Google offers reports for measuring Page Experience on Desktop, a massive Googlebot crawl spike on Jan. 12th, and ASMR for SEO.
In this week’s episode, we also cover paywall content and SEO, link-building strategies, and Semrush purchasing Backlinko.
Also:
Host: Garrett Sussman | Demand Generation Manager
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(0:43) Search Console now has a dedicated ‘Desktop’ section in the Page Experience report
Ahead of the Page Experience update for Desktop that’s rolling out in a few weeks, Google has released a new device-specific report in Google Search Console that allows you to see how your desktop URLs are performing against Google’s metric thresholds. It’s a good way to determine at scale how you can improve your Core Web Vitals.
(1:18) 8 Google Developer Resources that SEOs MUST Read
How did we know about the Page Experience update? Well, Google provides a variety of resources that are essential reading for SEOs. That update was documented on the Google Search Central Blog. Google is constantly in the process of updating its documentation and while it’s not without issues (sometimes lacking context), you’ll want to stay up to date at least with regards to Google recommendations.
(2:02) Some Sites Seeing Massive Crawl Spikes From Googlebot
Starting January 12th, some sites were seeing spikes in Googlebot crawling via Google Search Console. Typically crawl spikes will happen if there’s a large technical change to a site. The fact that it’s happening on multiple sites indicates that it was either a bug or Google is prepping for another biggish update.
(2:22) Dr. Marie Haynes identified crawling spikes for her clients.
Marie shared how you can check for spikes on your own site by going to GSC > Settings > Crawl stats.
What was interesting in the thread is the thoughts on why that might be happening. Gianluca Fiorelli believes that Google is “Preparing a serious update (or that increased crawl is connected to the many rankings’ tremors seen all over)”. Meanwhile, Marie believes “I don’t think we’ve ever really been able to connect that reduced or increased crawling is connected with ranking changes.”
John Mueller did respond saying, “If you want to launch an update, you have to test it & prove that it’s good first. You can’t do that if you have to recrawl the whole web just before going live (and the web is gigantic, you can’t “just recrawl it briefly”). Crawl rate is not an early warning signal of updates.”
(3:49) Paywalled content and SEO by Antoine Eripret
If you still don’t know, paywalled content is a mechanism to prevent a user from reading content without paying. Newspapers often use it to monetize their audience. The NYT generated around 60% of its revenue thanks to its paywall (data from 2017).
Google doesn’t like interstitials preventing users from seeing the main content.
In the structured markup, you need to indicate which part of our content is not accessible for free.
(5:22) Prompts for Conference Talks – Sophie Gibson
Have you got ‘talk at a conference’ on your goal list for this year?
Are you struggling to figure out what the hell you could do a talk on?
I’ve come up with a list of prompts to help you generate talk ideas (mainly for SEO, but replace that with any sector)
(7:58) Here’s ASMR for SEO but it’s just me reading the webmaster guidelines
Are you a fan of the ASMR trend? Some people find it soothing, relaxing, transports you to a special place. People have created ASMR for everything under the sun. Well, Jamie Indigo created the ASMR for SEO you never knew you needed. Let’s listen to her read the Webmaster Guidelines.
(9:11) Link Building Tactics That Actually Work by Debbie Chew
Debbie Chew put together a great summary of 6 link building strategies to use and 3 to avoid:
(12:10) SEO and Agile Iterations – Adam Gent
Adam breaks down 3 ways that SEOs can work with developers using an Agile framework for taking on SEO projects that might involve the dev team.
(13:52) Jason Barnard’s BRAND SERPs book
Jason has published the book on Brand SERPs, literally. Have you ever wondered how you can build out the search engine result page for your business to include all of the accurate info and visuals that will elevate your brand? Jason’s book covers it all.
(14:35) HTTP Status Codes: The Complete List
Patrick Stox put together a great list of all the different status codes you can encounter. If you want to diagnose HTTP status issues, Ahrefs offers a cool SEO Toolbar that will let you know the statuses. Additionally, he provides some tips on how to identify 404s and when you need to redirect to recoup a bunch of backlinks.
(15:51) Why my Page Doesn’t Rank [Better or At All]? – Aleyda Solis
Aleyda has put together a great little resource for SEOs to work through why a certain page may not be ranking well whether it be technical, content, or promotion-related issues.
(16:15) Semrush acquires Backlinko
Announced on Wednesday, Semrush has purchased content agency Backlinko founded by Brian Dean. Why is this a big deal? Well, Brian has established a level of excellence when it comes to SEO education. Not only does he talk the talk, but Backlinko has consistently ranked on page 1 for a ton of really high-value SEO keywords.
(16:56) Using Data the Right Way ft Mordy Oberstein
On Episode 66 of the Rankable Podcast, Mordy Oberstein shares how SEOs get stuck on SEO data like search volume which should be directional.
Navigating the Modern Remote Workplace ft Ruth Burr Reedy
We’ll be discussing how you can build a reliable and productive distributed remote SEO team while still maintaining work/life balance.
WEBINAR – Year 2: How the Pandemic Continues to Impact Search Demand Recovery
In this webinar, Michael King of iPullRank and Bogdan Muntean of Advanced Web Ranking will unravel how the economic fallout of the pandemic has impacted Search Demand recovery across a variety of industry segments.
January 26th, 2022 – 11:00 am EST
Join Garrett Sussman each week as he pulls out all of the biggest and smallest stories from the past week that touch the world of SEO.
Get the scoop on what’s happening to Google, game-changing strategies for SEOs, and the people that you should have on your SEO radar.
iPullRank is a pioneering content marketing and enterprise SEO agency leading the way in Generative AI, Technical SEO, Audience-Focused SEO, and Content Engineering. People-first in our approach, we’ve delivered $4B+ in organic search results for our clients.
iPullRank is an NMSDC-certified Black-owned business. We support the NMSDC network in its mission to reshape the diversity landscape.
iPullRank is a pioneering content marketing and enterprise SEO agency leading the way in Technical SEO, Audience-Focused SEO, and Content Engineering. People-first in our approach, we’ve delivered $4B+ in organic search results for our clients.
iPullRank is an NMSDC-certified Black-owned business. We support the NMSDC network in its mission to reshape the diversity landscape.
