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Core Updates SEO Newsletter

The Core Updates newsletter is written by Mark Williams-Cook, a veteran SEO who is Digital Marketing Director at Candour, Founder of AlsoAsked and organiser of SearchNorwich. Over 40,000 SEOs follow Mark's 'Unsolicited #SEO tips' on LinkedIn, which has now been wrapped up into the Core Updates newsletter, along with an overview of weekly news and the current episode of the Search with Candour episode, hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward.

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πŸ›οΈ Core Updates: Google Core Update incoming and Goo.gl is dying [22 July]

SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward SEO updates you need to know πŸ“… A new Google Core Update is expected soon, with Google's Search Liaison Danny Sullivan saying: "I would expect we'll see one in the coming weeks, because that fits in with our general cycle." πŸ“Š SEMrush has launched a new filter that is tracking features such as Buying Guides, Things to Know, Discussions and Forums, Datasets and more, with data populating from 4th July. 🌎...

SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward SEO updates you need to know πŸ–ΌοΈ Google has added support for image metadata to label images as AI-manipulated or extended. The documentation has also taken the "AI-generated" label out of Beta, rolling out full support. 🌎 Country-specific SERP labels have been tested in Search. In the example discovered, the South African flag and "South African" appeared to the right of the title in the SERP. It is...

SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward SEO updates you need to know ⏳ Google Search Console data experienced significant delays that are now resolved. Many users reported no clicks or impressions from 29 June - 3 July with delays of more than 100 hours. 0️⃣ Nearly 60% of Google searches end without a click in 2024, according to a study by SparkToro. The study also found the introduction of AI Overviews coincided with a drop in mobile...

SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward SEO updates you need to know πŸ“œ Google has dropped continuous scroll from search results. This has already taken effect on desktop and mobile will follow in the next few weeks. Back to the traditional paginated results! πŸŒ‡ Starting 1 July 2024, (that's today, by the way), you will lose access to Universal Analytics data in the interface, the API, and via any product integrations. To maintain access to...

SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward SEO updates you need to know 🎰 The June 2024 spam update began rolling out on 20th June. According to Google, the update should take 1 week to complete, but this will be confirmed on the Search Status Dashboard. 🏒 Google is now using AI to generate business overviews within Google Business Profile (GBP) listings. These descriptions are new as they do not offer citations for the descriptions generated....

SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward SEO updates you need to know πŸ›οΈ Merchant listings performance is a new report within Google Search Console that was launched last week. You can view the merchant listings performance in the Google Search Image tab. πŸ“Š An 'unconfirmed' update by Google caused significant ranking fluctuations and volatility over the weekend. It has followed a pattern of volatility over the weeks, with AccuRanker's...

SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward SEO updates you need to know 🎫 White-labeled coupon sites can be against Google's site reputation abuse policy. Google updated their FAQ to specifically mention this kind of site in their 'what creators should know about March 2024 core update' post. πŸ‘― A new 'double featured snippet' SERP feature has appeared in the wake of AI Overview rollbacks. This time with a 'from sources across the web' label...

SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward SEO updates you need to know πŸ•΅οΈβ™€οΈ Google's Search Content Warehouse API documents were leaked and have since been verified. While there are 14,000 attributes, here are 10 key takeaways that SEOs have discovered: πŸ–±οΈ 1. Whilst we previously heard Google uses click data to build click prediction models, we know they specifically record "badClicks", "goodClicks" and "longClicks", although it is unclear if...

SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward SEO updates you need to know πŸ’© Google's AI Overviews continue to spiral, with Google suggesting people put glue on pizza, jump off a bridge if they are depressed, and stating that Barack Obama was the one Muslim president of the United States. πŸ€·πŸ½β™‚οΈ Google CEO, Sundar Pichai has said there is currently "no solution" to Google AI Overviews providing bad information, as hallucinations are an "inherent...

SEO tips and updates from Mark Williams-CookSearch with Candour hosted by Jack Chambers-Ward SEO updates you need to know πŸ‘Ύ Google AI Overviews launched on 14 May in the US. The Semrush Sensor started picking these up on 17 May and they appear to occur on <1% of searches over desktop and mobile. πŸ€– There is new documentation for Google AI Overviews, which describes what they are, how they work, and the controls that are available to webmasters to control visibility. 🧾 Google Search Console...