✍️

​Google may use the og title as a source for your title on the SERPs. OG data is seen when content is shared on social media. It is customisable on most CMS platforms so may be worth including in your future content audits.

🧑‍⚖️

​Yelp has sued Google regarding their "monopoly of local search". This is another in a long list of lawsuits Google has been hit with regarding its monopolistic status across the various niches in search.

📈

​You can now include/exclude dimensions in your report charts in GA4. This is a welcome addition that allows users to simplify and narrow down charts to important information. And yes, you could previously do this on UA.

🖼️

​Google now supports AVIF in Google Search. AVIF is an increasingly popular image format and is already supported by many platforms including WordPress and Cloudflare.

📉

​Not even 22 million links will save you from a core update. This contrasts the belief by many SEOs that links are the answer in fighting the negative impact of core updates (the Google kind, not this newsletter).

💎

​Gemini Advanced subscribers can now create AI-powered topic experts called Custom Gems. Despite Google's insistence on expertise and first-hand experience, you can create GEMs for career advice, coding and more.

🧑‍💻

​Google has updated its documentation for Organization structured data. The updates include how schema can influence knowledge panels and how to disambiguate your organisation from others by using the right properties.

📱

​Some Android users are receiving notifications to 'Choose your search engine'. While this is very unlikely to be caused by the recent Google antitrust trial loss, it could be an omen of the future if Google loses its appeal.

🍪

​Google has launched Tag Diagnostics and a new consent management platform. Tag Diagnostics can help resolve issues in GA4, GTM and Google Ads while the CMP relates to cookie management and data privacy.

🎞️

​Google has clarified that a YouTube video and the same content published as text aren't considered duplicates. Martin Splitt noted that some users prefer one format over the other so having both is beneficial, not detrimental.

🌟Win a free year of AlsoAsked Pro🌟

The newest AlsoAsked feature is the brilliant new Timeline.
This feature lets you monitor search intent shift which is when and by how much the People Also Ask questions for a query change.

Changes in PAA questions show that users are asking new and different questions about the query. Some queries are more volatile than others so it's definitely worth keeping an eye on how the SERPs are changing over time.

⬇️All you have to do to enter is repost the LinkedIn post or Tweet below ⬇️

The cost of migrations

How much does the SEO input on a site migration cost? I was asked the question of how you charge for a site migration at the last SearchNorwich - and I think there are some key points to consider:
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💸 SEO migrations are primarily a risk mitigation exercise. It's not worth investing more money into the migration than you'd lose if everything went horribly wrong.
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📊 We have a whole process for sites to try and estimate the "value at stake" - that is, the value of the traffic you could reasonably lose if the migration was botched. The cost of all migration efforts should be significantly below this figure.
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Here are just a few of the key things we consider in these reports:
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1️⃣ The type(s) of migration: e.g. platform, URL, domain, design, are all types of migration that carry their own risks.
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2️⃣ Brand/non-brand organic traffic split: Brand traffic is (normally) fairly safe. So if a site for instance had 90% branded traffic, it would very likely be a much lower risk than a site that relied on 90% unbranded traffic.
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3️⃣ Traffic and link distribution: If 80% of the traffic arrives on 3 pages, you're likely to have a very simple migration. If 80% of the traffic is split evenly over 30,000 pages, things can be a lot more complex and risky.
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There's a lot more in-depth analysis we do, even going as far as comparing old and new sites, and architecture to calculate the risk - but these are 3 really important things to consider!

How search intent shifts over time

Search intent shift is when what (on average) users want from a query changes. ⌨
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👀 Google monitors user satisfaction with results, so understanding when search intent changes can be a great instigator for updating your content.
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🎉 In a MASSIVE update, that I am confident ChatGPT will describe as "game changing" - AlsoAsked now has a beta Timeline feature, allowing you to do exactly this.
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📈 Lots more updates and features are planned for Timeline in the following months, and it's available to all Lite and Pro users.
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​I made a short video demonstrating it!​

Should you follow Google best practise?

