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Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

2022 has started off with a lot of volatility in the Google search results, there was another unconfirmed Google search update noticed over the weekend. Google released a new robots tag named indexifembedded, it deals with embeddable content. Google spoke about product images in the web results and how there is no real documentation on that. Google also spoke about redirects pull backs and other signals around links consolidation. Google is discontinuing Cameos on Google. AdSense is now seperating out YouTube payments, which might be a bad thing. Finally, part three with Riley Hope’s vlog is out.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• January 22nd Unconfirmed Google Search Ranking Update
  Again I am seeing signals, both a lot of chatter from the SEO community and tools lighting up around a possible but yet unconfirmed Google search ranking algorithm update. Yes, there has been a ton of unconfirmed updates in the past couple of weeks and let’s add this one to the list.
• New Google Robots Tag indexifembedded: Control Indexing With Embedded Content
  Google has announced a brand new robots tag it will obey going forward, it is named indexifembedded. It lets you control if you want Google to index a page with embedded content.
• Google: There Is No Schema For Product Images In Web Search
  Google’s John Mueller was asked if there is a way to better control the images that Google shows in the web search results for product results. The answer is not really, there is no schema or structured data that helps you control or define these for Google, John said. He said Google just decides on its own if it wants to show them for snippets or not.
• Google On Redirect Pull Backs Plus Signal Consolidation
  I am not going to get into the 301 vs 302 redirect debate, covered that countless times here. But I found an interesting conversation on Twitter about the differences between 301 and 302 redirects and how they consolidate signals forward or back, also known as pull backs.
• Cameos on Google Is Going Away
  Google on Friday sent out emails to those who have recorded videos for Cameos on Google that they are discontinuing the service. “Beginning February 17, 2022, you will no longer be able to record videos through Cameos on Google and any existing videos posted to Google Search and Discover won’t be shown,” Google wrote.
• Google AdSense To Separate YouTube Earnings With Own Payment Threshold
  Google sent emails to YouTube publishers that their YouTube AdSense payments will be separated from their other AdSense payments. So if you get paid through Google AdSense for AdSense ads on your sites and also in YouTube, you will now get payments individually for each. The issue is, that means each has to hit the $100 payment threshold individually and you might get paid out slower.
• Vlog #156: Riley Hope On COVID & Searcher Behavior
  In part one Riley Hope and I spoke about her SEO career, how she did her thesis on ethics in SEO and we spoke about the automotive SEO space. In part two we talk about women in SEO and more on the automotive space and search results…
• Stunning Dublin View From Google
  Look at this stunning and awesome view of Dublin from the Google office building. It is just wow. The person who posted this on Instagram wrote “Dublin bay putting on a show this morning.”

Other Great Search Threads:

• A thread about Wordle, letter frequencies, and how the choice of corpus matters for textual analysis. I’ve only been playing Wordle for about two weeks, so I can’t claim any expertise, but it tickled some old interests of m, Paul Haahr on Twitter
• Came into work to a small handful of ‘Discover policy violation’ notices from Search Console for two websites. None with merit so will be challenging them. Do we expect a flood of these soon? I’d rather not spend, Ant on Twitter
• Is this still true Google? Yes, it is true says Google. Well, if Google says it is true, therefore it must be wrong… via @JohnMu https://t.co/WGSemeG5db, Barry Schwartz on Twitter
• Nope – no session cookies. Each crawl is like a fresh request., John Mueller on Twitter
• Sometimes & maybe :-). If you don’t want us to guess, then make it so that we don’t have to guess — and just use normal HTML links., John Mueller on Twitter
• This seems a bit nit-picky. I don’t agree with everything either of these sites do, but they have done a ton to move the ecosystem forward overall. Nothing is permanent or perfect; good scientists refine t, John Mueller on Twitter
• Nothing has really changed there, I don’t think any search engine has or had a concept of LSI keywords. Some folks just like to “sell them”, since “it must be true if search engines say it’s false” :-), John Mueller on Twitter
• Wordle easter egg on Google 👀 How many notifications have you had about this so far @rustybrick? https://t.co/fVlT1MuIuW, Brian Freiesleben on Twitter

Search Engine Land Stories:

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

Industry & Business

Links & Content Marketing

Local & Maps

Mobile & Voice

SEO

PPC

Search Features

Other Search

Feedback:

Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, you can follow us on Facebook and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.

