SNYCU Ep. 133 - May 20, 2020 - Light Version

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In this episode we discuss all of the theories surrounding the May 2020 core update from SEOs including MHC, upcoming changes to Chrome, new Bing announcements, how to define great content, and hint at an exciting surprise podcast guest.

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In this episode:

Paid members also get the following:

  • Making sense of the May 2020 core update
  • Starting in August, Chrome will begin blocking "resource-heavy ads"
  • Bing announcement: Publishers will now have more control over the snippets that preview their site on the Bing results page
  • Bing Announcement: A few new things/migrated things in the Bing Webmaster Tools portal
  • An incredible resource outlining how to find and fix issues within the GSC Index Coverage report
  • Pages with minimal textual content can rank in Google (provided they serve a useful purpose)
  • Index selection is closely associated with space and content quality
  • Google says infinite scroll could be causing issues
  • Google Webmasters discusses user-generated content - how it applies to search and tips to manage it on your site
  • There is no fixed timeframe for Google to pingback a URL showing a 410 status code
  • Using too many parameters can make it harder for Google to crawl and index your site
  • Google reveals how they handle multiple meta descriptions and title tags
  • Considering adding an on-site forum to your health or medical site?
  • Does Google use Bounce rate to rank websites?
  • Data reporting issue in GSC's Performance Report for Google Discover, for data collected between May 12th to May 25th
  • Google has updated their JavaScript SEO guide
  • Did you know that structured data is not supported for unpaid listings in Google Shopping?
  • A lesson from Amazon: Learn how to slow down sales when there’s fear of overwhelming the system (or vice versa)
  • Wondering if a loss in GMB data is the result of a core update?
  • Google Lighthouse budget generator tool
  • My tl;dr summary of some awesome recent SEO and Local SEO articles

Algorithm Updates

What we know so far about the May 2020 core update

Google has told us that as of May 18, the update has completely finished rolling out. This update has had a massive impact across the web. At MHC, we have not seen an update be as disruptive as this one since the August 1, 2018 Medic update.

Last week, we published our thoughts on what we feel Google has adjusted with this update. You can read these in our post on the May 2020 core update. In this post, you will find our thoughts on the commonalities we saw amongst sites that saw nice improvements.

Here is the brief summary:

  • Relevancy: Google appears to be getting better at understanding what it is that a searcher is trying to find and surfacing sites that have the best answer for that query.
  • Expertise: Many of the articles that improved in rankings with this update contained an element of first hand expertise.
  • Authority: While authority is still important, many smaller websites that would not be seen as giant authorities in their verticals saw improvements and in some cases, were able to outrank very authoritative sites. 
  • Trustworthiness: Signals that Google can use to help determine E-A-T were likely reassessed as happens with most core updates.
  • Link quality: Many sites that saw declines had unnatural links, or links that could be considered “grey hat”, but essentially self made for SEO purposes. We believe that Google may be either putting less emphasis on links now that they can better understand content, or, they may be better able to understand which links are truly votes from other people who are recommending your content.

It is important to note though, that this update appears to be incredibly complex. While our analysis showed many commonalities amongst sites that saw improvements, we cannot say with certainty what it is that Google changed.

We do feel, however, that Google made advancements in their understanding of language, most likely via the use of BERT.

In the next section, our premium subscribers will read our summary of several SEO articles talking about the update. 

MHC Announcements

Exciting surprise guest joining the SNYCU podcast 

We have a surprise guest joining Marie on our podcast June 3rd. We won’t say much, but it is definitely not an episode you want to miss. Keep an eye on the MHC Twitter account for the announcement. 

Marie speaking at LocalU 

The virtual LocalU conference is coming up on June 3rd and Marie is speaking! The conference will take place from 8am-5pm central time. If you haven’t already registered, you can use our code MHC10 for 10% off the already discounted price. There are also scholarships available for those in need. Thank you SterlingSky and LocalU for making this event happen. We can’t wait! Find out more and register here.

Google Announcements

Support for Guided Recipes has arrived

If you’re running a recipe site, then this update is sure to make you happy. Google announced this week that they’ve added support for Guided Recipes in GSC, and within the Rich Results Test tool, making it easier to know how Google Assistant is guiding searchers through your recipes and see how they are appearing on a smart display:

Google is discontinuing support for JSON-RPC and global HTTP batch endpoints

Google has extended the depreciation timeline for JSON-RPC protocol and Global HTTP Batch to August 12, 2020. Also, in order for customers to identify which website features depend on these batch endpoints, Google is running error windows until August 2020. These downtime periods will be periodic and more details for the June and July windows will be given beforehand. 

