SNYCU Episode 113 - December 18, 2019 - Light Version
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In our last episode of 2019 we discuss a knowledge graph update, a special newsletter giveaway, our concluding thoughts on the Wix SEO Competition, the best 2019/2020 SEO tips from experts around the world, Google changes and much more.
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In this episode:
- Algorithm Updates
- MHC Announcements
- Final Newsletter of 2019
- It’s the 12 days of Christmas at MHC (hint: free SNYCU subscriptions below)
- Wix SEO Battle Wrap-up
- Need a second opinion on your links?
- Google Announcements
- BERT still only for 10% of queries despite world-wide launch
- Chrome 79 rollout means warnings now visible for mixed content, plus many other features
- Google is updating Google News Stories for machine learning and BERT
- New ‘App + Web’ properties arrive in Google Analytics
- Google News site: search out of order
- Google’s new news oneboxes
- Possible reporting bug in Google Analytics
- SEO Tips
- Google talks meta tags and canonicalization
- Other Interesting News
- The Live Coverage documentation has disappeared from the Google Developers -- but it’s not gone
- Have your say! ConvertKit is looking for input on their creator dashboard
- Local SEO - Google SERP Changes
- GMB showing ‘areas served’
- Test: Pages from website are getting pulled into the local pack
- Google testing local service ads for realtors
- Local SEO - Other Interesting News
- Missing reviews in local, could this be why?
- SEO Tools
- What is your paid SEO tool of choice?
- Recommended Reading
- Want More?
Paid members also get the following:
- There was an interesting Knowledge Graph update this summer
- SEO’s weigh in on their best tips of 2019 or for the upcoming year
- Google explains how they use machine learning in search
- The latest on Google updating the Googlebot user agent
- Google Discover data in the Performance Report is now fresher
- Google Publisher Center was revamped + possible issues
- Attention podcast lovers! Google has introduced personalized episode recommendations, based on your listening habits
- When does the site: command show noindexed pages in the results?
- Doorway pages are still not okay
- GSC training covers the 7 ways to verify site ownership
- Aleyda Solis sits down with the Google Webmaster Trends Analysts
- Google displaying carousels of reviews on local business profiles
- Metropolitan areas available for GMB service areas
- Review carousel showing query phrases
- Hack to get a larger image for a GMB Post
- Importance of answering your Q&A
- Reminder: Martin Splitt and Lizzy Harvey have a tool to help you implement dynamic rendering and set up a Google Cloud project
- My tl;dr summary of some awesome recent SEO and Local SEO articles
Algorithm Updates
We did not identify a single date this week as an obvious Google update day. However, we did have a few clients seeing changes around December 11. At this point, there is not enough evidence for us to call December 11 any significant.
Search Engine Roundtable has a writeup showing some increase in chatter surrounding December 11. We’ll keep an eye on things and let you know whether this turns out to be more significant after all. For now though, we feel that seasonality can explain most of the changes that we are seeing.
MHC Announcements
Final Newsletter of 2019
This is our final newsletter of 2019 as it the MHC team will be taking a holiday break and regrouping in January. Thank you for such a great year of SNYCU and we look forward to sharing newsletter again January 8th, 2020! Wishing you all a happy holiday and new year!
It’s the 12 days of Christmas at MHC (hint: free SNYCU subscriptions below)
We’re feeling generous this holiday season and want to give away FIVE complimentary one-year subscriptions of our paid newsletter. Already subscribed? No problem, we’ll waive your fee.
All you have to do is find our holiday John Mueller easter eggs hidden on our Wix SEO site before the contest ends tomorrow at noon. Find all 12 letters hidden on the easter eggs, spell the word, and be the first to dm us @WixSEOLovers and the prize is yours!
Each of the 12 squares below has been placed on different pages of the Wix site with a letter in the bottom left corner. Happy hunting!
Wix SEO Battle Wrap-up
We wrote a post on our concluding thoughts on the Wix SEO contest as it wraps up this week.
The team discusses Wix limitations, positives and our experience as the Wix SEO Lovers this past few months. You can read our battle wrap-up here.
Get your fill of our SEO guides, games and memes before they are gone over at www.wixseolovers.com
Need a second opinion on your links?
At MHC, we offer link auditing and overviews as a service. If you’re unsure if you need an audit, you can start with an overview where we will carefully examine your links and determine if an audit is necessary. Contact us to inquire about this service. Additionally, we have a 100% success rate at removing unnatural link penalties. We’d love to help!