Again I am seeing signals, both a lot of chatter from the SEO community and tools lighting up around a possible but yet unconfirmed Google search ranking algorithm update. Yes, there has been a ton of unconfirmed updates in the past couple of weeks and let’s add this one to the list.

Most recently we had unconfirmed Google search updates on January 19th and 20th, January 14th, 15th and 17th, then before that on January 11th and then it was quiet until some tremors in late December. So now I am seeing chatter start up on Friday, January 21st and spike through January 22nd and this morning.

It might be just some sort of update that Google didn’t announce that started a week or two ago and it is still rolling out but it is hard for us to say without a statement from Google.

And like the other unconfirmed updates this month, there is both SEO industry chatter and data from the tracking tools that support this but yes, we do not have a Google confirmation about an update.

SEO Industry Chatter

Like I said above, the chatter started around Friday, January 21st and continued through Saturday January 22nd and today, Sunday January 23rd. Here is what I found at WebmasterWorld throughout this timeframe:

It’s all come to a grinding halt this morning for me so far. The last 4 days have seen seen an average of 133.1% but coming up to 14 hours of my Googleday I’m struggling on 29.7%.

About the same here. I assume the update is still rolling out or twhat we are seeing is the ghost town after an update.

The lost keywords on mobile search have not returned. They do show on desktops. The page experience for mobile is good so not sure what’s really going on. Any ideas would be welcomed.

update: this is only in US by the looks of it. All the ‘lost’ keywords show in UK and other places but have been removed from US.

I see high spikes in traffic on totally irrelevant pages on my site. This morning it looks like quality traffic is starting to pick up. The weird thing is that G drives so much traffic to very unimportant pages. Some adjustment is certainly taking place.

My main site is about weather forecast. This morning I had high traffic spikes on pages from small and irrelevant towns in Tanzania, Colombia, Chile, Kenya and many others. This is unusual. These locations are not having any particular weather events to attract so many users at the same time on the same page.

I keep seeing anomalies with high traffic right now. I don’t know if it’s a fix or an update.

It’s pretty weird after 3 days of drops.

Something major happened because my main website dropped like a rock (25-30% in keywords and traffic) over the night. And my competitors as well. Semrush shows very depressing data and the traffic does confirm it. Looking forward to see what Google cooked this time.

Yesterday ended at 91.7% however just seemed slow all day. and again today it seems sluggish but “is it that time of year” ?!?!

One thing is for certain though, the pub / hotel site today is quiet BUT the restaurant had a great lunch service and the the “new UK norm” bars are very busy at the moment … It’s cold outside so they’re all warrming-up inside 🙂

Some are also suggesting that the tracking tools, like Semrush and others need to readjust for the new high levels of volatility.

Google Tracking Tools

Here is what the tracking tools are showing right now:

Mozcast:

SERPMetrics:

Advanced Web Rankings:

RankRanger:

Cognitive SEO:

Semrush:

Accuranker:

Algoroo:

So most of the tools seem pretty hot…

Are you noticing ranking changes?

Update: Glenn Gabe agrees that it might be a continuation from whatever rolled out earlier, he shared these charts:

And here are some that dropped earlier in the month that are dropping more over the past few days. Google hasn’t confirmed an update, but there is clearly something big going on. Again, I’ve also had site owners reaching out about big drops or surges… Stay tuned. pic.twitter.com/4gTvYxMP7g

— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) January 23, 2022

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

In this show we got everything for you from creepy crawling to blood sucking vampires and and walking zombies. First, we had a few unconfirmed Google search algorithm updates this week, one last weekend, second on Monday and third on Wednesday and Thursday. Google said they don’t push algorithm updates out specifically before the weekends. Google said again that spikes in crawl rates do not mean an update is coming, they are unrelated Google said. We did see some weird crawl spikes this week on some sites. Google said they want to make crawling more efficient but it might not be done through IndexNow. Google said when it comes to deduplication of top stories, they remove the link if it’s the first link in top stories and if top stories shows before the web results – but that might change. Google released the page experience report for desktop pages in Search Console. Google said it is impossible for it to understand when different language content is equivalent. Google said it is getting better at understanding languages and locations without hreflang. Google product reviews update will expand, may use machine learning and might one day be incorporated into core updates. I wonder if Google might target fluffy content this year. Google’s John Mueller spoke about site migrations and URL changes in a video. Google said hosting companies should not use robot detection interstitials without 500 status codes. Google said recipe markup has to use fixed times, not ranges. Google might update and even rename the Google webmaster guidelines. Google said it is not doing away with target CPA. There is a bug with discovery and performance max campaigns plus there are new placement reports for performance max campaigns. Google Maps is testing showing review snippets in the map interface. Google has a location pack result with things to do, airports and transit stops. Danny Goodwin 301 redirected from Search Engine Watch to Search Engine Journal and now is redirecting to Search Engine Land. And if you are looking for the Federal Vampire and Zombie Agency, you won’t be able to find it in Google Search. And if you want to help sponsor those vlogs, go to patreon.com/barryschwartz. That was the search news this week at the Search Engine Roundtable.

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Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

Google said it is looking for ways to make crawling more efficient without using Bing’s IndexNow. Google said it may update its Google Webmaster Guidelines in 2022. There is a bug with Google Ads discovery and performance max campaigns. There is a new placements report for performance max campaigns. There is a new experiences page for Google Ads. Google has new requirements for car review snippets. Google no longer ranks the Federal Vampire and Zombie Agency, no joke. I should be on vacation next week but I do plan on publishing daily, including this newsletter but I may be slower than normal. Plus catch my weekly video recap is out, make sure to subscribe and like it. 🙂

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• Google Might Update & Even Rename The Webmaster Guidelines In 2022
  Everyone panic – Google might not just make larger updates to the Google Webmaster Guidelines but also rename the guidelines. Gary Illyes from Google said over time the Webmaster Guidelines have become confusing and somewhat outdated and it does need an update.
• Google Wants To Make Crawling More Efficient & Environmental Friendly
  Google’s Gary Illyes said on the last Search Off The Record Podcast that Google in 2022 is looking to make crawling more efficient and environmentally friendly. And while Google is investigating ways to do that with IndexNow, Gary said it wont be done in a way “that people expect” with that.
• Google Requires Both Product & Car Markup For Review Snippets In Google Search
  Google has updated its product structured data help documents to say that you need both product and car structured in order for Google to display ratings and review snippets in search for car search results. Google said “currently car is not supported automatically as a subtype of Product.”
• Google Ads New Experiments Page Now Live
  Google is rolling out a new Google Ads experiments page that promises to “help you create, manage, and optimize your experiments in one place.” There is a new summary page for your experiments and a sync feature.
• Confirmed Bug With Google Ads Discovery & Performance Max Campaign, Plus New Placement Reports
  Google Ads confirmed some sort of bug with Discovery and Performance Max campaigns that are a “significant subset of users.” It is unclear what this bug is, but it started last night at around 11pm ET. Also, George at Search Engine Land spotted that Google released new placement reports for Performance Max campaigns.
• Federal Vampire & Zombie Agency Disappears From Google Search
  The Federal Vampire & Zombie Agency is no longer showing up in Google Search, is it some sort of conspiracy or technical bug? Well, it is a technical issue with the web site, it is having server issues but I thought it would be fun to cover since I never knew such an agency existed.
• Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Search Updates, Deduplication Of Top Stories, Crawling Spikes & Page Experience Desktop Report
  In this show we got everything for you from creepy crawling to blood sucking vampires and and walking zombies. First, we had a few unconfirmed Google search algorithm updates this week, one last weekend…
• Google NYC Conference Room View
  Here is a recent photo from the New York City Google office and the view this conference room has. It was the first time this Googler has been back at the office in almost two years and it was a nice

