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Barry Schwartz’ interview with HJ Kim of Google is the most interesting I’ve seen in a long time. He mentioned an algorithm called Coati which every SEO should know about. In this episode we’ll discuss that. We’ll talk a lot about E-A-T and discuss some exciting new changes to search for ECommerce sites. There’s also some good discussion on AI content writing tools and whether using them is a good idea.

In the premium version this week, I give a lot of thoughts on whether structured data misuse can hurt your rankings, new features on TikTok and YouTube to lure creators, my thoughts on AI content writing tools, and a lot of discussion on E-A-T and Coati.

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1)Google has rolled out new Multi-Search features

Our SERPs are changing! Google has launched Multisearch Near Me and a few other features like 3D Augmented Reality for shoes and beauty products.

A number of the features announced at Search On 2022 are rolling out -> Google rolls out new features across Maps, Search and Shopping, including Multisearch Near Me, 3D/AR for shoes (as I tweeted about the other day!), find a dish near you, and more https://t.co/hOaU9zkGuZ pic.twitter.com/KI62IsJ5ez

— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) November 17, 2022

2) New Shopping tab in GSC

Oh hey! More goodies in GSC for EComm folks.

Now GSC has a Shopping tab🛒

If you sell physical products, use product structured data and you'll appear in the Shopping tab on Google Search. You can now monitor these in GSC.

May take a few weeks to roll out. https://t.co/3diQ6NwvzM

— Dr. Marie Haynes🐼 (@Marie_Haynes) November 16, 2022

3) New Google algorithm: Coati (New to SEOs)

Barry Shwartz’s interview with HJ Kim of Google was incredible. He shared that E-A-T is used in every single query searched on Google. He also mentioned an algorithm called Coati. Panda evolved into Coati which is now a part of the core algorithm. I believe that much of how E-A-T is evaluated and used depends on Coati. Discussed more below.

3) Structured data misuse can result in lower rankings

I have always said that structured data manual actions only lead to losing your rich results, like review stars, in the search results. This tweet caused an interesting discussion. (More shared below.)

I've never noticed this before…Google's documentation says that if you don't follow the structured data guidelines you might see lower rankings.

I've always said the worst that could happen was you'd lose rich results.🤔 pic.twitter.com/mVJMDcNuEz

— Dr. Marie Haynes🐼 (@Marie_Haynes) November 15, 2022

What is E-A-T?

This week we learned from Google’s HJ Kim that E-A-T is used for every single query searched on Google! In this episode Dr. Marie Haynes shares advanced information on how to assess E-A-T.

Audience questions answered:

Does E-A-T matter for tech blogs?
Is being mentioned on a big news site good for E-A-T?
Does adding expert reviewers help?
How would an ed-tech platform increase E-A-T?
How do you measure E-A-T?
Should you update old articles that were not written with E-A-T in mind?
Common E-A-T mistakes and misconceptions
Examples of sites doing well after improving E-A-T
How do you do an E-A-T audit?

There will be a YouTube video for this episode, out next week.

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Many reports of GBP reviews disappearing

Seeing two more businesses with all their Google reviews just disappeared. As @mblumenthal said, there's something going on. I hope Google gets on this as soon as possible. #LocalSEO

— Amy Toman 🍁 (@BubblesUp) November 13, 2022

Oh fun. Google is accidentally deleting all reviews now.

“Make sure you know your GBP CID numbers and have backups of your reviews; you'll need them sooner or later.” –@mblumenthal

Read this post. #localseo https://t.co/sHXKe3t2yD

— Darren Shaw (@DarrenShaw_) November 12, 2022

🚨 A potential new GBP bug has been affecting some local businesses. You may have seen:

👉 A change in business CID
👉 A change in business details
👉 Businesses losing ALL reviews after suggested edits updates

Read the latest from @nearmediaco https://t.co/wyAZGGD7Eb

— BrightLocal 🇺🇦 (@brightlocal) November 14, 2022

It turns out this was indeed a bug. Google tweeted that they have fixed this as of November 16. If you lost reviews they should be restored.

Now that we found and corrected the bug, no, it shouldn’t do that. And even more reviews have been restored.

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) November 16, 2022

Good thread about using keywords in your business name

To prevent your listing from getting suspended, you can rebrand; that is, change your name officially in these places:

1. Government sources (register a "Doing Business As" name).
2. In your logo.
3. On your website.
4. In your signage (if not a service area business).

2/5

— Darren Shaw (@DarrenShaw_) November 15, 2022

Reviews showing when a review has reviewed similar businesses

Google local reviews are showing labels when a reviewer has reviewed other similar types of businesses.

Seems to be a variation of what @rustybrick has covered last week where the number of reviews in a particular city was labelled. pic.twitter.com/ldEgAJdn3p

— Itamar Blauer (@ItamarBlauer) November 12, 2022

This reminded me of years ago when Bill Slawski was discussing a patent that could possibly be in use here. Bill said, “Someone who writes 34 reviews about “Italian Restaurants in New York City” might be seen as a local expert in New York City. Someone writing 10 reviews on chocolate stores throughout the United States might be seen as a local expert (in the United States) on stores that sell chocolate.” It makes sense that if I’ve left reviews for Vietnamese Pho restaurants all over Ottawa, that perhaps I am someone experienced in eating Pho.

Adding local business schema using RankMath

My SMX talk

Register for SMX Next and you can catch my talk on Google’s algorithms.

This is a really important talk. I share my thoughts on how machine learning is likely determining how much to weigh ranking factors for most queries. No SEO can decode Google’s algorithms. The more Google uses machine learning the better they will get at ranking content that is simply the most helpful. Thankfully Google has given us so many resources to draw on to understand how to create helpful content.

Here are my slides for this talk.

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I’m working like crazy each week to understand Google and learn how we can improve the quality of our sites and get more customers online. I share my best stuff in the paid version of newsletter. Sign up and you’ll be able to read every single back issue. I’ve been doing this for years so there is a lot of content there!

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I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did creating it!

If you’re looking for more, you can buy my book that many use as a checklist for assessing E-A-T like a quality rater.

Marie