Weekly SEO news: 6 August 2019
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Here are the latest website promotion and Internet marketing tips for you.

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Andre Voget, Johannes Selbach, Axandra CEO

1. Official: what webmasters should know about Google's core updates

What can you do to get better rankings in Google's search results? Google has published official advice that can help you to improve your rankings. Read this article and improve your rankings on Google.

Official Google advice: core algorithm updates

1. There might be nothing to fix

According to Google, there might be nothing to fix, even if your rankings dropped:

"Some sites may note drops or gains during them. We know those with sites that experience drops will be looking for a fix, and we want to ensure they don’t try to fix the wrong things. Moreover, there might not be anything to fix at all."

Google's core updates do not target specific websites. Core updates are about improving how Google's ranking systems assess content overall:

"There’s nothing wrong with pages that may perform less well in a core update. They haven’t violated our webmaster guidelines nor been subjected to a manual or algorithmic action, as can happen to pages that do violate those guidelines. In fact, there’s nothing in a core update that targets specific pages or sites. Instead, the changes are about improving how our systems assess content overall."

Basically, your website is not broken when rankings go down after a core update.

2. There are some things that you can do

Google wants to show the websites with the best content in the search results. Your website should offer the best content you can. Google as a set of questions to ask yourself about your content:

Check the quality of your content

  • Does the content provide original information, reporting, research or analysis?
  • Does the content provide a substantial, complete or comprehensive description of the topic?
  • Does the content provide insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious?
  • If the content draws on other sources, does it avoid simply copying or rewriting those sources and instead provide substantial additional value and originality?
  • Does the headline and/or page title provide a descriptive, helpful summary of the content?
  • Does the headline and/or page title avoid being exaggerating or shocking in nature?
  • Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?
  • Would you expect to see this content in or referenced by a printed magazine, encyclopedia or book?

Check if your content is trustworthy

  • Does the content present information in a way that makes you want to trust it, such as clear sourcing, evidence of the expertise involved, background about the author or the site that publishes it, such as through links to an author page or a site’s About page?
  • If you researched the site producing the content, would you come away with an impression that it is well-trusted or widely-recognized as an authority on its topic?
  • Is this content written by an expert or enthusiast who demonstrably knows the topic well?
  • Is the content free from easily-verified factual errors?
  • Would you feel comfortable trusting this content for issues relating to your money or your life?

Check the presentation of your content

  • Is the content free from spelling or stylistic issues?
  • Was the content produced well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?
  • Is the content mass-produced by or outsourced to a large number of creators, or spread across a large network of sites, so that individual pages or sites don’t get as much attention or care?
  • Does the content have an excessive amount of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content?
  • Does content display well for mobile devices when viewed on them?

Compare your website to other websites

  • Does the content provide substantial value when compared to other pages in search results?
  • Does the content seem to be serving the genuine interests of visitors to the site or does it seem to exist solely by someone attempting to guess what might rank well in search engines?

Also ask other people who are unaffiliated with your site for an honest assessment of your website. In general, Google's E-A-T (expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness) principles apply.

3. How to do these things

Optimizing your web pages is important if you want to get high rankings. The SEO tools in SEOprofiler help you to optimize your website as efficiently as possible.

For example, the website audit tool checks your website for spelling mistakes. The Top 10 Optimizer tool compares your website to other websites.

In addition to the tools above, SEOprofiler offers tools that help you to find good keywords, tools that help you to optimize your links, competitive intelligence tools, and much more. You can create your SEOprofiler account here:

Optimize your website now

2. Internet marketing news of the week

Google Google announces algorithm update

"Google has announced an algorithm update in Google’s official blog. The algorithm update targets featured snippets. [...] For queries where fresh information is important, our systems will try to find the most useful and up-to-date featured snippets."


The private voice memo I made after dinner with Gary Illyes

"It starts a bit choppy as I’m randomly remembering stuff, but gets a lot more smooth (and I think interesting) as it continues. [...] AMP does not pass the mobile-friendly test, hidden JS content, purchasing an old domain with old content [etc.]"

GoogleBeware: Google Ads expands broad & phrase match to include keyword close variants

"Google announced that in the coming weeks broad match modifier and phrase match keywords will also begin matching to words within the search query that share the same meaning as the keyword. The SEM/PPC community is not surprised but still very frustrated by this news."


Discussion: should we use "near me" in our keywords?

"Should I bother to use 'near me' at the end of kw's for local services so like 'Plumber near me'? [...] I can tell you that doing "near me" optimization can have a major impact. It's not as simple as adding the word "near me" at the end of keywords though. You want to find ways to bake it into the content and have it make sense."


+++ SEARCH +++ ENGINE +++ NEWS +++ TICKER +++

  • Google injecting "People also ask" links in Google My Business Knowledge Panels.
  • Bing is asking for feedback on updated webmaster guidelines.
  • Hit the road with Android Auto’s new look.
  • Now some YouTube videos in search results are displayed in a lightbox.
  • New research shows strong link between Google My Business photo quantity and search performance.
  • Google: An update on Android for search providers in Europe.
  • YouTube tweaked algorithm to appease FTC but creators are worried.
  • Google Local scroll pack now showing ads.

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