Other Great Search Threads:

• Because enough lovely humans have jokingly asked… Here’s ASMR for SEO but it’s just me reading the webmaster guidelines, Jamie Indigo on Twitter
• Google is taking their anti anti-trust disinformation campaign to the SMB via the faux SMB org called the Connected Commerce Council (funded by Google amongst others), Mike Blumenthal on Twitter
• I wouldn’t focus on 3rd party search volume metrics — who knows how that data is made up. Write for your users, measure your success yourself, work to improve over time. Don’t focus, John Mueller on Twitter
• I’d always update the links. Make it as easy as possible for users & bots to get to the page you want., John Mueller on Twitter
• If you want to block the framed page from being used for indexing at all (even via the framing page), using noindex on it would help. Using x-frame-options can prevent iframing in general, if you just want t, John Mueller on Twitter
• No idea. It’s possible. We render JavaScript, and the maps embed might use JS to show more text. Maps are pretty complicated, it’s more than just an image, so I’m not super-surprised if some of that ends up being, John Mueller on Twitter

Search Engine Land Stories:

Other Great Search Stories:

Industry & Business

Links & Content Marketing

Local & Maps

Mobile & Voice

SEO

PPC

Feedback:

Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, you can follow us on Facebook and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

There may have been another unconfirmed Google search ranking algorithm update yesterday and today according to multiple signals I track. And no, crawl rate spikes do not signal a Google algorithm update is coming – that is a myth. Google seems to say that they are not able to understand when two pieces of content are equivalent when they are the same content but translated. Google said it is getting better at handling languages even without hreflang support. Google local service ads now allows you to submit a request to have your own background verification check. Danny Goodwin joined Search Engine Land, after being at Search Engine Journal and before that Search Engine Watch.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• Another Unconfirmed Google Search Ranking Update (January 19th & 20th)
  Google has been busy over the last couple of weeks after being taking a bit of a break with the new years. It seems we are seeing again signs of another Google search ranking algorithm update occurring yesterday and today, January 19th and 20th. There is both SEO industry chatter and data from the tracking tools that support this but yes, we do not have a Google confirmation about an update.
• Google Reiterates That A Spike In Crawling Unrelated To Upcoming Algorithm Updates
  Google’s John Mueller said again that a spike in crawling activity on your site is unrelated to an upcoming search ranking algorithm update. John Mueller said on Twitter “it’s unrelated” when asked if crawl spikes are related to Google updates.
• Google: We Don’t Understand If Content Is Equivalent When In A Different Language
  Google’s John Mueller said in an SEO hangout last Friday that it is impossible for Google to understand that one piece of content is equivalent to another piece of content when those content pieces are in different languages. So Google is basically trusting the hreflang attribute provided by publishers.
• Google: We’re Getting Better At Languages & Location Without Hreflang
  Google’s John Mueller said on Twitter that “anecdotally, it feels like we’re already doing much better with getting languages & location right, even without hreflang or geotargeting settings.” This was in response to an excellent question from Glenn Gabe about can Google use MUM AI to figure out page language pairs without hreflang.
• Google Local Service Ads Allows Alternative Background Checks Process
  Ben Fisher spotted an update to the Google Local Service ads help documents around the screening and verification process for businesses. Google added a section that says businesses can request that their “own dedicated background check partner” do the verification.
• Danny Goodwin Joins Search Engine Land : Reaction
  As you all know, I have been with Search Engine Land and SMX since the company was founded and the company has been through many changes over the past dozen years or so. This week, Search Engine Land hired seasoned search marketing writer and editor Danny Goodwin.
• Google London Rooftop Deck
  Here is a photo from the Google London office, I guess the rooftop deck and porch. This was recently shared on Instagram. Looks like a nice view from that office but I bet the new $1 billion office

Other Great Search Threads:

