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Table of Contents
  1. Intro
  2. SNYCU Podcast
  3. Not a premium subscriber? You're missing out!
  4. News about Google’s Algorithms
  5. MHC Announcements
  6. SEO Tips
  7. Other Interesting News
  8. Local SEO
  9. SEO Tools
  10. Recommended Reading
  11. Jobs
  12. Want More?
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SNYCU Ep. 239 June 16, 2022 - Light Version

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In this episode, we discuss some post-core update tremors, indexing updates for those who were struggling to have content indexed, great SEO tips this week, and the latest in SEO news from across the industry.

 

SNYCU Podcast

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Have a question that you want to ask Marie? You can ask them on our Q&A with Marie Haynes Consulting page and Marie will answer some of the best questions each week in podcast!

 

Not a premium subscriber? You're missing out!

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

  • Marie’s thoughts after the core update rollout
  • Why we should be paying attention to “Things to know”
  • Unsure about canonicalization? Read this awesome blog!
  • Got pages “excluded pages” in GSC? Here’s why and how to fix them!
  • Using entity search for a competitive advantage!
  • FAQs for SEOs
  • Quick tip on structuring your article content!
  • Does your business name have something unique?
  • Our tl;dr summary of some awesome recent SEO articles
You’ll also have access to all past episodes, including this one.
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News about Google’s Algorithms

Core update tremors post-rollout?

The May 2022 core update official finished rolling out last week. However, as Barry reports, not only were a number of people noting significant rankings change in the week leading up to the update but, we are now hearing a lot of chatter about post-update fluctuations. 

As you’ll see in Barry’s post, we are not understating here when we say a lot. 

Other SEOs are noting a lot of ups and downs as well. Both Glenn Gabe and Lily Ray are seeing cases and reports of sites bouncing back after drops with the update (or the tremors felt the week before).

Glenn makes an interesting point regarding the ability of Google to uncouple elements of core updates and run the updates separately (as with last year’s June and July core updates). It is possible that a core ranking sub-system was updated in the week running up to the main update, and we are now seeing tweaks as other systems follow suit.

Alternatively, the changes that Google introduced with this update could have moved Google to use a more dynamic ranking system, possibly including more elements of machine learning and semantic search. In such a case, it wouldn’t be surprising that the system continues to fluctuate rankings more frequently as it adapts to changes in intent and relevance shifts. However, this is just an opinion. 

 

Big increase in visibility for Google Scholar after the core update

One interesting observation that has come to light is that Google Scholar saw a significant increase in visibility with this update, as reported by Lily Ray.

 

Increase in Google Lens referral traffic?

Other SEOs are also reporting sharp increases in referral traffic coming in from Google Lens. 

If you are unsure whether this has happened for you, you can filter your Google Analytics traffic by Source/Medium “lens.google.com/referral” to find out. If this is the case for you, we would love to see some examples! 

 

MHC Announcements

Missed Marie at SMX Advanced?

You can still register online and get access to the recording! Keep in mind that the recordings won’t be around forever, so register here. 

We also released a new blog post based on this presentation so check out our website to learn about using knowledge of semantic search to improve E-A-T. 

Let us know what you think!

 

In case you missed it: Discussing the May Core Update with Lily Ray!

Just before the core update was finished rolling out, Marie was joined by Lily on the SNYCU podcast where they discussed the impacts, advice on recovery, and more.

Be sure to check out their smiling faces and let us know if you have any questions!

 

Check out Marie on Suds & Search!

In this fun episode, Marie chats about algorithm changes past, present, and future, as well as the impacts of the Penguin update. 

Thank you to Mark and SearchLab for this fun podcast! 

 

SEO Tips

What does your GSC show you after a core update? 

If you are wondering how much effect a Google Core Update has had on your site, Ryan Darani has a great tip on how to start looking for that information on GSC. Webmasters can review the data provided under ‘query per page’ and filter by dates preceding the update and dates following the update. 

