AI and SEO: What you need to know for the week of March 10, 2023 - Episode 277 - Light Version

Looking for the premium members version? Log in here or become a member

Last week’s episode (276)  See all episodes

In this episode, we’ll cover the latest and most relevant news on search and AI. 

  • What we know about the Product Reviews Update
  • New featured snippet design (important!)
  • An interview with Jeannie Hill on hiring expert authors for YMYL topics

In the full version

  • The latest news on AI and search
  • More on the helpful content system
  • Sitenames and favicons on desktop
  • Top Sights and Explore on desktop – not good for affiliates
  • More from Google on Bard & how they will likely add it to search
  • Tips to help you get the most out of ChatGPT
  • SEO Tips including using ChatGPT to assess product review / helpful content hits
  • Local search news including new LSA verticals, interesting local shopping stuff and more.

Also added a bit last minute about GPT4 possibly coming soon and a lot of people having indexing issues.

I really enjoyed writing this episode! I’m working on making them more concise and organized. It’s hard 😂

Become a paid member for the full version

Weekly email with a link to the full newsletter, plus also I email you as soon as I hear of a Google update happening. And you get a LOT more of my teachings and musings.

Join the free version

Same email, just a lot less!

Stay up to date on the latest on SEO & AI News

I'll send you an email each week once I've published newsletter.

Everything I've found interesting this week. Unsubscribe any time. Powered by Kit

Important news about Google's algorithms

1)The February Product Reviews Update has finished

From what I have seen so far, it feels to me like this update was not as impactful as other product reviews updates, but Barry Schwartz is reporting it actually was significant for quite a few sites. 

Dates: February 21 – March 7, 2023

What changed: Google made a point of saying that this update affects many languages other than English. 

What the SEO community is seeing. There are reports of sites dropping, but not as many as with other updates.

What my data shows. Most sites that I monitor are showing no obvious impact from this update. 

What the community is saying.

I spent some time reviewing one of the pages from this site:

I filmed a video with my thoughts and will be sharing this on YouTube in a few days hopefully. Here is my channel.

2) New featured snippets design

Last week we reported many people saw featured snippets disappear…looks like they were testing things because now we are seeing a new look for featured snippets with a bigger font and bolding for certain words.

I think it is fascinating to see which words are bolded. Each is essentially the answer to the searcher’s question.

3) Google’s site names and favicons are live on desktop now, globally

The parts I’ve highlighted below are what’s new – each listing has a favicon (logo) and their “Site Name”:

New favicons and Site Names in Search

Google linked to this blog post called Helping you easily identify information sources in Search. It says the purpose of adding these is the purpose of these is “providing even more information about the sites that you see so you can feel confident about the websites you visit.”

Ads are now labeled as “Sponsored” to help distinguish them from these new organic results.

My thoughts: This emphasizes the importance of your brand having E-E-A-T. Being recognized as an expert on your topic is one of Google’s helpful content questions:

If someone researched the site producing the content, would they come away with an impression that it is well-trusted or widely-recognized as an authority on its topic?

New Youtube Video - Jeannie Hill on expert authors for YMYL

Jeannie Hill reached out to share this article she wrote on how tools like ChatGPT can make expert authors even more valuable. I’d recommend reading it!

I had so much I wanted to chat about that I figured it would be quicker and better to do a video call. We discussed:

  • Using experts as authors
  • Are authors in the knowledge graph? I love the idea of each of us having a digital footprint or DNA
  • An interesting case where an author skimped on quality and used ChatGPT to write YMYL content. 
  • How I use ChatGPT to help improve my writing.

Local SEO News

New verticals for local service ads

Pay attention to local shopping results

Regarding store types not compatible with Pointy

I think we should be paying more attention to Pointy. It is a way to track inventory that Google is really pushing. My thought (without knowing as much as I should on the subject is that using Pointy is a way to quickly get your product into the shopping graph (which is likely important when Bard is live.)

Google Business Profiles asking for your BBB info

This likely does not mean that you a BBB listing is a ranking factor. Rather, it’s more information to help Google connect the dots in terms of EEAT and determine that you are a legitimate business.

The BBB is mentioned in the QRG. I wrote this article a few years ago to explain why that matters.

How to deal with fake reviews

SEO Jobs

Looking for a new SEO job? SEOjobs.com is a job board curated by real SEOs for SEOs. Take a look at five of the hottest SEO job listing this week (below) and sign up for the weekly job listing email only available at SEOjobs.com.

Marie's News

Course 

I am getting far! Mighty Networks is so intuitive.

Traffic Drop course coming

Community

I had several really good chats with colleagues today to discuss what my new community will look like. I am still debating several paths ranging from a low priced community to one that is private and expensive but for my network of clients. If you have thoughts, please do reach out to me. The course will be set up on Mighty Networks and the community will follow.

Office Hours 

I don’t have any planned for next week, but likely will do office hours the week after. Stay tuned.

Consulting

I have closed my consulting calendar for now.

If you need SEO consulting, here are a few options:

  • Sign up for my waiting list when I start doing site reviews again.
  • Contact me for a recommendation to a professional. (Please know I’m only in email 1-2 times per week now so there may be a bit of a delay in my response.)

If you made it this far, you are truly a dedicated reader! I thought I’d end by sharing our garden pics with you.

This is our fourth year with our garden. Here is what we produced last year:

Our 2022 garden

Many of those plants were ones we started from seed, but we bought a lot from a local nursery. This year we are experimenting with growing more and more of our own seeds.

We started planting seeds this week! Last year, we started at the traditional time, because everything we read said do not start early. This year we are experimenting with starting some early and some a few weeks from now. 

David read about humidity domes. The grow lights are from Amazon.

grow lights from amazon

 I cannot believe how quickly these shoots came up. These were all planted in the last 3-5 days. 

seedlings growing like magic

It’s a new Fortnite season today, so I’ll be off playing this afternoon. Have a great weekend!

Marie

Become a paid member for the full version

Weekly email with a link to the full newsletter, plus also I email you as soon as I hear of a Google update happening. And you get a LOT more of my teachings and musings.

Join the free version

Same email, just a lot less!

Stay up to date on the latest on SEO & AI News

I'll send you an email each week once I've published newsletter.

Everything I've found interesting this week. Unsubscribe any time. Powered by Kit

Premium Members Login

Lost your Password?