Key 2024 Trends To Help You Embrace The Next Era Of SEO via @sejournal, @sejournal

What if you could be in a room with 21 top SEO experts?

What might you ask? What could you learn?

SEO Trends 2024 is the next best thing.

We talked to the most insightful experts we know and asked for their best advice in navigating the year ahead.

With the search landscape rapidly evolving – sometimes it feels like you blink, and everything’s changed. And, this past year has seen particularly impactful transformations in SEO, from “helpful content” updates to Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE).

How can you adapt to these changes quickly enough to maintain a competitive edge?

How do you optimize your SEO strategy to prepare for the year ahead?

So, we asked 21 top SEO experts and gathered our findings in this insightful compilation, full of industry-leading thought, and actionable tips from respected SEO experts.

Let’s dive into some of the topics covered inside.

This Book Is “About” AI – But It’s Really About People

In SEO Trends 2024, we dive deep into the realm of AI, but ultimately, AI is not the star of the show – you are.

The human touch is still crucial when adopting AI into your strategy, and this ebook highlights the importance of working alongside it rather than relying on it as a human replacement.

Inside, our expert contributors guide you on navigating your relationship with AI as a powerful tool, an environment to work in, and occasionally, an adversary.

“Helpful” Is A Bigger Word Than You Think

In 2024, Google will change the game with a redefined meaning of “helpful.”

Inside, we explore how the definition of “helpful” content and websites is expanding and the impact of updates. Here are some key insights:

• Google assesses the value and helpfulness of your entire site, so make sure your website has a clear and unique value.
• Engage with generative AI and understand how it works before you try to fight it.
• “Expertise” will be a key differentiating factor – insights and original data attributed to authors with names.

Prepare For Search Generative Experience With “Search Experience Optimization”

The experimental phase of Google’s SGE is causing ripples of anticipation and anxiety in the industry.

But the key is being discoverable by generative AI, and knowing when to be its ally and when to be its enemy. Here’s what you really need to know:

• AI in search will upset performance for entire groups of queries, data gathering, and potentially the balance between the platforms.
• Search success may come down to being discoverable by generative AI and finding as many opportunities as possible to surface your brand to users.
• Humans are irreplaceable for setting SEO strategies in a new AI landscape and will be for some time.

Prepare For Disruption: Keep Calm, Educate & Move Quickly

Disruption is on the horizon, but while models for driving business goals may change, the essence of how people search for information remains consistent.

The following will be crucial elements in navigating this dynamic landscape moving forward:

• Understanding a user’s true intent must guide you – spam and thin results are dying.
• Don’t forget about technical SEO – keeping a tidy site can also help insulate you from ruthless core updates.
• Use AI strategically to give yourself more time for big-picture thinking.

Build New Information Models: Entities & Ontologies

The future of SEO lies in understanding complex concepts like entities, schema, algorithm machine learning advancements, and the workings of large language models (LLMs).

Here are some key insights on how to leverage the continued advancement in entities and knowledge graphs to your advantage:

• Understanding the “entity” is critical to future SEO success because it’s both a human and a data model of understanding.
• Lean into exploration and knowledge by making meaningful connections.
• Developing well-organized ontologies (maps of entities and their connections) will prepare you for success in AI platforms and Google search, and improve user experiences.

Expert Contributors

• Adam Riemer, President, Adam Riemer Marketing, LLC
• Aleyda Solis, Founder & International SEO Consultant, Orainti
• Andrea Volpini, Co-Founder and CEO, WordLift
• Andrew Chadwick, Founder, Keyword Insights
• Angie Nikoleychuk, Content Marketing Manager, Search Engine Journal
• Ben Steele, Senior Editor, Ebooks, Search Engine Journal
• Dan Taylor, Partner & Head of Technical SEO, SALT.agency
• Eli Schwartz, Growth Advisor, Product Led SEO
• Jes Scholz, Marketing Consultant, JesScholz.com
• Kevin Indig, Growth Advisor to Fast-Growing Startups
• Martha van Berkel, CEO, Schema App
• Matt G. Southern, Senior News Writer, Search Engine Journal
• Mordy Oberstein, Head of SEO Brand, Wix
• Motoko Hunt, President/International SEO, AJPR
• Olga Zarr, SEO Consultant, SEOSLY
• Patrick Stox, Product Advisor & Technical SEO, Ahrefs
• Roger Montti, News Writer, Search Engine Journal
• Ryan Jones, SVP, SEO, Razorfish
• Shelley Walsh, SEO Content Strategist, Search Engine Journal
• Ulrika Viberg, CEO and Senior SEO, Unikorn
• Vahan Petrosyan, Director of Technology, Search Engine Journal

This ebook is your ultimate guide for surviving and thriving in this dynamic digital landscape.