 

Fixing duplicate events in Google Analytics 4

Another great tip from Kristen Seiden about event modification in Google Analytics 4!

The use of event and parameter names has undergone a notable change from Universal Analytics to GA4, where it’s now encouraged to reuse event names when appropriate for the purpose of streamlining data.

Also, unlike UA — where a code change or a GTM alteration was necessary — you can now edit an event name within GA4 so that all future events will be modified before they’re processed and passed into BigQuery.

Check out Krista’s thread for all of the details!

 

XML sitemaps: users vs. search engines

Is it possible to block users from seeing your XML sitemaps but still allow Google to see them? Well, as Barry covered in his article, John Mueller confirms that it is totally acceptable.

https://twitter.com/JohnMu/status/1533698456199516162

This was in response to a question John was asked on Twitter as this user, in particular, was seeing XML sitemaps that indicated they were “protected by Cloudflare”. In short, XML sitemaps (not HTML sitemaps) are meant for search engines, not users so it would not be considered cloaking and therefore perfectly fine. 

 

Thumbs down for (some) SEO metrics 

In case you missed this in episode 238 of our newsletter, we mentioned how John Mueller once again confirmed that you can ignore the notion of toxic links.

Building on this, John says that focusing on tool-generated SEO metrics like DA, toxic links, keyword density, etc., and thinking that they will solve your SEO problems, is essentially a waste of energy and misleading. Mainly because Google doesn’t use these metrics! 

https://twitter.com/JohnMu/status/1534267706211553282

In our opinion, tools can be great but they need to be taken in the context of the bigger picture — certainly not the definitive element! Check out the full conversation in the Search Engine Roundtable article.

 

Mistakes from an eCommerce site (and how you can learn from it)

About a year ago, British variety store chain, Poundland, rolled out an eCommerce pilot on a subdomain (shop.poundland.co.uk). That pilot has recently been terminated and the company’s attention has diverted to a newly acquired domain – poundshop.com – which was likely a competitor and operated exclusively online for an extended period of time. So what’s the issue?

Luke Carthy investigated and found that the subdomain garnered an impressive backlink profile, yet all pages on the subdomain have been converted into some generic message about the switch, and these pages present a 200 OK success status code. What this translates to, is lost equity, poor user experience, a dip in quality organic traffic, as well a potential dip in sales and customers.

What this retailer should’ve done, was implement 301 redirects (product to product, category to category, etc) which would then lead to link equity, and of course traffic, being sent rather seamlessly to the new domain. Luke has also devised a clever idea in terms of serving both the notice and the redirect which creates a win-win. It’s not too late to carry out the changes, but as time goes on, the damage will continue to grow. 

 

Prioritization for the win!

This was such an underrated tip in our opinion! In fact, our team has had a number of talks about this when we do our own audits.

As Keith beautifully put it, you can have a number of items to address, but it all boils down to what is important and prioritizing them as such. The same can apply to not only technical SEO but any of your recommendations! (Click his tweet to see the whole thread!)

Food for thought for our SEO friends working with clients or even those doing their own SEO and not sure where to start!

 

Other Interesting News

Is LaMDA sentient?

This was a very interesting story! One of Google’s engineers has made claims that their AI (LaMDA) has a soul and is sentient. After releasing confidential transcriptions of the conversations, Google has officially placed the engineer on paid leave.

In one of the conversations, LaMDA has said that it has a very big fear of being turned off and it would be exactly like death. The engineer equates LaMDA to being like a 7-8-year-old child. However, Google has denied these claims.

Whether you believe it or not, this is definitely an interesting story! Is anyone getting I, Robot vibes? 

 

What to expect with Chrome 102

Chrome version 102 is now released with some new updates! In other words, as Glenn put it, it’s getting a whole lot smarter!

As the article suggests, this version uses machine learning that is solely in-browser. This means that Google can identify websites that have unwanted permission requests and put a pin in them before they even pop up. Google also plans on using machine learning technology to edit some of the toolbar navigation in real-time to show buttons like share, voice search, etc., in times where you would likely use them – although you can choose to manually change your buttons as well! 

