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In this episode, we discuss the diversity of Google’s index, speculation on the December core update, some great ecommerce tips, Rand Fishkin on inferred links, understanding the News tabs in GSC, and lots of great readings!

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The following topics are covered in the premium version of this episode:

• Glenn Gabe’s thoughts on the December Core update
• Rand Fishkin has some interesting thoughts on inferred links
• We now have a date as to when the old disavow tool is going away
• What’s the difference between the News search type & the Google News tab in GSC?
• What needs to change with URLs once you’ve been moved to mobile-first indexing?
• Using Python to map broken URLs with external links to existing pages (in bulk!)
• John Mueller comments on paying for content that includes links
• Here’s an easy way to see if your site has pages filtered by SafeSearch
• Chrome’s developer mode has new options to see how things appear on this device
• Our tl;dr summary of some awesome recent SEO articles

⎋ SUBSCRIBE NOW

Gary Illyes speaks on the diversity of Google’s index

In the Search Off the Record Podcast, Gary Illyes explained a little more about how Google stores and retrieves data. Google has different ways to store data. Some can be accessed much more quickly, but they are more expensive to Google. Where data is stored is based on Google’s “indexing tiers”. 

Gary says, “For example for documents that we know that might be surfaced every second, for example, they will end up on something super fast. And the super fast would be the RAM. Like part of our serving index is on RAM.”

He went on to say that the bulk of the index would be on “something that’s cheap, accessible, easily replaceable, and doesn’t break the bank.”

Are you monitoring your competitors’ content creation?

NEW: Historical graphs in Top Pages 2.0

We've added the graphs for search traffic & number of keywords to Top pages. We've also added a new chart: pages over time.

This should be useful for researching how fast your competitors are expanding the content of their websites. pic.twitter.com/pzrj0v1QdO

— Ahrefs (@ahrefs) January 10, 2021

We have been making great use of Ahrefs’ historical ranking data when analyzing sites affected by the December core update. If you want to dig deeper into specific keyword rankings for either your client or competitors, there is so much information to be found here.

We advise monitoring your competitors’ new content for several reasons. Are they covering topics that are important to your searchers that you should be writing on? Has their new content attracted links and mentions? Ahrefs data will tell you that. 

Now that we see that Ahrefs’ new historical graph also allows us to view how many pages are in the index, we can do a better job of seeing whether thin content cleanup has resulted in improvements.

SEOs have noticed that the URL Inspection Tool in GSC is showing multiple referring pages for some URLs

Daniel Waisberg confirmed this is new, and was part of the Index Coverage update last week, but many people are only recently catching wind of this.

Oftentimes there will be many referring pages. If that is the case, Google will show a few of the URLs that are likely responsible for Google finding the page in question. For some excellent visuals and more info about referring pages, SER has more.

Excellent tip for eCommerce sites

Dan has given some great eComm tips in this thread if you’re looking for some. He recommends having content that covers the middle funnel ie. resources, guides, webinars etc. as that has drastically increased his client’s traffic. Once you’ve created this content, cross-link up and down your funnel. Additionally, if you can get your brand name and keyword searches, that will also help.

If your eCommerce site is struggling, you may want to be sure you have content covering the mid-funnel like Buyer's Guides. We added some for this site and it's the biggest lift for this query space (which is very lucrative/competitive) we've seen AND it helps customers shop. pic.twitter.com/D9yBpdZqZY

— Dan Shure (@dan_shure) January 13, 2021

How to pitch to a journalist

If you’re looking for honest mentions or backlinks, reaching out to a reporter or using HARO is a common method to gain some. But, getting chosen is the hard part. Mark mentions some key points for outreach: ensure you have a good story, and make it easy for them.

Often see people ask “how do journalists prefer releases be sent to them?”

Journalists are people (I know I find that hard to believe too), so will have different preferences.

Key is

1. Have a good story

2. Give it to them in a way that’s easy for them to use https://t.co/IO2wqHfIHf

— Mark Rofe 🎄 (@iamrofe) January 18, 2021

For those of you interested in HARO, the Recommended Reading section below has some useful insight related to success rates and the quality of results!

YouTube testing the ability to purchase products from videos

Some content creators on YouTube will now have the ability to add certain products to their videos, which will allow users to shop those products on the video’s page. According to YouTube’s recent announcement, a small shopping bag icon will appear at the bottom left corners of these videos and it’s currently only available for those viewing videos in the US. 

This new feature, which seems to be some kind of Google Shopping integration, once rolled out for the entire user base, can also become a new avenue for site owners to feature their products. Maybe this is the perfect time for site owners to have a better presence on YouTube.  

