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ποΈ Search Updates and News from Search Engines
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βGoogle Search Central / Google Search Updates βGoogle began rolling out the June 2024 spam update on June 20, which should take a week to complete.
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βFrequently Asked Questions about AI Overviews βGoogle Search Community / Search Trends βGoogle has answered the most common questions about AI Overviews to help understand the new feature and how it can enhance search experience.
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βGoogle Warns On Using JavaScript For Structured Dataβ βBarry Schwartz / Google Search Guidelines β"Google Merchant Center crawlers can and do process structured data when generated with JavaScript but they have seen quality and inconsistency issues with these implementations, so they recommend you do not use it."
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βGoogle Search Images Go Missing? Might Be A Quality Issueβ βBarry Schwartz / Google Search Q&A βGoogle responded to the issue of image thumbnails not appearing in the Google Search result listings, saying it is not a technical thing for most sites but rather a quality issue.
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βBarry Schwartz / Apple Product Updates βApple has made some big changes to the Applebot documentation by adding more about Applebot, reverse DNS details, Applebot-Extended and more.
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βOpenAI announces the acquisition of Rocksetβ ββOpenAI / OpenAI Product Updates βOpenAI is enhancing its retrieval infrastructure to make AI more helpful: βWe will integrate Rocksetβs technology to power our retrieval infrastructure across products, and members of Rocksetβs world-class team will join OpenAIβ.
[Sponsor / Affiliate]β ββ‘ Screaming Frog SEO Spider Version 20.0
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Screaming Frog SEO Spider Version 20.0 is now available πΈ New features include:
Custom JavaScript Snippets: Execute custom JavaScript during crawls to manipulate pages, extract data, and communicate with APIs, including OpenAIβs ChatGPT.
Crawl with ChatGPT, Google Gemini, etc.: Use OpenAIβs API to generate alt text, meta descriptions, and more while crawling.
Mobile Usability: Audit mobile usability at scale with Lighthouse integration, identifying common issues like viewport settings and tap target sizes.
N-grams Analysis: Analyse phrase frequency to improve on-page alignment, identify keyword gaps, and find internal linking opportunities.
Carbon Footprint: Automatically calculate and rate the carbon emissions of each page to promote a more sustainable web.
And much more. Check our release notes for a full list!
I was recently asked about βadvancedβ SEO. There are a few main scenarios that I see requiring more than the βbasicβ SEO skills due to the challenges or complexities they tend to have, for which I would recommend hiring SEO specialists with comprehensive experience in them:
New (or far weaker) brand / site in a very competitive search market, with the main challenge being resource prioritization for cost effective and fast enough impact. A key skill to win here is product / brand USP understanding, alignment and strategic target & prioritization on those feasible queries that actually matter to attract early customers and start growing brand authority/popularity fast.
Large bureaucratic or global / distributed organizations with a presence across the world, requiring strong management skills to secure resources (vs other areas) and influence to get execution support from other teams -that can be distributed across the world, with different cultures, communication and management criteria and styles- you donβt directly control fast enough to compete with other well established players. Knowing how to communicate and earn trust and support with non-technical decision makers is fundamental. Youβll need to over-communicate, project management skills, develop forecasts, run tests, pilot projects, etc.
Big or technically complex sites to optimize: From sites with very old or blended CMS with high technical debt and restrictions to large dynamic sites with multi millions URLs (think marketplaces, e-commerce) where you need to execute at scale. You'll need to have deep technical SEO understanding and experience dealing with the particular tech stack to effectively communicate, establish workarounds and prioritize with the development and product management teams. In many of these scenarios working with big sites, a programmatic approach becomes a need for cost effectiveness, while keeping the necessary quality and relevance requirements to achieve goals and avoid crawl budget and indexing challenges. From internal linking to indexing rules or description generation, all needs to be dealt with product and development support and at scale.
Rebranding of a popular brand, attracting a high share of branded traffic, having to move to a new, non-established domain / brand, for which besides following Web migration SEO best practices to refer the existing traffic by redirecting with effective URL mapping, consolidation and redirect rules towards the new site/design while keeping relevance for non-branded terms, you'll need to work to develop a strategy to enable a presence that can (temporarily) keep the former branded rankings until the new brand is "picked up" by users and Google, as well as to develop brand/entity awareness optimization/promotion as part of the new site SEO process to grow it fast for the new domain.
A site with a business model that is not aligned or is directly against organic search findability requirements, having to establish product presence extension, alternatives or workarounds to allow it to be found whenever and however is needed. A deep understanding and influence on the product are critical to establishing and developing the extended web presence required to rank.
Dealing with a Web product / site that a Google feature (or need/filter) is commoditizing, giving by default less visibility/traffic. Youβll need to compete directly with them, and identify strategic opportunities / alternatives for areas / topics not yet affected and new areas to grow.
