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In this episode, we discuss more on the latest title tag debacle, a compilation of great tips, a new Google test, what not to do with your back button, how to see what your users like and lots more!

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

• Full algorithm analysis
• Google has confirmed a GSC data loss in Search and Discover performance this last week
• Mobile and desktop pages don’t have to exactly match, they just need to do this
• Here’s a useful thread on some important SEO topics
• Meta tags and what’s visible in snippets
• John clarifies Google’s ‘ignoring of links’ comment
• What you shouldn’t do with your back button
• How to see if Google changed your title
• Need help checking your CTR after the Title Tag Update?
• Our tl;dr summary of some awesome recent SEO articles

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It has been fairly quiet in terms of algorithmic changes this week. Looking at the sites that we monitor, we saw a little bit of volatility on the 23rd/24th August, but nothing that we would classify as being algorithmically significant. 

There was a bit more chatter regarding the title-tag saga that has been progressing over the past 2 weeks. We’ll cover this for our premium subscribers. 

We’re one week away from our 200th episode!

If you’re not excited yet, get excited! We have great giveaways planned including a one year subscription to the premium version of our newsletter! If you aren’t familiar with it, we recommend checking out a sample to see what you’re missing. We’re also offering a complimentary consultation. Yes, that’s right, I said complimentary. 

While all SNYCU subscribers will be automatically entered to win, premium subscribers will be given an extra entry into the draws as a thank you for their support. If you’ve been thinking about switching over from light to premium, now’s the time! 

Did you catch the giveaways we're running for our 200th SNYCU episode?

You can win:
➡️ A consultation with one of our senior analysts
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So how do you enter?
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— Marie Haynes Consulting (@mhc_inc) August 30, 2021

Reminder: Google’s How Search Works documentation is available for all webmasters

Last week we shared that Google had revamped their website on How Search Works and why it’s important to read it. Well, it’s just so important that we’re sending out a reminder to read it if you haven’t yet! What are you waiting for?

Check out this Google test

Alert! Google is testing out a new SERP feature in their rich results. It looks like there is a ribbon you can click on to find more information on your query. It seems to draw its information from Wikipedia. Check it out! 

Interesting new @Google rich result. Currently only seeing it used for people coupled with @Wikipedia data. pic.twitter.com/Sjlssx9ll5

— Jon Henshaw (@henshaw) August 23, 2021

Lighthouse scores don’t affect Google Search

Colin Bendell, a performance engineer for Shopify, recently shared code snippets being used by websites to try and deceive Google’s Lighthouse scores. John Mueller commented saying that using these code snippets as cloaking devices does not give site owners any advantages, since Lighthouse scores do not affect Google Search. 

Lighthouse scores do not affect Google Search.

Doing this kind of user-agent cloaking is a terrible idea – you're just deceiving yourself. It makes absolutely no sense, and prevents you from finding real issues. If you run across a plugin that does this, report it to the CMS. https://t.co/yCoaYduHU4

— 🧀 John 🧀 (@JohnMu) August 26, 2021

Interesting way to see what the user likes

If you want to test out the “clickability” of listings, Christina Brodzky has a great tip. Take a handful of listings relevant to a keyword and block out all company names or branding. Get team members or the client to pick their favourite and see which one reigns supreme!

Sometimes in my SEO proposals and trainings I like to include a game I call "Which Google listing would you click on?"

I show 3-4 listings for a relevant KW and black out company names. Sometimes the client picks their listing, most of the time they don't. pic.twitter.com/DZpJrRALt8

— Christina Brodzky (@cbrodzky) August 26, 2021

Google’s Title Rewrite Dropped Our CTR by Up to 37%! (Here’s How We Fixed It) – Kristen McCormick
https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2021/08/26/google-page-title-update
August 26, 2021

In this great case study from Wordstream, Kristen McCormick (and her collaborators, Elisa Gabbert and Gordon Donnelly) share with us how the title tag changes negatively impacted traffic to one of their pages and what they did to fix this.

Googlespeak™ – How Google Limits Thought About Antitrust – Cyrus Shepard https://zyppy.com/googlespeak/
August 24, 2021

In this thought-provoking piece, Cyrus asks some big political questions around how Google protects and expands its monopoly power over paid and organic search, and the arguably anti-competitive practices it deploys while privileging its own properties in the search results.

The short and long-term ranking impact of removing long and fluff e-commerce category descriptions [Case Study] – Glenn Gabe
https://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/ecommerce-category-description-case-study/
August 30th, 2021

Lengthy descriptions for e-commerce sites are very common, but are they really necessary? Glenn Gabe recently came out with a case study regarding the short and long term impact of removing “excessive” or “fluffy” e-commerce descriptions.

9.5 Ways Google Rewrites Your Title Tags – Dr. Peter J. Meyers
https://moz.com/blog/ways-google-rewrites-title-tags
August 31, 2021

Google’s new title tag testing is frustrating site owners, especially the ones that are having a hard time understanding why Google is doing that. Moz’s new article by Dr. Pete aims to help site owners understand a bit better why their title tags might be getting “rewritten”. If you’d like to know more about how Google is, possibly, dealing with title tags, we recommend that you read the article.

LSG has a technical SEO role open! This role would be working closely with @AimeeSanford and me, so if ya have questions, let me know. https://t.co/99eHGiN6Ox

— Rachel Anderson (@rachelleighrva) August 25, 2021

Credo's agency partner @avalaunchmedia is hiring a FT Paid Media Strategist. If you're looking for a new gig, this is a great option.https://t.co/vGFQzSPIH4

— John Doherty (@dohertyjf) August 30, 2021

Come and work in the BEST SEO team EVER (I'm not biased…) #seojobs https://t.co/mVvsSIQn1w

— Grace Kindred (@kindred_grace) August 25, 2021

We are hiring for SEO account managers. We do things differently. If you're interested in working at Greenlane, I'd love to tell you a bit about what we are looking for and share some of our story with you. #helpwanted #seojobs

— Bill Sebald ™ (@billsebald) August 31, 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 algorithm analysis
• Google has confirmed a GSC data loss in Search and Discover performance this last week
• Mobile and desktop pages don’t have to exactly match, they just need to do this
• Here’s a useful thread on some important SEO topics
• Meta tags and what’s visible in snippets
• John clarifies Google’s ‘ignoring of links’ comment
• What you shouldn’t do with your back button
• How to see if Google changed your title
• Need help checking your CTR after the Title Tag Update?
• Our tl;dr summary of some awesome recent SEO articles

⎋ SUBSCRIBE NOW

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