Google is making a number of changes to its executive team running Google Search:
With these changes, Pandu Nayak is stepping down as lead of search quality and ranking and will become Chief Scientist of Search. In another change, Cathy Edwards is moving to the Long-term Bets team in Knowledge and Information. What Google said. A Google spokesperson sent Search Engine Land the following statement:
Liz Reid. About three years ago, Reid was appointed to lead of core search experience by Prabhakar Raghavan. She will continue to report to Raghavan in her new role as head of Search. Reid joined Google in 2003. She is credited as one of the earliest pioneers of Google Maps and Local Search and helped Google redefine modern-day mapmaking with AI. Reid was also the first female engineer in the company’s New York office. Specific to Search, Reid helped:
Liz Reid posted on LinkedIn saying, “Today, I’m taking on a new role leading Search, and am humbled by the opportunity to shape the future of this important product.” You can read her full message over on LinkedIn. Cheenu Venkatachary. Venkatachary will lead the Google Search quality and ranking teams, taking over Nayak’s role. Venkatachary originally worked at Google from May 2013 to December 2014, then left for a company that was acquired by Apple. He returned to Google in October 2022. Pandu Nayak. Nayak is becoming Chief Scientist, Search, where he will continue to advise and focus on technical challenges in Search. Google told us that he will remain deeply involved in Google’s broader efforts around content understanding, ranking and exploring how new AI technologies can enhance Google Search. Google credits Nayak as the foremost expert on algorithms, ranking and information systems. Nayak is Google’s most recent inductee to the National Academy of Engineering. Cathy Edwards. Edwards who led Google Apps, News, Discover and ecosystem efforts in 2021, is moving back to Australia and will join the Long-term Bets team. Edwards, the co-founder of Chomp (which was acquired by Apple) will help incubate new product ideas in partnership with leaders across Knowledge and Information. Why we care. How this may impact Google Search and overall search quality remains to be seen. Google often makes high-level changes with its executive teams, and people move on. I am sure there will be a lot of speculation on why these moves are being made but overall, it seems like really smart and respected individuals are filling in the roles of those who are moving to other roles within the company. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/BEero3p
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Advertisers attempting to export reports from Google Ads Report Editor are experiencing issues where the data is showing zeros instead of the actual numbers. Google is aware of the issue and is working on a fix to resolve it, but there is not estimated time for a fix at this time. What is the issue. Greg Kohler, aka PPCGreg posted a screenshot of a sample report export filled with blank data and/or zeros. Here is that screenshot: There are numerous reports on social media and in the various advertiser forums of complaints about this issue. Google response. Google’s AdsLiaison, Ginny Marvin, responded saying, “The team is aware. I don’t have a timeline to share but they’re investigating this.” Here are some of those responses: Why we care. If you are trying to do some reporting, reporting for clients or for yourself, you may be out of luck when using Google Ads Report Editor. For now, use the main Google Ads interface to view and export your data. Also, the Google Ads API may also be functioning properly. So if you need the data now, stay away from the Google Ads Report Editor and use other reporting views. Or wait until Google fixes the issues with the Google Ads Report Editor. We will update this story when it is resolved. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/AtTwGzL Google Search Ads 360 launched a closed beta for offsite retail media campaigns to help retailers and brands achieve common goals with shoppers, boost product visibility, and increase sales, the search ad company told us. Google announced these new features today in Search Ads 360:
Why we care. If these Search Ads 360 features are useful for you or your clients, then try to gain access to this closed beta. To do so or for more information about participating in the SA360 beta, contact your Google account team. This is an early beta, so it is hard to know when or if this will fully roll out. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/RMEK7WZ How often have you heard, “Use broad match along with smart bidding to get the best results?” Broad match can learn based on previous conversion activity. It can also use previous user search data, other keywords in your ad group and your landing page’s content to show your ads on relevant searches. Broad match has more learning capabilities than phrase or exact match. If broad match can do all these things, is there even a need for exact match? Let’s walk through one advertiser’s journey to discover what keyword match types worked best for them and the reasoning behind their decisions. Impression shareImpression share is a useful metric that looks at how often your ads were shown compared to how often they were eligible to be displayed. It’s your best research into your share of voice for any keyword and it can inform you how much more volume is attainable. You can see this metric at the campaign, ad group or keyword level. This particular advertiser is in the home financing