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πΏ Google Leaks, AIO Updates, Impact & More - SEOFOMO [June 2, 2024]
Published 11 months ago β’ 9 min read
June 2nd, 2024 βSubscribe and join +33,600 SEOs and Marketers
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ππ»ββοΈ The Week of the Google Search Docs Leak
The biggest Google search leak that we've seen so far was disclosed earlier this week, after Erfan Azimi got in touch with Rand Fishkin who analyzed and published about it with Mike King.
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In the leaked Content Warehouse API (that seems to have been publicly published by mistake) that includes 2,596 modules featuring 14,014 attributes, we can see mentions of NavBoost, SiteAuthority, or HostAge, and more, which many in the SEO community started to analyze -putting them in context with former Google statements and DOJ related documentation-.
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βGoogle responded to the leak asking for caution to avoid "making inaccurate assumptions about Search based on out-of-context, outdated, or incomplete information" from what can be found in it, as we don't know what's actually used from it and how.
Since the leak disclosure, we've seen a few members of the SEO community complain about the lack of transparency and contradicting information shared in the past by Google about some of what has been found in the documentation.
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On the one hand, I've witnessed the increase in communication, resources and support that Google has been providing to the SEO community in recent years vs what existed when I started in SEO back in 2007, for which I'm appreciative, as it has not only highly facilitated my day to day with clients and projects, and in general, has had a net positive impact on how business owners and companies decision makers views on SEO has evolved over time.
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On the other hand, I also believe it's important to understand how it's reasonable that Google will tend to be careful about what they disclose to protect what they might think could be sensible for manipulation.
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Then also, how Googlers who engage with the SEO community will obviously need to follow internal communication guidelines, and many times, they might also potentially not necessarily know about the specifics or inner workings of everything, and try to give the best possible advice under the given circumstances despite this, but might not always be able to due to this. β
Because of all this, and the importance of context in SEO, is fundamental to take whatever is shared in SEO -from Google or not- with a healthy dose of skepticism, and have always a proactive "test for yourself" mindset, to decide whether something is actually useful or impactful and makes sense to take into account in your particular case.
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I would highly recommend you to also follow these principles with the leaked information.
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While I don't think these findings will refer anybody to do something directionally different from what's being done at the moment if they're following a Product-first SEO approach, they can be used to showcase the importance and get further buy-in, as well as the flexibility to develop tests for additional support related to areas we know are important, among others:
Growing a recognizable brand in our sector
Paying more attention to how users engage with our site from search and beyond, and how our UI/UX efforts, as well as content format/offering can be optimized accordingly
Avoiding doing SEO on a silo and how it needs to be further integrated/supported with other marketing activities
How quality, authority and relevance over quantity are key in link-building
The importance of selecting the right format to optimize content to better address user search intent
Developing real expertise and featuring expert authors behind your content
β Just remember to test for yourself, aligning your findings to what's going to be positive for your product user search experience and marketing goals while avoiding missing the forest for the trees.
ποΈ Search Updates and News from Search Engines
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βGoogle addresses bad AI Overview results and how they have made improvements βLiz Reid / Google Search Updates βJust two weeks after their release Google has had to release improvements to AI Overviews after backlash due to their content quality. They explain what they've done to address this and how AI Overviews work. β
βGoogle Business Profile chat and call history going away βBarry Schwartz / Google Product Updates βGoogle will be shutting down the Google Business Profile chat and call history feature on July 31, 2024. You can download your chat and call history from Google Business Profile.
βGoogle Ads Now Being Mixed In With Organic Resultsβ βBrodie Clark / Google Product Updates βGoogle has been discreetly mixing ads within organic results for almost a year, recently making it official with a documentation update.
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[Sponsor / Affiliate]β ββ‘ New from Wix: SEO resource center
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This new addition to Wixβs SEO Learning Hub is packed with free resources, created by top SEOs in the game. The topics they cover range from backlink monitoring to creating SEO project proposals for potential clients, and a whole lot more.
These downloadable checklists, templates, and toolkits let you develop smoother SEO processes and ramp up productivityβon any project.
Each resource can be customized for specific tasks and shared with teammates and clients for more effective collaboration.
βHow to track your AI Overviews Inclusions and Traffic Impact [With Results So Far]β βAleyda Solis / Search Trends βI share how I'm tracking at scale the inclusion of AI Overviews for top keywords across my clients' websites, and the method I use to split the organic search clicks coming from them to assess the impact of AI Overviews inclusions. I also share the traffic impact so far across some of the verticals when including the site in AIO answers... which is positive. Take a look!
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βThe Real Impact of AI Overviews for Publications and News Sitesβ βBarry Adams / Search Trends βAI Overviews will likely mean less traffic for many sites, but news appears to be exempt (for now). Barry talks about the impact of AI Overviews on traffic in this guide.
