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Episode 93 - July 24, 2019 - Light Version

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In this episode, we'll provide our thoughts on the July algo turbulence starting July 13, some awesome tidbits from MozCon speakers, the latest Google announcements, and as always our recommended SEO news and tips.

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In this episode:

Paid members also get the following:

  • July 2019 Algorithm Turbulence
  • But the weather tools?
  • Author E-A-T: It is possible to rank using a pseudonym?
  • How established are you in your niche and what are people saying about you?
  • What counts as a truly good link?
  • Google claims they have plenty of competition in the search industry
  • The latest on GMB from Greg Gifford’s MozCon Presentation
  • How to effectively leverage Q&A
  • Google Posts: They perform well and yet they’re highly underutilized
  • Bad news for people who have lost reviews on their GMB
  • eComm’s, are you optimizing your out-of-stock pages?
  • How tabs could be screwing up your Analytics
  • Have you heard of the Evil Twin approach to content? Here’s an idea!
  • John’s reminder about the URL inspection tool’s capabilities
  • More MozCon tips on featured snippets
  • MHC’s theory on PageRank for YMYL sites
  • Are you a health/medical site with content written without relative medical expertise?
  • National SERPs don't exist (MozCon)
  • You can filter keywords by location in Moz's Keyword Explorer tool
  • Google added a section on JavaScript SEO Basics to their Search developer's guide
  • The benefits of using TL;DR on your blog posts
  • Mobile SERPs: Products tags make their appearance in images
  • Sound advice from MozCon
  • Additional MozCon highlights from 2019
  • My tl;dr summary of some awesome recent SEO and Local SEO articles

Algorithm Updates

July 2019 Algorithm Turbulence

There has been a large amount of activity in terms of Google algorithm updates over the last two weeks. I, Marie, was travelling to MozCon on July 14 when I heard a lot of chatter in online forums about a potential algorithm update starting July 13. Then, on July 17, there was a lot more chatter. A third wave of activity seemed to start July 20.

Some in the search community have named this turbulence, “Maverick”.

So what is going on? We're saving our algo update insight for our paid users. You can read them by signing up here.

MHC Announcements

Join Marie and Authority Labs for a webinar discussing core algorithm updates

The webinar will be on August 14, 2019 at 3pm EST. You can register here.

Google Announcements

Attention bug hunters: Google Chrome has upped their reward amounts!

In 2010, Chrome created the Chrome Vulnerability Rewards Program that pays researchers to report bugs. They have just announced that the payout has tripled, increasing from $5,000 to $15,000 and from $15,000 to $30,000 for the high quality reports. There are even higher rewards if you can believe it. Get searching! 

Join John Mueller this Friday for his GSuite Hangouts Meet test 

With the Google Hangouts winding down, John has motioned for a new alternative. Join him this Friday, July 26, at 9am CET.

Google SERP Changes

Possible updates to the Google Shopping box

Google looks like it's testing showing a couple of new buttons in a Shopping box: one for more details about a product, and one called "Shops", which shows places you can buy that item. As Barry Schwartz notes on Search Engine Roundtable, he wonders if maybe this is an ad.

SEO Tips

Authorship of your content and how to do it well

Keep an eye on how your competitors are appearing in the SERPs

Useful tip about creating content

Invest in human-readable quality signals

Does is make sense to and benefit the user? Then it’s a good investment! 

Efficiency is improving already great content rather than starting new

Optimizing for machines and humans have very similar goals

Areej AbuAli recently posted her MozCon Slide deck “Fixing the Indexability Challenge: A Data-Based Framework"

Areej’s talk walks you through her journey to solving a number of challenges for her client, including indexing and crawling issues for their 2.5 million URL property. 

Reminder: Google has not announced when a full rollout of mobile-first indexing will happen

To stay up to date with the latest mobile-first indexing news, you can check out our guide!

