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Table of Contents
  1. Intro
  2. SNYCU Podcast
  3. Not a premium subscriber? You're missing out!
  4. News about Google’s Algorithms
  5. MHC Announcements
  6. Google SERP Changes
  7. SEO Tips
  8. Other Interesting News
  9. SEO Tools
  10. Recommended Reading
  11. Jobs
  12. Want More?
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Ep. 237 - June 2, 2022 - Light Version

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In this episode, we discuss early core update observations, changes occurring in the search results page, some handy SEO tips this week, and the latest in SEO news from across the industry.

SNYCU Podcast

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

  • In-depth detail on our early observations of the May core update (including our summary of what is being said across the industry)
  • Is Google showing more FAQs in the search results?
  • Are you losing featured snippets?
  • Real-time reporting: Universal Analytics vs Google Analytics 4
  • Can you use a subdomain for YMYL content?
  • Impacted by a core update? Check out this neat tool!
  • Our tl;dr summary of some awesome recent SEO articles
You’ll also have access to all past episodes, including this one.
I

News about Google’s Algorithms

May 2022 core update observations

It has been a full week since the May 2022 core update went live! Google announced the update last week and said the update would take 1-2 weeks to roll out. At MHC, we have been busy digging into the early data for sites that potentially may have been impacted. 

Keep in mind that the core update is still rolling out, and while we often see impacts in the first few days of an update, we are increasingly finding that there is volatility in the SERPs all the way until the roll out is complete. Marie, Barry, and John Mueller discussed this last week in their webinar for Duda last week on Google updates.

As a reminder, this is an update to Google’s core ranking system, meaning that no one thing has been targeted unlike, say, the link spam update.

If you are a premium subscriber, you can read more on our key observations and what the community is experiencing. Premium subscribers also have access to Marie’s early thoughts on the May 2022 core update.

MHC Announcements

Did you miss #LearnSEO this week?

We got you covered! Check out our latest blog post covering the discussion Marie had on her early thoughts on the May 2022 core update. Keep in mind, this isn’t our official blog post on the May 2022 core update. These are our early speculations with the official blog post releasing in a few weeks once the update has finished rolling out.

Make sure you follow us on Twitter @mhc_inc to take part in the next #LearnSEO!

Missed the action last week?

Similar to our neighbours to the south, we were coming off a long weekend last week. That didn’t stop us from putting out a ton of content though! In case you missed the action, we summarized the whole week and all the wonderful gems in one nice thread.

Have questions? Give us a shout on Twitter at @mhc_inc. 

 

What you need to know about Google updates!

We included this in our weekly roundup but had to give this webinar a separate highlight! Last week, Marie joined Barry Schwartz and John Mueller for a Duda webinar on core updates. As many of you would have experienced, we recently got a core update for May 2022 (6 months from the last update). Give the video a watch and let us know if you have any questions.

Google SERP Changes

New featured snippet format?

Lily Ray flagged a possible new featured snippet which displays the weight and limit for certain goods. 

As Mordy Oberstein also noted, “Pretty sure I’ve seen that on desktop- but don’t recall seeing it on mobile – for what’s it worth”. 

SEO Tips

What is link bait?

Si Quan Ong from Ahrefs put together some best practices and a few great examples of link bait in action. 

As a quick refresher, link bait is a piece of content written with the intention of getting people’s attention by providing an opinion, striking visual, factual information, a comment on a trending topic and/or something that evokes a reaction leading to it being shared. 

For those that need a primer, this article does a fantastic job of highlighting the most important elements of a great link bait campaign. We loved the example of inception-explained.com from Matt Dempsey. As Matt explained, Inception had recently come out (trending topic) and “… millions of people knew and loved [Inception] but most didn’t completely understand”. He also used Parallax scrolling which was fairly new at the time making the site a rather novel experience (striking visual). 

 

AMP is not supported by Google Analytics 4

Especially given the lengths Google has gone to promote AMP to publishers — including at one time requiring the use of AMP in order to be eligible for the mobile Top Stories carousel — the lack of AMP support within GA4 is a major pain point and something urgently in need of a solution. Krista Seiden recently responded to Glenn Gabe’s open question about this subject by saying we currently have no idea if or when the support will be available.

For publishers using AMP and in need of an immediate solution, there is this workaround provided by David Vallejo for tracking AMP pages in GA4.

 

What causes Search Console graphs to fluctuate?