sector. When they looked at their keyword level impression shares for their top keywords, here are their impression shares: As these were their top keywords in terms of total conversions, they wanted to increase their impression shares for these terms. They were using max conversion bidding with a CPA target. Their only options for increasing impression shares were to raise the CPA or increase their Quality Scores. Their Quality Scores were mostly 7s, so they decided to raise their target CPA for these ad groups. Over the course of the next two months, they slowly raised their target CPAs. Their conversions did increase. Their CPA increased more than their bids, but they were OK with that. However, their impression shares barely increased even with fairly significant bid increases. They were using mostly broad match keywords in their account. After some discussions, they decided to add exact match keywords to these ad groups and do an in-depth search term analysis. After adding the exact match terms, they could now see the impression share for their top keywords. Since impression share is calculated every time a keyword is eligible for the auction, having the exact match keywords gives you the most accurate picture of how often you can show for your top search terms. They were showing much more for their top terms than they realized and needed to explore other keyword possibilities to get more volume. When they examined their search term data, they found many search terms showing from multiple ad groups and that their ad serving was subpar. Dig deeper: Google Ads broad match: What the data reveals for PPC marketers Duplicate search termsDuplicate search terms happen when a search term matches multiple ad groups. In these cases, your stats for the search term are split across multiple ad groups and your preferred ad and landing page may not be used. For instance, the search term “30 year fixed mortgage” had been displayed from these ad groups in their account:
If we look at the stats for the same search term for a selection of the ad groups, we see very different stats across the ad groups: While the search term has been displayed from multiple ad groups, there is a clear choice as to which one performs best for this search term and their idea ad group for the search term to display ads. Google does have a priority order to ensure the correct ad group is displayed for a search term. Below is an excerpt from Google’s PDF, “Unlock the Power of Search.” This means that we need to have the identical keyword to a search term (which is spell-corrected) to control where any search term will be displayed. Technically, it does not have to be an exact match, but it does show the need for a process to add the top search terms as keywords in your account. As you add these variations, you will trigger a recommendation in Google: By taking control of your ad serving, Google will make recommendations to remove some of these keywords, which, in turn, can cause your top-performing search terms to show from the incorrect ad group. If you want to control how your ads and landing pages serve for your search terms, ignore this recommendation. This advertiser was bulk-adding its top search terms as keywords in the appropriate ad groups and discovered their Quality Scores were not as good as they believed. Quality ScoreThe Quality Score displayed in your account is only calculated when the search term is the exact same as your keyword, regardless of match type. For instance, the advertiser has a 7 Quality Score for the term “mortgage rates.” Once they added their top search terms associated with the keyword “mortgage rates,” they had a different picture of their Quality Scores. Once again, you can add all the new search terms as broad or phrase match. The keywords do not have to be exact match to see your Quality Scores for a search term. However, if you continue to add all your top terms as phrase or broad match terms, then you will continuously expand what you are eligible to show for, which can cause budgeting issues. Regardless, having your top search terms as keywords regardless of the match type gives you a better understanding of your Quality Scores. BudgetThe advice to use Smart Bidding and broad match is often made with the assumption your budget is unlimited. Most advertisers do not have an unlimited budget. If you have a maximum amount you can spend in a given month, does the same advice to use broad match still apply? This is where you need to examine the stats in your account. In this account, the advertiser adds their top converting search terms as keywords for every match type (exact, phrase and broad). That means phrase and broad match only receive impressions if the term has not consistently converted for a few months and has yet to be added as a keyword. As the impressions on any of their keywords significantly increase, it signals the company that Google has found new search terms for those keyword and match type combinations. Some of these new terms are good and others are poor. However, being able to watch for a change in impressions helps them identify when they need to go deeper into their query and n-gram analysis to determine if they have new keywords or negative keywords to add to their account. The stats below are typical of many accounts where exact match has the highest conversion rate and lowest CPA and broad match has the lowest conversion rate and highest CPA. This account is bidding by target ROAS and broad match has a better ROAS (conv. value/cost) than phrase match even with a higher CPA. If your budget is limited, starting with