bypass BingBot for submitting your content, HTML, images, etc. directly to Bing when they are created or when changes are made to the page. 

This should help get your content on the search engine much quicker, as well as reduce BingBot crawl load on your site. While this may not matter hugely for all sites, if you have difficulty getting new content crawled and indexed in a timely manner, it may be worth trying out. 

You can request an API key through Bing Webmaster Tools.

Tips for writing an effective blog post intro

Start writing for maximum impact with your blog posts! This is an awesome thread that includes actionable tips to help you get started with your blog. These are easy to implement and can hold a lot of value. Great thread Chima! 

How to write an intro for your blog post that doesn't suck or make me wanna sleep

1. Quote a stat around the problem

Statistics are powerful. Writing about food waste? Quote a stat on the number of hungry children in developed countries to throw your audience for a loop.

— chima mmeje🏳️‍🌈 (@chimammeje) May 3, 2021

Special characters don’t belong in your h-tags

If you’re going to use special characters in your header tags, don’t be shocked if they get pulled into a featured snippet and they don’t appear as intended. Best practice would be to keep things clean and free of miscellaneous characters. 

Pro tip: Don't include special characters in your <h> tags, they might get pulled into featured snippets. 😛 pic.twitter.com/Im9PyazUEJ

— Lily Ray 😏 (@lilyraynyc) May 10, 2021

Google confirms an ‘Insufficient HTTPS coverage’ bug within Google Search Console

Barry Schwartz figured out what was going on with the “Failing / Insufficient HTTPS coverage” error in GSC’s Page Experience reporting. John confirms it is just a bug.

He says what’s really happening here is that GSC doesn’t have enough data to make that call. Instead of displaying “Not Enough Data”, the bug is causing it to display a “Fail”.

They are working to fix it and John reassures that if you know your site is properly HTTPS, there’s nothing else for you to do.

We now know that the major flux we were reporting on the past two weeks was a bug and has been confirmed by BrightLocal. So if you were worried about a possible update, don’t sweat it. 

Local RankFlux Update:

Over the past week, #LocalRankFlux has been reporting higher than usual scores, ranging between 5~ and 7~. We have identified a possible bug as the cause of this.https://t.co/M74ATuIRdf

— BrightLocal 🇺🇦 (@brightlocal) May 6, 2021

They have now confirmed that this bug has been fixed. 

Tools are back up and running. Thank you everyone for your patience! Rest assured our dev team is working hard to ensure we don't experience an outage like this again. Our Customer Success team is also on hand to help with any queries: https://t.co/G0rtxrzBbh https://t.co/BjZXweFopm

— BrightLocal 🇺🇦 (@brightlocal) May 7, 2021

“Let Google help your business” options appearing with webmasters’ GMB dashboard

If you’re in need of help, there’s a new feature to get you there a little quicker. You will use Google’s AI to do this, but can also opt out using the steps here. 

Just noticed these "Let Google help your business" options inside the GMB dashboard. @GoogleMyBiz , Here's the relevant help center documentation. https://t.co/8z9nWoqGn1 pic.twitter.com/kWWcgUAYmJ

— Colan Nielsen (@ColanNielsen) May 5, 2021

Identifying issues using Sitebulb (sponsored)

Having a thorough understanding of issues is key to success in SEO.

Sitebulb helps you understand exactly what audit data means, and give recommendations with confidence. 

In-depth explanations for every issue and opportunity are written in clear, client-friendly language that can literally be copy/pasted into your website audit.

Every issue identified by the tool is assigned a priority rating that enables you to understand the relative importance of each one.

The tool also uses data visualisation throughout audits, so you can use aggregated charts to quickly spot patterns, then drill down to the granular data behind them.

