SEO e-Newsletter Issue 55 – 2022.04.16~2022.04.30

[News] Multiple web results in featured snippets

Since mid-April, many SEOs have reported that they saw "From the web" and "Other sites say"Two new presentation methods.

Unlike in the past, where only one company had this position, the new featured snippets can contain the content of 4 to 5 web pages, and appear on desktop andMobile search in. If GSC’sranking calculationmethod, these web pages should all be counted as the "first place" results.

link:SER report

[Official] Does automatically generating content violate Google policy?

Machine-produced content is definitely an important aspect of Google and SEO in the next two to three years. John Mueller said in a recentis under official QAreplied that the content of the machine is spam and violates Google's policy. Despite the affirmative tone, in official documents it was noted that the original violation of regulations "automatically generated content" was followed by the sentence "...intended to manipulate search ranking」。

was previously inIssue 44 Gary's statement inis also worth reference. He believes that if the content produced by machines has not been reviewed by humans, Google does not want it to appear in searches. Digital Engine has covered many machine production contents in the past, including how to38 seconds to produce an articleandSearch for homogeneity.

Personally, I think this is a rapidly emerging technology, so it doesn't make much sense to pursue Google's standards. Regardless of the production method, what really matters is whether the content is valuable to the reader. An article written by a real person with reference to the top three SERPs is not necessarily any better than the content produced by AI.

link:iThome report / SEL report

[News] GSC issues intrusive interstitials improvement notice

Recently, a webmaster received a notification from Google Search Console stating that the website hasintrusive cover advertising (intrusive interstitials) The problem withshould be improved as soon as possible.

It is mentioned in the official documents that reasonable covers such as legal notices or login modules are not subject to this restriction, but in fact it is not clear how Google determines this. Intrusive advertising isweb experience A ranking factor in, with this notification, webmasters can be more confident about whether the cover on their site is negatively impacting it.

link:Official Guide / SER report

[Official] Google 2021 Webspam Report

The Webspam Report is a report that is released in March and April every year. It does not have many action items, but it can review various updates that have occurred over the past year. A new term appears in this report - "SpamBrain", which uses machine learning to combat online spam. SpamBrain was launched in 2018 and continues to be optimized. Compared with the previous year (2020), it caught nearly six times as many spam websites.

In the announcement, Google said that the three key points in 2021 are: (1.) "Launched in July last year,Link Spam Update”, more effectively identify unnatural links; (2.) Reduce 40% of fraudulent results appearing in searches; (3.) ProvidePersonal content removal requestto reduce online harassment.

Another interesting point is that Google changed the "Product review algorithm update” was also included in the report of “webspam”, believing that they have greatly improved the phenomenon that the original search results were full of “only rewritten product descriptions and insincere actual reviews”.

link:2020 report / 2019 report / 2018 report / 2017 report

[News] Google Merchant “Trusted Store” Badge

Google Shopping has launched a "shopping experience" scoring mechanism to make merchants that provide a good shopping experience more likely to be noticed by users, including a "Trusted Store" badge, improved rankings in shopping searches, etc.

The calculation of this score is mainly based on four indicators, delivery time, freight, return time, and return cost. Each indicator will be scored as "excellent", "high quality" or "opportunity for improvement". Currently it only applies to merchants on Google Shopping in the United States.

Google ShoppingSince it became a free platform last year, it has also launched price tracking, price comparison and other functions. E-commerce websites in particular deserve extra attention to this development.

link:Official article / SEL Report - Trusted Store / Official Document: Shopping Experience Scoreboard

[Good Article] How to write good content by Ahrefs

Please don’t skip it when you see this title! If not the author (Patrick Stox) is a SEO senior that I admire. I may have skipped it, but after reading it, I sincerely recommend it. Every sentence speaks to my heart about content SEO.

this articleIt mainly talks about (1.) How to use Ahrefs to do content research and measure effectiveness. Even if you don’t have an Ahrefs account, the concepts and directions are still worth learning from. and (2.) What is a good content? The author believes that a good content is difficult to be completed by just one person.Articles written by SEOs tend to lack depth and readability; articles written by experts are difficult to understand and have no keywords; articles written by handwriting are easy to read but tend to lack depth and keywords....etc.

