Last updated on January 8, 2022.
A lot has been happening in the SEO industry for the past two weeks, so – as always – I am bringing you the latest SEO news to help you stay on track and become an even better SEO!
📰 Top SEO News
A lot of interesting things have been happening in the SEO industry.
SEO in 2022 by Majestic
Majestic asked SIXTY-SIX! of the world’s leading SEOs (including me) to share their number one actionable tip for 2022. Check out their SEO in 2022 guide to learn from the best in the business, helping you stay one step ahead of your competitors as we head into a new year.
A 2021 update on mobile-first indexing
After analyzing the sites that are not yet indexed mobile-first, Google determined that some of these sites are still not ready to be shifted over due to various, unexpected challenges that they’re facing. Because of these difficulties, Google decided to leave the timeline open for the last steps of mobile-first indexing.
Google November 2021 Core Update tremors on Thanksgiving
As Barry Schwartz reports, there was a lot of volatility in the Google Search results around the time of Thanksgiving. “The tools are pretty much all showing high volatility – some started to show the changes yesterday, on November 24th and now most are showing a spike in changes in Google’s search results today, November 25th on Thanksgiving Day.”
SEO Tips (a list of 60+ best tips for SEO)
Here is a list of the best SEO tips that will help you become a better SEO and always stay ahead. These SEO tips mostly come from Google documentation, my own experience as an SEO, Google SEO Office Hours with John Mueller.
Google Search Console has a new look!
The look and feel of Google Search Console – my favorite SEO tool – has been updated and refreshed. Over the next few months, you can expect to see small changes in GSC with a goal to improve accessibility and user experience.
Revamped Google PageSpeed Insights is live!
Not only did Google Search Console get a new look, but our favorite SEO speed tool – Google PageSpeed Insights – has also been revamped. The lool now presents the data in a clearer way and puts a greater focus on the mobile experience.
📍 Local SEO
Update to the Google Business Profile Help article
Reviews are useful for potential customers when they’re honest and objective. Customers find a mix of positive and negative reviews more trustworthy. You can always respond to a review to show the customers that you care and provide additional context.
☝️ SEO Tips
And here are the SEO tips for you.
#1: Semantic HTML is not a quality signal for Google
Google’s John Mueller said that semantic HTML is not a quality signal used in Google Search for ranking purposes. An SEO said, “Proper HTML semantics and tag hierarchy must be a quality signal.” John Mueller responded by saying “I don’t see it as a quality signal.”
#2: Images hosted on a CDN have a separate crawl budget
Google’s John Mueller confirmed that when it comes to sites that host their images (or likely other files) on an external CDN, as we do here, Google will have a separate server capacity (maybe crawl budget) for your domain versus the domain of the CDN.
#3: Bolding words for SEO makes sense
John Mueller confirmed again that bolding words and “important points on a paragraph” does help with SEO and rankings. But it is all relative, if you bold everything on the page, then it doesn’t help, John explained.
#4: “As featured on” links are treated as normal links
As Barry Schwartz reports “I am sure you’ve all seen websites that have a section on their website for “As Featured On” or something like that, then a carousel or listing of logos from those brands. Well, those links should not be feared, John Mueller from Google said putting those links on your site “sounds like a normal link.”
🤓 Don’t Miss These SEO Resources
11 Powerful Content Marketing Ideas for 2021 (With Examples) [Ahrefs]
There’s only so much time in a day, and you want to be sure you’re spending your content efforts wisely. Here are 11 powerful content marketing ideas you can start today.
How to Measure the Quality of Your SEO Traffic Using Google Analytics [Moz]
To get a better understanding of what’s considered “quality traffic”, Moz looked into various Google Analytics metrics that will help you create a rock-solid SEO strategy.
Explaining Google’s November 2021 Core Update [Mordy Oberstein]
After about four months without any core updates, Google announced its November 2021 broad core algo update on November 17, 2021. While Google itself confirmed that, as usual, we should give the update a week or two to fully roll out, we can already set some preliminary conclusions and start assessing the update’s aftermath.
State of SEO: 2021 in Review and a Look Ahead to 2022 [BrightEdge]
BrightEdge asked 750+ specialists about their experiences and perspectives on 2021 along with their plans for 2022. Respondents include people across a diverse range of marketing disciplines from SEO to demand generation, digital marketing, content development, IT and executive management, and across multiple industries including e-commerce, retail, software, manufacturing, and finance
How to hide a website in search #AskGooglebot
In this episode of AskGooglebot, John Mueller explains how password protection, blocking crawling, and blocking indexing are three ways to prevent a website from showing up in search engines while keeping them accessible.
📢 Other Announcements
Since the number of SEO projects I am currently involved in has skyrocketed, I will be sending the SEOSLY newsletter every two weeks for the nearest weeks or months to come.
🙏 Please note that I am getting hundreds of messages and I am not always able to respond to all of you quickly. Please be patient. I will get back to you. I am doing my best.
Olga Zarzeczna is a senior SEO specialist with 8+ years of experience. She has been doing SEO for both the biggest brands in the world and small businesses. She has done more than 150+ SEO audits so far. Olga has completed SEO courses and degrees at universities, such as UC Davis, University of Michigan, and Johns Hopkins University. She also completed Moz Academy! And, of course, has Google certifications. She keeps learning SEO and loves it. Olga is also a Google Product Expert specializing in areas, such as Google Search and Google Webmasters.
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