Google has been on the warpath against spammy content since releasing its most recent Core Update in March 2024 (which also contained updates to its spam policies).  The company declared it would wipe out 40% of the spam currently in its index, which reinforces Google’s confidence in its spam-fighting systems.  Among the new policies was the ‘site reputation abuse’ policy.  Its goal is to crack down on websites that post low-quality, third-party pages in an attempt to manipulate search rankings.  However, the policy doesn’t become official until May 5th.  The reason fo ..read more

SEO for online stores is an ever-changing and evolving game, so what worked yesterday could be the complete opposite of what works today.  That’s why conducting regular eCommerce SEO audits is a must for maintaining (and exceeding) your current search engine rankings.  How does SEO change? Google updates happen (like the recent update to their Quality Rater Guidelines), competitors pick up steam, and trending keywords begin to lose their popularity.  Not only that, but technical issues can also affect your SEO profile, like broken links, indexing errors, and page speed issues.&n ..read more

March 5th marked the beginning of Google’s most significant core algorithm update since the infamous Penguin update of 2012.  First off, this is no ordinary core update, as it includes major changes to multiple core ranking systems – and it introduces brand-new spam policies.  Not only that, but Google has now fully incorporated its helpful content system into its core ranking algorithm, meaning there won’t be any more helpful content updates. This update has been in the works since the Helpful Content Update of August 2022, which explains why it’s so complex.  If you’ve been in ..read more

February was an eventful month for Google, as they officially announced partnerships with internet juggernauts Reddit and Pinterest.  Google Ads users can now run ads on Pinterest, which opens up a new range of possibilities for marketers running paid ads through Google.  The partnership with Reddit focuses more on improving the quality and convenience of Google’s search results.  Google now has access to Reddit’s Data API, and Reddit gained access to Vertex AI to improve its internal search capabilities.  It’s also rumored that Google could partner with TikTok.  Why w ..read more

How old is Arnold Schwarzenegger? Punch that question into Google, and you’ll have an immediate answer at the top of the page (along with pictures, his birthday, height, a short bio, and other tidbits of information).  This is a zero-click search because you got the information you wanted without clicking on any search results.  These types of searches are nothing new, as Google has used SERP (search engine results pages) features like rich snippets and knowledge bars for quite some time now.  Yet, zero-click searches have been on the rise recently, and that trend is set to inte ..read more

Q4 2023 was an all-out battlefield for maintaining search rankings on Google, as there were a total of six back-to-back algorithm updates.  That’s not to mention Google’s AI-powered Search Generative Experience (SGE), which has been setting the SEO world on fire since its reveal in May of last year.  It’s now 2024, and digital marketers are changing the way they approach optimizing content for search engines for various reasons (the rise of AI content, Google SGE, Microsoft Copilot, and the list goes on and on).   In particular, we’ve discovered that establishing topical au ..read more

Which lemonade stand do you think will do more business: one isolated in a hot, suburban neighborhood – or one lined up among dozens of others on a beach filled with tourists? The isolated lemonade stand will obviously see more customers since it has virtually no competition.   If you’re only targeting keywords with high search volume for your SEO strategy, your website is the equivalent of the second lemonade stand, the one overwhelmed by competitors.  Targeting long-tail keywords, which are highly specific search queries that don’t have a lot of search volume, is how you mimic ..read more

Are you still not ranking for your most important keywords on Google? Then investing in premium link-building services is one of the smartest (and most productive) moves you can make.  What are those? It’s where you enlist the help of a reputable link-building agency to acquire premium links to improve your visibility on search engines like Google, Bing, and others.  A ‘premium link’ is a backlink from a high-quality site that’s already crushing SEO.  As a result, its ‘link juice’ is far more potent than a link from a subpar website.  In other words, premium-quality links w ..read more

On December 20th, 2023, X user Lily Ray made a startling discovery on Google’s search results.  She had looked up ‘Craiglist used auto parts’ on the search engine and soon discovered that every result in the top 20 was from spam sites.  They weren’t cleverly veiled spam sites, either – just run-of-the-mill garbage sites that have no business ranking for keywords, let alone appearing in the SERPs at all.  This wasn’t an isolated incident, either.  It was soon uncovered that Google was under a MASSIVE spam attack, and it had been going on for a few days.  Once Lily’s in ..read more

Creating content takes lots of time and effort – and if you’re too busy to do it yourself – it’s not exactly cheap to outsource, either.  Yet, consistently releasing high-quality content is necessary to compete with other online businesses, both on search engines and social media platforms.  Ever since the official launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, AI content tools have taken the marketing world by storm.  Alt tag: A meme of the Terminator talking about generating content.  While AI-powered tools have been around for quite a while (Grammarly has been out for 10+ years), this ..read more