With expert commentary and insights from industry leaders, this authoritative resource is just what you need to rise to the challenge of 2024 and beyond.

It’s time to embrace change, learn how and when to pivot your strategy and chart a course for SEO success in the years to come.

Get your copy of SEO Trends 2024 today!

Google Answers If Domain Age Impacts Rankings via @sejournal, @martinibuster

Someone on X (formerly Twitter) asked if domain age impacted search rankings. Google’s John Mueller sets the record straight.

The person asking the question tweeted:

“Does the age of a domain name impact Google search rankings?”

SEOs have for a long time noticed that older domain names correlate with top rankings.

But correlations are generally a poor foundation for understanding the world.

For example, the number of computer science doctorates awarded in the United States correlates exactly with the video game arcade revenues.

What Google’s John Mueller Said About Domain Age

Google’s John Mueller tweeted:

“Primarily those who want to sell you aged domains :-)”

And if that’s too ambiguous for some people, Mueller has previously tweeted:

“No, domain age helps nothing.”

Why Do SEOs Believe Domain Age Matters?

SEOs have believed for almost twenty years that domain age matters, that it was even an important ranking factor.

The idea may have evolved from a patent Google filed called Information retrieval based on historical data.

The patent mentioned domains in the context of historical data. But the patent didn’t really say what SEOs thought it did. Their reading of that patent was 100% incorrect.

The patent has an entire section titled, Domain-Related Information where domain related information is used to identify spam sites.

Identifying spam sites is not the same as giving bonus ranking points if a domain has been registered for a long time.

The patent says it uses domain data to catch throwaway domain names used by spammers:

“Individuals who attempt to deceive (spam) search engines often use throwaway or ‘doorway’ domains and attempt to obtain as much traffic as possible before being caught.

Information regarding the legitimacy of the domains may be used by search engine when scoring the documents associated with these domains.”

Next it says that normal sites tend to have domains that are registered for a long periods of time, which is not the case for throwaway domains.

Here’s where SEOs misread the patent. This information is not used to rank “legitimate” domains. The registration data is used to find spam sites.

Here’s what it says:

“Valuable (legitimate) domains are often paid for several years in advance, while doorway (illegitimate) domains rarely are used for more than a year. Therefore, the date when a domain expires in the future can be used as a factor in predicting the legitimacy of a domain and, thus, the documents associated therewith.”

That statement is within the context of identifying “illegitimate” domains. There’s nothing there that talks about promoting legitimate domains, only for identifying spam domains, that’s the context.

SEOs have a long history of seeing what they want to see. But it’s really clear that the domain history information is used for finding spam, not for generating a ranking signal.

In that same section it talks about using DNS history information for identifying spam sites:

“By analyzing this data over time for a domain, illegitimate domains may be identified.

…a list of known-bad contact information, name servers, and/or IP addresses may be identified, stored, and used in predicting the legitimacy of a domain …”

Lastly, the patent says that the newness of a name server isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but rather, the newness of the name server data AND other data points together could mean that the domain is spam.

“The newness of a name server might not automatically be a negative factor in determining the legitimacy of the associated domain, but in combination with other factors, such as ones described herein, it could be.”

Microsoft filed a similar patent from 2006 that discusses using the domain age of the backlinks for identifying spam sites.

The “background” section of that patent reveals the purpose of the patent is for finding spam sites. The patent was created because the cost of domain registrations became cheap (they used to cost around $70/year in the late nineties).

The patent says:

“Spammers often take advantage of such offers through a spam technique known as a web farm. In particular, spammers purchase or otherwise obtain a large number of sites and interlink the sites together to increase the sites’ rankings by artificially increasing the number of contributing domains for some or all of the sites.”

John Mueller is telling the truth. Domain age is not used for ranking purposes. There is no patent that suggests such a thing.

