πŸ” SEOFOMO's Latest in SEO [May 5th 2024]


May 5, 2024
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Today's SEOFOMO is dedicated to the memory of Mark Irvine, a respected paid search specialist, beloved member, and contributor to the community, who has recently passed away. Read more about him here.

My condolences to his family and friends. Rest in Peace, Mark.

πŸ—žοΈ Search Updates and News from Search Engines

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​Google: Helpful Content Update Recoveries May Take Much Longer Than Others
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Barry Schwartz / Google Search Q&A
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John Mueller responded to questions about why sites hurt by the September 2023 Google helpful content update have not recovered with the March 2024 Google core update now being complete.

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​Google SGE AI Overviews Has A New Title: AI Answer
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Barry Schwartz / Google Product Updates
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Google is now labeling the title of its SGE, "AI Answer." This replaces the titles "AI Overviews" and "Al overviews are experimental."

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​Google lays off hundreds of 'Core' employees, moves some positions to India and Mexico
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Jennifer Elias / Google Product Updates
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Google is laying off at least 200 employees from its "Core" organization, which includes key teams and engineering talent. As part of the unit's reorganization, the company will hire corresponding roles in Mexico and India.

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​Report: OpenAI To Launch Search Engine
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Barry Schwartz / OpenAI Product Updates
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OpenAI may launch its own search engine soon: β€œOpenAI is likely to announce a new search engine soon, revealed Jimmy Apples, stating that the company is looking to host an event this month, tentatively on May 9, 2024, at 10 a.m”.

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​OpenAI To Show Content & Links In Response To Queries
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Roger Montti / OpenAI Product Updates
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OpenAI content deal puts ChatGPT on the path to showing website content and links in response to user queries, which could be good news for publishers.

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​What's wrong with Search Engine market share data?​
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Natalia Witczyk / Search Industry Trends
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Natalia explains why you can't trust the latest statcounter search engine market share data showing a Google decrease. Statcounter is now showing a message saying they're currently reviewing it.

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​The United States Department of Justice has now posted its hundreds of slides from closing arguments - Here's a Summary [Thread]​
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Jason Kint / Search Industry Trends
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"If search defaults don’t matter, why pay approximately $30B, 40% of revenue to maintain them?"

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​Google Open To Alternative Ideas For Hreflang​​
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Barry Schwarts / Google Search Feedback
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Gary Illyes said he has heard from the SEO industry that hreflang can be "annoying" and complex, so he is open to ideas on how to replace it. Some SEOs have already started to share proposals like:

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​Google Spam Reporting Tool To Gain Site Reputation Abuse
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Barry Schwartz / Google Search Updates
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Danny Sullivan said that Google will add the upcoming site reputation abuse policy to the spam reporting tool when the policy begins to be enforced.

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​Reminder: The new Google Search spam policies about reputation abuse, take effect after May 5, 2024​

[Sponsor / Affiliate]​
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⚑ New from Wix: SEO resource center

This new addition to Wix’s 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 productivityβ€”on any project.

Each resource can be customized for specific tasks and shared with teammates and clients for more effective collaboration.

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πŸ™‹πŸ»β€β™€οΈ This week's Aleyda's SEO Take

The rollout of Google's March Core Update finished on April 19 and a few analyses have already been published by a few SEOs such as Dixon Jones, Glenn Gabe, Lily Ray, or Darth Autocrat, as well as requests such as the one of Marie Haynes, to do more to help the website owners impacted, like HouseFresh, an independent publication specialized on air quality that analyzes and reviews air purifiers.

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In the analysis of the drop of HouseFresh, Gisele Navarro went through a few of the affected SERPs, sharing that:
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"Broad pages with generic recommendations from big media sites have been pushed to the top, followed by Google Shopping product listings... it’s no longer just about Reddit and big media sites getting pushed to the top with sub-par content.
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Google’s intention to encourage you to buy directly from search results (a.k.a. β€˜meet your needs’) is evident, even in cases where you are just researching what’s out there."

With these additional shifts, Google is closer to becoming a product marketplace, further hurting independent review sites like HouseFresh, which is not only bad for these sites, but also hurts the diversity of the search experience users get.

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But what have you seen? What are the characteristics you've seen that are correlated to those sites decreasing in rankings? High reliance on ads / affiliate for monetization? Little or no branded searches? Poor quality content? Over-optimized content? Poor UX? Something else? Answer the latest SEOFOMO Poll now.​
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πŸ‘Œ This week's SEO Awesomeness

The Latest in Google Core Update Analysis and Guides

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​The State of Technical SEO Report 2024
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​Aira, Women In Tech SEO / Technical SEO
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The State of Technical SEO Report 2024 by Women in Tech SEO and Aira is here! Going through: AI and Machine Learning in Tech SEO tasks, the impact of Tech SEO, tools and platforms, and much more.