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βImproving content quality at scale with AI βMark Williams-Cook / SEO Automation βA useful guide from Mark going through how to leverage AI to find unanswered questions in your content, helping you enhance and improve it, using Screaming Frog, the OpenAI API and AlsoAsked API.
βHow to use long-tail keywords and why you should βCrystal Carter / Keyword Research βAn actionable guide by Crystal, in which shares how and where to use long-tail keywords within your website content in a cost-effective way.
βHow to Create a Brand SEO Strategy β Whiteboard Friday [Video] βMiracle Inameti-Archibong / General SEO βMiracle explains why is key to create a brand SEO strategy, sharing valuable insights on establishing your brand's online identity and dominating the SERPs in this Whiteboard Friday.
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βSERP Features Beyond Google β What Are The Trends? βNatalia Witczyk / Search Trends βNatalia dives into the SERPs of Google's main western competitors: Bing, DuckDuckGo, and Brave Search - to uncover the current search innovations and approaches related to data, privacy, and customization.
[Sponsor / Affiliate]β ββ‘ Identify Your Orphan Pages (and their traffic and rankings to prioritize their fix) with Ahrefs Webmaster Tools for Free
βAhrefs Webmaster Tools has hands down the easiest way to identify your site's orphan pages for free with its Site Audit "Orphan Pages" report, featuring all the URLs without identified internal links (including JS based, images, redirects, canonicalized, hreflang, etc.) along with their XML sitemaps inclusions, number of backlinks, organic search traffic, and ranked keywords.
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This report including all of the internal links information (the lack of them in this case) with XML sitemap inclusions, along with backlinks, organic search traffic, and rankings metrics, makes it *very* easy to identify and prioritize your orphan pages, to fix them accordingly. And all for free!
βFat Rank [Chrome Extension] βFATJOE βCheck the ranking for a particular keyword in Google and Bing for the website youβre currently viewing with this Chrome Extension.
Are you looking for more SEO Tools? Take a look at the SEOFOMO SEO Toolboxβ
ποΈ Upcoming SEO Events
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βSearch Central Live Jakarta 2024β βGoogle Search Central / Jakarta, Indonesia / July 25, 2024β ββGoogle Search Central Live is going to Jakarta on July 25. Registration will be open until July 7. You can also propose a 7-minute community lightning talk before June 20.
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βThe SEOFOMO Meetup - Amsterdam Edition with Digital Olympus βSEOFOMO / Amsterdam, Netherlands / September 13, 2024 βJoin the 3rd SEOFOMO Meetup, this time hosted in Amsterdam with Digital Olympus, for an exciting free in-person meetup at Capital C Amsterdam on Sep 13 at 5:30pm CET. The meetup will feature a roundtable with experienced SEOs like Alex Tachalova, Arnout Hellemans, Bibi Raven, Linda Hogenes, Simon Vreeman, Silvia Martin, Natalia Witczyk, and more to be announced, moderated by Aleyda Solis, as well as a networking with free drinks and snacks.
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βPubcon Pro Las Vegas 2024 βPubcon / Las Vegas, USA / October 14 - 16, 2024 βPubcon Pro has been announced to happen in Las Vegas at the iconic MGM Luxor Hotel, on its 25th anniversary. Check it out. β
Expect more awesome SEOs & digital marketers to follow every week. Do you have any suggestions? Just let me know over here!β
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* Refer 2 Subscribers: Get a shout-out on X/Twitter and LinkedIn from Aleyda, thanking your support. * Refer 5 Subscribers: Get featured in the "Supporters" thank you section in an edition of SEOFOMO. * Refer 15 Subscribers: Get access to 3 Actionable (exclusive) SEO How-Tos / Tips Videos. * Refer 35 Subscribers: Get a free copy of The SEO Playbook by Tomek Rudzki. * Refer 70 Subscribers: Get free access to the Google Search Console Mastery Course by Tomek Rudzki * Refer 100 Subscribers: Get 1 Year Team Subscription to SEOTesting.com * Refer 200 Subscribers: Get 1 Access to SE Ranking Essential for 1 Year * Refer 300 Subscribers: Get 1 Access to JetOctopus 500K Pages for 1 Year * Refer 400 Subscribers: Get 1 Access to Advanced Web Ranking Agency Package for 1 Year * Refer 500 Subscribers: Get a 1 hour SEO 1-1 Hangout w/ Aleyda, an Awesome SEOFOMO Hoodie and Mug
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Thanks for reading, until next week!
Aleyda Solis SEO Consultant & Founder Orainti, SEOFOMO & MarketingFOMO βFollow me on βX/Twitterβ / βYouTubeβ / βLinkedInβ / βWebsiteβ
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SEOFOMO: The Newsletter to Keep up with SEO
by Aleyda Solis, SEO Consultant
SEOFOMO is a weekly free newsletter sent to +35K subscribers with the latest SEO news, updates, guides, tips, free tools and jobs. Avoid missing any worthy SEO update and subscribe now!