Sheets for Marketers with over 100 templates

We featured this back in episode 65 in January but there’s no denying this is an excellent resource. In case you missed it, check it out!

Other Interesting News

John Mueller on why you may not be seeing the Discover tab in GSC

Don’t sweat it, it’s not a quality issue! It turns out that that you just don’t have enough data for your site in the Discover feed for Google to work with.

https://twitter.com/JohnMu/status/1151108759831420929

Wondering how Google decides to show a larger video amongst the results in the video box desktop results?

It's algorithmic! John Mueller says that Google needs to be able to recognize the page as a video landing page, so make sure that's the case if this applies to you.

https://twitter.com/JohnMu/status/1151777420720185345

The US sees rollout of personalized Google Shopping homepage

Tested over the last year across the globe, the United States finally gets to experience the new Google Shopping homepage experience. This rollout appeared a few days back and it’s said that you can expect further countries to get on board sometime over the next year.

Want to be SEMrush’s host for their upcoming Global Marketing Day 2019?

Do you have what it takes to be a host for SEMrush’s upcoming 24 hour online marketing conference? You must be able to think on your feet, be funny and witty, and you must know the difference between SEO and PPC. The event is live so it requires a real showman (or show-woman) to take over the reigns for one of the following locations: Sydney, London, NYC, or San Francisco.

Whether you’re interested in becoming a speaker, a host, or a guest, spots are open! If you’re up to the challenge of being a host, be sure to connect with Anton Shulke on Twitter. Otherwise, check out the Global Marketing Day website for all of the information on the event.

Local SEO - Google SERP Changes

Google Maps is incentivizing lists in Maps

Go ahead and shortlist your favourite places! Do you have some go-to date night spots or perhaps some favourite brunch spots? Google Maps is asking users to create their own lists which will reward you with points provided your list is public. Even more, if you decide to provide a description to your list, that’ll earn you additional points.

Google Maps: Shortlist your top choices and poll your friends

Local SEO - Tips

The consequences of review-gating

Thinking about trying to channel out bad reviews? Think again! If you have a large enough review profile, it’s natural to have a poor review every now and again. However, if there’s a trend of these negative reviews, focus on improving your business overall!

Ranking in the local 3-pack can be accomplished faster than you think!

Negative reviews about a press mention, here’s what you should know

If you've had some negative press and had people leaving one-star reviews on your GMB, you can do something about it.

Questions asked in your GMB's Q&A can be leads or misplaced reviews, so pay attention!

How important are suite numbers in GMB?

Though they’re not used for ranking purposes, they are important should you encounter some kind of suspension!

Local SEO - Other Interesting News

Resolved: The issue causing business owners to be unable to respond to Q&A on their GMB

Nearly a month exactly is what it took for Google to resolve this issue where anytime a business tried to respond to a Q&A on their GMB, the response came from the owner’s personal account rather than the business account.

Bug: GMB reinstatement request form 

With a reinstatement request the only thing that will get users to fix their listings and surpass the fake ones, this presented a bit of a problem. All that users could see was the title the page. No need to worry though, it is fixed, so you can happily reinstate your request. 

Recommended Reading

The Truth About Domain Authority: What Every SEO Needs to Understand – Julie Joyce
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/truth-about-domain-authority/316857/
July 18, 2019

Domain Authority or DA is a metric that was created by Moz and is a measurement of how well a website should rank using a scale from 0-100. This article breaks it down and how SEOs should be looking at it. 

 

DeepCrawl’s Ultimate Guide to Enterprise SEO – DeepCrawl
https://marketing.deepcrawl.com/acton/media/31628/enterprise-seo-white-paper
July 17, 2019

This is a fantastic resource on enterprise SEO and the challenges it presents as far as the scale. How do you manage a website in the hundreds of thousands if not millions of pages when it comes to identifying SEO pitfalls and implementing fixes? What if there are multiple websites under one umbrella?  This resource is a must-read for any SEO working with enterprise-level websites.