This latest episode of #AskGooglebot focuses on the question of why we sometimes see the graphs in the various Google Search Console (GSC) reports fluctuate so much. John Mueller’s answer: Google Search has so many complex and interconnected systems that while minor changes tend to even themselves out over time, small changes may have a visible impact on the data you see because you’re only looking at individual parts – just one piece of a larger picture. 

Some of the things that can cause these minor changes to be visible in your data:

  • When crawling from one data center is a teeny, tiny bit faster than usual, that can cause changes in the content that Google has available for indexing, and in turn, the content that is in the search results.
  • You write an amazing social media post that goes viral and Google’s systems focus on that a bit more.

So what do you do when you see these changes in your GSC reports? John says don’t sweat the small things and instead look out for trends: has the graph been continuously heading in one direction over the past few weeks? If so, that can be a sign of broader changes that you should be paying attention to. Has there been a big spike or a large drop? If the graph has changed significantly in a short period of time, that can indicate a serious change occurred and you’ll want to try to find out the cause in order to possibly remedy it… or celebrate it, if it turned out to be a good thing.

 

Need an introduction to Google Search Console?

Are you just getting acquainted with Google Search Console and looking at your GSC dashboard feeling like information overload? 

Here’s a great intro guide to all things GSC from how to set it up, how to use the Coverage reports and many tools.

Other Interesting News

Heads up all WordPress users!

If you’re a WordPress user, the “Table of Contents” block is now available. 

What this allows users to do is place the experimental block on the page, and WordPress will automatically detect any heading blocks and display them as a table of contents with jump links. Not only does this make it super easy for webmasters but, it effectively allows users to skim the contents of your page much more easily and inform them of what they can expect to find.

Definitely something worth considering if you use WordPress. It is especially more effective for websites with longer-form content.  

 

Great CV tips from an SEO hiring manager

Orit Mutznik, SEO Director at Forbes, gives nearly a dozen topics for acing your CV. One of her best tips (okay, we’re combining two!) is about speaking beyond your agency name and role and detailing some information about your projects/sites, the responsibilities, and your impact. 

Be sure to check out the rest below:

SEO Tools

Page-oscope by MobileMoxie

This handy tool called Page-oscope by Mobile Moxie lets you compare rendered and unrendered code of mobile and desktop. The best part is that it’s completely free at a limit of 10 uses per day. 

This tool can help with the following:

    • Validating responsive design on mobile which is good for ensuring good UX and MFI.
    • Validate international landing pages. You can set the country to a place of your choice and assess how the website is adapting to meet different regulations and needs based on the countries you serve.
    • General insight on UX for Android or iOS mobile phones.
    • Confirm edge SEO modifications which will help you to diagnose an array of issues, such as mobile SEO or indexing problems. 

 Alyeda Solis also gave it a thumbs up on Twitter! 

 

5 cool features (plus an added bonus) of the SEOtesting Chrome extension

This SEOTesting Chrome extension can do these 6 things (some of which we often check for client work as well!):  

  • Show Search Console query data.
  • Show Search Console performance graphs.
  • Show page titles, meta descriptions, and canonicals.
  • Review heading structure.
  • Check the performance of SEO tests you have running on the site.
  • Run the URL inspection tool and get results while browsing your site.

Recommended Reading

Why you should give Google Analytics 4 a chance – Krista Seiden
https://searchengineland.com/give-ga4-a-chance-385290 
May 24, 2022

We included another GA4 tip from Krista this week in our newsletter (her tips are gold!). However, some users still aren’t completely sold on GA4 yet. 

In this article, Krista walks us through why you should give GA4 a chance. Highly recommended for anyone on the fence with GA4!

 

Optimize crawling, for the environment – Joost De Valk
https://joost.blog/optimize-crawling-for-the-environment/
May 24, 2022

It is no secret that technological advancements have enriched humanity with incredible opportunities and technological knowledge that aim to improve the overall quality of life. These advancements have not only shaped the economy, but also the environment which lead to a number of social and environmental issues. Read this wonderful article to see how SEO impacts the environment!

 

Top 100 SEO Mistakes I Identified In My Last 100 SEO Audits – Olga Zarzenca
https://seosly.com/seo-mistakes/
May 28, 2022

Mistakes are a great way to learn, and this article covers 100 of them through experience working on 100 SEOs audits! Give it a read – maybe you can relate.

Jobs

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:

  • In-depth detail on our early observations of the May core update (including our summary of what is being said across the industry)
  • Is Google showing more FAQs in the search results?
  • Are you losing featured snippets?
  • Real-time reporting: Universal Analytics vs Google Analytics 4
  • Can you use a subdomain for YMYL content?
  • Impacted by a core update? Check out this neat tool!
  • 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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