If you’d like to give Sitebulb a try for free, you can get a special, extended trial licence with ‘Search News You Can Use’. Just go to: Sitebulb.com/SearchNews

The Beginner’s Guide to Technical SEO – Patrick Stox
https://ahrefs.com/blog/technical-seo/
May 4, 2021

Ahrefs delivers another high impact SEO resource to help you (or your clients!) understand the basics. Several resources are available throughout and the six chapters. Whether you want a brush up, train your staff, or have a client or colleague who might benefit from the concepts and extra guidance, this piece is incredibly easy to digest and is likely worth a share.

13 Tips for Writing Product Descriptions That Convert – Himani Kankaria
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/writing-product-descriptions-tips/404473/
May 7, 2021

EComms, pay attention! Himani Kankaria discusses more than a dozen ways for writing effective product descriptions. Starting with the preparation stage, her article suggests that you should be documenting your ideal customers (a template is included in the article by the way) and listing all product information in full. From here, conversion tactics are outlined with our favourites including doing a competitive analysis, finding your transactional keywords, leveraging your benefits vs. features (as a first priority — product dependent of course), and providing social proof to add a layer of trust.

The real-world impact of keyword stuffing in Google My Business – Colan Nielsen
https://searchengineland.com/the-real-world-impact-of-keyword-stuffing-in-google-my-business-348509
May 7, 2021

Do you list your business on GMB? If yes, this is for you. Keyword stuffing is often seen in GMB names where users will add descriptive words within their name, instead of the title of their business. We’ve seen how these can impact rankings, but this article dives in deeper. 

Why Everything You Know about Link Building for Local Search Is Wrong – Here’s Why #265 – Eric Enge & Greg Gifford
https://blogs.perficient.com/2021/05/10/everything-you-know-about-link-building-for-local-search-is-wrong-heres-why/
May 10, 2021

On Eric Enge’s latest episode of “Here’s Why”, he meets with SearchLab’s Greg Gifford to discuss link building for local search. As a local search expert, Greg commented on how what you hear at conferences about link building for local search is generic and not actionable for the day to day small-midsize business (SMB) and so he is here to shed some light.

@seopluscanada is hiring! We are looking for amazing digital marketers to join our team: Account Manager, Web Project Manager, WordPress Developer, Digital PR Specialist, Content Writer & Marketing Strategist

Apply today! https://t.co/uQQZAlll9E#nowhiring #digitalagency #seo

— Brock Murray (@SEOBrock) May 5, 2021

Here's a recap of all our exciting growth vacancies at the moment:
🚀 Head of SEO Operations
🚀 Content Strategy Consultant
🚀 Digital PR Executive
🚀 Senior Marketing Manager (Maternity cover)
🚀 Data Science Consultant (FTC)
🚀 SEO Consultant

Apply: https://t.co/xP96IAY5jX pic.twitter.com/wMGJOWdrkN

— Builtvisible (@Builtvisible) May 7, 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:

• Lots of turbulence in Google’s algorithms in the first week of May
• Uptick seen in the SERP presence of these boxes
• What impact do the Trust Project guidelines have on how Google measures E-A-T?
• Google comments on whether or not images on your webpage influence rankings
• Link building tips from a pro
• Google discusses internationalization and the topic of duplicate content
• Testing suggests that First Contentful Paint doesn’t work as a cross-browser metric
• The ultimate guide to redirects
• Here are some handy site commands to help you with your keyword/content research
• Google has updated their documentation to give more clarity on the requirements for logo structured data for AMP articles
• John Mueller fields a question related to how Google may use machine learning for adjusting the weights of various ranking signals
• Google comments on above the fold content
• How does Google handle ‘scroll events’ or ‘click to load more’ buttons?
• SEOs voice their displeasure with Google’s ‘Mobile Usability’ data
• Google My Business dashboard showing this
• Schema.org’s markup validator is live!
• Our tl;dr summary of some awesome recent SEO articles

⎋ SUBSCRIBE NOW

Note: If you are seeing the light version and you are a premium member, be sure to log in (in the sidebar on desktop or below the post on mobile) and read the full article here.

https://twitter.com/AndrewDoesSEO/status/1232965103441629184?s=20