• 🚧 Paywalled content and SEO 🚧 Following @aleyda’s advice, I’ll start tweeting sometimes in English. In this thread, I’ll explain how to be SEO compliant if you have paywalled content, like the NYT for example. https, Antoine Eripret on Twitter
• Hey Google, have you been drinking today? Your search results look a bit wonky!, Casey Bryan on Twitter
• I sold Backlinko, Brian Dean on Twitter
• Interesting possible update to how Knowledge Panels handle towns/cities. Seeing more carousels for events showing up and restaurant categories. Here’s what I see now (see next tweet for what I saw a few months ago). https://t., Mordy Oberstein on Twitter
• Since Google uses neither DA nor the spam score, it doesn’t really matter either way, right? That’s why I said to just ignore all of that and do something real instead. If experts are telling you to, John Mueller on Twitter
• U.S. Proposal to Ban Ad Targeting Would Change Facebook and Google’s Ad Model, WebmasterWorld

Search Engine Land Stories:

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

Industry & Business

Links & Content Marketing

Local & Maps

Mobile & Voice

SEO

PPC

Search Features

Feedback:

Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, you can follow us on Facebook and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.

Search engine optimizers had their work cut out for them in 2021, with an array of hefty updates to contend with. In contrast, the first half of January has been somewhat sedate. But that doesn’t mean nothing has happened.  

Google released new Search Console features that will help site owners prepare for its February update. And features added to Bing’s IndexNow protocol may signal significant changes in the way search engines index content. A tentative rollout by Google of a “Shops” section on some mobile results pages will also be good news for e-commerce merchants.  

Here’s your roundup of the latest updates, announcements, and search-related tidbits from the last two weeks.  

Google to Roll Out Page Experience to Desktop Websites in February

February will see Google bring page experience ranking to desktop sites, following on from its update to mobile between June and August 2021. The rollout will run until March.  

Google states: “We’ll begin using page experience as part of our desktop ranking systems beginning in February 2022. The rollout will be complete by the end of March 2022.” 

Earlier this month, software engineer Malte Ubl reiterated that desktop ranking factors will be based largely on Core Web Vitals. Mobile-friendliness will not be taken into account. 

While this update has been anticipated for a while and doesn’t constitute a major change (don’t expect any significant shifts in rankings), it’s not insignificant and you should ensure desktop versions of your sites are up to scratch.  

Google Search Console Launches New Desktop Page Experience Report

As of January 17th, Google Search Console users can take advantage of dedicated reports covering desktop experience, accessible from the “Page experience” tab on the Search Console dashboard.  

The interface displays several site metrics, including the percentage of “Good URLs” and the total number of desktop impressions, along with statuses of Core Web Vitals. Advice is also provided about how to improve under-performing pages.  

This new feature is particularly notable because it gives you the opportunity to optimize your desktop pages before the ranking update comes into effect in February.  

“Shops” Module Added to Mobile Search for Select US-English Terms

Google has verified that it has added a “Shops” section to mobile search results for some commercial terms in the US.  

This feature is distinct from the shopping ads carousel, which appears at the top of general search results pages, because entries link to category pages of stores rather than individual product listings. The module shows three results and extends to display ten, with the order determined by organic rankings.  

Online merchants will be eager to learn how to take advantage of this opportunity for increased exposure. Unfortunately, the inclusion of sites in “Shops” results is determined by organic rankings. As of now, there is not a direct path to have your site include shops, which emphasizes the importance of e-commerce best practices including full schema markup on your pages.  

John Mueller: URL Changes Can Take Months to Process

Google Search Central uploaded a video to its Youtube channel in which John Mueller, a well-known “Search Advocate” at Google, explained that site-wide URL changes can take months for Google to process.  

Google stores a unique URL for every page of a website, along with associated information relating to links, content, ranking signals, etc. Therefore, when a site changes core parts of its URL, every page address in Google’s database needs updating.  

So does this mean that web admins should avoid large URL changes altogether? Not necessarily.  

The video should act as a caution against URL changes during periods of high traffic (such as for ecommerce stores during Christmas). Google provides extensive documentation that should always be followed.  

