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#SEOSLY SEO Newsletter
Hi everyone! Long time, no see. Here is a short and more personal update from me... Last year was extremely busy for me and I definitely worked too much.
This year I am focusing more on work-life balance and doing more fun projects like this SEO newsletter, writing articles for my SEOSLY blog, and recording more SEO rants on my SEO YouTube channel.
Finally, I will also be launching the SEO course and SEO community that I’ve been working on and planning for nearly two years now... The SEO course and community will be the places where I share the best of my SEO knowledge and experience.
And that’s not everything.
New SEO Newsletter Structure
The content and structure of this SEO newsletter is also starting to change from this issue onward. Instead of getting one very long email once a week or twice a month, you can expect to get 2-3 shorter emails every week.I will be sharing SEO news, interesting SEO resources, SEO tips, and new SEO stuff from me.
What all of this means is that you can expect to hear more from me in 2024. But don’t worry, I won’t be spamming you! Sharing cool SEO stuff with you is the best way for me to learn as well, so I will benefit from it just as much as you.
With that said, let’s get to the first issue of the new SEO newsletter structure in which we can expect a blend of SEO news, my own commentary, SEO tips, and some super interesting resources.
Here is the video I've just recorded that talks about work-life balance and SEO and my plans for the future.
Join me live on Feb 29, 2024
I invite you to take part in this LIVE event with me Olga Zarr and Jason Barnard where we talk all about the latest Google Knowledge Vault updates, what's new after the Killer WHALE update, why people should build Knowledge Panels (including NEEATT benefits), and more!
Click "Notify me" not to miss this event.
SEO as we know it is not going away (just yet)
Everyone is now talking about SEO dying or going away and being replaced by AI. It is easy to panic and start questioning whether this is the SEO career we should still be pursuing.
I like to compare our fear to the fear of a “traditional” car maker who is afraid of autonomous cars taking away his business. Just like this car maker will have to adapt and change a lot, we SEOs will have to simply do the same.
SEO is changing and it has been changing and evolving ever since.
However, as of now, the SEO as we know it still works and it is definitely not a good idea to give it up and start looking for the next big SEO/AI thing that will magically earn you millions of dollars and let you live happily after the SEO apocalypse.
I expect the change to be slow and gradual. We still have time to prepare and learn the new SEO as it is changing. This is going to be one of my top goals to help you all navigate through the changing landscape of SEO.
Stay calm and do SEO!
P.S. I invite you to check my recent article (with a corresponding video) on how to become an SEO expert in 2024. All tactics proven to work!
On-page SEO works is 80% of your SEO success
Don’t quote me on that percentage (clickbait) but on-page SEO is STILL the most important aspect of SEO.
There are situations where rankings won’t move without links, of course. But to succeed in SEO, you need to be able to tell when you need more links and when you need more on-page SEO.
If you need more on-page SEO, you need to know exactly what you are missing. There are hundreds of hundreds of factors influencing the position of your site in SERPs.
How can you know which ones play a significant role for your website for a particular query? By measuring which ones work for your competitors and which ones you are missing.
The only good and reliable way of doing this that I know of right now is to use the Cora SEO tool. Yes, I am its affiliate but this is not why I am recommending this tool.
This tool has really been transformational for my SEO and I will soon be publishing an entire series of videos showing you exactly how it works and how it can change your SEO game.
You don’t need to sign up for Cora right now even though I have a 25% discount for my newsletter subscribers.
You can simply watch the video where I interview Ted Kubaitis, who is the creator of Cora. Or you can wait for the Core SEO series on my YouTube SEO channel.
SEO news worth knowing this week
A lot has been happening in the SEO industry recently and here is the most important SEO news you should be aware of.
The SEO Starter Guide got a makeover
If you are like me, the chances are you know the SEO Starter Guide by heart. Now, you need to relearn it as it has been refreshed.
I haven’t fully analyzed what’s changed but it looks like some outdated sections like mobile friendliness have been removed and others have been compressed.
There is also the section that lists things Google believes you should not focus on.
Guess what’s on the list? Meta keywords, keyword stuffing, keywords in the URL/domain, minimum or maximum content length, PageRank, E-E-A-T being a ranking factor, number and order of headings, or duplicate content “penalty”.
Google working on resolving an indexing issue
Has your site been experiencing indexing issues recently? Well, you are probably not alone.
If you visit the Google Search Status Dashboard, you will see that there is an issue with indexing.
Google has confirmed an indexing issue affecting some sites, causing slower than usual indexing over the past several hours; Google is investigating the root cause and hopes to resolve the issue soon.
We all hope this gets resolved soon too.
Interaction to Next Paint becomes a Core Web Vital on March 12
Interaction to Next Paint (INP) will officially become a Core Web Vital, replacing First Input Delay (FID), on March 12th, 2024. After this change, FID will be deprecated from the Web Vitals program over a 6-month transition period.
While Core Web Vitals are a (tiny) ranking factor, they are just one of many. There is no need to panic or obsess overly about them. Based on my experience and that of others, a website can still rank well even if it does not fully pass all Core Web Vitals thresholds. The best approach is to view them as a set of general web performance guidelines that can improve user experience.
If you have to learn more about this topic, I invite you to watch my recent video on Bulk Core Web Vitals Analysis & Why Core Web Vitals Don't Really Matter.
