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In this episode, we discuss what semantic SEO is, some good old fashioned Twitter drama, algorithm fluctuations this month, Marie on link building and a ton of recent tips from SEOs across the globe.

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

• More algorithmic fluctuation: March 13, and March 19, 2021
• What is semantic SEO?
• Google gets defensive about zero click searches
• Do you spend too much time on link building?
• Best practice for video searchability
• Good advice on minimizing the risk of getting your domain name stolen
• Google Lightning Talk: how to get your products into Search and how to improve traffic to them
• How to notify Google about content you’ve updated that has earned a featured snippet
• Tip about images in Google Discover
• Recommendations for using LiveBlogPosting schema
• A story of scoring a great link
• The latest ‘announcement’ related to mobile-first indexing
• John discusses the impact of the page experience signal as a ranking factor
• SimilarWeb analyzed over 5 trillion searches between Jan-Dec 2020 and revealed an interesting finding
• Chrome now instantly does this to video on the web
• What percentage of Google SERPs show local packs?
• A new business messaging provider will soon be on the market
• A new SEO A/B testing tool has been released
• Our tl;dr summary of some awesome recent SEO articles

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Minor changes made to the meta robots directive help documentation

In an update to their robots meta tag and data-nosnippet documentation, Google has added clear language detailing the default behaviour when meta robots directives are omitted.

How many blog posts should you have on your site to increase performance?

This is one of those things people seem to get hung up on. It is all about quality, not quantity, and John confirms it. Every page on your site should have a purpose that is useful for users. Don’t create content just to have content on your site, it may even have the opposite effect you intended. 

Google doesn't count your blog posts.

I'd focus on quality rather than quantity. Make something truely awesome, unique, compelling, & insightful. If that's a single page, it's a single page. More pages, or more words on a page, don't make something better. (true for books too)

— 🍌 John 🍌 (@JohnMu) March 17, 2021

A tip for UX and accessibility

This is a great exercise to test out the strength of your htags. If your answer is no to this test, it definitely means your tags should be updated. Ultimately, they should reflect what the content is about on the page in order for Google and users to understand best. 

If you remove all the images and content from your webpage and leave in just the header tags for headings, would it still be easy to understand what the page is about? This is one of my favorite audit testing methods for UX and accessibility.

— Kim Krause Berg, CPACC Accessibility & UX (@kim_cre8pc) March 19, 2021

A list of search operators to help you search more efficiently 

This resource from Olga Zarzeczna is a super helpful list of Search operators that you can use to refine and narrow down any Google searches. Olga has also added a bunch of insights and tips on how to use these operators to perform very specific tasks, like checking if content has been plagiarized, whether any non-HTTPS URLs have been indexed or if there are www and non-www versions of a URL indexed. 

Want to perform advanced Google searches? You can do pretty interesting things with search operators. Here is an up-to-date list of Google search operators with lots of examples: https://t.co/GKdkeZhuxF @dan_shure @aleyda @brodieseo @rustybrick 🤓 pic.twitter.com/IzeB7mJiZH

— Olga Zarzeczna (@olgazarzeczna) March 22, 2021

GMB has added 25 new categories

Another wave of new categories have arrived in Google My Business and this month seems to have plenty of surgeon and doctoral items. Thanks to Joy and her team, you can track all of the monthly changes in one convenient place!

Google My Business just added another 25 new categories 🎉🎉

TONS of healthcare categories – especially on the pediatric side. https://t.co/rvWOGRUyNi

— Joy Hawkins (@JoyanneHawkins) March 22, 2021

Compare schema between multiple URLs

This nifty tool from SchemaMarkup.net allows you to sample two URLs at a time which is great for flagging gaps and opportunities between sites. Auditors out there will likely use this to assess clients vs. competitors! 

Free search demographics tool

Pretty handy tool here. You just enter a keyword and it will provide you with demographic information. If you’re looking to optimize your keywords, this may help! 

So, y'all were just gonna not tell me there was a tool that will give me demographics when I put in a keyword? https://t.co/x8kvxzE4mx

Like I didn't spend 5 years telling y'all that was my thing?

— MyCool King (@iPullRank) March 17, 2021

Filters and Pills in the Google SERPs – How the addition of filters, tabs, and dynamic organization in the search results can impact visibility and clicks – Glenn Gabe
https://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/filters-and-dynamic-organization-in-the-google-serps/
March 18, 2021

Glenn Gabe has written a deep-dive piece on “filters and pills”, and what their inclusion in the Google Search results means for a business. This is a super in depth article but we found it quite informative!

10 Common Local SEO Myths Debunked – Darren Shaw
https://whitespark.ca/blog/10-common-local-seo-myths-debunked/
March 17, 2021

Darren Shaw by Whitespark released a loaded video debunking common SEO myths. There are some super interesting data-driven opinions here that are worth the quick read. 

The Local Finder vs. Google Maps: How Different Are They? – Miriam Ellis
https://moz.com/blog/local-finder-vs-google-maps
March 22, 2021

This is an awesome clarification revealing how the Local Finder and Google Maps differ in results. Miriam Ellis from Mozblog conducted a study where they tested 10 local intent search phrases across 10 different cities within one state. From here, they analyzed the data to determine where the local search results differed. This is a lengthy read but it does an excellent job of really pinpointing where and why these two result pages are unique.

We're looking for a JavaScript developer for @transloadit:

💰 $50/h
🕘 32h/week, flexible, but 4h worktime overlap with CET required
1⃣ work on the #1 file uploader: @uppy_io
💯 open source

RTs & DMs (with motivation + GitHub profile) =💞

— Kev van Zonneveld (@kvz) March 16, 2021

We're hiring in Chrome for a senior software engineer with experience in open source framework & tooling. Location: San Francisco / Bay area, California.

Interested? Check out https://t.co/dV8TxLwU0A & reach out to @shubhie! pic.twitter.com/8VO9ETAnZa

— Addy Osmani (@addyosmani) March 19, 2021

Vacancy in the BBC Three marketing team: https://t.co/uw6LVqIbDf

— Dan Morehead (@Danny11M) March 19, 2021

I'm very excited to announce that we are now accepting 100% remote applicants anywhere in the U.S. for our open role for SEO Strategist at @PathInteractive

Looking for someone with significant technical & ecommerce experience.

Who wants to join my team?https://t.co/rMqAueWZ3I

— Lily Ray 😏 (@lilyraynyc) March 19, 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:

• More algorithmic fluctuation: March 13, and March 19, 2021
• What is semantic SEO?
• Google gets defensive about zero click searches
• Do you spend too much time on link building?
• Best practice for video searchability
• Good advice on minimizing the risk of getting your domain name stolen
• Google Lightning Talk: how to get your products into Search and how to improve traffic to them
• How to notify Google about content you’ve updated that has earned a featured snippet
• Tip about images in Google Discover
• Recommendations for using LiveBlogPosting schema
• A story of scoring a great link
• The latest ‘announcement’ related to mobile-first indexing
• John discusses the impact of the page experience signal as a ranking factor
• SimilarWeb analyzed over 5 trillion searches between Jan-Dec 2020 and revealed an interesting finding
• Chrome now instantly does this to video on the web
• What percentage of Google SERPs show local packs?
• A new business messaging provider will soon be on the market
• A new SEO A/B testing tool has been released
• Our tl;dr summary of some awesome recent SEO articles

⎋ SUBSCRIBE NOW

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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