Not sure if you should have your links audited? If you fall into any of these categories, you may want a second opinion.
Find more about this week's #TipTuesday in our newsletter tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/jETnssfjCH
— WixSEOLovers (@WixSEOLovers) December 17, 2019
Google Announcements
BERT still only for 10% of queries despite world-wide launch
It’s important to remember that despite being launched in over 70 countries, BERT only impacts approximately 1 in 10 queries. This means that 90% of queries will not use BERT. To see a list of the languages BERT now includes, read our BERT section of episode 112.
Google BERT is still only for ~10% of queries even with the international launch in 70+ languages https://t.co/ooLgF52FNZ pic.twitter.com/7fiBGJ6ELf
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) December 11, 2019
It varies by language but is generally in line with the 1 of 10 figure we shared about US English.
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) December 10, 2019
Chrome 79 rollout means warnings now visible for mixed content, plus many other features
Some of the other features include a built in password checkup tool, blacklisting of bad sites in realtime, predictive phishing for everyone, tab freezing, warning for mixed content in https, new UI for the Chrome profile, and back-forward button caching.
Heads-up! "With this release, Google starts rolling out warnings for "mixed content" -> Google rolls out Chrome 79 adding real-time blacklisting of bad sites, predictive phishing, & warnings for "mixed content" https://t.co/BkHZXUBJ3B pic.twitter.com/Hs6x6Lj6kj
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) December 10, 2019
Google is updating Google News Stories for machine learning and BERT
This is live for mobile devices using English in the US. The update is a new structure that will improve the quality of content by grouping news stories through NLP and BERT. Additionally, you will see quotes and opinion pieces being added to help improve context.
Heads-up. Google is updating Top Stories via ML techniques, including BERT
"Within each story, the new structure will make more room for high-quality content beyond just the most recent coverage, & include more diverse sources, to bring more context..." https://t.co/34M2uGakVH pic.twitter.com/7gQK3dAjrx
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) December 11, 2019
And more: "We’re now also featuring key info, such as notable quotes & related opinion pieces, in the top stories carousel within Search. These different content types provide people a more well-rounded view of a news story to help them decide which angle to explore more deeply." https://t.co/wbllFxmOyp
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) December 11, 2019
New ‘App + Web’ properties arrive in Google Analytics
This change includes support for 50 data streams across apps and websites, new custom options for cross-platform analysis, automated custom insights, and faster access to data. Read all about it here to see how you can reap the benefits.
Google Brings New Features to ‘App + Web’ Properties in Google Analytics via @MattGSouthern https://t.co/Wu3kECqQ00
— Danny Goodwin (@MrDannyGoodwin) December 11, 2019
Google News site: search out of order
The site: search function is experiencing a bug and is out of order until 2020. In the meantime you can search in organic and switch the news tab.
The Google News Site command is temporarily out of order - no joke - I think related to the changes to how Google shows news content earlier this month https://t.co/wRuAMKRYDf pic.twitter.com/XDChDDG9X6
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) December 17, 2019
Google’s new news oneboxes
Valentin summarizes his initial impression of the Google news onebox. Check it out:
Some impressions of the new news oneboxes.
- a quote within a card
- different sized images
- sub-topic clustering (by BERT?) pic.twitter.com/3vbJKl2TPC— Valentin Pletzer (@VorticonCmdr) December 13, 2019
Possible reporting bug in Google Analytics
This has not been confirmed by Google but Barry Schwartz has indicated that there have been several reports made across the industry that signal a glitch earlier this week. Some users think that it may be an algo update, but early impressions signal this is more in line with an error with the tool. To learn more about this, Barry has you covered on SER.
SEO Tips
Google talks meta tags and canonicalization
Google uses more than just the rel=Canonical as a signal to find the original source of a page.
What do you think the JohnMu is saying? #wmcdach pic.twitter.com/4PPT6asbXw
— Gary "鯨理/경리" Illyes (@methode) December 11, 2019
Other Interesting News
The Live Coverage documentation has disappeared from the Google Developers -- but it’s not gone
No need to worry! John says that it’s still in very limited availability and it doesn’t make sense to make the documents public just yet.
It's currently still in very limited availability, so it doesn't make sense to have the docs public just yet. (I believe they've been like this for quite some time now.)
— 🍌 John 🍌 (@JohnMu) December 11, 2019
Have your say! ConvertKit is looking for input on their creator dashboard
We're starting early designs for a creator dashboard inside of ConvertKit. What specific information would you like to see?