mostly exact and phrase is usually a good idea. Then, if you are not hitting your budget, expanding to broad match is a nice way of receiving more conversions. Conversely, if you are hitting your budget, pausing your worst-performing keywords, regardless of match type, is always a good idea, so your better-performing keywords are spending your budget. If you can afford to add broad match keywords, your bid strategy often governs their effectiveness. Bid strategiesThe two most common bid strategies are target or max bidding. This could be target CPA, max CPA, target ROAS or max revenue. Please note that target CPA or ROAS uses the maximize conversions or revenue strategy with the optional box checked to set a target for that campaign. Max bidding’s goal is to get the most conversions or revenue regardless of how much any one conversion will cost you. What we often see with max bidding (max revenue or max conversions) is that Google will find ways to spend your entire budget if you use broad match since they can match broad match to many different search terms. This account bids by max conversions and has fairly typical metrics for how the CPA differences occur by match type, where broad match has a much more expensive conversion than phrase or exact match keywords. With max conversions or max revenue bidding, exact and phrase match generally outperform broad match. Conversely, this next account is using target CPA bidding. While exact match still has the lowest CPA, the broad and phrase match metrics are very similar. Broad match has a higher conversion rate than phrase match, so Google can bid more (hence the higher CPC for broad match) on the broad match variations to obtain the same CPA as the phrase match words. There are a lot of nuances in how target versus max bidding performs. At the last SMX, I went through these differences in detail. You can watch the video from the session if you would like to learn more. ConclusionImpression share is the only metric you truly miss out on if you do not use exact match. You can add all your top search terms as exact, phrase or broad match to see your Quality Scores and manage duplicate search terms to help control ad serving. If you are budget-constrained, using exact and phrase match generally gets you better results than broad match. If you use any bid method other than Target ROAS or Target CPA, then broad match is rarely a good idea since you will often spend your budget regardless of how many conversions you receive. There are exceptions to this rule, especially if you struggle with search volume, which is common in B2B accounts or accounts that target small geographic areas. Suppose you’re using a target bid strategy (Target ROAS or Target CPA) and want to combine ad serving control with data insights while leveraging machine learning. In that case, a combination of exact and broad match offers much flexibility in management. This can easily be accomplished by adding the exact and broad match of the same keyword to the same ad group. If your budget decreases, you can pause your worst-performing broad match terms. If your budgets increase, you can use more broad match terms. As you see broad match serving incorrectly, using exact match and negative keywords can help steer the machine. There is no need to rely on a single match type. Your keyword’s match types are just another tool to be used. Using a combination of exact and broad match (along with phrase, as necessary) provides you with control, insights and machine learning to maximize your PPC account’s performance. In an era of machine learning, exact match has not become obsolete. It still has a lot to offer for PPC professionals looking to optimize their accounts. Dig deeper: How each Google Ads bid strategy influences campaign success via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/SwhCgpd This article will show you how to create a simple SEO plan. This plan focuses on a single group of related keywords applicable to your business’s primary offerings or individual products/services. The plan is concise and fits onto a single page. SEO planning vs. SEO strategySEO planning is often conflated with SEO strategy. Although they are related, they are different parts of your overall SEO process, so they should be considered separately. SEO strategy involves identifying an SEO USP and finding a way to stand out from the crowd (I detail how to do that here). SEO planning is the tactical process of delivering your strategy. The objective is to take the complexity out of the planning so you can focus on the SEO (which is complicated enough). What is an SEO plan?An SEO plan covers how to research, document, create, optimize and promote content to improve your website’s visibility on search engines. It will help you attract visitors and generate more business from your website. The plan you will create here is a highly simplified approach that anyone can follow and will help you get started with SEO. The steps we will follow here are:
You will detail this in our simple One-Page SEO Plan template. (It is a Google Doc, so navigate to File > Make a Copy to create an editable version.) This plan is purposely simple to keep you focused on what matters. There is no talk of web design, technical SEO, generative AI or other fancy bells and whistles. Instead, this plan is simple and focused on what matters — creating great content that Google loves and ranks highly. Step 1: Create a list of keywordsOur goal here is to identify a list of related keywords. We want to optimize your homepage, a product, service or content, so all search terms should relate to this single item. This should give us several keywords with the same overall intent behind them. We then want to form these keywords into an organized group. There are a few approaches you can use here: Talk it throughI suggest talking this through with your team. Make a note of all the search terms you can think of. If your team has customer-facing members, they will likely have some powerful insights. Google autocompleteTake your initial list and Google those terms. Google autocomplete will give you loads of suggestions in the drop-down box. A simple tactic I like is to add your main term and then work through the letters of the alphabet and see how it alters the suggestions. For example:
Pull the trigger on relevant terms and get more related searches at the bottom of the page. Google Search ConsoleIf you already have a website, you can look at the search terms you already rank for. You can filter this to look at the terms that relate to a single page and get a list together that Google already agrees with, and you are at least part of the way there. SEO toolsVarious SEO tools can help you flesh out your list of keywords and get some search volume and difficulty. I would start with the Keyword Planner in Google Ads. Action itemsMake notes in your one-page SEO plan template. You aim to find five to 10 related keywords that work from shorter and more specific to longer tail keywords. Get these in a spreadsheet with search volume and relative difficulty (you can use PPC difficulty as a gauge if you don’t have a paid SEO tool). For example:
Note: If you find a keyword that goes beyond the context of what you are currently looking at, expanding on the example above(e.g., best artificial grass for dogs), then you would create a new one-page SEO plan for that term. Step 2: Identify search intentIt is easy to see a keyword and the numbers behind it and be tempted to dive in, but more intelligence is needed here to refine your approach. Firstly, you want to understand the search intent and how the content returned is categorized:
Answering this question will help you understand what users are looking for, as Google has already run that experiment and tilted the content toward what users are looking for. Then, what types of content are returned? Often, you will find that most of the results will be of a given format (like video dominating the top of the page). Other times, various content types will indicate variability in the searcher’s preferred answer to that question. For example, I recently had to do some DIY on our tumble dryer to fix a broken button. When searching for solutions, the search results were nearly all videos. By following these videos, I could easily follow along and fix the button (a big win for me as I am not a DIY kind of guy). Details matterWhen it comes to intent, the details matter. You can’t just look at the posts and say okay, these are informational articles. You need to dig a bit deeper than that. The results will typically represent the content you should create to rank for this term. You want to know what they are, how they are similar, what they link to and reference and start thinking about any gaps or opportunities. Action itemsMake notes in your one-page SEO plan template detailing:
Step 3: StrategizeA common mistake in SEO is creating yet another version of what is already out there. This may have worked in the past to a degree, but it could have been a stronger strategy. The trick here is to examine the existing results, conduct an SEO SWOT analysis and identify improvements. A common idea is that what you create should be different or better. If you are targeting better, try to add something new and unique that makes the content better than what already exists. If you are a contender looking to run with the big hitters, then you have to create something wildly better than what is out there. Often, being different is easier and better. If the competition is all very similar, being different will help you stand out and piggyback on some of the more established competition. Another useful job here is to see what is out there and see what people are linking to. This could be statistics, guides, checklists, studies, data or anything else – but there will typically be a pattern. You have two jobs here. The first is understanding the commonalities between what is out there so you can stand out. The second is to understand what the competing content is linking to so you can be more like that (as this will help with the promotion of the post). In a previous article, I covered a range of SEO strategies to help you create unique, helpful content that blows your competition out of the water. Action itemsMake notes in your one-page SEO plan template detailing:
Step 4: CreateBy this point, you should:
Now, you just have to build it and they will come. The specifics here will vary, but if you are a local plumber, it may be as simple as providing a gallery of recent work, case studies or testimonials. If you are targeting a highly competitive search term, you may need to provide something unique, which may require a study or additional research. The specifics of different and better will vary depending on the keyword and location but you can’t skimp here, or SEO is not the game you should be playing. Action itemsMake notes in your one-page SEO plan template detailing:
Step 5: OptimizeHere, you should note everything you will optimize on the page to follow your plan and check things off the list. On-page optimizationThis is not rocket science, but a checklist will ensure you tick all the important boxes.
