Table of Contents
  1. Intro
  2. SNYCU Podcast
  3. Not a premium subscriber? You're missing out!
  4. Algorithm Updates
  5. MHC Announcements
  6. SEO Tips
  7. Other Interesting News
  8. Local SEO - Google SERP Changes
  9. Recommended Reading
  10. Want More?
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Ep. 233 - May 5, 2022 - Light Version

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In this episode, we discuss a possible algorithm and knowledge graph update, easy-win content ideas, steps on how you should organize your content, some helpful tips, and the latest SEO news from across the industry.

SNYCU Podcast

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

  • Helpful tips on Ahrefs
  • 5 ways to use the Wayback Machine for SEO
  • How long are live results cached for?
  • Changes to Bing user agent
  • Our tl;dr summary of some awesome recent SEO articles
You’ll also have access to all past episodes, including this one.
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Algorithm Updates

Possible knowledge graph updates?

There have been a few rumblings this week regarding a possible update to Google Knowledge Graph. 

Jason Barnard, who is our go-to for monitoring such things, is reporting large numbers of knowledge panels disappearing from the SERP for different brands. 

This could suggest that there has been a shake-up with the knowledge graph and confidence scores for branded entities may have been adjusted in some way. Either this is a bug on Google’s side, or if it was intentional then the disappearance of these KPs for brand searches suggests that Google lost confidence in how likely that branded search was actually about that brand. 

Have you gained or lost a branded knowledge panel in the last week? If so we would love to hear from you! Please reach out via this Twitter thread. 

 

Possible algorithm update May 1st

Barry is reporting a possible algorithm update over the weekend, with sites reporting lower traffic numbers in the webmaster world forums, and some of the weather tools spiking. 

However, it should be kept in mind that it is a bank holiday weekend in the UK and other parts of Europe, so low traffic could be due to those seasonal trends. 

Looking at the sites MHC monitors, we had a few clients with unusual fluctuations (mostly increases which is nice!) However, many of these could be seasonal increases. We’ll come back to analyze May 1 further next week when we have more data and we will report back if we see signs of a significant Google change.

 

MHC Announcements

Are you following our Twitter chat?

Marie hosts a Twitter chat every Wednesday at 11am EST called #LearnSEO. Make sure you tune in next week and follow the hashtag #LearnSEO to follow along and participate.

 

In case you missed it…

Marie hosted the Search News You Can Use podcast in a video format last week and talked about semantic search. 

Let us know in the YouTube comments what you think and if you have any questions!

 

Connect with us on LinkedIn!

Want another way to connect? Marie is also on LinkedIn so be sure to give her a follow as well as our company page. 

SEO Tips

Looking for some easy-win content ideas?

In the tweets below, Freddie discusses how to find content ideas using top-level keywords and applying Ahrefs filters such as page titles containing the keyword(s) and then adding in baseline metrics related to sites and pages. Overall, it’s a great approach for some quick but effective content ideas!

Although this tip is geared towards Ahrefs users, don’t fret! Admittedly, Ahrefs would be the quicker and more detailed method, but there is an old-fashioned way which leverages site commands and a series of Google searches for those of you without the tool (and creates a good baseline, but not 1:1 results) and are looking for content ideas of your own. It’s a bit more of a laboursome approach, but, say I wanted to replicate Freddie’s search above, I could do the following:

  1. Set up a Moz account (even the free one is good enough) and download the Keywords Everywhere extension.
  2. Create a Google Search. For example: intitle:bourbon
    Or perhaps you could try and find only content found within an article. A practical shortcut could be to apply an additional command for only URLs containing “article” in the URL. For example:  intitle:bourbon inurl:article
  3. With Moz and Keywords Everywhere set up, these will then provide useful metrics such as page authority, domain authority, and total referring links to the domain. By clicking on the “Link Analysis” item in the Moz toolbar though, it’ll take you to a Moz Analytics page that provides the number of linking domains and number of inbound links. 

Of course, the Ahrefs method is the most efficient, but don’t be afraid to try this yourself! This tip can be great for strengthening your existing content or creating new content from scratch. 

 

How should you categorize content?

If you are a webmaster looking for new ways to categorize your site’s content, we recommend checking out this Twitter thread by Rebekah Edwards. 

After introducing and detailing what it means to have optimized category hubs, Rebekah talks about what she believes to be the best way to categorize your content and what it could mean for the site. These are her steps:

  • Every piece of content should have its own content hub. 
  • These hubs should have a dedicated hub page (often the same page) and a pillar. 
  • The internal link structure should consist of pages from the same hub linking to each other, as well as some links from different hubs. 
  • Breadcrumbs that link back to the main hub should be implemented as well (note: if you missed it last week, we featured an awesome article on breadcrumbs SEO best practices for a mobile-first strategy). 
  • Also, some of these articles (preferably your most valuable pieces) should link to the pillar page. 

If you’d like to learn more about categorizing content and what other steps to take, check out Rebekah’s tweet. 

 

Enterprise SEO buy-in: 7 essential tips for winning the long game

We really liked this article written by Tessa Nadik. If you’re a larger enterprise organization and find that you are challenged by bridging the gap between SEO and the rest of the business, you’ll want to read these 7 tips.

