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In this episode, we discuss the June Core Update rumblings from across the industry, how Google updates Search, fixing broken links, tips from a recent AskGooglebot episode and help hangout with John Mueller, and lots more!

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

• Full version of our algorithm news
• Does fixing old broken links matter in the current age of SEO?
• #AskGooglebot: Google discusses indexing
• #AskGooglebot: how to remove a sitemap in Google Search Console
• Did you know webmasters are able to disavow TLDs? (but why would you want to?)
• Google’s preferences regarding referencing
• John touches on above the fold content
• Google may be forwarding ranking signals even if you haven’t set up a redirect yet
• Updating or adding new pages to your sitemap will help Google find your new additions quicker
• Google will try and handle rel=”ugc” and rel=”sponsored” differently
• Barry Schwartz highlights a new support document for Google’s Duplex
• Google My Business short names are being depreciated
• How to get a Google Place ID
• Our tl;dr summary of some awesome recent SEO articles

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As some of you may know, we have a running joke at MHC that whenever Marie books vacation time, Google releases a major change to their algorithm. So, right on cue, when Marie decided to take this week off, Google announced that they were rolling out the June 2021 Core Update around 6:30pm EST on June 2nd. 

Later today, we are releasing a broad core update, as we do several times per year. It is called the June 2021 Core Update. Our guidance about such updates is here:https://t.co/e5ZQUA3RC6

This will be followed by the July 2021 Core update. Here’s more information about that…

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) June 2, 2021

So in Marie’s absence it will be myself, Callum Scott (Senior SEO Analyst at MHC) giving you a rundown of the reports and chatter we have heard from across this industry this week regarding this update (full version for premium members) – and next week Marie will likely follow up with some more insight regarding what we are seeing with the sites we monitor. 

No podcast this week

As a reminder, Marie is off this week meaning there will not be a podcast episode published. Catch up on past episodes in the meantime, and we’ll get back to regularly scheduled programming next week! Thank you for your understanding.

How Google updates Search to improve results 

Danny Sullivan published a blog on Google updates this month and it’s important to take it in. We, as SEOs, have a tendency to get caught up on every algorithmic spike, so it’s great to see things laid out clearly in this post. We don’t want to read into this too much, but he mentions some key updates in here that are very important and relevant. We recommend you look into them and do all that you can to ensure you’re following best practices. 

In the past five years, Danny says they’ve decreased the amount of irrelevant results by 40%. Cough, they’re heavily focusing on relevancy, cough. We’ve discussed this before, but this is Danny himself explaining the importance of relevancy for users and Google. 

He also discusses the product review update which helps them determine if a review goes beyond simply a review and is a signal of research and expertise, as well as the mobile-friendly update where they boost mobile-friendly pages in mobile rankings. Hint, if you haven’t optimized for mobile-friendliness, you’re behind the game. 

Additionally, he confirms that they might release dozens of updates in any given week. While we’ve always known and speculated on this, it’s a great reminder that these updates are not meant as core updates, but ways for search to be improved. 

“Because there are so many incremental updates, it’s not useful for us to share details about all of them. However, we try to do so when we feel there is actionable information that site owners, content producers or others might consider applying, as was the case with both of the updates mentioned above.”

Core updates will be announced, like they were last week, for the purpose of notifying those who may see significant changes, especially SEOs who are constantly analyzing traffic and ranking changes. He’s included this great resource on their evaluation processes and we recommend checking it out to understand more about how they evaluate pages and search in general.

Not sure if you’ve got a rendering issue, check this out!

Try it and show me if you see any "issues".
Pinging @geoffreycrofte hoping you will share this and let me know if you found any issues yourself 😀

— Myriam (@myriamjessier) June 2, 2021

We love this tool already. It provides the ability to scroll and experience the rendered page in full, as opposed to a live URL test in GSC or the mobile-friendliness tool rendering that provides a screenshot of the above the fold area plus the HTML. Desktop and mobile rendering options are both available as well.

Are links with parameters treated any different than those without?

For links to your site, this is not an issue. But for links within your site, Google has commented in the past that it’s generally very bad practice to use UTMs from a Google Analytics standpoint as it’ll decrease your data quality.

Links with parameters are fine.

— 🍌 John 🍌 (@JohnMu) June 2, 2021

Updated Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) metrics live in Search Console

If you’re seeing a rise in your CLS metrics, this may be why. Google has made the metric more beneficial to sites by updating reflecting a more accurate representation of layout shifts on the page, resulting in potential increase in CLS metrics. Google has touched on this since April, but the metrics weren’t live in GSC until June 1st.

Moz has been acquired

Big SEO news, Moz has been acquired by iContact Marketing Corp, a subsidiary of J2 Global – an email marketing automation company. They focus on small to mid sized companies email marketing, and plan to utilize Moz’s SEO and marketing data to help businesses further. We don’t think much of Moz will change with this partnership except for new email marketing services, but we’ll keep you posted! 

