Here is a recap of what happened in the search forums today, through the eyes of the Search Engine Roundtable and other search forums on the web.
Google says again, but more strongly, that links are much less important to the overall Google Search ranking algorithm than it once was. Google said they have algorithms to detect and demote AI-generated plagiarized content. Google does not crawl or index shorter, more niche content faster or better. Google said a page's content does not need to be indexed for the URL to be in the index. Google said HTTP/3 wouldn't help you rank better in Google.
Search Engine Roundtable Stories:
- Google: Links Have A Lot Less Significant Impact For Ranking Today
Duy Nguyen from Google's search quality team said in the Google office hours video that "backlinks as a signal has a lot less significant impact compared to when Google Search first started out many years ago." - Google: We Have Algorithms To Detect & Demote AI Plagiarized Content
Duy Nguyen from Google's search quality team said in the Google office hours video that Google has "algorithms to go after" those who post AI plagiarized content, he the algorithms can "demote site scraping content from other sites." - Google: We Do Not Crawl & Index Niche Shorter Content More Or Better
In the last Google office hours, Gary Illyes said that Google is not more likely to crawl or index shorter or more niche content better or worse than other forms of content. Just because the content is shorter and potentially cheaper to crawl, it doesn't mean Google will index that content faster or any better than longer content. - Google: A Page's Content Does Not Need To Be Indexed For That Page To Be Indexed
Here is a good one-liner from Google's John Mueller on the technicalities of the Google index. John said on Twitter "A page's content doesn't need to be indexed for a page to be indexed." - Google: HTTP/3 Likely Won't Help Your SEO
Google's John Mueller said on the last Google office hours that using HTTP/3 for your server will likely not have any impact on your SEO or rankings in Google Search. He said it also would not likely lead to much or any gains in terms of your core web vitals scores. - Google Has An Indoor Merry-Go-Round
Here is a photo of a merry-go-round, the one you'd find in a children's playground, inside the GooglePlex, the main Google headquarters in Mountain View, California.
Other Great Search Threads:
- Should we be doing a more regular alerting of behavior to avoid?, John Mueller on Mastodon
- Amazon Alexa is a "colossal failure" reports Ars Technica, WebmasterWorld
- Developing E.A.T. on a previously owned domain, WebmasterWorld
- I'm not aware of any practical difference in meaning between "fetching a page" or "crawling a page"., John Mueller on Twitter
- There's no state kept in (Google's) crawling or fetching, it's just a queue of GET requests. The only time some sort of "state" is used is when fetching the content needed to ren, John Mueller on Twitter
Search Engine Land Stories:
- How to create long-form content that ranks, gets read and converts
- Doorway pages: An SEO deep dive
- How to improve E-A-T for websites and entities
Other Great Search Stories:
Analytics
- Data Lakes & Data Warehouses: Why Your Company Needs Both, Cypress North
- Setting Marketing KPIs & Goals (w/ Kristina Simonson, Privy), Databox Blog
Industry & Business
Links & Content Marketing
- 3 Key Elements to Creating Link Bait, Rank Ranger
- How To Repurpose Video Content for Bigger and Better Results, Content Marketing Institute
Local & Maps
- How to Edit Your Google Business Profile, BrightLocal
- Local Pack Header Specificity Vanishes while Local Packs Downtrend, Moz
- Go for a festive drive with Santa and Mrs. Claus, Google Blog
Mobile & Voice
- Google Maps voice search breaking for CarPlay and Android Auto, 9to5Google
- Google Teases Major App Update Aimed at Android Auto Users, AutoEvolution
SEO
- 10 On-page optimization tips for multilingual websites, Oncrawl
- 10 tips for enterprise SEO success, Wix SEO Hub
- Curing crawling chaos, YouTube
- SEO traffic shows FTX never stood a chance, Kevin Indig
- The Complete Guide to Mobile SEO - 8 Tips & Best Practices, Semrush
PPC
- 10 Ways Machine Learning Can Transform Your Business, PPC Hero
- How to Use PPC to Generate Bathroom Remodeling Leads?, PPC Expo
Other Search
- Better Language Models Without Massive Compute, Google AI Blog
- Googling abortion? Your details aren’t as private as you think, The Guardian
Feedback:
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