SEOs Expected to Dedicate Money to Content Moving Into 2022

SEO consultant Aleyda Solis ran a Twitter poll with the question, “In what area do you expect to allocate more resources/efforts in SEO this year (based on what you have planned so far at least)?”  

Participants overwhelmingly chose “Content,” which garnered 50% of votes. “Technical Optimization” came second and “Link Building” third. 

This finding aligns with our own November webinar survey where we found that the overwhelming majority of participants reported they plan on ramping investments in content and technical SEO in 2022. See the results of our own informal survey.  

IndexNow Starts Sharing URLS Between Bing and Yandex

IndexNow is a ping protocol that enables admins to alert search engines to content updates and changes on their site.  

Updates submitted to one IndexNow API endpoint will now automatically be shared with all other participating search engines, the two largest of which are Bing and Yandex (Google is exploring the possibility of joining).  

So what’s the impact of this change?  

Having the ability to instantly inform search engines of newly-published and amended pages cuts down on the time it takes to index them. There are absolutely no downsides to using IndexNow and the new co-sharing function should mean greater immediate exposure for your web pages.  

IndexNow Releases a WordPress Plugin

IndexNow has also released a plugin for WordPress users. The plugin streamlines the process of using the IndexNow ping protocol and removes the need for manual key-based ownership verification. Once you’ve downloaded the plugin, it will automatically submit new and updated URLs on your site.  

Doodle for Google Focuses on Self-Care

Here’s something a little more light-hearted to end on. Google will be focusing on the topic of self-care for the 2022 Doodle for Google contest. The competition is open to students in the US and entries close on March 4th.  

Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.

Google said it sometimes does a deduplication process for stories in the Top Stories section and the web results – this might change, Danny Sullivan added. Google said it does not simply start new search algorithm updates right before the weekend. Some are seeing massive crawling spikes from Googlebot recently. Google no longer allows time frames for recipe markup, they need to be fixed times. Google’s John Mueller posted a short video on site migrations.

Search Engine Roundtable Stories:

• Google Deduplication Of Top Stories From Web Search Results
  We know Google has deduplication efforts for when a featured snippet is displayed so that it might remove the snippet from the main web results. Google may do the same, in some cases, for when a URL is listed in the top stories section and then not show it in the main web results.
• Google: We Don’t Push Out Search Algorithm Rollouts Right Before Weekends
  Google’s Danny Sullivan and John Mueller both said that the search company does not generally launch or begin the rollout of a search algorithm update right before the weekend. Danny Sullivan said on Twitter “it’s fairly unusual in my experience that rollouts happen outside of working hours.”
• Some Sites Seeing Massive Crawl Spikes From Googlebot
  Glenn Gabe noted that he is seeing some weird Google Googlebot activity recently, saying he is seeing “crawling spike across a number of sites” that started on January 12th through January 13th. I then checked some of the properties and noticed that on some, not most, I see the same.
• Google: SEO Site Migrations Are Hard Because URL Signals Need To Be Forwarded
  John Mueller is out with another #AskGooglebot Google SEO video, this one is on site migrations and URL changes. It is a short two minute video on one of the most SEO intimidating changes one can make to their site – change all the URLs on their site.
• Recipe Schema Markup No Longer Supports Ranges For Cook, Prep & Total Time
  Google no longer supports time ranges for cook prep and total times times within recipe schema markup and structured data. Google said it removed the “guidance about specifying a range for the cookTime and prepTime properties in the Recipe documentation.”
• Google Boulder Meeting Room In An RV?
  Here is a photo of a new meeting room or office in the Google Boulder office. It looks like an RV, recreational vehicle, retrofitted as a meeting room. I guess that works with the Boulder office theme

Other Great Search Threads:

Search Engine Land Stories:

Other Great Search Stories:

Analytics

Industry & Business

Links & Content Marketing

Local & Maps

Mobile & Voice

SEO

PPC

Search Features

Other Search

Feedback:

Have feedback on this daily recap; let me know on Twitter @rustybrick or @seroundtable, you can follow us on Facebook and make sure to subscribe to the YouTube channel, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or just contact us the old fashion way.