I’ve seen 2 posts in the last 24 hours telling you “the worst SEO advice you can have is to follow Google best practise” and another saying “it’s not worth listening to anything the Search Relations team tell you, they never tell you anything about how search works” - and in my opinion that’s awful advice for a whole bunch of reasons ⬇

1️⃣ Best practise are your axioms and your foundation. It’s how things work in context to search engines. Nobody is claiming that just best practise is going to get you to the top of the SERPs, even today I saw a Search Engine Journal piece by Roger Montti that said: “Google’s John Mueller observed that sometimes best practices have minimal effect on search visibility”.

2️⃣ Let’s say you’ve found something that directly contravenes Google’s guidelines (so is “blackhat”) and works really well. Or you’ve seen a competitor doing something against Google’s guidelines that does well. This tactic will work forever - as long as technological progress halts and Google never gets any better… Which of course, it does. I’ve seen so many of these over the last 20 years, and as Lily Ray and I often joke, “It works great. Until it doesn’t”. Then you’re picking up the pieces / giving SEO a bad name.

3️⃣ “Googlers never tell you anything about how search works”. I’ve lost count of the useful things, primarily John Mueller and Martin Splitt have told me, even the chief of sunshine and happiness Gary Illyes helped me the other week confirming Google has a binary trust flag for things like lastmod dates. It’s all helpful stuff that extends my knowledge of search and SEO.

4️⃣ “Googlers work for Google, their job is to prevent manipulation of search results, they won’t tell you everything”. Well, duh? I don’t understand why anyone would have ever thought any differently. Of course they have restrictions and obligations to their employer - part of your job as a good SEO is to know what questions to ask, and how to interpret the answers. Even if they can’t answer, you’re not in a worse position than you started.

5️⃣ “Googlers just lie to us”. In context to the above, Googlers in my experience are very careful and specific with the wording of answers. Especially when it comes to things used “in ranking” and perhaps other parts of Google. Some of that may be intentional, some maybe we don’t understand enough about what we are asking questions about - but again, I personally work hard to see how what I am told fits in with everything. There are also definite clear answers - “Google doesn’t use GA data in ranking”, yet people still contest them.

6️⃣ To give an analogy, Google will teach you the rules of chess - but there’s a big difference between learning the rules and being a good chess player. Some people tell you to ignore the rules and cheat, take some pieces off the board when nobody is looking - but you’ll eventually get caught.

7️⃣ Be cool to each other 😎

There are nine sources for your title link on SERPs

In Google’s quest to generate the best possible title link on a SERP, they actually use 🌟NINE🌟 potential sources to write your title link:

1. Content in elements
2. Main visual title shown on the page
3. Heading elements, such as <h1> elements
4. Content in og:title meta tags
5. Other content that’s large and prominent through the use of style treatments
6. Other text contained in the page
7. Anchor text on the page
8. Text within links that point to the page
9. WebSite structured data

Keep an eye on your brand's People Also Ask results

It is vital that you monitor your brand questions in Google's People Also Ask results. These questions are being broadcast to people the first time they hear about you and it can be devastating (or great!).
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👩‍💻 "What is the [brand name] scandal?" - is not going to give the best first impression of you brand
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🤔 "Is [brand] legit?" - isn't filling people with the confidence to buy from your ecommerce website.
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💪 "Why is [your brand] better than [competitor]" - Now we're getting somewhere!
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🔥 "Why are [your brand] the best for [task]" - Elite tier 😎
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​I made a short video on how you check, monitor and consider your brand questions with AlsoAsked and the Timeline feature too!

Top Core Updates referrer leaderboard

A big thank you to our top referrers, who have signed up over 10 people to the Core Updates newsletter, go follow them!

🥇 MJ Cachón Yáñez (LinkedIn / X)

🥈 Nikki Pilkington (LinkedIn / X)

🥉 Lidia Infante (LinkedIn / X)

Thanks to Jack this week (again)

Jack kindly did this week's newsletter, isn't he smashing? It's honestly making me a bit lazy, but he's doing a fantastic job. We still want to know what's in your head, because we cannot divine it. If you hit reply and give me some of your thoughts, I will read them.

~Mark Williams-Cook