SEO Tips

How to properly define great content

There are a lot of misconceptions about how to produce good content. We really liked this way of putting it from Kevin Indig. The length of the content is not the important factor, it is that the content is providing unique value. John has stated this several times, and you can see more on the topic of content length in a tip below. 

The impact of merging or splitting sites is difficult to predict

John Mueller is asked on Twitter if it’s possible to use a domain to prop up the performance of another domain. If you have site A & B performing well and site C is not, can you 301 redirect sites A & B to folders on site C? 

In case you missed it, VirtuaCon (2.0) aired this past week

The second edition of VirtuaCon aired this past week and once again featured an array of great speakers. This free virtual SEO conference (full talk available on YouTube) includes the following talks:

  • Dan Leibson of Local SEO Guide discusses automation for your organization. (1:07:11)
  • Martin Splitt of Google speaks on Technical SEO for JavaScript Developers. (1:42:21)
  • John Morabito of Stella Rising covers crawling and indexing issues for large websites. (2:13:27)
  • Callum Corrigan of SALT.agency talks organic growth strategy. (2:43:43) 
  • Jenny Halasz of JLH Marketing discusses unlocking internal link power. (3:16:16)
  • Scott Mathson of Netlify talks about how to create search-optimized status sites. (3:46:43)
  • Mo Aboul-Magd of Akamai covers serverless computing at the edge. (4:27:06)
  • Niki Mosier of Two Octobers discusses SEO hacks for managing multiple clients. (4:47:47)

There’s something for everyone and it’s sure to be filled with plenty of great advice. If you’re a fan of this conference, keep your eyes peeled as the third VirtuaCon will happen sometime in June!

Other Interesting News

Intermittent issues with GSC 

There have been reports of the inspect URL tool being down in GSC. If you are having trouble with the tool, this could be why. 

A patch was released on May 7th, so update your Site Kit WordPress plugin asap

There is a vulnerability in WordPress’ Google Site Kit plugin that can give users full access to your GSC. This is major and something that you should double check immediately and install the patch if you’re using the plugin. 

Did you hear the news? Lighthouse 6.0 has been released

The latest version of Lighthouse is out and it comes with a series of new metrics and enhancements to deliver better opportunities and diagnostics for developers looking to improve user experience.

We’re sure there will be plenty of tips in the coming weeks, but in the meantime you can read more on the official announcement below.

Local SEO - News from SterlingSky 

Local search rankings are still a bit up and down this week - although we're seeing the BrightLocal Rank Flux level out more in the high twos range. Most of what we're seeing is changes in Bars & Pubs, Restaurants & Cafes, and Hotels & B&Bs. That being said, some of our clients who started seeing flux later than April 23rd are still seeing changes, while the others that started around 4/23 have calmed down.

rank flux industry breakdown may

BrightLocal released a study about spam fighting and how business owners and agencies are handling it. News flash - most of them aren't. Stephanie Newton breaks down where the most roadblocks are with spam fighting, and both agencies and business owners predominantly state that they "don't know how" to fight spam. We do a ton of spam-fighting at Sterling Sky, and while the methods are fluid and change a lot - the benefit to our customers is immense - but it is time-consuming and takes a lot of "testing".

brightlocal takeaways

Colan Nielsen here at Sterling Sky wrote up a case study of sorts that illustrates how Google uses physical location vs business address when ranking. If your business location is outside the city limits, even though your address is "in the city" - you could still struggle to rank well locally for top terms.

Google is adding in the ability for some businesses to add secondary hours to their Google My Business listings. If you offer one of the following, your category might be eligible:

  • drive-through
  • senior hours
  • delivery hours
  • visiting hours
  • takeout hours
  • pick-up hours

Google has continued to loosen the stranglehold on reviews that we've been experiencing during the COVID-19 shutdowns.  In this updated blog post from GatherUp, Mike Blumenthal chronicles the changes and loosening of the reins on reviews. Right now we're seeing reviews coming back for new submissions, and a few older reviews left during the furlough appear. One thing that is not consistently working is notifications - so it's important to be checking your new reviews directly - don't rely on just review count or just email notifications. Get in there and sort by "newest" to make sure you're aware and responding!