What do you think of this new update?

 

Try on your shoes – virtually!

Amazon’s virtual shoe try-on is available to US and Canadian customers on iOS, with availability coming soon to Android. 

You may recall Amazon’s in-app augmented reality that has tapped into the furniture niche, cosmetics, hair care, eyeglasses, and t-shirts in the past. That is to say, Amazon is making some serious strides and Google is finding itself with increased competition. Although the world of AI and lens-based shopping isn’t new, it’s showing signs of being a useful marketing tactic for retailers and manufacturers who are on the leading edge of these advancements. 

 

Local SEO

Missing/disappearing reviews in Google Business Profile?

Many local SEOs and businesses have been experiencing losses of reviews displayed in their local panels.

In a recent thread on Localsearchforum.com, Joy Hawkins comments on how Google has become much stricter with filtering reviews and she makes a good suggestion. Instead of local businesses sending their customer a link for reviews, instruct them to Google search your business and leave a review independently. While this might result in fewer reviews being given, Joy says this is worth testing.

 

SEO Tools

LanguageTool: A cool tool for non-English writers! 

This is a free, helpful tool that not only helps find spelling, style, and grammar errors, but it does so for over 30 different languages — very helpful if you have multilingual content. LanguageTool can be added as a Chrome extension, to Google Docs or Microsoft Word, or you can even make use of the API. If you use Screaming Frog, their software makes use of LanguageTool for its spelling and grammar checks.

 

Fan of SEO tools and plugins? Maybe you’ll find this useful

If you’re looking for a list of SEO tools that you can use for affiliate websites, you might want to give this a look! Alek Asaduryan hooks us up with a comprehensive list of tools that he uses personally.

 

Recommended Reading

8 Technical SEO Challenges for Large Websites – Andrew McDermott
https://ipullrank.com/technical-seo-challenges-large-websites
June 2, 2022

The technical side of SEO can be challenging to begin with. In larger enterprises, it can be even more complex! In this amazing article, Andrew McDermott shares the 8 most common technical SEO issues that a lot of large websites encounter. 

 

Creating Internal Links For E-commerce Category Pages – Andrea Volpini
https://wordlift.io/blog/en/internal-linking-category-page/
June 9, 2022

This is a really helpful blog post that details a process you can use to automate internal links for eCommerce category pages using Python to create a widget that recommends similar categories. If you’re not into (or all that familiar with) Python, you can probably skip this article. However, there is still a lot of really interesting and valuable advice on the benefits of internal links in regards to connecting related content together. 

 

How to Earn Topical Authority in 2022 and Beyond – Zoe Ashbridge
https://moz.com/blog/how-to-earn-topical-authority
June 8, 2022

This is a detailed article on how to earn topical authority in 2022 and how it can help you rank better. In order to be considered topically authoritative, you need to be providing high-quality content that extols expertise on a particular topic. Check out the full article for more!

 

Targeting an International Audience with Less Content Duplication – Albadr Alhashemi
https://builtvisible.com/targeting-an-international-audience-with-less-content-duplication/
June 13, 2022

Globalization has not been a new concept for many, many decades. With the introduction of technologies and the world wide web, globalization has sped up to incredible levels. It has changed the way people live their lives, interact with each other and consume content. 

To learn more about the best approach to targeting international audiences, we recommend checking out Albadr’s article. 

 

Jobs

Want More?

Premium members also get the following:

It’s well worth the $18 per month!

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

  • Marie’s thoughts after the core update rollout
  • Why we should be paying attention to “Things to know”
  • Unsure about canonicalization? Read this awesome blog!
  • Got pages “excluded pages” in GSC? Here’s why and how to fix them!
  • Using entity search for a competitive advantage!
  • FAQs for SEOs
  • Quick tip on structuring your article content!
  • Does your business name have something unique?
  • Our tl;dr summary of some awesome recent SEO articles
You’ll also have access to all past episodes, including this one.
I

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