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​Harnessing ChatGPT for SEO Automation: A Beginner-Friendly Tutorial
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Roxana Stingu / SEO Automation
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Roxana explains how ChatGPT helps streamline workflows through automation, without the need for extensive coding knowledge.

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​Confirmation Bias β€” What People Are Really Searching for
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Sarah Presch / General SEO
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When people search online, psychology shows they're looking for info that confirms their existing beliefs. As SEOs, we need to be aware and take action.

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​The Trouble with JavaScript and News Sites
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Barry Adams / News SEO
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JavaScript is unavoidable on the modern web, but best used sparingly. Google says it indexes JavaScript, but the realities are a lot more complex. Barry goes through it in this guide.

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​IndexNow: When To Update Search Engines With Your Content Changes
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Fabrice Canel / Technical SEO
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Make sure search engines always have the latest version of your content with IndexNow Smart Content Change Notifications. Fabrice goes through scenarios to use it.

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​Why Big Companies Make Bad Content
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Ryan Law / Content Optimization
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Ryan shares 4 reasons why the bigger a company gets, the worse its content marketing becomes. β€œAs companies grow, they become more complicated, and writing good, relevant content becomes harder.”
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​Carving a Career in SEO β€” How NOT to Get Taken for a Ride
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Jo Turnbull / SEO Careers
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Starting a career in SEO can be a daunting experience, especially when there is no set career path. Jo shares how in this guide.
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​Influencer marketing & SEO: How they work together for evergreen campaigns
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Crystal Ortiz / General SEO
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Crystal shares how aligning influencer marketing and SEO facilitates better data and evergreen campaigns for superior ROI. Learn how here.

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​Digital & Disinformation: What the SEO Industry Can Do to Fight Manipulation
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Jamie Indigo / General SEO
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Manipulation and disinformation in search exist – and SEO professionals play a crucial role in fighting them. Jamie shares a few ways to fight disinformation.

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​​See more SEO Conversations in the SEOFOMO Forum​

[Sponsor / Giveaway]​
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πŸ›  Free(mium) SEO Tools

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​Botpresso SEO Extension: Audit On-Page & Technical SEO [Chrome Extension]
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Botpresso
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A new Chrome SEO extension with features like advanced heading management, disabling/enabling JavaScript, image optimization status and more.

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​Meta AI SEO Tool
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WordLift
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This free app analyzes a query a user might ask Meta AI and provides insights on how to optimize it.

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​SERP similarity checker v1
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Candour
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Quickly check how many URLs are common between two Google SERPs for any specified TLD with this free script.

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Looking for more SEO Tools? Take a look at the SEOFOMO SEO Toolbox​

πŸŽ™οΈ Upcoming SEO Events

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​LondonSEO XL 2024 SEO Conference
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​Blue Array / London, UK / June 13, 2024
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A new edition of the LondonSEO XL event is here with insightful talks related to SEO, neurodiversity, GA4, Google Trends, and more. Buy tickets with a 20% discount by using the code "Aleyda20" when checking out.
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​Do you want to win a free ticket to LondonSEO XL on June 13th in London? Participate in this giveaway on LinkedIn.

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​​SEO Vibes Dublin
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​WhitePress / Dublin, Ireland / June 19, 2024
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A new edition of SEO Vibes on Tour, this time in Dublin, covering AI, the Helpful Content Update, and more.

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​Zagreb SEO Summit: The SEO Conference
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Zagreb SEO Summit / Zagreb, Croatia / June 20 - 21, 2024
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Join insightful talks from expert speakers about Google Core Updates, Reddit cataclysms, the AI-pocalypse, and more.

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​Edge Of Search 2024
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Firewire / Newcastle, Australia / September 26, 2024
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Learn from expert perspectives, cutting-edge strategies, and behind-the-scenes case studies that will revolutionize your approach, not just to SEO, but to digital marketing as a whole.

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​See more upcoming SEO events in the new SEOFOMO Hub Events Section!​

πŸ™Œ SEOs and Digital Marketers to Follow

This week I recommend you to start following Portent free agents, a group of experienced digital marketing specialists -SEOs, Paid Search and Social, Content, Business Dev, and more- now open for work after the digital marketing agency, Portent, closed down.

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​Take a look at Portent free agents here. Follow them on LinkedIn, refer them to relevant jobs and if you're hiring, get in touch with them for an interview!​

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Expect more awesome SEOs & digital marketers to follow every week. Do you have any suggestions? Just let me know over here!​

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πŸ’™ Refer SEOFOMO to your SEO Friends and Win Rewards

If you enjoy reading SEOFOMO, refer it to your SEO and digital marketing friends and win awesome (now updated) prizes with the SEOFOMO rewards program:

* 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

[RH_REFLINK GOES HERE]

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Thanks for reading, until next week!

Aleyda Solis, SEO Consultant & Founder
​Follow me on ​X/Twitter​ / ​YouTube​ / ​LinkedIn​ / ​Website​

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