Looking for the premium members version? Log in here

In this episode we discuss how internal linking can build trust, what to avoid with your internal links, optimizing title tags, passage based ranking, a tip for your CTAs and lots more!

There is no podcast for this episode

If you would like to subscribe, you can find the podcasts here:
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Play | Soundcloud

Ask Marie an SEO Question

Have a question that you want to ask Marie? You can ask them on our Q&A with Marie Haynes Consulting page and Marie will answer some of the best questions each week in podcast!

It’s well worth the $18 per month. Want to see a sample premium newsletter episode? View it here.

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

• A good reminder for ecommerce sites
• Tips for optimizing your title tags
• Why you shouldn’t do this with internal links
• Does a website theme matter for SEO?
• Changing unoptimized URLs
• Mobile usability issues warning in Google Search Console
• How internal linking can build trust
• John explains Passage Based Ranking
• Will your content visibility CSS impact search?
• Be aware of this for your call to actions
• A summary of Search Engine Journal’s “State of SEO 2021” survey
• Does geotagging photos influence ranking?
• Our tl;dr summary of some awesome recent SEO articles

⎋ SUBSCRIBE NOW

There has been a lot of chatter this week in the webmaster world forums regarding volatility starting around September 9th 2021. Barry has provided us with some very good examples, along with showing that there has been a lot of volatility in the weather tracking tools. 

Over the past few weeks, Barry and others in the community have noted a number of fluctuations in ranking that we haven’t seen in the sites that we monitor at MHC. We have hundreds of sites that we monitor, a lot of them current or past clients. 

Looking at the data this week, we are seeing a fair amount of volatility. Premium subscribers will get our thoughts on the changes. 

Reintroducing the MHC team

It was time to reintroduce the team at Marie Haynes Consulting and what we do. If you have any questions for us or about our services, head over to the tweet and let us know! 

Time for a little MHC reintroduction! 🟠

Hey! We are MHC, a team of consultants working to help site owners improve their SEO and site quality in the eyes of Google.@Marie_Haynes started her career in SEO in 2008 and has since grown to a team of twelve.

Get to know us below⬇️ pic.twitter.com/9o2PmTuwNv

— Marie Haynes Consulting (@mhc_inc) September 13, 2021

Episode 200 giveaway winners

We’ve selected our winners for the 200th SNYCU giveaway draw. Both have been selected at random, checked to confirm their subscriptions and have been emailed to notify them. We’re very excited to speak with the lucky winner about their website needs, and share a free year of SNYCU with the other. Thank you to everyone who participated!

Heads up if you’re using Google Merchant Center

If you’re using Google Merchant Centre, you should know that starting September 15, 2021, Google said it will start enforcing the requirement of products having unique product identifiers in the merchant feeds for free listings.

Google said it could disapprove product feeds if they don’t have these UPIs, so if you have any trouble uploading or get rejected in the near future, this could be the reason why.

A new Google test?

Earlier this week Barry Schwartz reported on Google’s (re)testing of large site link blocks in the SERPs. The buzz around Twitter suggests that most people aren’t thrilled about this change as it eats up plenty of SERP real estate and as a result, it pushes a lot of sites further down the page. Unfortunately it seems like this test may actually be more of a slow rollout as there are several reports and screenshots on Twitter of people seeing this in the wild. 

ICYMI: Google tests and maybe prepping for launch large block like Sitelinks https://t.co/Brg4oS8Yag pic.twitter.com/sdjAVAmPuV

— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) September 14, 2021

One more time for the people in the back

Super important for site owners to understand and something I have hammered in my posts about broad core updates. Site quality isn't about a handful of urls. It's about the site overall. Don't fix one or two things. Improve it all and over the long-term. https://t.co/h3F2ackHEf

— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) September 13, 2021

Glenn Gabe mentioned this after John Mueller tweeted, yet again, about site quality. John said, “When it comes to overall site quality, it’s not the quality of the missing pages from indexing, it’s the whole site. For what it’s worth, you don’t have to convince us, we don’t turn any dials, we’re just giving you advice. If you prefer to spend the time here, that’s up to you.”

Don’t try to just be better, be the best, period

A friendly reminder from John to not get caught up on who might be in your playing field, but to strive to be the best out there. We’ve emphasized quality over everything before but here is John confirming it. Don’t do the bare minimum but use your resources to create the best site you can. If you’re not sure where to start, we can offer a review of your website, or have several great tips in our newsletter each week to help you get there. 

It's always possible to find other sites that are "just as bad" — the comparison you should be aiming for is "your site is objectively the best by far". Don't aim to be passing the minimal standards, aim to be the best site, & search will work hard to show it to the right users.

— 🧀 John 🧀 (@JohnMu) September 9, 2021

MHC note: we often describe E-A-T as relative to your competition and it could certainly be seen as a moving target. That said, our site reviews explore a number of key aspects surrounding your website which’ll give us a holistic approach to making improvement recommendations. 

Goodbye Site Manager

Site Manager, formerly known as Communications Manager, is being removed from Google My Business. This feature had capabilities that both the owner and manager could perform. As of the 24th of October, all Site Managers will be reverted to Managers.

It's official. Google My Business is getting rid of the site manager role. pic.twitter.com/Ed06tZrrps

— Joy Hawkins (@JoyanneHawkins) September 9, 2021

Faceted Navigation: Definition, Examples & SEO Best Practices – Sam Underwood
https://ahrefs.com/blog/faceted-navigation/
September 9, 2021

There is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to a complex issue such as faceted navigation and the indexing/crawling decisions made around it.  This is a great read from Sam that smartly covers the nuances behind this kind of technical SEO decision-making process.

3 Little Known Facts About the Google My Business Cover Photo – Joy Hawkins
https://www.sterlingsky.ca/cover-photos-google-my-business/
September 13, 2021

When was the last time you thought about your cover photo in your Google My Business Profile? This article by Joy has you covered when thinking about choosing a GMB cover photo. 

📢This is not a drill! 📢

We have an opportunity to work @EruditeAgency and I need you lovely people of Twitter to help me find someone ready to walk through that door!

We're looking for an SEO manager, full/part time, wfh, £30-40k basic with 50k OTE

Full details below pic.twitter.com/3fR7MIpbBX

— Dan Rice 🦒 (@iamdanrice) September 8, 2021

Head of SEO role has opened up at @monzo. Seems like a very exciting role for the right person.

Base salary of £70k-115k.https://t.co/n31pH7MuFI

— Ryan Murton (@ryan_murton) September 11, 2021

.@Wix is looking for a tech SEO!

I can't tell you how impressed I was w. their dev team & SEO team!

I think you can ask anyone else on Wix's SEO Advisory Board & they would tell you the same thing

It's a great opportunity – It would be so silly to get caught up in the stigma https://t.co/wUbfgvIk8w

— Mordy Oberstein (@MordyOberstein) September 12, 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:

• A good reminder for ecommerce sites
• Tips for optimizing your title tags
• Why you shouldn’t do this with internal links
• Does a website theme matter for SEO?
• Changing unoptimized URLs
• Mobile usability issues warning in Google Search Console
• How internal linking can build trust
• John explains Passage Based Ranking
• Will your content visibility CSS impact search?
• Be aware of this for your call to actions
• A summary of Search Engine Journal’s “State of SEO 2021” survey
• Does geotagging photos influence ranking?
• Our tl;dr summary of some awesome recent SEO articles

⎋ SUBSCRIBE NOW

Note: If you are seeing the light version and you are a premium member, be sure to log in (in the sidebar on desktop or below the post on mobile) and read the full article here.

https://twitter.com/essentialskill/status/1437748745819639811?s=09