Search Engine Journal: Google Algorithms & Updates Focused On User Experience: A Timeline. “In this article, I examine a combination of some (not all) Google updates and technological advancements that significantly reflect the search engine’s focus on the human user and their experiences online – from Panda in 2011 through to Page and Product Experience in 2021 and 2022.”
Search Engine Land: 11 Google Sheets formulas SEOs should know. “While it’s not great at plotting ranking data (inverting the y-axis is always ugly), there are numerous ways to use Google Sheets for SEO. Here are 11 of the formulas and tips I find myself using for SEO on an almost daily basis – for keyword management, internationalization, content/URL management and dashboards.” Just ignore the SEO part. This is an excellent roundup of Google Sheets functions with quick, digestible examples.
WIRED: Brave Now Lets You Customize Search Results—for Better or Worse. “For instance, a Goggle (not to be confused with Google) can strip Pinterest pages from your search results; it can show only results from tech blogs or boost articles from either left- or right-leaning political news sources. Essentially, they put you in charge of the search results you see. The move is the first for a search engine.” I just spent a little time looking at this and oh boy, am I going to have some fun.
Search Engine Journal: SEO For Non-Profits: 7 Tips To Help Your Organization Get Found. “I have had the opportunity to work with many spanning focuses and missions aimed at healthcare, education, performing arts, adoption, orphanages, and more. Within each non-profit, I have found tips that help regardless of most focuses and circumstances. From solid funding to grassroots organizations, there’s a lot to be gained by focusing on seven SEO tips to help your organization get found.” As I have said before, I hate SEO. But I realize it’s important, and I will share articles that have a high useful-to-garbage ratio. SEJ is always quality.
Search Engine Journal: Has Google’s SEO Office Hours Lost Its Spark?. “Previously the SEO Office Hours format permitted live questions and answers. That’s gone now. What Google is presenting are pre-screened questions with pre-screened answers. The new format gives Mueller time to choose questions and research good answers ahead of time. The answer Mueller provided is good but it also highlights a downside of Google’s new Q&A format that feels scripted and safe to the point that the information closely mirrors Google’s official documentation.”
Search Engine Journal: Tips For Avoiding Misinformation In SEO Resources & Conversations. “For every idea proposed, there are others in the SEO industry who disagree. Turning to Google for help isn’t always helpful because Google ranks information about SEO that Googlers themselves are on record saying is wrong. There is a way to cut through the noise and figure out which information is likely valid and which information is smoke and mirrors.” I can’t stand SEO because so much of what’s out there is garbage. This is a helpful article for cutting through the junk.
CNET: Google, YouTube and Bing Rank Chinese State Media High for COVID, Xinjiang Info. “China exploits how search engines work to influence public opinion outside the country, by landing state-published stories about the detention of Uyghur Muslims and the origins of the coronavirus at the top of Google, YouTube and Bing searches.”
Search Engine Land: Google search results spam for ‘Bill Slawski obituary’ shows the dark side of SEO. “We reported yesterday the sad news that Bill Slawski has died. It’s less than 24 hours later and no actual obituary has been published (either by a news site or funeral home). Yet, Google’s search results are littered with spammy results.”
Search Engine Journal: How To Optimize YouTube Videos To Help Ukraine. “Optimize YouTube videos to #standwithukraine by incorporating video SEO best practices. Find tips for keyword research, custom thumbnails, and more.”
Search Engine Land: Vimeo adds structured data to all public videos to improve Google Search visibility. “Vimeo, a popular video hosting platform (obviously not as popular as YouTube), has added structured data to all of its publicly available videos on its platform. Vimeo said the SEO changes they made to the videos will give ‘your videos the best opportunity to appear for relevant searches.’”
Search Engine Land: DMCA request removes Moz from Google Search index. “If you search for [Moz] in Google Search, you won’t be seeing the moz.com home page, that page was removed from the Google index due to a DMCA takedown request. The takedown complaint cites that Moz’s home page, along with 185 other URLs were ‘distribute modified, cracked and unauthorized versions’ of the Dr. Driving app.” Moz has since been restored.
Search Engine Roundtable: Possible Google Search Algorithm Update May 1st With Rumbles All Week. “For the past week, I have been seeing a different pattern with a possible Google search ranking algorithm update. The forums and SEO discussion around a possible Google update was brewing a good part of last week but the automated tracking tools, most of them, didn’t really pick up signs of a Google update.”
Search Engine Journal: How To Find And Fix Broken Internal Links. “Broken internal links can frustrate visitors and cause them to leave your site. They can also hurt your website’s search engine optimization (SEO). But don’t worry. There are ways that you can easily find and fix these broken links yourself. It will take some time, but it will be worth it in the long run for both your users and your website.” The usual good work by Search Engine Journal.
Search Engine Journal: Is Google Search Worse? Many Seem to Agree. “A member of Reddit asked if Google search was becoming worse and thousands of others responded overwhelmingly that Google search was not showing what they were looking for. The SEO community on Twitter picked up the discussion and largely agreed.”
The Next Web: Google says it classifies AI-generated content as ‘spam’. “All the publishers and editors out there thinking of replacing their journalists with AI might want to pump their brakes. Everybody’s boss, the Google algorithm, classifies AI-generated content as spam.” I’m putting this statement next to my experiences running into the scrape-and-spit copycat sites that have taken over Google News and giving myself a bit of a headache trying to reconcile them.
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