Ep. 245 - July 28, 2022 - Light Version

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In this episode, we discuss the new product reviews update, Glenn Gabe’s review of the May core update, more changes in product SERPS and some great SEO tips including using machine learning to find internal link opportunities, uses of Dall-E-2 for your clients and great tips for improving UX.

There is no podcast this week, but if you missed it here is last week’s episode discussing the new pros and cons SERP annotations. These are possibly even more relevant following this recent product reviews update!

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

• Marie’s thoughts and speculation on this most recent product reviews update (especially re links to multiple vendors)
• Our summary of Glenn Gabe’s excellent May core update analysis
• Shopping carousel showing the number of highlights
• Google showing return policy in the SERPS
• ‘Featured in’ in the SERPS for hotel listings
• Using machine learning to find internal link opportunities and create topic clusters
• Case study where a site was cannibalizing their own content
• How (and why) to hide your sitemaps from competitors
• Is there SEO benefit to using a unique IP address?
• Bookmarklets for SEO
• Excellent tips for improving UX
• Shopify partners with Youtube
• Don’t upload blurry photos or selfies to GMB
• is something odd going on with Google Local Service Ads?
• A free tool to use AI to find keywords that are likely to convert
• Our tl;dr summary of some awesome recent SEO articles

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A new product reviews update is live!

On Wednesday, July 27, Google announced another product reviews update was rolling out.

Today we released the July 2022 product reviews update. We'll update our ranking release history page when the rollout is complete: https://t.co/sQ5COfdNcb

— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) July 27, 2022

On the day following (the day of newsletter publication) we’re not seeing much change so far. 

A new product reviews update launched yesterday. Google says the rollout will take 2-3 weeks to complete.

So far I'm not seeing too much.@semrush sensor is still pretty quiet. pic.twitter.com/JAuOhjvf0h

— Dr. Marie Haynes🐧 (@Marie_Haynes) July 28, 2022

btw…nice new design for the sensor, Semrush!

Google says the update will take two to three weeks to roll out.

In the premium version of newsletter Marie speculates about whether this rollout will reward pages with links to multiple vendors.

Glenn Gabe’s analysis of 5 sites affected by the May Core Update

Once again Glenn has written an excellent analysis of a Google core update. We agree with Glenn when he says that this update felt different! 

We’re considering some changes to the SNYCU newsletter

For many years we have published the newsletter online and sent you an email summarizing what is in it. We’re considering giving all of the information in email so that you do not have to click through to the website. We’d love to hear your thoughts on this!

Premium members now get email notifications for significant Google changes

If you’re a premium subscriber to SNYCU you’ll now also receive an email whenever Google announces a significant change in their algorithms. This week we sent out an email announcing the product reviews update as soon as we heard about it. We promise we won’t spam you and will only send you information about very important changes!

Got an Ecommerce question for Google?

Google is looking to answer questions in the the form of YouTube shorts. 

Got an ecommerce question for the Google Search Central team you think suitable for a YouTube Short? Drop it here! (This is an experiment to judge interest – the form may be taken down without notice.) https://t.co/AdAHFR2Tcj

— Alan Kent (@akent99) July 22, 2022

Uses of Dall-E-2 for your clients

More and more people are being granted access to Dall-E-2. Dall-E-2 is a new AI system that generates extremely realistic images from a simple text description. 

I, Marie, am currently on the waitlist and can’t wait to play around with this. I can see all sorts of opportunities for producing unique and helpful images for our content with this tool. I loved these tweets where Danny Richman shared how he has been playing around with the tool to help local businesses. 

I've been playing around with Dalle-2 and trying to find some practical (non-artistic) uses for this tool.

My friend is starting up a swimming pool construction business. He takes a picture of the client's garden. pic.twitter.com/5JzeBLdZKH

— Danny Richman (@DannyRichman) July 25, 2022

I'm experimenting with Dalle-2 to see if it could be used by fashion brands to avoid the cost of hiring models.