In addition, there are some practical tips in the article. For example, when searching in general, you can add-domain.comLet’s see what the next featured snippet candidates look like, and research Google’s preferences as a direction when writing.

I highly recommend everyone take the time to read this! The content audit flowchart attached at the end of the original article is also quite good, so I’ll leave it to you to read by yourself~

[Good article] Five ways to use Wayback Machine

Wayback MachinepastMentionedMany times, but without a good introduction to its practical application methods, this article provides five things that wayback machine can help SEO accomplish, including (1.) finding the old URL on the website, (2.) observing the past content of the same URL, (3.) seeing whether the restrictions in robots.txt have changed, (4.) observing changes in the opponent's website, and (5.) observing the update of the content of the opponent's web page.

Wayback Machine is a tool I like very much. I can often use it to discover the unknown dark history of some websites. I often show it to colleagues and get amazed. I highly recommend everyone to try it!

link:Wayback Machine website Five ways to use the / Wayback Machine

[Interesting Facts] MullerBot simulates John’s answering questions

Some foreign netizens used GPT-3 to create a simulator for John Mueller to encounter SEO problems. You only need to copy thisGoogle Sheet, enter your question, MullerBot will produce a paragraph that is very similar to what John himself would say, very interesting!

If an error occurs in this tool, it may be that the API usage exceeds the upper limit. You can go toOpenAIRegister a free account to get the API key and then come back to play. Digital Engine has also introduced it in the pastUse GPT-3 to quickly create metadata, if you are interested in this, you can alsoOpenAI test areaPlay with it and see.

link:Twitter thread / Article explanation

[Video] How to use WordPress plug-in Site Kit

"Site Kit" is a free WordPress plug-in launched by the Google search team in 2019. It is a tool that allows webmasters to integrate their websites with other Google platforms (GA, AdSense, GSC...).

This video talks about the four steps of website management from the perspective of small and medium-sized enterprises: (1.) Define goals and convert them into trackable website indicators, (2.) Find appropriate tools, (3.) Set benchmarks and analysis, (4.) Take action. Then look at how Site Kit can help.

Site Kit This product has not received much attention, but the information integration of GA and GSC is quite practical for small websites with simple goals. In addition, the new function "Idea Hub" debuted in this video for the first time. The data used comes from the data introduced in the past.Question Hub, provides topic suggestions for content writing.

*Note: Currently Site Kit has not been integrated with GA4, but this has been Blueprint fordevelopmentin.

link:Site Kit download page / Site Kit official website / SER reports Idea Hub

[Abstract] Google Search Podcast – The Story of Kenichi Suzuki

This episode invitesKenichi Suzuki(Suzuki Kenichi), he is a senior member of the Japanese Google Webmaster Forum and has been in the SEO circle for nearly 20 years. In this episode, Gary and Lizzy interview him about his story. I have chatted with him a few times at several events, and he is a very typical polite Japanese person. He has one related to SEOJapanese websiteis also very active on Twitter. If you understand Japanese, you will get a lot of first-hand information by following him.

This episode can be listened to as a casual interview. The only interesting information is about Google searching for non-English versions of official documents. Since the translation is not done by a professional technical writer like Lizzi, the speed and quality of the translation need to be improved. I myself often frown when looking up official translations (ex:clipped content), so it is recommended that if you are confused, you should first read the English version.

Another point is that Gary said that Japan is one of the key countries for Google search, so many SERP features will come to Japan after being launched in the United States. To add some trivia, there is also Takeaki Kanaya in Japan, a character similar to John Mueller. He is very senior in the Google search team, and he usually works on Answer SEO related questions onYouTube.

link:verbatim draft