Google Search officially retires cache link
Google has officially removed the cache link from search results snippets and will soon retire the cache functionality completely. The cache operator currently still works to access cached pages, but this will also stop working in the near future.
Google's Danny Sullivan has suggested potentially adding links to archived versions of pages on the Wayback Machine in place of the cache link, to allow people to see how a page has changed over time, but this is not confirmed. The cache has been used by many SEOs and searchers over the years as a debugging tool, so they will have to find alternatives going forward.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai talks future of SGE, Gemini, Ads and AI Search
I am definitely not as good as Marie Haynes when it comes to tracking and analyzing what’s going on in the SEO & AI world. However, this specific piece of news seems important. In a nutshell:
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Google is continuing to test and refine its Search Generative Experience (SGE), with CEO Sundar Pichai feeling "very good" about its progress. SGE surfaces more links to a wider range of sources and is providing answers for more complex, conversational queries.
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The launch of AI model Gemini has ushered in a new "Gemini era" for Google products, with the more advanced Gemini Ultra model coming soon.
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Looking further ahead, Google envisions search evolving to act more as an "agent" that goes beyond just providing answers and can follow through for users.
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However, ads will continue playing an important role, with Google experimenting with new ad formats native to SGE.
Interesting SEO Tips
From time to time, Google likes to share SEO tips. Sometimes they are really good ones. Here are the best SEO tips that Google has shared recently.
Danny Sullivan on how to make the article more helpful
Google's Search Liaison Danny Sullivan provided specific feedback to a site owner on how to make a particular article more helpful, including making it clearer there is original content, showing experience with the topic, ensuring the content satisfies the searcher's intent, and keeping the content up-to-date rather than feeling out-of-date.
I have recently gone through the entire Google documentation on E-E-A-T/YMYL, Google core updates, and Google helpful content to come up with a very long checklist of things to do when evaluating your site for those things.
I am still hesitant if I want to share it publicly as I am afraid of people misunderstanding it.
HTML structure does not impact rankings
Google's Gary Illyes stated in a recent episode of the Search Off the Record that HTML structure does not matter much for rankings, contrary to what some SEOs believe.
He explained that having all sites follow the same structure would make for a boring internet. While elements like headings, title tags, and paragraphs are useful, obsessing over the page structure and having a template that works for every site is futile in his view.
Illyes later clarified that "doesn't matter much" doesn't mean it doesn't matter at all, but SEOs shouldn't obsess over structure purely for rankings; they should do what works best for users and developers. The guidance reiterates previous statements from Google that clear content structure may help users but won't hurt or help sites rank.
About Google firing search quality raters
Roger Montti offers a bunch of facts about Google firing the search quality raters and what it means for the future.
Contrary to speculation, Google is not eliminating its use of human search quality raters, as it employs multiple companies, not just Appen, to provide these services. The reason for firing Appen remains unclear, though cost-cutting is suspected.
Additionally, Google already utilizes AI and algorithms at scale to rate websites, through systems like Helpful Content, Reviews, and SpamBrain. While Google may eventually replace human raters with AI given their value for training data, this is not currently happening. The recent events do not signify the dawn of AI domination over search quality assessments.
Rather, machines rating pages is already occurring and will continue to be augmented. So while changes are underway, it does not fundamentally transform how quality is evaluated. The practice of using both human raters and AI will likely persist into the foreseeable future.
A pretty cool custom GPT for local SEO
Ryan from Norzer has created a custom GPT tool that generates an extensive framework and suggestions for creating service landing pages, based on a given keyword and location input.
It produces an outline for landing page content, knowledge graph data, optimized titles and meta descriptions, top keywords and entities, FAQs, n-grams, related questions, AI image prompts, niche and content ideas, and general business advice.
It is really cool!
Google Search Console Bulk URL Inspection
I have written a guide with a corresponding video on Google Search Console bulk URL Inspection. I think you may like it.
The Google Search Console URL Inspection tool provides detailed crawl, index, and serving information about individual pages, but inspecting many URLs manually is tedious. Bulk URL inspection through the Search Console API allows simultaneously checking multiple URLs to analyze site-wide crawlability and indexing much faster, with tools like JetOctopus simplifying the process. Common use cases include auditing site migrations, monitoring new content indexing, identifying issues causing traffic drops, and periodic sampling to assess overall SEO health.
How SEOs make the web better
You probably remember the popular Verge article claiming that SEOs ruin the internet. Ahrefs has published a response arguing that SEOs actually make the web better. I totally agree with that!
Some of the points Ryan Law - the author of the article - makes are quite good:
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SEOs help small businesses and other non-technical website owners benefit from search traffic by offering guidance on technical issues, identifying content opportunities, and making sites search-engine friendly.
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They also pressure test and expose issues in search systems, which forces platforms like Google to address problems and loopholes, ultimately enhancing the overall search experience.
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Many ethical SEOs actively report bugs, call out issues with search quality at scale, and analyze how systems operate to differentiate fact from fiction.
Wix’s new Zapier integration
Wix has launched an updated integration with Zapier to simplify connecting Wix sites with other apps. Key Wix features can now trigger automations to seamlessly transfer data between a Wix site and over 6,000 external apps Zapier supports, including Google Sheets, HubSpot, and ActiveCampaign. The upgraded functionality lets site owners easily sync their Wix site with helpful business tools in a few clicks without needing coding skills.
More cool stuff coming soon. Stay tuned! |