Not entirely successful, but getting close.

Original image on left. Dalle-2 edit on right. pic.twitter.com/Y6MxmBYqwP

— Danny Richman (@DannyRichman) July 26, 2022

Testing DALL-E-2 for architectural modelling.

Add a contemporary glass extension to the rear of this property. 🧵

– Original image pic.twitter.com/XR8GzUotBD

— Danny Richman (@DannyRichman) July 26, 2022

Do links that point to noindexed pages pass PageRank?

This was an interesting poll.

Today's pointless #SEO poll:

In your opinion, do backlinks to pages marked as NoIndex still "count"?

— Chloe Ivy Rose 🏳️‍🌈 (@chloeivyroseseo) July 26, 2022

There still can be value in getting links to noindexed pages if those pages bring customers and traffic but in general, links to a page that is permanently noindexed is likely not worth much.

It can be tricky though. John covered this in a help hangout last year. This tweet thread by Glenn Gabe explains the nuances.

Automatic data insertion from web tables to Excel

What? We did not know this!!!

wait are you kidding me pic.twitter.com/LULzjAf5tJ

— Adam Smith (@asmith83) July 19, 2022

Neural-IR Models – Muhammad Hammad Khan

https://medium.com/@mhammadkhan/neural-re-ranking-models-c0a67278f626 

July 18, 2022

In this article, Muhammad explains how Neural Information Retrieval has been a game changer for search. He explains how BERT-based text ranking approaches can be used as a “re-ranker” in multistage search architecture. 

This is a complicated article, but it is worth reading through. The article explains milti-stage ranking which we believe is something that is happening with Google’s algorithms. Results can be ranked with traditional information retrieval algorithms that match keywords in queries with keywords (or synonyms) on pages, and then a certain number of those results are re-ranked using a BERT based algorithm. 

E-A-T auditing: How to level up your credibility game – Nichola Stott

https://searchengineland.com/e-a-t-audit-386611

E-A-T is so much more than just adding author bios. As Nichola says, “think of it more like a collection of all the things that really matter and impede your potential.” This article gives a great list of things to check when it comes to auditing your site for E-A-T.

Success Looks Different On Everyone, I Guess – Donna Cavalier

https://heropress.com/essays/success-looks-different-on-everyone-i-guess/

July 2022

We loved this article in which Donna shares her journey to “success” which she describes as to live a life “without the constant weight of poverty wrapped around a person’s neck.”

Donna has a really cool story. She’s been writing and creating online for a long time now. If you are looking for inspiration, we’d recommend this read!

Looking for a new SEO job? SEOjobs.com is a job board curated by real SEOs for SEOs. Take a look at five of the hottest SEO job listing this week (below) and sign up for the weekly job listing email only available at SEOjobs.com.

• Web and SEO Data Analyst ~ Xivic Inc ~ Remote
• SEO Sr. Specialist ~ Amsive Digital ~ Remote
• SEO Manager ~ Wealthfront ~ Remote
• Technical SEO Analyst ~ Dictionary.com ~ $55k ~ Remote
• Sr SEO Manager ~ Staples ~ $82K+ ~ Remote

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:

• Marie’s thoughts and speculation on this most recent product reviews update (especially re links to multiple vendors)
• Our summary of Glenn Gabe’s excellent May core update analysis
• Shopping carousel showing the number of highlights
• Google showing return policy in the SERPS
• ‘Featured in’ in the SERPS for hotel listings
• Using machine learning to find internal link opportunities and create topic clusters
• Case study where a site was cannibalizing their own content
• How (and why) to hide your sitemaps from competitors
• Is there SEO benefit to using a unique IP address?
• Bookmarklets for SEO
• Excellent tips for improving UX
• Shopify partners with Youtube
• Don’t upload blurry photos or selfies to GMB
• is something odd going on with Google Local Service Ads?
• A free tool to use AI to find keywords that are likely to convert
• 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.

.@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