Summary of SEO 101 Episode 365
The hosts discuss the latest large core update to Google’s algorithms that was recently announced, massive improvements in Google Search Console’s freshness, the effect of nofollows, and additional search snippet controls.
Last but not least, Ross covers some insight into the Local SEO world, and the hosts answer an interesting question.
Notes from SEO 101 Episode 365
September Core Update
Tuesday Sept 24th: Google Releases September 2019 Core Update
On September 24, Google announced on Twitter that they were releasing a new update called the September 2019 Core Update.
Tuesday Sept 25th: Core Update Live but Slow to Roll Out
The core update was already live but it seemed to be rolling out very slowly.
Tuesday Sept 26th: Core Update Impact Being Noticed
The SEO community started noticing the impact of the latest core update. More people reported changes in their search results. Some reported losses in rankings while others noticed a boost in their rankings.
“If you’re doing things right, most likely these core updates are not going to hurt you too badly.” – John
Google Search Console Performance Report Data Now Less Than A Day Old
Webmasters can now see fresher data from Performance Reports within Google Search Console. It used to be that GSC users could view data from the current day two or three days later. But now it’s possible to view the data several hours later.
“It is super, super important and handy information to be checking out on a regular basis.” – John
Google Gives More Snippet Control to Webmasters
Google announced several new settings that would give webmasters more control over their search result snippets.
Before webmasters could only allow Google to show a textual snippet or not. But with the new settings, site owners would be able to decide on the following:
- whether or not to show any textual snippet – “nosnippet”
- the text-length in characters of a snippet – “max-snippet:[number]”
- the duration in seconds of an animated video preview – “max-video-preview:[number]”
- the size of image preview to be displayed in the snippet, using “none,” “standard” or “large – “max-image-preview:[setting]”
Emailing Google For SEO Support Never Works
Does sending Google emails for issues actually work? Googler Gary Illyes gave a tongue-in-cheek response.
“It’s a way of eliminating things when you absolutely have no other option.” – Ross
Google May Ignore Nofollow Link From Publishers That Default It
Gary Illyes: “The move to a hint based system may cover every link list to nofollow, including those from publications that blanket nofollow.”
Google Sends Mass Fix Breadcrumbs Markup Warnings
Google Search Console has begun sending schema markup warnings to sites using breadcrumb navigation.
Local SEO News Segment (Weekly)
Here’s one discussion we found recently in the Local Search Forum:
Question: “How important is it to consistently make posts in GMB for a small service area business (SAB) such as a plumber, electrician, etc.?”
Whitespark answers:
“Posts get decent views, and if done right, they can drive conversions too. They’re easy to do and worth the minor time investment. …Offer posts in particular are pretty rad. They get excellent visibility in the mobile results, right under your main NAP info. …You don’t do posts for rankings, you do them for conversions. They appear in the Local Finder when people are researching businesses. It’s not only when they Google you by name. Do posts to make your listing stand out and get the clicks from the people searching.”
Questions from SEO 101 Listeners
Ross and John also welcome some SEO-related concerns from listeners. Please listen to the show to find out their detailed answers to these questions.
Q: “I redesigned one of my websites recently and submitted the new sitemap the other day. Google Search Console tells me that one of the pages is not mobile-friendly (text too small, clickable elements to close together) but when I live-test the page I get status mobile friendly. I already made a few changes (increasing margins between links etc.) but still, the same result – Index says no, Live Test says yes.
Does anybody have an idea what to do about this and why this is happening (different results in Index and Live Version)?” – H. Anna
A: “What I would suggest is looking for another tool that also analyzes mobile-friendliness and see if it finds the same issues.” – Ross
John and Ross also suggest trying the Lighthouse testing tool by Google.
End of Show Notes
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