I shared about some of these and asked about what other scenarios you would include in LinkedIn, with a few interesting comments.
The impact of AI Overviews on traffic so far
In last week's SEOFOMO poll, I asked "How have AI Overviews impacted your site's organic search traffic so far?" and aligned with the recent studies and my own tracking data showing an important AIO SERP inclusion decrease, most haven't seen any impact with:
42.9% answering "overall no impact",
38.9% saying that they're "not monitoring yet"
17.5% answered they had seen a negative impact.
Unfortunately, it's currently challenging to track AIO inclusions using Google's Search Console as Brodie Clark showed in his latest experiment. Let's hope Google releases a new filter in the Search Console for them soon.
In the meantime, you can monitor AI Overviews using tools like ZipTie (which I'm using for it), as well as the free Google AI Overview Impact Analysis Chrome extension that allows you to check them in bulk... and then wait until they start to be consistently shown again to assess for traffic impact.
βCyrus Shepard / Search Trends βAre recent Google updates now targeting SEO practices to demote informational sites that are βtoo optimized?β Cyrus researched 50 sites that won and lost recent Google updates to find out.
β20 SEOs Share Their Key Takeaways From the Google API Leaks βChima Mmeje / Search Trends βChima invited 20 SEOs to share insights from the recent Google API documentation leak with actionable advice to help you become a better SEO strategist.
βThe End of the Era of SEO Links. What Lies Aheadβ βAlexandra Tachalova / Link Building βExplore the future of link building in SEO. Alexandra shares the different perspectives on link building in this guide. β
βBuild a Custom Named Entity Visualizer with Google NLP βGreg Bernhardt / Technical SEO βGreg developed a Python script to help you build the starting framework for processing your text content through Google Natural Language API and then transform it into a visual that labels and color codes entity types.
βSEOFOMO βDon't wait until the next week to receive the latest SEO news! Follow the new SEOFOMO News Whatsapp channel to keep updated about the latest in SEO daily.
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βSEOFOMO Jobs Whatsapp Channel βSEOFOMO βDon't miss out and receive the latest SEO and PPC jobs as soon as they're published in the SEOFOMO job board by following the SEOFOMO Jobs Whatsapp channel.
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βFree Domain Ideas βHodgetastic βThe simple way to find the perfect .com domain name for your project, starting with just a single word.
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Are you looking for more SEO Tools? Take a look at the SEOFOMO SEO Toolboxβ
ποΈ Upcoming SEO Events
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βSearch Central Live Bangkok 2024 ββGoogle Search Central / Bangkok, Thailand / August 9, 2024 βGoogle Search Central Live is going to Bangkok on August 9. Registrations will be open until July 22, and confirmations will be sent on July 29.
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βGA4 for SEO - How data helps businesses grow βJeff Sauer / Online / On Demand βGain a thorough understanding of what GA4 has to offer so you can deliver better experiences and drive results with this course by Jeff Sauer.
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βThe SEOFOMO Meetup - Amsterdam Edition with Digital Olympus βSEOFOMO, Digital Olympus / Amsterdam, The Netherlands / September 13, 2024 βJoin The Free SEOFOMO Meetup - Amsterdam Edition with Digital Olympus, on September 13 at 5:30pm and get to learn & connect with other SEOs.
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βAhrefs Evolve 2024 βahrefs / Singapore / October 24-25, 2024 β2 days in sunny Singapore, 500 digital marketing enthusiasts, 18 top speakers from around the world. Join and let the magic happen.
Gareth Hoyle (X, LinkedIn), Managing Director at Marketing Signals
Shelby Blackley (X, LinkedIn), Manager, Newsroom SEO at The Athletic
Expect more awesome SEOs & digital marketers to follow every week. Do you have any suggestions? Just let me know over here!β
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* Refer 2 Subscribers: Get a shout-out on X/Twitter and LinkedIn from Aleyda, thanking your support. * Refer 5 Subscribers: Get featured in the "Supporters" thank you section in an edition of SEOFOMO. * Refer 15 Subscribers: Get access to 3 Actionable (exclusive) SEO How-Tos / Tips Videos. * Refer 35 Subscribers: Get a free copy of The SEO Playbook by Tomek Rudzki. * Refer 70 Subscribers: Get free access to the Google Search Console Mastery Course by Tomek Rudzki * Refer 100 Subscribers: Get 1 Year Team Subscription to SEOTesting.com * Refer 200 Subscribers: Get 1 Access to SE Ranking Essential for 1 Year * Refer 300 Subscribers: Get 1 Access to JetOctopus 500K Pages for 1 Year * Refer 400 Subscribers: Get 1 Access to Advanced Web Ranking Agency Package for 1 Year * Refer 500 Subscribers: Get a 1 hour SEO 1-1 Hangout w/ Aleyda, an Awesome SEOFOMO Hoodie and Mug