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🗞️ Search Updates and News from Search Engines

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​Google Offers Advice For Those Affected By HCU​
​Roger Montti / Google Search Q&A​
​How can content creators and website owners diagnose pages that have lost rankings due to the Helpful Content System (HCU)? Google has shared a few resources.

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​Google Tests SGE AI Overviews In The Wild (Subset Of US Users)​
​Barry Schwartz / Google Search Updates​
​Google began testing SGE-based AI overviews in Google search results for users who hadn't opted-in for them, and some have asked about how they can turn them off in Google Search Community Forums.

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​Google still has not announced a launch date for SGE​
​Barry Schwartz / Google Search Updates​
​Some rumors are circulating that Google may launch SGE on May 14, during the Google I/O keynote address while Google’s CEO Sundar Pichai is on stage.

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​Google announces personalized Shopping options with New Google experiences​
​Sean Scott / Google Search Updates​
​Google announced new features for a personalized shopping experience in its search results: Rate styles to discover more of what you like, specify what brands you like, generate images for photorealistic images that match your vision, and a virtual try-on.

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​Google shares tools to facilitate users' travel experience​
​Emmanuel Marot / Google Search Updates
​Google shares six ways their tools can help you prepare for your next trip: Get trip ideas with generative AI in Search, find lists of recommendations in Maps, curate your travel wardrobe with Search, and more.

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​Google Explains Why Images Are Gone From Some SERPs​
​Roger Montti / Google Search Q&A
​Google's John Mueller offers an explanation for why some image thumbnails have disappeared from the search results.

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​Deciphering INP and Core Web Vitals
​Google Search Central / Search off the Record
​In this episode of Search Off the Record, John Mueller and Lizzi Sassman are joined by Rick Viscomi to discuss Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), and the latest Interaction to Next Paint (INP) as pieces of the pie for a better user experience.

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​OpenAI is making links more prominent when ChatGPT browses the internet
​​OpenAI / OpenAI Product Update
​OpenAI has announced on X that they are making links more prominent when ChatGPT browses the internet. “This gives more context to its responses and makes it easier for users to discover content from publishers and creators”

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🙋🏻‍♀️ This week's Aleyda's SEO Take

As soon as Google began testing the SGE with users who hadn't opted-in for them, a few started to ask how they could turn them off in Google Search Community Forums (you can do it as described here).

The test with random users now feels rushed and you can't help but wonder if it has to do with the rumors that Google may launch SGE on May 14, during the Google I/O, and need more data and feedback for refinements fast.

This "open" SGE test, along with this week's announcement of new features for a personalized shopping experience, showing Google's continuous interest in establishing itself as an Amazon competitor and not being scared of customizing its commercial related SERPs to directly fulfill users' shopping search journeys, referring visitors once they're ready to convert to the final product, is making me further prioritize with ecommerce clients produce pages optimization.

When I started testing Google's SGE I shared how in ecommerce unlike what happened for many localized and informational queries for which the SGE snapshot provided a duplicative and summarizing experience (that made it useless or not satisfying for users' search needs) the impact for online stores would tend to be bigger, since a high share of products commercial queries attracted by PLPs would be shifted to PDPs.

I expect this to be the case for ecommerce because:

• Google SGE Snapshots replicate PLPs: Google is generating a Product Listing Page like experience in the SGE snapshot directly featuring clickable products that will show their product knowledge panel with retailers selling them. No need to go to the listing product pages ranked in the traditional search results.
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• Google "refers" top-mid of the funnel users to the bottom with carousel snapshots: Google is also featuring a carousel SGE Snapshot for broader ecommerce commercial queries. When clicking on the bigger image in a carousel slot, it takes you to a new "more granular" snapshot with products matching this characteristic. Products listed in this new snapshot are clickable and will show the product knowledge panel, with retailers selling them again. No need to go to the ranked PLPs below anymore in this other case either.

What can an ecommerce do when Google's SGE -if released as it's being tested at the moment- might make PLPs, which are some of their top pages attracting a high share of non-branded organic search traffic unnecessary?

The first obvious step is prioritizing the optimization of your PDPs further since it's the page type where most of these users will be now referred instead of PLPs and the one that will need to compete for inclusion in the product knowledge panels triggered by the SGE vs many other competitors.

So if you're an ecommerce: it's time to take your PDPs to the next level! To help you out, I've created an Ecommerce Product Page Optimization Checklist and an Ecommerce Product Page SEO Validator GPT.

👌 This week's SEO Awesomeness

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​There Is No Spoon: What Does ‘Do What’s Best For Users’ Even Mean?
​Kevin Indig / Search Trends
​Chasing algorithms vs. prioritizing user satisfaction – which matters in SEO? Dive into the debate on SEO priorities in this insightful post.

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​Google’s Helpful Content Update & Ranking System: What Happened and What Changed in 2024?
​Lily Ray, Silvia Gituto / Search Trends
​Learn how Google's Helpful Content updates affect site rankings and content quality, impacting diverse categories.