  1. Improve your understanding of the business by knowing how the company operates, creates and monetization. 
  2. Learn more about what the business finds important from the leadership, down to the individual teams. Learning this will help prepare you for what you need to be successful.
  3. Simplify as much as possible. Your ideas may be great but, if no one understands them, it can all be in vain.
  4. SEO can be unpredictable in many aspects which is why it is hard to give projections. Does that mean you stay away from them? Absolutely not. Use existing tools to your advantage and forecast projections.
  5. Not everyone will understand SEO the way you might. It’s important to not get defensive.
  6. Prioritize your SEO initiatives based on how important an item is. Focus on what needs to be done first so it can be given attention. 
  7. Socialize and share success because no team can do it alone!

Check out the full article on Search Engine Journal! 

 

Tips for creating successful SEO mentorships

When it comes to SEO, it’s no secret that hands-on training tends to edge out formal training experience. If you’ve ever been curious about how mentorships can benefit your working environment, Rachel Vandernick’s recent SEJ article discusses just that. You can learn about finding the right mentor and common mistakes in mentorships. 

As an agency that embraces mentorship, here are a couple of points that we loved:

  • When finding the right mentor, go in with a clear set of goals (these will obviously be different for each role and level of experience of the mentee).
  • Spend time researching possible matches and think carefully about who you want to learn from. Goals, career aspirations, and even personality and background are important considerations.
  • Set clear expectations. Be honest and upfront with each other. Find common ground on things like how often you’ll meet, what the format will look like, discuss how the mentee would like feedback, and how they can be best supported. As a mentor, it’s important to provide feedback around specific goals and projects the mentee is working on. 

Be sure to check out Rachel’s article for more great information. 

Other Interesting News

GSC performance report bug

On April 28th users were flagging a very unique issue in Google Search Console. 

Daniel Waisberg of Google responded, “It’s not a bug, it’s a UI glitch. Getting fixed in 3… 2… 1…”.

This UI glitch was fixed within a few hours but it did lead to some funny comments and memes. As always, Izzi did not disappoint:

 

Google launches Media CDN

During this week’s 2022 NAB Show Streaming Summit, Google Cloud announced the launch of their new media CDN – a media platform that aims to “help customers in the media and entertainment industries deliver efficient streaming experiences”. 

This new project uses the same basis that Google has created to support YouTube’s ever-so-growing streaming content. 

 

Local SEO - Google SERP Changes

New product performance metrics in Google Business Profile

Google Business Profile has added a section in Performance Metrics (aka. GMB Insights at one point) specifically for product performance in Google Maps and Local search. This added section shows product views and top products. This new related information has also been reflected in Google help documentation as well. A few new available performance metrics include:

  • Direction requests
  • Website clicks
  • Bookings
  • Food orders
  • Products

Recommended Reading

Analysis of Google’s March 2022 Product Reviews Update (PRU) – Findings and observations from the affiliate front lines – Glenn Gabe
https://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/google-march-2022-product-reviews-update/
May 2, 2022 

In a new blog post from Glenn Gabe, he covers some observations and findings from the March 2022 PRU. Some of these findings include content types that saw benefits, a (likely short term) PRU loophole, review testing labs, links, and much more!

 

At Least 66.5% of Links to Sites in the Last 9 Years Are Dead – Patrick Stox
https://ahrefs.com/blog/link-rot-study/ 
April 29, 2022

Ever heard of the term link rot? This refers to links that go to a broken or alternate page because the page they are linking to has been redirected, does not exist anymore or simply just does not work. In this fantastic study, Patrick Stox finds that out of the 2,062,173 websites his team sampled, 66.5% were victims of link rot. 

 

What 1,000 food blog audits has taught me about SEO – Casey Markee
https://searchengineland.com/seo-lessons-food-blog-audits-383826
April 27, 2022

In his most recent article, Casey Markee shares his findings after years of auditing food blog content. 

Casey starts by pointing out that length doesn’t mean strength. As many SEOs and internet users are aware, the vast majority of food blog content on the internet tends to be very lengthy. The idea behind this is to have extra room to publish more ads but, as you might be aware, this practice doesn’t necessarily provide any benefit for users. 

 

The gender gap in SEO publishing – Lidia Infante 
https://www.lidia-infante.com/post/gender-gap-in-seo-publishing 
April 22, 2022

We usually try to leave the writing in our newsletter as anonymous as possible, as MHC’s entire staff is involved in some capacity in putting together this weekly newsletter. However, I personally wanted to take the opportunity to give this article on the gender gap in SEO publishing a platform and shine some light on what I think is an important topic. This is being written by me, Cass. I’m a senior SEO analyst here at MHC, and have been here at MHC since the very beginning. I can’t express how fortunate I feel to have the opportunity to work with Marie and help grow this agency and shape its culture. Currently, there are 11 people who work at MHC, five of which are women, and as someone who has been part of the hiring process from the beginning, this is something I’m proud of. 

Want More?

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:

  • Helpful tips on Ahrefs
  • 5 ways to use the Wayback Machine for SEO
  • How long are live results cached for?
  • Changes to Bing user agent
  • Our tl;dr summary of some awesome recent SEO articles
You’ll also have access to all past episodes, including this one.
I

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