Big news – Moz has been acquired by iContact! 🎉 With our shared understanding of the importance of SEO & email, we look forward to creating powerful marketing solutions for our customers. Watch @SarahBird & Michael Pepe from iContact discuss the merger: https://t.co/a79cJhkoHK pic.twitter.com/IxoT7hVUOZ

— Moz (@Moz) June 4, 2021

We’ve been seeing some fluctuations this week since Sunday on the Local RankFlux tool. The highest uptick was Tuesday, falling slightly as of Wednesday. We haven’t heard much from the local folks about this, but we’ll let you know if this is anything to keep an eye on. Keep in mind a core update was released last week, so fluctuations are likely.

Accessibility and SEO should go hand in hand – Billie Geena
https://billiegeena.co.uk/accessibility-and-seo/
June 1, 2021

Billie outlines a number of different common accessibility issues and provides some useful insight into combating these. She also discusses how items like site structure, page structure, and alt text should be integral parts in your site strategy.

The Maker SERP Squeeze: Why Should SEOs Care? – Russ Jones
https://moz.com/blog/maker-serp-squeeze
June 2, 2021

Back in April, Google announced they were rolling out something called the Product Reviews Update. This was not a core update, but it still had a large impact on the content from reviewers, aggregators, and other non-manufacturer retailers. Google’s goal here was to better reward review pages that provided in-depth research and insightful analysis from experts or enthusiasts, at the expense of pages that provided just a generic summary masquerading as a review. This article from Moz’s Russ Jones attempts to look into exactly what this means for the sites which produce the actual products that are being reviewed on third-party sites, and why we should care about the makers and how challenging it is becoming for them to rank highly in the SERPs. 

This was a long article, but it’s also an eye-opening one.

How To Perform An SEO Audit Using Google Search Console – Olga Zarzeczna
https://seosly.com/how-to-audit-site-with-google-search-console/
June 5, 2021

Take notes, SEOSLY covers nearly 50 items across 14 categories worth checking within GSC when doing a site audit. This is definitely a great read for anyone auditing sites, or wanting to garner more information about their own within GSC. 

Google Web Stories [2021 Study] – Olga Andrienko
https://www.semrush.com/blog/google-web-stories-study/
June 1, 2021

Google Web Stories gives users a new and refreshing search experience, on top of being quite easy to implement yourself. SEMRush’s new case study on Web Stories had some interesting findings that could give webmasters even more reasons to implement the new feature. If you haven’t already looked into Web Stories, this may be a good reason to start!

Optimizing Your GMB Page to Generate A Flood Of Customers – Joy Hawkins
https://homeserviceexpert.com/podcast/joy-hawkins
April 6, 2021

Joy Hawkins discusses a wide range of topics in a recent podcast with Tommy Mello, the home service expert. We suggest giving the entire podcast a listen! Joy covers a lot more, and the link to the full podcast also has timestamps that break down and label each topic by the minute.

The Ultimate Guide to Practitioner Listings on Google My Business [2021] – Joy Hawkins
https://www.sterlingsky.ca/gmb-practitioner-listings/
June 1, 2021

Do you run your own business as an attorney, a hairdresser or a personal trainer? Or are you doing SEO for a local mortgage or insurance broker? If so, you are eligible for practitioner listings in GMB and Joy Hawkins from SterlingSky just released the ultimate 2021 guide for practitioner listings in GMB.

Image Packs and the Localization of Google Product Search – Mike Blumenthal
https://www.nearmedia.co/image-packs-local-product-search/
June 1, 2021

In this article, Mike Blumenthal writes about the evolution of image search optimization for local businesses. Previously, optimizing images of product offerings was a complicated process and yielded little return for businesses. Today, image packs are being shown more frequently in the main search results pages. With Google announcing their partnership with Shopify (and other e-commerce platforms) at the latest Google I/O, image search optimization for your business is definitely something worth taking a look into.

Hey search community, we’re hiring a content and SEO manager for MarTech and Search Engine Land https://t.co/ECvHgXEFSd pic.twitter.com/xbpuBPDoEJ

— Search Engine Land (@sengineland) June 3, 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:

• Full version of our algorithm news
• Does fixing old broken links matter in the current age of SEO?
• #AskGooglebot: Google discusses indexing
• #AskGooglebot: how to remove a sitemap in Google Search Console
• Did you know webmasters are able to disavow TLDs? (but why would you want to?)
• Google’s preferences regarding referencing
• John touches on above the fold content
• Google may be forwarding ranking signals even if you haven’t set up a redirect yet
• Updating or adding new pages to your sitemap will help Google find your new additions quicker
• Google will try and handle rel=”ugc” and rel=”sponsored” differently
• Barry Schwartz highlights a new support document for Google’s Duplex
• Google My Business short names are being depreciated
• How to get a Google Place ID
• Our tl;dr summary of some awesome recent SEO articles

⎋ SUBSCRIBE NOW

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