On Tuesday, January 25 at 11:00 am PST / 2:00 pm EST, BrightEdge is hosting an instructional webinar, SEO Pro Tips for Success in 2022, with useful pointers on SEO execution and measurement. As part of that discussion, we’ll be exploring four imperatives:

1. Tell the Right Story 
2. Reduce Manual Work 
3. Simplify Communication 
4. Practice Flexible and Agile Execution 

Most guidance around SEO is focused on “what to do,” such as teaching SEO fundamentals, implementing best practices, how to respond to algorithm updates and the like. This what-to-do instructional approach is valuable. It can, however, be made more valuable by also explicitly calling out what not to do. In that vein, we wanted to explore a few examples of how efforts to follow these four imperatives can be blunted.  

SAVE YOUR SPOT NOW

Tell the Right Story 

While this imperative has both external- and internal-facing implications, here we’re referring mainly to how SEO is represented internally. Like any organizational function or initiative, SEO competes for resources. Faithfully telling the right story begins with an orientation toward the dynamics of competing for limited resources: first winning the needed buy-in from management, whether that be budget or support from other functions like IT or content development, then justifying those investments, and finally leveraging SEO success to win favor for subsequent initiatives.  

To do this successfully, it is essential to tell the right story about the initiative for the audience. Too often, we see SEO teams land on the right strategy, but struggle to win or maintain organizational backing because they don’t communicate the benefits and realities in a way gatekeepers care about.  

For example, over the last couple of years, SEOs have been closely monitoring Core Web Vitals. Core Web Vitals can be difficult to address, because in many cases, improving them can require significant work for technical teams. While Google has made it clear what they consider to be a positive page experience, and it’s easy to show thresholds, SEOs need to demonstrate the cost of underperforming content to translate this technical need into real business impact. One way to do that is to go beyond Google’s benchmarks and demonstrate how competitors are performing for keywords you need to win. Translate this volume as a direct opportunity cost. This takes the story from being a theoretical best practice to quantifying the cost of poor Core Web Vitals.    

Reduce Manual Work 

The biggest barrier for most SEO execution is the volume of manual work. Even in Fortune 500 companies, SEO teams tend to be lean – sometimes consisting of only one or two people. There are countless SEO tools that help with the work, but most tools handle only one very specific piece of workflow. That reality paired with the fact that SEOs spend an average of four hours each day on research, reporting and analysis means SEOs are often limited not by a lack of sound strategy, but by an inability to scale the execution to meet the opportunity. 

Automation and uninterrupted workflows are key to scaling SEO.   

Examples of ways you can reduce manual work include:  

• Eliminating manually-produced PowerPoints where possible and moving teams to dashboards that can be rendered automatically at regular intervals in a CRM system or platform like BrightEdge 
• Leveraging task systems like Jira to manage workflow and integrating them with platforms like BrightEdge to automate work assignment and documentation 
• Automating drumbeat SEO tasks such as internal linking with platforms like BrightEdge Autopilot 

Simplify Communication 

When we talked about telling the right story, we talked about how competing for resources extends beyond getting initial buy-in. It includes ongoing communication about SEO results and effectiveness. For just about anyone outside of the practice, however, SEO reporting can seem overwhelming at best and inscrutable at worst. Especially damning for a lot of SEO reporting: it often does not make clear, easy-to grasp connections to the metrics each audience is interested in.  

An easy way to simplify communication is to automate dashboards. You can design these for unique teams so each dashboard tells the necessary stories for each and then automatically distribute them before meetings with that team. This not only saves the SEO team the trouble of creating a unique report or readout for each meeting, but it centralizes the data sources teams are looking at creating a single source of truth for the organization. This ensures the dimensions, cuts of data and the nomenclature across teams are consistent, making it easy to move in the same direction. As teams engage more readily with the reporting, organizational consensus and support for SEO initiatives becomes more solidified.    