On-page SEO will vary depending on the topic and format of the article. While important, think of it as the icing on the cake rather than the driving force. Your optimization should be almost invisible to a standard reader! Action itemsMake notes in your one-page SEO plan template detailing:
Step 6: PromoteTo help your content lift off, you need to promote it. There is a social media aspect and an SEO and PPC conversation, which you should not ignore, but you must build links to see the content fly in the organic search results. The two main types of links here to consider are:
Dig deeper: Internal link building for an E-E-A-T-focused content strategy
This is where the importance of your strategy and the overall planning comes full circle. People don’t just link to anything for the sake of it. You must offer something new that ideally adds value to other people’s articles (statistics are big in this industry) so they will want to cite and link to your work. There are two tactics that I find helpful:
The link building tipping pointThe aim is to get this manually to a position where the article ranks and has a good enough hook to generate links automatically. Remember, to do this, you have to feature something inherently linkable like statistics. For a comprehensive review of link building today, I recommend reading “Modern link building starter guide” by fellow Search Engine Land contributor Kevin Rowe. Action itemsMake notes in your one-page SEO plan template to:
Measuring your resultsAs a final point, you need to measure your results. Beyond this planning for the SEO itself, I would also ensure you define your SEO goals (ideally following the “SMART” framework) and establish a list of SEO measurements or KPIs to ensure your results align with real-world business results. Failing to plan is planning to failSEO can be a complex topic. SEO for even a single site can be incredibly broad. To succeed, like any professional, you need a plan. This approach steps away from all of the technical aspects of SEO. It simplifies the planning of a single article so you can cover the strategy and execution of a highly-ranked article in a competitive niche. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/wYVMhSz Microsoft is reportedly using pop-up ads within Google Chrome to prompt users to switch their default search engine to Bing. Increasing numbers of Windows users have observed advertisements for Bing AI and Microsoft’s Bing search engine while browsing in Chrome. If users choose to accept these prompts, Microsoft automatically sets Bing as the new default search engine for Chrome instead of Google. Malware concerns. Users expressed concerns that the pop-up ads resembled malware, but Microsoft clarified that these prompts are legitimate and should only appear once. Caitlin Roulston, director of communications at Microsoft, highlighted the company’s motive behind serving the pop-up ad. She emphasized that Microsoft’s aim was to offer users the option to set Bing as their device’s default search engine, thus providing them with choice. Providing choice. Caitlin Roulston, Microsoft’s director of communicationst, explained that the tech giant was serving the pop-up ad to give users the choice to make Bing their device’s default search engine. She told The Verge:
Roulston also noted that the pop-up offers an added benefit for Windows users. Accepting it could provide them with extra chat turns in Copilot. Why we care. Offering users the choice to switch their default search engine could contribute to a fairer search market and provide advertisers with additional options for their ad spend However, if Microsoft aims to effectively encourage users to choose Bing as their default search engine, employing ads that don’t resemble malware would likely be more productive. What Microsoft is saying. Microsoft did not immediately respond to Search Engine Land’s request for comment. Why now? The introduction of pop-up ads aimed at facilitating the process of changing the default search engine for Windows users coincides with the ongoing Google antitrust trial. In this trial, Google stands accused of employing unfair tactics to maintain its position as the world’s leading search engine. Microsoft’s Chief Executive Officer, Satya Nadella, a key figure in the development of Bing, took the stand during the trial and told the court that individuals lack genuine options when it comes to selecting search engines. He said:
Nadella added that the only reason the tech giant decides to remain in the search field is because it wants to “make search more competitive” by running it like a “public utility.” Deep dive. Read our U.S. vs. Google antitrust trial updates guide for more information. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/4zJwQj9 Google is rolling out a change to the perspectives filter, renaming it from perspectives to forums. A Google spokesperson told Search Engine Land the word “forums” is a more intuitive name when seeking out that content. Google also told us that searchers can use this filter to hone in on results from hundreds of forums from across the web. More on perspectives. Google launched the perspectives filter on mobile search last June, where you can filter the search results to just that type of content. Searchers can filter their search results to show videos, blogs and forums. These results aim to show people a more “lived experience” to their search queries, Liz Reid, VP of Search at Google, told Search Engine Land at Google I/O. These searchers are able to see answers from people who are sharing their own personal perspectives and these answers are provided in a user interface that is more friendly and consumable to the younger