Joe Hall

Google recently had a leak of part of their mysterious ranking algorithm. Needless to say, the SEO community has been going ape-shart dissecting it this week. 🐵 The leak, which exposed over 14,000 potential ranking features, provides an unprecedented look under the hood of Google’s closely guarded search rankings system. It will take time to rummage through the info, understand the technical language, and draw conclusions to apply to your SEO approach -- but a few nuggets have already risen to the surface. Let's talk about them. 1) Clicks Matter - clicks to a page influence its rank, especially if they come from a Chrome browser. The click quality also matters - how long the user stays on the page, how much they engage with the page, and if they navigate your site deeper. 2) Fresher Links are Better Links - links from new pages contribute more "link juice" than those inserted in aged content. 3) Text Weight Matters - bigger and bolder fonts convey to Google that those keywords are more important in your content. 4) Hard to Replicate Content - Google has an LLM that tries to understand how easily a page could be recreated and how much work went into it. Tools, images, videos, unique information, and depth of information stand out as ways to score high on “effort” calculations. 5) % of Pages on Topic - Google wants to see websites dedicated to the topic, with very few pages off-topic. 6) Old, Non-Updated Content Ages Out - so be sure to go back and update your historically best-performing pages 7) Poor Content Can Bring Your Good Content Down - pages that have had time to perform but haven't can bring down your overall domain. The solution is to regularly remove dated, under-performing pages so more of your live pages are quality. What else are you applying from the leak?

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🚀 Big news in local search! Google's latest announcement has major implications for businesses and marketers:1️⃣ LSA reviews will be replaced by Google Business Profile reviews, with some level of curation.2️⃣ LSA entities will now be tied to actual GBP entities, potentially limiting widespread geo-fraud.3️⃣ This change introduces another surface for LSA ads.Pros:✅ Improved review quality and reliability✅ Reduced fake or misleading local business listings✅ Streamlined user experience across Google's ecosystem✅ Potentially higher visibility for legitimate local businessesCons:❌ Possible loss of existing LSA reviews during transition❌ Increased complexity for businesses managing multiple platforms❌ Potential for stricter review policies affecting some businesses❌ May require updates to local SEO strategiesWhat are your thoughts on these changes? How do you think they'll impact local businesses and search marketing? #LocalSEO #GoogleUpdates #DigitalMarketinghttps://lnkd.in/eDTVDcYQ

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Focus on Local? I'd love to say this is some super-sophisticated exploit, but it's not. You can literally just move someone's pin and their local rankings tank. Wow -> Google Maps exploit lets you move your competitors map pin far away, resulting in their local rankings drops & even the business being suspended (Note, it's been an issue for months)... via Barry Schwartz Coverage by Joy Hawkins and Darren Shaw #google #seo #local

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Looks like Google changed the SGE response to read "AI Answer" with the labs icon displayed as of 4/27 or so... I know others have seen this too over the past few days. It used to read "Generative AI is experimental"... Just an interesting observation. :) #google #seo #ai

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If you site traffic dropped as a result of the last Google Update, I have a plan for you. Last spring Google released a significant update to the algorithm. The goal was to eliminate low-quality content on the web. The update lead to a 45% reduction in unhelpful content within search. LOTs of very helpful websites were snagged in this update and are suffering because of it. If you have noticed a decline in traffic, do this: 📌 Do a full content audit of your site. If there are articles that are outdated -- update them with better content, quality infographics and more discrete headlines. 📌 For all of the articles that have less than 600 words, either redirect them to longer, more helpful content OR rewrite them and provide more details. 📌 Add internal links to all of your articles. Make it easy for users and for Google to find related content. If you don't know if your site was affected by the recent update, then - Login to the Google Search Console - Check out the performance report - If there was a significant drop in traffic mid-April, you were affected. ------ 👏 Hi. I am Meg. I am the owner and founder of Clapping Dog Media where I help other founders get new clients from Google. Follow along.