Practice Flexible and Agile Execution 

SEO does not happen in a vacuum. Its success depends on the changing tastes and behaviors of search users. Updates to the search engine’s algorithm can suddenly and dramatically tank high ranking pages. Changes to the website orchestrated outside of SEO can change SEO fortunes overnight. It’s important, then, to treat SEO strategy as a living, breathing thing. This begins with robust monitoring including anomaly detection and it requires a mindset that not only expects surprises but prepares for them and builds in procedures to handle whatever course changes arise. 

A recent instance where this could have been critical is reacting to Google’s Vicinity Update in November.  We know from the output of that update that locations that heavily featured keywords in the title tags, especially locations that weren’t actually as close to the person as others, lost visibility.  This update helped Google eliminate spam from the results, which is beneficial to the user, but if a company lost visibility in results due to this, they need to be ready to pivot quickly to the changing landscape. This may include a change in the paid strategy to run air cover against these losses or a pivot in strategy to rebuild that visibility in regular web listings.  Regardless, being flexible and agile enough to shift like that requires teams all looking at the same data and seeing the impacts in a similar fashion to develop a winning next play.  

Key Takeaways 

Certainly getting the strategy right is the first important step in SEO, but execution is central to seeing the strategy succeed. Coming up short with any of the imperatives threatens that success. Sometimes this means an initiative never moves forward, but just as commonly the initiative progresses but is hobbled in some way either with an inability to properly scale, a cut-rate budget or limited access to needed internal resources. 

Join our upcoming webinar, SEO Pro Tips for Success in 2022, on January 25 at 11:00 am PST / 2:00 pm EST where we’ll explore practical solutions for executing the four imperatives successfully. 

Google Maps, the map interface, is testing displaying review snippets, short selected reviews, directly under the name of the business or organization in the map interface under the pin. This was spotted by Allie Margeson who said on Twitter “seeing review snippets get some prominence directly on the map and I like it!”

Here is her screenshot:

Personally, I am not a fan of this, it seems to really clutter up the map interface a lot to me…

Allie added “Another reason to get keywords in your reviews.”

⭐️Seeing review snippets get some prominence directly on the map and I like it! Another reason to get keywords in your reviews – find out how: https://t.co/khK5WW4cmS. pic.twitter.com/u1VIwLkRKK

— Allie Margeson (@SeoAllie) January 17, 2022

Do you like it? Even if you don’t and Google launches this, you better have some really nice short review snippets that Google can select.

Forum discussion at Twitter.

In part one Riley Hope and I spoke about her SEO career, how she did her thesis on ethics in SEO and we spoke about the automotive SEO space. In part two we talk about women in SEO and more on the automotive space and search results.

Women In SEO:

We spoke about how Melissa Fach, who has been in the SEO community for a long time, is now in the auto SEO space. But I reminisced about the old days of the SEO space, with SEO leaders who were female, like Jill Whalen, Christine Churchill, Heather Lloyd Martin, and many others.

More On Riley:

We then moved into more about Riley’s history, talking about being a Floridian versus a New Yorker. We spoke about how her husband is in the US Air Force, working on top secret and classified stuff that we can’t talk about. She is a military wife and she describes what it is like to live like that, huge credit to her and her family. But yes, they need to have perfect eye sight to be in the Air Force but not to do SEO.

Automotive Search Results:

We then jump back into automotive SEO and search and I bring up the controversy over the new features Google Search launched around auto retail search, by the way, Google said they license this data.

She does enjoy doing SEO in the automotive space because she doesn’t have to deal with everything for the client. She can focus on the SEO and doesn’t haver to worry about hosting, DNS, development and so forth. But she does miss working with small businesses, it was a bit more rewarding because there is more of a direct impact on what they do.

You can learn more about Riley Hope at RileyHope.com or follow Riley on Twitter @reillyhope13.

You can subscribe to our YouTube channel by clicking here so you don’t miss the next vlog where I interviews. I do have a nice lineup of interviews scheduled with SEOs and SEMS, many of which you don’t want to miss – and I promise to continue to make these vlogs better over time. If you want to be interviewed, please fill out this form with your details.

Forum discussion at YouTube.