Hello everyone!

We have a shorter episode this week and also I'm making you click through to read it instead of putting it all in the newsletter. Why? I would like to send Google more signals that people are engaging with my content!

Important to know this week

SEO

• Google released a new SEO starter guide.
• How I describe E-E-A-T in 2024.
• Indexing issues.
• Cache pages removed from search.
• AI generated blurbs generated from user insights in maps.

AI

• Bard may be renamed to Gemini.
• Bard now does image generation.
• Gemini Ultra expected to be out this week.
• Bard is finally coming to Canada

​

Try this GPT that goes with this newsletter. Here are some prompts you can use:

​

Read this episode in the Search Bar This is Search News You Can Use, free for everyone to read and comment on.

SEO News

Google released a new SEO starter guide

If you are at all interested in SEO, you should read Google’s new starter guide to SEO as they have changed it significantly. I’d encourage you to look at how often they discuss “topics”. The more I learn about Google's systems, the more interested I am in understanding Google's use of topics.

They removed a few things from the guide that are not really beginner SEO discussions, such as schema and breadcrumbs.

The guide emphasizes creating helpful and reliable content that is aligned with the things that are described as E-E-A-T in the raters guidelines. However, it also tells us that we should not be focusing on E-E-A-T, saying “Is E-E-A-T a ranking factor? No it’s not.”

I know that sounds contradictory. Boy is there confusion over E-E-A-T. Here’s where I stand:

How I describe E-E-A-T

E-E-A-T is described in the quality raters’ guidelines as concepts that can support the rater’s assessment of trust.

These concepts are not ranking factors. Wait…let’s pause here. What even is a ranking factor? What is a ranking signal?

Danny Sullivan says that at Google they essentially consider a signal and a factor the same:

A signal, or if you prefer, a factor, is something that can be used by a multitude of Google’s systems. One of the most common signals we know as SEO’s are links. But Google has confirmed that really there are hundreds of signals. This is from 2016:

The systems don’t look for individual signals and add up any kind of E-E-A-T score. They don’t say, “Ah, here’s a doctor, let’s increase the score for this site,” or “There’s wording in here that sounds like they are demonstrating experience. Therefore, let’s rank this higher.”

I like to think of E-E-A-T as an estimate of your legitimacy for providing information on your topics.

E-E-A-T is not determined by any single ranking factor or signal. But rather, it comes from Google's understanding of all of the signals and information that they have, whether it is in the knowledge graph, signals that come from other sources (like links, mentions, customer reviews, etc.) or likely even real-world signals like perhaps whether people actually are visiting your business and engaging with it.

You either have the appropriate E-E-A-T to talk on your topics, or you don’t.

You can improve and build upon your E-E-A-T the same way that you would in real life. How do you become known as a topic authority? You do things that cause people to come to you when they want to learn about that topic. You do things that get the press talking. If you’re a local business you make your presence known by doing good things in your community. If you’re a store in the offline world, the only way you are going to succeed is if you can convince people to visit you regularly. And the only way you are going to do that is if you are a store that meets the needs of your customers.

You need to be helpful to have E-E-A-T. You need to be known for that as well.

Years ago, we could improve E-E-A-T in meaningful ways that impacted rankings, often with just on-page SEO changes. We could make on-site changes like add author bios and use SameAs schema in an attempt to send signals to Google’s systems that our content came from a place of expertise. Or perhaps we would recommend removing or improving content on parts of the site that contradicted scientific consensus, and doing more to add authoritative and scientific references. Or, in some cases we’d recommend improvements to the About page of a site.

And sometimes, a site would see beautiful improvements.

These things I’ve mentioned are all good to do. But more and more, Google’s systems are improving at taking the myriad of signals they can use, and learning how to best approximate what is truly legitimate.

Today, a few on-page E-E-A-T tweaks are not likely to help you make a big improvement. But, truly becoming known for being a go-to source on your topics can do all sorts of things to send signals to Google that there is an audience of people who find your content helpful. As the systems learn whether searchers are satisfied by your site, you should see more and more improvement.

The glaring issue here is spam in Google’s search results. If you have sites ranking above you that clearly are only there because they’ve figured out how to manipulate rankings and not because they truly are the topic experts with helpful content in your industry, then you may find things improve soon. Once again this week, Danny Sullivan told us that significant change is coming to deal with the spam in Google’s search results.

I wrote my detailed thoughts on the changes to the SEO starter guide, including my thoughts on how links work today, and how ranking works overall, in last week’s Marie’s Thoughts (paid newsletter) episode.

SPONSOR: NORTH STAR INBOUND Are you frustrated with a sudden drop or a slow erosion of traffic with no end in sight? The best time to do a traffic drop assessment is within a month after the drop. The next best time is now. Because if you haven’t fixed what’s caught Google’s ire, chances are you’ll sink even lower the next time. ​ We’ve helped dozens of brands recover their traffic, often reaching new highs–even after months of trying “everything”. Our traffic drop assessments are 360 views of what’s gone wrong AND a prioritized plan for addressing it. We’re opening up 3 slots in February exclusively for readers of Marie’s newsletter. Contact us here to get yours today

A note from Marie: Nicole and I discussed this service and how it is becoming increasingly more challenging to analyze traffic drops in today's sophisticated ranking algorithms. I believe that since the recent updates at the end of 2023 there have been significant shifts in the role AI plays in rankings. I paused my consulting so I could deepen my understanding of these systems. With that said, my advice remains largely the same, although my justifications have evolved. I've long trusted Nicole for her expertise in helping websites improve their visibility through quality content. I think having her opinion on a traffic drop could be quite valuable.

This episode continues in The Search Bar

(Yup, I'm making you click to read the rest. Gotta get send those engagement signals to Google.)

Read the rest of newsletter in the Search Bar

There's lots on:

• Indexing issues
• Recipe sites facing issues
• Cache pages not in search
• Core web vitals not a ranking factor
• A bunch on Bard and Gemini - changes are coming this week
• Gemini reads the lastest news stories to me
• Niche Site Lady's manual action
• A bunch of long tweets from me with thoughts on the algo, E-E-A-T, and more.
• Recommended reading:
  • Olaf Kopp's summary on how rankings work
  • Tom Critchlow's notes on Search and AI
  • Our industry is changing - by me
  • The Nayak DOJ testimony.

​

More in the Search Bar