Google’s Gary Illyes answered a question about a ranking preference given to sites that use country level domain names and explained how that compares to non-country domain names. The question occurred in the SEO Office Hours podcast. ccTLD Aka Country Code Domain Names Domain names that are specific to countries are called ccTLDs (Country Code … Read more
The June 2024 Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX) is out and it shows that websites in the real-world experienced an averaged across the board improvement in all Core Web Vitals (CWV) website performance scores. Some of the improvements are attributable to a change in how Interaction To Next Paint is measured, which will be good … Read more
Since the Times Of India quadrupled its organic growth in the US in 12 months, more ccTLDs (international domains) have been spotted ranking in the US. Image Credit: Kevin Indig More international domains would make sense as Google is testing country labels indicating where the site operates. Google has also expanded Translated Results: Translated Results … Read more
Few concepts have generated as much buzz and speculation in SEO as E-E-A-T. Short for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness, this framework has been a cornerstone of Google’s Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines for years. But despite its prominence, more clarity about how E-E-A-T relates to Google‘s ranking algorithms is still needed. In a recent episode … Read more
Google’s SearchLiaison responded to a plea on X (formerly Twitter) about ridiculously poor search results in which he acknowledged that Google’s reviews algorithm could be doing a better job and outlined what’s being done to stop rewarding sites that shouldn’t be ranking in the first place. Questioning Google’s Search Results The exchange with Google began … Read more
Google’s SearchLiaison tweeted encouragement to diversify traffic sources, being clear about the reason he was recommending it. Days later, someone followed up to ask if traffic diversity is a ranking factor, prompting SearchLiaison to reiterate that it is not. What Was Said The question of whether diversity of traffic was a ranking factor was elicited … Read more
Over the last week, I observed many arguments against digging deep into the 2,596 pages. But the only question we should ask ourselves is, “How can I test and learn as much as possible from these documents?” SEO is an applied science where theory is not the end goal but the basis for experiments. Image … Read more
In a recent Twitter exchange, Google’s Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, provided insight into how the search engine handles algorithmic spam actions and ranking drops. The discussion was sparked by a website owner’s complaint about a significant traffic loss and the inability to request a manual review. Sullivan clarified that a site could be affected by … Read more
Google updated their guidance with five changes on how to debug ranking drops. The new version contains over 400 more words that address small and large ranking drops. There’s room to quibble about some of the changes but overall the revised version is a step up from what it replaced. Change# 1: Downplays Fixing Traffic … Read more
In a Google Office Hours podcast, Google’s Gary Illyes answered a question about 404 Page Not Found errors that coincided with a drop in rankings. Fake External 404 Errors There are probably many reasons for 404 errors created by bots. One reason for those error responses could be that they are originating from automated scanners … Read more
Google’s Search Off the Record podcast covered the topic of Core Web Vitals (CWV), noting that while it’s a ranking factor it’s not so important that improving it will improve search visibility. The podcast explains how to reconcile how CWV can be a ranking factor while at the same not something that will noticeably help … Read more
Google’s SearchLiaison responded to a tweet that was kind of “thinking out loud” about whether a particular tactic might be useful for recovering from the Helpful Content Update system. SearchLiason offered his opinion on why that might not be a good idea. One thing that SearchLiaison made clear is that he didn’t want his tweet … Read more
Google updated their Page Experience Documentation in order to make it explicitly clear that Core Web Vitals are used by their ranking systems. What’s curious about the change is that Google continues to not say that Core Web Vitals are a ranking factor. Googlers And Statements About Ranking Factors Something kind of weird about Googlers … Read more
The idea that something is not a ranking factor that nevertheless plays a role in ranking websites seems to be logically irreconcilable. Despite seeming like a paradox that cancels itself out, SearchLiaison recently tweeted some comments that go a long way to understanding how to think about E-E-A-T and apply it to SEO. What A … Read more
Google’s Search Liaison, Danny Sullivan, recently offered guidance on how to diagnose ranking declines. Sullivan provided the advice on X (formerly Twitter) to Wesley Copeland, owner of a gaming news website, who sought help after seeing a significant drop in traffic from Google searches. Google’s Search Liaison Offers SEO Tips According to Copeland’s post, he’s … Read more
Multiple Google support forum discussions call attention to a possible bug in Google’s algorithm that causes select generic top level domains (gTLDs) to disappear completely from the search engine results pages (SERPs). Multiple publishers with the same kind of gTLD are reporting the exact same Google Weekend Ranking Bug. What they all have in common … Read more
In a recent clarification on social media, Google’s Search Liaison addressed a widespread misconception regarding the influence of author bylines on search rankings. Misconception In The SEO Community The issue arose after a notable publication suggested that including author bylines could boost content’s visibility in Google’s search results. According to the publication, this claim has … Read more
Celebrate the Holidays with some of SEJ’s best articles of 2023. Our Festive Flashback series runs from December 21 – January 5, featuring daily reads on significant events, fundamentals, actionable strategies, and thought leader opinions. 2023 has been quite eventful in the SEO industry, and our contributors produced some outstanding articles to keep pace and … Read more