SEO Tools

Create and schedule Google Posts for your GMB using Sheets

You can now use Google sheets to help you create your Google Posts for multiple locations. This tool has UTM tracking built in, and allows you to schedule your posts. Here are the detailed steps. This seems like a game-changer for all of our Google Sheets users out there! 

Recommended Reading

How to Get Quick Results With SEO Sprints: The DriveSafe Case Study – Christopher Hofman Laursen
https://moz.com/blog/quick-results-with-seo-sprints
May 18, 2020

Christopher Hofman Laursen’s article walks you through how to set up a successful SEO sprint. SEO Sprints can help you breach the gap between SEO teams and Marketing teams, which allows you to run successful marketing campaigns and target your main keywords. Sprints can also come in handy if you are on a tight budget, as the data needed for them can be relatively easy to gather. 

 

How Can I Recover My Lost SEO Keywords & Organic Traffic? – Adam Reimer
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/recover-lost-seo-keywords-organic-traffic/364362/
May 19, 2020

At MHC we do a lot of traffic drop analysis, and one of the big questions we will get from prospective clients is “I lost keywords and rankings, how do I get them back?”.  In this great piece from Adam Reimer, he goes over some of the steps he takes in assessing which keywords and what traffic has been lost, and secondly, diagnosing the problem. Every SEO goes about this process differently, so this is a really good read to get some different perspectives. 

 

SEO Study 2020: Small Businesses – Mike Murray
https://www.onlinemarketingcoach.com/small-business-seo-study/
May 12, 2020

After analyzing 200 small business websites, Mike Murray discovered what percentage of them are following the best practices and suggested guidelines of the SEO basics. Spoiler alert: many businesses are overlooking the essentials!

 

FAQ: All about Google Shopping’s free and paid product listings – Ginny Marvin
https://searchengineland.com/faq-all-about-google-shoppings-free-and-paid-product-listings-334729
May 18, 2020

If you want a deep dive into everything Google Shopping, this article is for you. It covers what Google Shopping is, what it looks like, how you can get your products listed for free, how to track and measure conversions and much more. If you’re already using Google Shopping, there is information on how to optimize your products, so it may be worthwhile to check it out regardless of your experience with Shopping. 

Jobs

Want More?

Paid members also get the following:

  • Making sense of the May 2020 core update
  • Starting in August, Chrome will begin blocking "resource-heavy ads"
  • Bing announcement: Publishers will now have more control over the snippets that preview their site on the Bing results page
  • Bing Announcement: A few new things/migrated things in the Bing Webmaster Tools portal
  • An incredible resource outlining how to find and fix issues within the GSC Index Coverage report
  • Pages with minimal textual content can rank in Google (provided they serve a useful purpose)
  • Index selection is closely associated with space and content quality
  • Google says infinite scroll could be causing issues
  • Google Webmasters discusses user-generated content - how it applies to search and tips to manage it on your site
  • There is no fixed timeframe for Google to pingback a URL showing a 410 status code
  • Using too many parameters can make it harder for Google to crawl and index your site
  • Google reveals how they handle multiple meta descriptions and title tags
  • Considering adding an on-site forum to your health or medical site?
  • Does Google use Bounce rate to rank websites?
  • Data reporting issue in GSC's Performance Report for Google Discover, for data collected between May 12th to May 25th
  • Google has updated their JavaScript SEO guide
  • Did you know that structured data is not supported for unpaid listings in Google Shopping?
  • A lesson from Amazon: Learn how to slow down sales when there’s fear of overwhelming the system (or vice versa)
  • Wondering if a loss in GMB data is the result of a core update?
  • Google Lighthouse budget generator tool
  • My tl;dr summary of some awesome recent SEO and Local SEO articles

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Part of the challenge of SEO is staying on top of industry news, trends, and techniques There is so much information out there that it is easy to get bogged down in information overload and trying to disseminate what's truly important from all that noise can be really time-consuming and challenging.

 Marie's newsletter is a game changer because it manages to cut through the fluff and deliver high-quality information that is not only really important for those that do SEO, but it is presented in a format that is really easy to absorb.
If you are looking for a trusted information related to search that is highly actionable I would strongly recommend Marie's newsletter.
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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