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
Preserving SEO Power During a Website Redesign Redesigning your company website presents a golden opportunity to improve user experience and brand image. But it’s vital to safeguard the SEO equity that was built on your existing already ranking website. This involves: Maintaining strong URL structures (or making them even better). Setting up proper redirects to … Read more
Gary Illyes from Google said on stage at the SERP conference last week that there is no way that Google would change how the 301 redirect signal works for SEO or search rankings. Gary added that it’s a very reliable signal. Nikola Minkov quoted Gary Illyes as saying, “It is a very reliable signal, and … 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
I know we just reported on more volatility this Monday, possibly related to the Google March 2024 core update, but we are seeing even more volatility over the past 24 hours related to this update. This volatility shows deepening movement for those who were hit, which is incredibly sad in many cases. I am seeing … Read more
As I mentioned briefly in my Friday video recap, I was starting to see renewed chatter on Friday morning around more Google search ranking volatility likely related to the ongoing Google March 2024 core update. I spotted some renewed chatter that lead through Friday, into Saturday and today. So I figured I’d cover it and … Read more
John Mueller from Google said that ranking well in the Google Shopping or Google Image vertical boxes does not impact your ranking in the core web results. He said, “I can’t imagine that they’d be connected” when asked about how ranking well in the Merchant Center results can impact the web results. Christian Radny asked: … Read more
As the Google March 2024 core update hits the 36th day of its rollout, we are seeing more ranking fluctuations and volatility being reported both by the Google tracking tools and within the SEO community through a spike in chatter. Maybe this is the last wave of the update before it is done? This is … Read more
It’s frustrating. You put time, energy and a lot of hope into a webpage. But it just won’t rank. Your competitors’ pages are ranking well, even though (subjectively) they’re worse. Yours deserves to be top of Google. So why isn’t it? Figuring out the levers to pull to get your content to the top of … 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
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