— Nathan Barry (@nathanbarry) December 16, 2019
Local SEO - Google SERP Changes
GMB showing ‘areas served’
This is a neat addition which displays a business’ areas served. The new format is available on mobile browsers, not on the Google Maps App, but should still make plenty of SAB’s happy! Check out the local search forum for more.
Just started seeing this 'areas served' section on service area Google My Business listings. pic.twitter.com/OzIvqQ09YB
— Tom Waddington (@tomwaddington8) December 14, 2019
Test: Pages from website are getting pulled into the local pack
This appears to be just a test as Jason noted that it was temporarily seen on Safari on the Google App (on mobile) but could not be seen the following day or on desktop. One interesting discovery is that this feature appears to only be available for sites that rank on page 1. Jason later added that this could certainly be a good addition long term as it provides additional business info over a simple call, and may help to identify spam on the map.
I’ve done numberous searches and it seems that if the business is ranking on the 1st page of Google with its website, the website snippet appears in GMB. If the business doesn’t have page 1 exposure, the snippets not there. Early observation and more research needed. (2/2)
— Jason Parks (@Jason_Parks1) December 15, 2019
Google testing local service ads for realtors
Realtors can be happy they may finally have access to LSA’s. Local Service Ads are built to help you connect with people who search for services you offer, so this can certainly be another avenue worth exploring. Be sure to check out Barry’s article for more examples of this in action, or alternatively, the Gain Local article.
Google is testing local service ads for realtors - via @mattmcgee https://t.co/3LUXUK1NgZ pic.twitter.com/P1T2VNHZOe
— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) December 11, 2019
Local SEO - Other Interesting News
Missing reviews in local, could this be why?
There’s been some discussion on the Local Search Forum about why some reviews have been vanishing after being posted. Well, this may not solve the case for all reviews, but Jay Holtslander suggested that a person’s name (for example, Mr. Dick) may incorrectly be flagged as an inappropriate word.
SEO Tools
What is your paid SEO tool of choice?
What's your primary, paid SEO tool of choice these days?
(if you use multiple, tick the one you use most)— Rand Fishkin (@randfish) December 17, 2019
Recommended Reading
User Comments And The Difference Between Indexable And Indexed – Are Blog And Article Comments Helping Your Site SEO-wise? – Glenn Gabe
https://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/user-comments-indexable-versus-indexed/
Dec 10, 2019
Courtesy of Glenn Gabe, this is an excellent look at the SEO considerations when it comes to comment sections. In his article, Glenn lays out some options for how to go about getting your comments indexed (with a good tip about data syncing for local storage for Disqus users) as well as preventing the indexing of your comments, depending on which direction you want to go.
The Google Assistant and Context-Based Natural Language Processing – Bill Slawski
https://gofishdigital.com/context-based-natural-language-processing/
Dec 13, 2019
In this article, Bill Slawski reports on another patent from Google concerning how a personal assistant may engage in a dialog with a searcher through the use of natural language processing. In the article, Bill discusses the challenges that the patent is looking to solve.
The SEO's Introduction to Rendering – Jamie Alberico
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/rendering-seo-introduction/330399/
Dec 17, 2019
In this article, Jamie expertly defines rendering, explains some fundamental elements to understand with respect to Google being able to render, includes a visual of the process in which this is done, along with tips to effectively make rendering work to your benefit. If you need an introduction to rendering, a refresher, or would like to add to your knowledge, we recommend you give this article a read!
Want More?
Paid members also get the following:
- There was an interesting Knowledge Graph update this summer
- SEO’s weigh in on their best tips of 2019 or for the upcoming year
- Google explains how they use machine learning in search
- The latest on Google updating the Googlebot user agent
- Google Discover data in the Performance Report is now fresher
- Google Publisher Center was revamped + possible issues
- Attention podcast lovers! Google has introduced personalized episode recommendations, based on your listening habits
- When does the site: command show noindexed pages in the results?
- Doorway pages are still not okay
- GSC training covers the 7 ways to verify site ownership
- Aleyda Solis sits down with the Google Webmaster Trends Analysts
- Google displaying carousels of reviews on local business profiles
- Metropolitan areas available for GMB service areas
- Review carousel showing query phrases
- Hack to get a larger image for a GMB Post
- Importance of answering your Q&A
- Reminder: Martin Splitt and Lizzy Harvey have a tool to help you implement dynamic rendering and set up a Google Cloud project
- My tl;dr summary of some awesome recent SEO and Local SEO articles
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