YouTube officially begins testing the ability to buy products from videos

"It's asking some of its creators to add 'certain products' to their videos. Viewers will then be able to see a list of the featured products via a shopping bag icon in the video." https://t.co/SUNjnQ8E3n pic.twitter.com/kj7ea2OCfx

— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) January 14, 2021

DuckDuckGo passes a milestone

This is a big one for 12 year old search engine DuckDuckGo! They’ve officially passed 100 million daily search queries. This does not come at a surprise as they’ve continued to steadily grow having over 2 billion search queries since August 2020. However, Google still has them beat with a massive 5 billion daily queries. 

DuckDuckGo surpasses 100 million daily search queries for the first time https://t.co/0dLzMd1uzs

— duane forrester (@DuaneForrester) January 16, 2021

All is green once again on Brightlocal’s flux tool. We haven’t seen any signs of an algo update or flux shift the past few weeks despite rumblings of a possible update this month.

How Ahrefs Counts Links and Domains – Patrick Stox
https://ahrefs.com/blog/how-ahrefs-counts-links/
January 12, 2021

In this post Patrick Stox talks about how Ahrefs counts and stores link indexes. Much like all indexes, crawling and storing every link on every page is not very efficient. Patrick Stox goes over which links get indexed and which links are avoided at Ahrefs. 

HARO Study: Results from Analyzing 1500 Queries – Boni Satani
https://www.zestard.com/blog/haro-case-study/
December 28, 2020

Help A Reporter Out (HARO) is a great tool (that we often recommend to clients) that site owners can use to help generate brand mentions and links. So, how effective is the tool and which type of sites are likely to benefit the most? Read the article to find out! 

Case Study – A Small Business Beats Big Brands in SEO on Shopify – Adam Riemer
https://www.adamriemer.me/case-study-a-small-business-beats-big-brands-in-seo-on-shopify/
January 18, 2021

If you’ve ever had to work on SEO for a Shopify store, you’re likely going to be familiar with some of the platform’s common shortcomings when it comes to SEO. This case study from Adam Riemer caught our eye because he works within the confines of those limitations and manages to outcompete larger brands by sticking to the basics and creating the best possible visitor experience. If you work with a Shopify site, we highly recommend checking out this case study, and all the actionable items and tips Adam shares..

A new and innovative way for Google to kill your SaaS startup – Gonzalo Sainz Trápaga
https://gomox.medium.com/google-safe-browsing-can-kill-your-startup-7d73c474b98d
January 16, 2021

This was an interesting story found via the Hacker News pages about a SaaS company that had suddenly been blocked by various browsers. This business that offered software services for over 1000 clients and for some unknown reason, had been added to Google’s “Safe Browsing” blacklist. Meaning, when their clients attempted to visit their page, they were faced with a warning that required you to click an extra button to continue (we’ve all likely seen these pages that look similar to malware warnings). You’ll want to read the article to find out what happened! 

How to do Local SEO Today: Top Do’s and Don’ts, Tools, and Guide to Grow – Aleyda Solis
January 11, 2021

In this recent Crawling Monday episode hosted by Aleyda Solis, local specialists Greg Gifford and Carrie Hill discuss everything local SEO from local ranking factors to link building and best tracking tools. This is a quick watch filled with really great information for local businesses who are trying to optimize their local SEO efforts.

…

* Marketing Lead in Scopic Software: https://t.co/subKvKWqHA

* Senior Web Developer in Scopic Software: https://t.co/3ZrnYVOpxa

* Project Manager in i-com: https://t.co/VunyoxLsPc

More Remote Jobs 🙌 https://t.co/AkMm5TZOyq

— Remoters 🌎 (@remotersnet) January 15, 2021

We’re #hiring for an SEO Content Writer on our #SEO team! Do you enjoy producing engaging and compelling digital copy for client websites and reflecting the client’s brand voice and strategic marketing objectives? You could be our next ROIer! Apply here: https://t.co/odFPdswTcQ pic.twitter.com/BlGNEGrMt5

— ROI Revolution (@ROIRevolution) January 11, 2021

Premium members also get the following:

It’s well worth the $18 per month!

The following topics are covered in the premium version of this episode:

• Glenn Gabe’s thoughts on the December Core update
• Rand Fishkin has some interesting thoughts on inferred links
• We now have a date as to when the old disavow tool is going away
• What’s the difference between the News search type & the Google News tab in GSC?
• What needs to change with URLs once you’ve been moved to mobile-first indexing?
• Using Python to map broken URLs with external links to existing pages (in bulk!)
• John Mueller comments on paying for content that includes links
• Here’s an easy way to see if your site has pages filtered by SafeSearch
• Chrome’s developer mode has new options to see how things appear on this device
• Our tl;dr summary of some awesome recent SEO articles

⎋ SUBSCRIBE NOW

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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