Hristina Nikolovska
Happy Tuesday, guys!
Regardless of the way you landed here, you probably know that SEO is the most exciting roller coaster in the digital marketing amusement park!
Why?
Because things in the SEO world continuously evolve and change – often without notice.
In an ever-changing field like that, if you want to remain competitive in your industry, you must keep up with the latest trends. And keeping up with the latest trends is exactly what I want to help you with it!
Below is today’s summary of last week’s SEO news.
Buckle up and enjoy the ride!
We Need to Start Optimizing for Voice Search (Like Yesterday!)
More and more consumers are drifting towards voice search. More specifically, over 50% of teens and 41% of adults are already using it daily. I guess we should take these stats more seriously, as Robin Kurzer says that just 3% of CMOs are currently optimizing for voice search. The future, however, looks promising, as 75% of them intend to do so soon, as mentioned in his article based on QueryClick’s 2018 CMO Performance Report.
Back to Basics: SEO Tips You Have to Know
Okay, not everything is about voice search. Apart from the importance of keeping up with the latest trends, CMOs need to understand the dos and don’ts when it comes to developing and executing a successful SEO strategy. Steve Olenski gives five SEO tips all CMOs need to understand before they go chasing after trends.
How Neil Patel’s Article Ranked for 477,000 Keywords
Creating new and fresh content which uses targeted keywords is essential for SERP success. However, there’s no guarantee that a new page on your website will rank for competitive keywords. Neil Patel gives a few pro tips and techniques that can help you generate more search traffic in his killer article The Advanced SEO Formula That Helped Me Rank For 477,000 Keywords.
The Buzz About BuzzSumo
BuzzSumo is a useful tool which helps you strategically push your content in front of your target audience. If you still haven’t caught the grasp of it, Brian Dean has compiled a definitive guide to help you understand it better. From how it works and its coolest features, all the way to advanced tips and strategies, the cherry on the top are the four new case studies that have never been shared before.
Anonymous Reviews Are Now History
Anonymous reviews made up for 3% of the total number of reviews on Google My Business. The average rating for such review was 4.1 stars. However, all of that is a thing of the past now. Google has officially confirmed that the anonymous reviews were removed to protect business owners from fake reviews. Mike Blumenthal states: “We do not allow anonymous reviews today and we’ve removed legacy anonymous reviews.” Jamie Pitman has elaborated on this topic in his article ‘Anonymous Google Reviews Are Officially a Thing of the Past’.
Yoast 7.7 – Fresh out the Oven
The WordPress Yoast plugin is one of the most valuable assets for SEO which helps in making websites as search-engine friendly as possible. The snippet editor is one of the main pieces in this plugin which enables you to build snippets that are likeable to both humans and search engines. The latest version of the plugin, Yoast SEO 7.7, comes with a new snippet editor and better snippet variables. Find all details about it in Edwin Toonen’s article – Yoast SEO 7.7 New Snippet Editor & Better Snippet Variables.
SMX Advanced in a Nutshell
With the past week being in the light of the annual SMX Advanced conference, Mark Aspillera from BrightEdge has decided to put some of the critical points made there in a nutshell. The mobile-first index, voice agents, and voice search, as well as machine learning and AI, have been some of the main takeaways. Discover the rest in this SMX Advanced recap.
Video & Search: Current Trends & Future Projections
Today, video content is proving to be extremely worth for increased online visibility. It’s a crucial tool for engaging users and effectively grabbing attention. Projections show that by 2019, 80% of all Internet traffic will be coming from video. In light of this growing trend, marketers have a variety of options to choose from, such as VR, 360, and live streaming, to name a few. Luke Richards talks about this and more in his recent article – Video and searches: YouTube, Google, the alternatives and the future.
June SERPs News
Recently, Google has announced a major change (of course) in its mobile ranking factors. Namely, starting sometime this month, the page speed will become a major ranking factor for mobile searches. This announcement confused many webmasters and Mordy Oberstein took upon himself to clarify what exactly does this mean. He also examines how Google’s move to drop thumbnails for carousels affects the SERPs and more in his June edition of the SERP News for Rank Ranger.
Why & How to Track Google Algorithm Updates
Google algorithm updates happen very often. Some of them have a huge impact on SEO and rankings, while others are smaller and can even go completely unnoticed. In his latest work on SEJ, Danny Goodwyn explains why and how to track Google algorithm updates and provides a comprehensive guide to all of them.
New URL Inspection Tool in Search Console – Is it Legit?
Only a few days ago, Google announced a new tool in the beta version of Search Console, called the URL Inspection Tool, which claims to “debug issues with new or existing pages in the Google Index”. Well, if you wondered how this really works, check out the walkthrough (and critique) of the new URL Inspection Tool in Search Console by Pam Aungst.
TF-IDF: Advanced On-Page Optimization
Thanks to the algorithm updates, Google has turned into a knowledgeable assistant providing users with the most relevant search results. This evolution also brought about website owners to shift their focus to creating relevant and high-quality content. However, Google SERPs continuously evolve, and the latest news is that Google can now employ an in-depth analysis called Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF). Christina Sanders elaborates on this topic in the article entitled ‘TF-IDF: Advanced On-Page Optimization’.
Increasing Traffic Without New Content
If your blog is not reaching its traffic potential, you’re not alone. Developing new content in order to increase traffic can take months until seeing a positive ROI. So, Nat Eliason examined what would happen if you focused on improving your old content which is already close to being on Google’s first page instead of creating new. Discover the results and his proven formula for doubling blog traffic in three months (without creating new content).
Google Removes Organic Search Traffic
Google does what?! Yeah, that, and a few more changes that make doing SEO more difficult. In the latest round of Whiteboard Friday – What Do SEOs Do When Google Removes Organic Search Traffic? – Rand Fishkin explains which opportunities have been taken away and what are the solutions.
Google’s Disavow Tool – Yay or Nay?
You must have heard of Google’s disavow tool – it’s supposed to help you in cases when your website ranking is harmed by low-quality links you don’t control. Although you’ll still be expected to clean up unnatural links pointing to your site, you can ask Google not to take them into consideration when accessing your site. Does link disavow tool do anything? Dan Petrovic examines and discusses whether this tool is legit or not.
Google & Synonyms
Jennifer Slegg says that Google Search automatically learns new synonyms over time. She also summarizes the latest Google Webmaster Office Hours where the main topic were the synonyms in Google Search. More specifically, the discussion revolved around how Google recognizes synonyms and, when new words are introduced, how it learns that they are synonyms.
That’s all folks!
All of the above surely provides invaluable insight into the latest updates in the world of SEO. Knowing how big of a challenge it is to keep up with them, I hope this summary will help you do just that!
See you next Tuesday!
Good luck ranking!