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​How To Future-Proof Your Content From Google AI Core Updates
​Emilia Gjorgjevska, Valentina Izzo / Content Optimization
​Learn about the implications of the Google Core March Update 2024 and uncover strategies for content creators to not only adapt but thrive in this new sector.

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​How To Stand Out in an Ocean of AI Content
​Ryan Law / Content Optimization
​Most content today is arbitrage, simply moving information from one place to another. Ryan explains how we can add unique value to the content beyond AI.

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​A Comprehensive On-Page SEO Checklist for 2024
​Joshua Hardwick / Content Optimization
​Follow this checklist to avoid forgetting about key optimization areas and configurations.

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​EEAT in the real world: Let’s talk requirements, effort, and outcome [Video]
​Cindy Krum / Content Optimization
​Cindy goes through EEAT: what is it, why is it important, and how does it relate to the quality signals.

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​E-E-A-T before it was cool (How an Ecommerce Provides Helpful Content) [Presentation]
​Linda Hogenes / Content Optimization
​Linda goes through all the ways Coolblue has provided the most helpful content experience to potential customers over the years, to inspire you to take your content and overall Web experience to the next level.

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​The Future of E-commerce SEO [Presentation]​
​Chloe Russell / Ecommerce SEO
​Emma goes through consumer trends and intentions for 2024, as well as how you should align your ecommerce SEO to tackle them.

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​Mastering Off-Page SEO for long-term success: Strategies that work [Presentation]
​Alexandra Tachalova / Link Building
​Alex shares core principles and steps to build scalable links today.

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​Managing decentralized marketing for international SEO
​Heba Said / International SEO
​Learn the key differences between a centralized versus decentralized strategy when doing International SEO, the different challenges and criteria to take into account.

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​Real-World JavaScript SEO Problems - A Webinar [Video]
​Sam Torres, Arnout Hellemans, Aleyda Solis, Patrick Hathaway / Technical SEO
​Learn about common JavaScript optimization issues, when to recommend server-side rendering, steps and tools for troubleshooting, and more.

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​SEO agency pricing blueprint: Define your pricing and protect your margins
​Ray Martinez / SEO Consulting
​Learn how to define your SEO agency pricing model to protect your profit margins. Explore strategies, pricing models, and client communication tips with this guide from Ray.

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​​See more SEO Conversations in the SEOFOMO Forum​

💸 Latest SEO Jobs

• ​Technical SEO Director at Locomotive​
• ​Manager, SEO (CPG Client) at Spark Foundry​
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• ​Technical SEO Strategist at Ferguson​
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• ​SEO Editor, The Strategist at Vox Media​
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Do you want your SEO job to be featured here for free? Just send it over here!​

🛠 Free(mium) SEO Tools

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​A bookmarklet to check any page for Hreflang​
​Gerry White
​Pull out the Hreflang from any page using this bookmarklet.

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​Every AI SEO Tool Mentioned At Pubcon Vegas 2024
​Andrew Shotland
​AI was the big theme at this year’s Pubcon Vegas conference. Andrew shares the list of all the AI SEO tools mentioned at this year’s event.

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Looking for more SEO Tools? Take a look at the recently launched SEOFOMO SEO Toolbox!

🎙️ Upcoming SEO Events

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​AI Content Strategy: How to Multiply a Single Idea into Exponential Content Opportunities
​SEMpdx / Portland, USA / April 9, 2024
​Learn how to maximize your efficiencies in content production by brainstorming with Lauren Teague.

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​Search Barcelona: International SEO, SCE, and Social SEO​
​Jo Turnbull / Barcelona, Spain / May 10, 2024
​The third edition of Search Barcelona is here. Dedicated to international SEO, SGE, and social SEO.

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​SEO Estonia 2024
​SEO Estonia / Tallinn, Estonia / June 12 - 14, 2024
​Join experienced SEOs from all over the world for three days of masterminds and world-class speakers.

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

🙌 SEOs & Digital Marketers to Follow

Let's follow these amazing SEOs who have recently started a newsletter I recommend you to subscribe:

• Yagmur Simsek (Twitter/X, LinkedIn), author of Search'n Digest​
• Mark Williams-Cook (Twitter/X, LinkedIn) author of Core Updates​
• Cyrus Shepard (Twitter/X, LinkedIn) author of SEO Tips Newsletter​
• Mark Rofe (Twitter/X, LinkedIn) author of Digital PR Tips Newsletter​
• Nicole DeLeon (Twitter/X, LinkedIn) author of Content Caffeine​

Expect more awesome SEOs & digital marketers to follow every week. Do you have any suggestions? Please let me know over X/Twitter, Threads, or LinkedIn.

👀 Do you have Feedback?

I'm always looking for feedback to improve SEOFOMO! What would you like to see more or less of in the newsletter?

Just reply to this email and let mw know. If I end up implementing the change you recommend, I'll do a 30-min 1:1 hang-out call with you. Until next week!

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