TL;DR: Question-based queries have seen the biggest drop during this update. Background May the 4th 2023 marks one of the craziest and most turbulent updates ever. A SERP flux this turbulent was last recorded by Algoroo on the 13th of February 2020, but more or less an isolated event. Last time we had a whole month like this was back in 2018, just before  the August Core and Medic updates. The Analysis We looked at a sample of 10M queries retrieved from Google Search Console from a diverse sample of industries and looked for those that are: Gone (47,730) Down by 1-10 (43,808) Down by 1 ..read more

Boost Reader Engagement with These Key Strategies Implement the inverted pyramid technique Write concisely and prioritize valuable information Use visual elements to break up text Link to credible sources and provide references Inverted Pyramid: Present Crucial Information Upfront The inverted pyramid writing style places the most important information at the beginning, followed by supporting details and background information. This approach caters to the online reading behavior, where users tend to skim content rather than read every word, as explained by Nielsen Norman Group. Example: Hea ..read more

The Lost Art of Natural Linking Download Slides: The Lost Art of Natural Linking by DEJAN (PDF) OLI (Public Access Alpha): Organic Link Integrator In-Depth Guides and Data on Natural Linking The Art of link Earning Why do we link to other websites? Examples of organic link integration to Dejan. Data Used for Link Patterns: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1GrCCyRzgontYQvTnJWM6ODgHF7kTZepS Session Teaser Video Dan’s Predictions for 2023 Panel Slides SMX Munich 2023 Bing AI Panel Session Slides [PDF] Conversations with Google The article includes a sample chat, interpretat ..read more

Full Data Download For a company that constantly preaches the importance of good user experience, Google has been unusually stubborn about one matter – labelling paywall in their search results. The issue is not even up for a debate, anyone advocating for good user experience understands that something needs to be done about this to reduce user friction. Googlers however, keep defying common sense and trying to make excuses for it. This is possibly due to fear of having to pay for news and are determined to continue passing the cost onto the user instead. What is the problem? The issue is comp ..read more

Make an edit. Open your Local Guide profile. Go to your edits tab. That’s it. Obviously for this to work you would have to be a local guide with some history and success in editing maps listings. Other than that it’s as straightforward as described above. I’ve stumbled across this feature during the course of my regular contribution history as a local guide and was surprised to see the impressions visible in my edits tab for many of the places I’ve successfully edited. Here’s impression data for a local airport. What types of edits work? Place Creation Map Marker Correction Adding Website ..read more

This is a small-scale case study with no control group involved. The aim of the test was to see if a small number of links from relevant sites and pages can impact rankings and traffic of a page with a low volume of traffic and low competition terms. Experiment Start: October 2019 Experiment End: June 2020 Relevant Links: 4 Domain: .com.au Impact on Rankings: None Impact on Traffic: None On the site-wide level, there appears to be a boost on the 1st of April correlating with a known algorithmic event in Australia. Another rank and traffic boost happened exactly during the May 2020 Core Update ..read more

Users say they hate ads, but every marketer knows that they also click on the ads. The assumption is that well-timed ads that match users needs and interests are “good” while disruptive, irrelevant or poorly timed ads are “bad”. Google’s search results contain arguably “good” ads, they tend to be relevant to the query, they show up at the time of query and don’t interrupt user experience. But, do users click on search result page ads thinking they’re organic results? I’d like to know how many people are aware that often the top of search results are ads. Tony McCreath, asks on Twitter As alw ..read more

What types of things frustrate you when shopping online? Among the top nuisance factors in online retail are various interruptions such as advertising or pop-ups followed by shipping, pricing and website speed. Additional findings surfaced in this study offer insight into less talked-about issues. For example, we found that “shopping experience” starts before users land on the website. In this article we break down top frustrations by showing main observations, sample of responses and main takeaways. Quick Summary Analysis Date: February 2020 Country: Australia Sample: 2,000 Respondents Surve ..read more

A Twitter poll shows that the main reason for guest blogging within our industry is to get links. More than half of our respondents participate in guest blogging with link building being the main motivation for most. Google has been clear about guest blogging for links. It’s inorganic, manipulative and against their guidelines. Google: Guest Blogging For Links? You Better Nofollow Those Links Google Says Some Guest Post Links Are Unnatural Google’s John Mueller: Nofollow All Guest Posts Links Despite all this, the guest blogging machinery doesn’t seem to be slowing down. I get dai ..read more

In the last few years, when my client rankings go up or down I visit Algoroo to see if the bar is high that day. Rather than speculating about what happened at Google all I want to know is whether something did happened at Google, and that’s enough information for me. It solves the problem of “was it me, or was it Google?”. I control HTML, content and links (to some extent) while having zero control over what Google does. With no ability to understand what’s behind Google’s updates, all that’s left is speculation, and that’s not useful to me. That said. Today I’ll make a small exception a ..read more