searcher. What it looks like now. A few weeks ago I caught Google testing displaying “Forums” as a search filter in the search results. Here is that screenshot from Shameem Adhikarath: Here is the same query, but with the perspectives filter option: Why the change. Google said that it continues to invest in making it easier for searchers to find content that reflects people’s perspectives and first-hand experiences on Search. Google told us it is always looking at new ways to make it easier and more intuitive to find. Based on its data, Google found it is more intuitive for users to use filter by “forums” over “perspectives.” Google also said people can use this filter to hone in on results from hundreds of forums from across the web. Perspectives not going away. “Other types of content like short videos and UGC, which was previously included in “Perspectives”, will continue to be accessible for relevant queries as carousels, clusters and traditional web page listings on the search results page,” a Google spokesperson told us. Here is an example of such a perspectives box, but there are many variations: Why we care. The name change from “perspectives” to “forums” should make it more clear to searchers what to expect when filtering for those search results. Those users who want to see results in forums, now won’t be confused when they filter specifically by forums. If you run a forum or write a lot in Reddit or other forums, you may like this feature to find content within those types of websites. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/cBeUD0P Meta announced that CrowdTangle will be discontinued on Aug. 14, 2024, as the company shifts its focus toward developing new research tools. Until then, users can still access CrowdTangle and its Chrome Extension, with data updating in real-time. However, during this period, no new users can be added to accounts as the platform will be in maintenance mode. Why we care. Marketers and publishers who depend on CrowdTangle for trend analysis, post monitoring and analytics will need to seek alternative tools as the platform is being phased out. What’s changing? From Aug.14, 2024, access to CrowdTangle’s User Interface, API, Chrome Extension and Historical Data feature will be discontinued. API rate limits. The CrowdTangle API rate limits will stay the same until the tool is deprecated. Alternatives. Advertisers can still utilize Insights within Meta Business Suite (MBS) following the deprecation of CrowdTangle. Additionally, they have the option to collaborate with third-party providers that offer social listening capabilities built on top of Meta’s APIs. Why now? CrowdTangle faced accusations in 2021 of providing misleading data about Meta’s apps’ role in spreading divisive political content. A bot account on X, originally created by The New York Times journalist Kevin Roose, regularly highlighted the most popular Facebook posts based on data from Meta’s CrowdTangle platform. These posts often focused on right-wing spokespeople and Pages, making people think Facebook’s algorithms boosted such content. In response, Facebook disbanded the CrowdTangle team in July 2021 following a disagreement over the content displayed by the app. Despite expectations of the project’s end, CrowdTangle continued offering data insights to users. Since then, rumors have circulated about Meta planning to sunset the platform, and now, those rumors are confirmed. What Meta is saying. Meta said in a statement:
Deep dive. Read Meta’s announcement in full for more information. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/jUtfYzl Microsoft Advertising is piloting a new user interface for select users. The platform is yet to confirm a timeline of when the new UI will be rolled out to more users, however a spokesperson told Search Engine Land to expect more updates in the coming weeks. Navigation revamp. Microsoft Advertising’s new navigation layout is set up like the latest Google Ads interface, with two vertical menus on the left side of the screen. When you hover over the main menu, a second menu pops up nearby. This makes it quicker and easier to find what you’re looking for. It’s designed to be user-friendly and efficient, similar to how popular websites operate. Copilot update. In the top horizontal menu of Microsoft’s new interface, there’s an icon dedicated to its AI chat assistant, Copilot. Clicking on this icon opens a chat window on the right side of the screen. Additionally, Copilot is integrated into the search bar functionality. Interacting with Copilot through the search bar also triggers the opening of the chat window on the right. Why we care. Microsoft Advertising’s new UI resembles Google Ads’ interface – and that’s a positive change. By making its platform more similar to Google’s, Microsoft aims to reduce friction for users and improve usability, making it easier for marketers to switch between the two. What Microsoft is saying. A Microsoft spokesperson told Search Engine Land:
via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/hefCxzD As I write this, we’re in the first week of the March 2024 core and spam updates – and the aftermath has been savage. Sites with spam policy violations were hit with manual actions. Many SEOs are in a state of fear. This is just the beginning. SpamBrain is just getting started and it’s coming for your links. There are only so many ways to build linksLinks have been called the currency of the web for as long as I can remember and no matter what anyone tries to say, they still matter. Here’s a screenshot that shows the site-wide visibility after we just landed a single high-authority digital PR link for a client: The red mark is the day the link was earned and is the site-wide visibility tracker in Semrush. This client also seems to have done well with the Google update. The ways to build links are wide and varied, but essentially, it is limited to:
There are other ways, but you get the idea. There are only so many ways to do that. And then comes the economics of backlink building. It’s time-consuming, challenging and indeed full of disappointment. For the SEO industry, this is not good at all. And so, up popped link vendors – an entire multi-7-figure industry designed to tackle the link problem. Link vending essentially replaced the need for agencies and site owners to build links, which is the hard part of SEO. Google has been transparent on its views on link buying for some time: But unless you live under the naive rock of SEO, you’ll know this isn’t what happens. Take this DR 52 site selling guest post links for $40 a post: Or this DR 75 site selling guest posts for $75. I could list hundreds of websites selling links. Like many in SEO, we get link lists all the time. And that’s the modern state of link building. Buy niche edits or guest post links at a fee, charge the agencies more money and then the agencies charge the clients. This upward value chain has existed in the industry for as long as I can remember. And it is a huge issue for Google. Because paid links manipulate search rankings and reward websites with rankings, they should not have gained. But they have a solution. Enter the Terminator of black hat SEO. Enter SpamBrain: The nemesis of black hat SEOSpamBrain was launched in 2018 to deal with the ongoing issues of spam on the web. But aside from that, Google has been tight-lipped about the AI tool’s capabilities. However, it was so powerful that in 2018, it reduced spam by staggering levels. That was 2018 and SEOs need to realize that SpamBrain is a machine-learning platform that will only get stronger. And we saw SpamBrain flex its muscles again in 2022 with Google’s link spam update. As links were devalued, many sites went from having Page 1 rankings site-wide, to being on Page 2. Personally, I consulted with brands that were left scratching their heads. The reason was that Google launched their helpful content update at the same time and this has led to SEOs blaming content writers and content writers blaming links. We have ended up with a serious issue in the industry. But it’s a situation of the industry’s own making. March 2024 core and spam updates = The apocalypse update?As I’m writing this, an SEO has just reached out. Their client’s site has been wiped from the rankings. It’s not de-indexed, just all rankings are gone. They have been buying links. But how is SpamBrain doing this? How about we ask Gemini (known for telling a few pork pies)? There are a number of articles, discussions and opinions online that SpamBrain has been working hard to identify spam behavior in search consoles. Its primary purpose was to detect spam that could lead to fraud. The link spam side has only been a recent addition. What gets interesting is how Gemini describes how SpamBrains works to detect unnatural links: If all of the above is true, you can see why the March “Apocalypse update” is so powerful. Repetitive anchor text, low-quality link source, sudden influx of links, link network analysis, irrelevant content to the links. This is how humans can tell whether a link is paid or good vs. bad. Except this is machine learning. It never sleeps, it never rests, it never gives up. Is this the end of black hat SEO?If you follow me on Linkedin, you’ll know I’ve said the same thing for years. Stop. Buying. Links. And while it’s true that the latest update is based on a range of things, site reputation abuse is one of them. SEOs have jumped to assume that this update targets that emerging phrase called Parasite SEO. The act of trying to manipulate the rankings through publishing on a third-party site. Yes, this is part of it, but equally, so is the content on sites and their link networks. We know that guest blog sites are now dialing it in with AI. Add this to already junk content, and you have millions of websites that purely exist to manipulate search. And here comes the kicker – SpamBrain has access to every Search Console. It knows each and every site you have, and yes, it can quickly take them all down and devalue them. This means we could see the end of the black hat SEO era. Unchecked AI content and scale, plus link selling via guest post will be gone. So what does the future look like? Link costs just blew upIn a world with fewer ways to gain links, the value of the links just goes through the roof. That’s simple market economics. It also means that white hat link building will be back in fashion. I work for a digital PR and SEO agency. I see each day how a few quality media links earned can skyrocket rankings. The issue? They are getting harder to get. Less journalists and more spam emails mean that you have to have the best story to stand out. Digital PR will likely increase in price and value in this era. Google has come out and said that digital PR is not spam. Editorial content, syndicated content from news sites, press releases and editorial content where there is close review by the host site is fine. And this is what you should focus on. If SpamBrain can devalue your links, this will lead to a loss of rankings. So you just can’t afford to buy links any longer. It’s a recipe for long-term disaster. SpamBrain will only get stronger, and black hat SEOs should be sleeping with one eye open on their analytics. Because just when you think you’re beating Google, it is really beating you. via Search Engine Land https://ift.tt/dVPK9a1 |
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