 

Google and the Case of Mistaken Identity – Ari Roth
https://www.fiveblocks.com/great-google-id-mystery/
July 17, 2019 

Announced back in June of 2018, the knowledge panel has become a staple of search for all things notable people, organizations, and things on Google.  In this article, Ari outlines that there are multiple notable Ari Roth’s, himself and an American theatrical producer. Being that Google was putting incorrect social profiles on the other Ari Roth’s knowledge panel, it sparked an experiment -- one that indicated that changes/edits can be done by anyone with the same name.

 

How to Identify & Reduce Render-Blocking Resources – Abby Hamilton
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/identify-reduce-render-blocking-resources/316365/
July 22, 2019

This is an excellent article which covers the importance of optimizing the critical rendering path to allow users to have a much more pleasurable experience on your site. You can learn about render-blocking resources, how to spot them, methods to reduce them, and more. 

 

Confirmed: Google Terminated Project Dragonfly, Its Censored Chinese Search Engine – Jean Baptiste Su
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeanbaptiste/2019/07/19/confirmed-google-terminated-project-dragonfly-its-censored-chinese-search-engine/#1581f5e07e84
July 19, 2019

Project Dragonfly was a secret censored search engine that Google planned to implement into China. In 2010, Google exited China because of their strict censorship requirements not meeting Google’s mission. Well it seems that in 2017 that changed. To read more about what was said during the Senate judiciary meeting, you can read the full article. 

 

Testimonials: A Link Building “X-Factor” Strategy — Infographic – James Reynolds
https://medium.com/@james_reynolds/testimonials-a-link-building-x-factor-strategy-80667ac146be
June 20, 2019

Link building has always been an important component of SEO strategy. Doing it right is what people often overlook. This article looks into testimonials as a method of link building done right. 

Recommended Reading (Local SEO)

From Zero to Local Ranking Hero – MozCon 2019 – Darren Shaw
https://whitespark.ca/blog/from-zero-to-local-ranking-hero-mozcon-2019/
July 15, 2019

This was a really interesting case study that came from Darren Shaw’s talk at MozCon last week.  This is a really great way to see what an SEO would likely do to build an online presence for a new business, and Darren does a really great job of explaining why he does each thing, providing a lot of valuable insight into why each tactic is being done.

Jobs

 

Want More?

Paid members also get the following:

  • July 2019 Algorithm Turbulence
  • But the weather tools?
  • Author E-A-T: It is possible to rank using a pseudonym?
  • How established are you in your niche and what are people saying about you?
  • What counts as a truly good link?
  • Google claims they have plenty of competition in the search industry
  • The latest on GMB from Greg Gifford’s MozCon Presentation
  • How to effectively leverage Q&A
  • Google Posts: They perform well and yet they’re highly underutilized
  • Bad news for people who have lost reviews on their GMB
  • eComm’s, are you optimizing your out-of-stock pages?
  • How tabs could be screwing up your Analytics
  • Have you heard of the Evil Twin approach to content? Here’s an idea!
  • John’s reminder about the URL inspection tool’s capabilities
  • More MozCon tips on featured snippets
  • MHC’s theory on PageRank for YMYL sites
  • Are you a health/medical site with content written without relative medical expertise?
  • National SERPs don't exist (MozCon)
  • You can filter keywords by location in Moz's Keyword Explorer tool
  • Google added a section on JavaScript SEO Basics to their Search developer's guide
  • The benefits of using TL;DR on your blog posts
  • Mobile SERPs: Products tags make their appearance in images
  • Sound advice from MozCon
  • Additional MozCon highlights from 2019
  • My tl;dr summary of some awesome recent SEO and Local SEO articles

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Paul Macnamara - Offers SEO Consulting at PaulMacnamara.com

That's it for this episode! Stay tuned for our Youtube video (my channel is here). If you want to follow me on Facebook, here is my page.

 

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