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In this episode, we discuss technical SEO for large websites, MHC’s dismantling of the disavow blacklist and our current stance on disavowing and toxic links, John Mueller’s advice on starting a blog and more.

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

• Understanding keyword intent
• How to add service markup to your site
• If you use a VPN, this one’s for you!
• Is fixing index bloat undervalued?
• Technical SEO for large sites
• John’s advice on starting a blog
• Google’s interpretation of comments impacts how they show your site in the search results
• Do you know how long “discovered – currently not indexed” statuses last?
• How Googlebot crawls pages with infinite scrolling
• New to Google: a shopping experience scorecard
• Why Google Posts are being rejected
• Chrome extension for Google Trends
• Our tl;dr summary of some awesome recent SEO articles

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This week there has been some rumbling of an unannounced Google update. Barry Schwartz is seeing increased chatter in the WebmasterWorld forums as well as spikes on February 24th in a lot of the weather tracking tools. 

Google Search ranking algorithm update around February 24th (unconfirmed) https://t.co/CI7MDgYrdj pic.twitter.com/wggmc5uA08

— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) February 25, 2022

As Barry notes in his write up, this is unlikely to be related to the roll out of the page experience update on desktop. Just as we wrote last week, that update is going to be rolled out slowly and its predecessor on mobile had no notable impact. 

Looking at the sites that MHC monitors, while we did have a few sites see movement on or around February 24th, many of these could be explained by either seasonality or by the impact of recent world events.

Dismantling our disavow blacklist tool

I, Marie, have been auditing links for a long time. While MHC today is known for understanding site quality, my first SEO client work was helping websites remove Google unnatural links manual actions. In 2013, I would spend full 8 hour days manually auditing links. I started taking note of domains that I would always disavow and created a disavow blacklist. On every spreadsheet I audited, I did some fancy VLOOKUP work with that list and saved myself many hours of work. Eventually, other SEOs wanted access to the list, so I created a tool that allowed people to look up a domain and see whether it is one that I had included on my blacklist. I then offered a paid version where you could do this in bulk. 

The tool had a number of subscribers and I have heard great feedback on how much time it has helped people save. However, we have decided to close it down to public use. If you were a subscriber of the MHC disavow blacklist, thank you for your support. You should have already been contacted by my team. 

We still do disavow for some sites, but when we do, it’s not the spammy type of link our blacklist picked up that we are trying to detect. I’ve written much more in a full article on why we do not recommend using automated tools to make important decisions about your disavow file.

Heads up, Google is experiencing an issue with the URL inspection tool 

Google has revealed that they’re experiencing a bit of a hiccup which webmasters may notice in GSC and the API. We hope this is a short term but keep an eye on the Google Search Central Twitter account for the latest.

We're experiencing an issue with the URL inspection tool, both in Search Console and the API, so you might see an increase in errors when inspecting URLs. We're working to solve this issue and will update you when we have more information.

— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) March 1, 2022

Everything you should know about topic clusters

Topic clusters can’t magically solve all of your SEO content issues but they are a great place to start if you want to create clear content and page hierarchy. Jake Sheridan’s article for Ahrefs is a helpful and useful guide for webmasters that want to learn more about topic clusters and, maybe, implement them on their website.  

I wrote a thing about topic clusters over at a little known SEO blog called @ahrefs…

Go check it out 👇https://t.co/XNMcFuWiNP

— Jake (@jsvxc) February 24, 2022

How Google categorizes your content as product review content

If you’re wondering if Google sees your pages as product review content, ask yourself instead if any of the product review advice or best practices could be applicable to your content. If they make sense and are helpful, John Mueller says you should follow it. 

Not sure if your pages are seen as product reviews by Google or not? If the advice Google has given on improving content *could* apply to your content then John says you should follow it.

(1/2)https://t.co/PIZxmm5xc5 #GoogleHelpHangout Feb 18#SEO pic.twitter.com/CNHbjXz6nZ

— Marie Haynes (@Marie_Haynes) February 25, 2022

Local pack map is interactive

There are now interactive features on Google’s local pack map including zoom, pan, hover and click. This allows you to see more details on the map itself, rather than being directed to the Google Maps interface. This definitely improves the user experience for Maps in the SERPs as users won’t have to navigate to another page. For local businesses, users can now see reviews on their pins easily. This may make your reviews even more powerful, people! Time to get some good ones.

Google brand SERPs: Why you must dominate People Also Ask – Jason Barnard
https://searchengineland.com/google-brand-serps-people-also-ask-381282
March 1, 2022

We love it when Jason Barnard posts about branded search, and this week’s addition in Search Engine Land is no exception! In this article, Jason talks about the importance of utilizing the People Also Ask (PAA) search feature for your branded search queries.

How To Identify And Reduce Render-Blocking Resources – Brian Harnish
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/render-blocking-resources/432650/
February 28, 2022

Brian Harnish’s recent article for Search Engine Journal talks about how render-blocking resources can significantly affect your site speed and user experience. If you would like to know how to achieve an optimal critical rendering path or if you just want to learn more about critical rendering path, check out Brian’s article.

https://twitter.com/lukedavisseo/status/1496396879348879361?s=21

Sometimes I need to pinch myself when I realize this is the morning commute to work.

If you fancy a change from your current role and work in digital, we're always looking out for SEO, Digital PR & Marketers to join our team.

Too many perks to fit in a tweet, so DM for info 🎯 pic.twitter.com/qNueHokzR5

— Charlie Clark (@CharC_SEO) February 23, 2022

I’m looking for a strong marketing manager with paid social and sem experience to join my team! Role is remote but US-based & the manager (me) is also pretty great 😂#marketingtwitter https://t.co/uSNtcbfN7y

— Zenia Johnson (@SocialZenia) February 23, 2022

Anybody looking for a mid level analytics/data science job? I have an urgent opening on my team. I'll even take a contractor if you can make the east coast hours work. Send me a resume.

— Ryan Jones (@RyanJones) February 23, 2022

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It’s well worth the $18 per month!

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

• Understanding keyword intent
• How to add service markup to your site
• If you use a VPN, this one’s for you!
• Is fixing index bloat undervalued?
• Technical SEO for large sites
• John’s advice on starting a blog
• Google’s interpretation of comments impacts how they show your site in the search results
• Do you know how long “discovered – currently not indexed” statuses last?
• How Googlebot crawls pages with infinite scrolling
• New to Google: a shopping experience scorecard
• Why Google Posts are being rejected
• Chrome extension for Google Trends
• Our tl;dr summary of some awesome recent SEO articles

⎋ SUBSCRIBE NOW

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.@marie_haynes: “She inspires me as the leading expert in EAT and also as a successful business owner. She puts out one of the best and most in-depth SEO newsletters in the industry.”

— Inflow® (@goinflow) March 8, 2021