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Google may be charging you a premium. You could be paying $100+ per click without knowing it. We are seeing an increase in these very high click prices, even in profitable campaigns. Want to see if this is happening in your account? Look at your overall search terms and filter by price. Luckily, there is a way to prevent those excessively expensive clicks that Google is trying to sneak into your account. However, it's a hidden setting, only available with Portfolio Bid Strategies. So, we made this video on how to implement it.

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This is a great graphic by ConversionWise comparing their CRO service to media buying and ads.

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May 5 will be like March 5, with a flurry of manual actions + algorithmic demotions. It's approaching quickly. Should be very interesting to analyze :) -> "Site reputation abuse is when third-party pages are published with little or no first-party oversight or involvement, where the purpose is to manipulate Search rankings by taking advantage of the first-party site's ranking signals." -> Google Will Fight Site Reputation Abuse Spam Via Both Manual Actions & Algorithmic Changes via Barry Schwartz #google #seo

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“After July 5, 2024, we'll crawl and index these sites with only Googlebot Smartphone.” - Google "Google announced Monday that it will no longer index websites that aren't accessible on mobile devices after July 5." - Inc. Google has not been shy about wanting to be mobile first for years, they're cracking down even further on this now and drawing a line in the sand. I'm always surprised by how little emphasis companies put on this, and have been shocked by how many SEO, web dev, or site design calls calls that I've been on where it is still after thought if it is even discussed. Even when we show clients that Google is giving them a mobile score of a 30/100 and they fall back on the bulk of their sales coming in from desktop so they really don't care. This is not an option moving forward. Even if your sales are coming in from desktop, Google is looking at your mobile site and you might not be listed in the future across all devices if you don't take action. A huge part of the reason that I chose to work with partners that have dev, SEO, Analytics, and site design experience is that to get ahead of issues like this, you need to take a holistic approach. If you want a free snapshot of how your mobile site is performing (as ranked by Google) so that you're ahead of this update, and work with a team that knows how to fix all of this and more, let me know. https://lnkd.in/g2CipFzw #SEO #Mobile #WebDesign #Google #GoogleAnalytics #Tagging #Tracking #Implementation

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Google is claiming that the thumbnails in SGE (AI Overview) have a higher click thru rate than traditional blue links... What they are forgetting to say in that data caveat, is that it's a comparison with SGE enabled - So OBVIOUSLY the thumbnails will get clicked more being above the fold vs. having to scroll. You will NOT get MORE clicks from SGE, it's more data manipulation! Likewise, they are saying more people use search more, but that's more data manipulation because it's more time spent on queries not more individual queries! Don't believe anything that is coming out, the average publisher and site is going to net lose, AGAIN!

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Winning abandoned checkout email structure: - HEADLINE + CTA above the fold - Dynamic product block - Benefits of their specific product - Featured testimonials Don't just throw in a dynamic product block and call it a day. This is what real personalization looks like...

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But is Google ready for all of the form submissions? :) -> From Danny: "Yes, it should get updated to allow reporting of that spam type when that policy takes effect." -> Google Spam Reporting Tool To Gain Site Reputation Abuse #google #seo

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Let's get techy on vector embeddings and knowledge graphs! Excited to try this Screaming Frog tactic to understand how OpenAI and other vector-based systems are reading my website. If you're not techy but care about how your branded content shows up online, start learning about how the language on your website is processed.

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PSA: accrue returns and use estimates for daily tracking. And Shopify please stop presenting Total Sales as the default revenue definition in the dashboard. If we can't have contribution margin can we at least get order revenue?

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Google has recently declared that, as of August 31, 2021, it will discontinue its support for expanded text ads in favor of responsive search ads. Moreover, advertisers have been alerted that ad customizers for text ads, expanded text ads, and dynamic search ads will no longer be available after May 31, 2024. #googleads #google #searchads

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As far as I know, no publisher has established a marketplace for Pod Position. Nonetheless, data indicates that First In-Pod garners significantly more attention compared to other pod positions. Should publishers consider disclosing pod position data to marketers and implementing various CPM rates for distinct pod positions? Download the report here: https://bit.ly/44ZpeEZ

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