Featured Image by Shutterstock/Just dance

Google Offers 3 Tips For Checking Technical SEO Issues via @sejournal, @martinibuster

Google published a video offering three tips for using search console to identify technical issues that might be causing indexing or ranking problems.

Three Tips For Troubleshooting Technical Issues

Google’s three tips for troubleshooting technical issues are:

1. Check if page is indexed or indexable
2. Check if page is duplicate or if another page is the canonical
3. Review rendered HTML for code related issues

1. Is URL Indexable?

A common issue that’s easy to overlook but important to check is if the URL is can be indexed.

The Google search console URL inspection tool is great for troubleshooting if Google has indexed a page or not. The tool will tell you if a page is indexed and whether it’s indexable. If it’s not indexable then it will offer a suggestion for why Google might be having trouble indexing it.

Another data point the URL offers is the last crawl date which offers an idea of how much interest Google has in the page.

That said, if page doesn’t tend to change often then Googlebot may decide to crawl it less. This is not a big deal. It just makes sense in terms of conserving resources at Google and on the target web server.

Lastly, the URL inspection tool can be used to request a crawl.

2. Check If Ignored Because It’s Duplicate And Other Page Is Getting Indexed

Google next recommends checking if a page is a duplicate or if another page is the canonical.

The video suggests that it’s generally fine if another page is selected as the canonical.

It explains:

“The next thing to check after crawling is if it’s been ignored as a duplicate and the canonical URL is on another one most of the time this is fine.

Even if this might not be the canonical URL you expected, the content is indexed and will be able to show up in search results, so this is generally fine.”

Bonus Tip: Google cautioned against using the cache or site:search operator for any kind of diagnostic purposes. For example, a page can be indexed but not show up in a site:search.

The site search operator, just like all the other site operators, is completely disconnected from the search index. This has always been the case, even when there was a site search operator for showing backlinks.

Google advises:

“Don’t use cache or site search operators and features because they are not meant for debugging purposes and might give you misleading outcomes when trying to use it in debugging.”

3. Check Rendered HTML For Anomalies

The last tip is pretty good. Google advises that checking the HTML via the source code is not the same as checking the rendered HTML.

Rendered means the HTML that is generated for the browser or Googlebot to generate the webpage.

If you’re trying to figure out whether there’s something going on with the HTML, it’s useful to check out the rendered HTML because that’ll show you what the browser and Googlebot are actually seeing at the code level.

The difference between source code HTML and rendered HTML is that the rendered variant shows you what the HTML looks like after all of the JavaScript has been executed.

So, if there’s an issue related to the JavaScript or something else, you’re more likely going to catch that by reviewing the rendered HTML.

Google advises:

“…check the rendered HTML and the HTTP response to see if there’s something you won’t expect.

For example, a stray error message or content missing due to some technical issues on your server or in your application code.”

See Rendered HTML With Search Console

Google Support has a step by step for viewing the rendered HTML in search console:

“Inspect the URL, either by entering the URL directly in the URL Inspection tool, or by clicking an inspection link next to a URL shown in most Search Console reports.

Click Test live URL > View tested page.

The HTML tab shows the rendered HTML for the page.”

See Rendered HTML With Chrome DevTools

Chrome DevTools (in your Chrome browser) can also be used to see the rendered HTML.

1. Open the Chrome Dev Tools through the vertical ellipsis (three dots) drop down menu, then:
2. More tools > Developer tools
3. Then, for MacOS, press Command+Shift+P and for Windows/Linux/ChromeOS press Control+Shift+P in order to access the Command Menu.
4. Type: Rendering, select the menu choice “Show Rendering”

After that Chrome DevTools shows you the rendered HTML in the bottom window, which can be grabbed with the mouse cursor and enlarged, like in the screenshot below.

Three Tips For Debugging Technical Issues

There are many technical issues that can get in the way of indexing and rankings and even more ways to identify and fix those issues.

Fortunately Google makes it easy to debug technical issues with the tools provided by Search Console and Chrome DevTools.

Watch the Google Search Central Video:

3 tips for debugging technical problems in Google Search

Google Reviews Update Finished – What To Know via @sejournal, @martinibuster

Google finished rolling out their last announced Reviews System update. Future updates to the review system will no longer be announced because the algorithms that power the Reviews System will be updated on a regular and ongoing rate.

Reviews System

Google’s Reviews System is a system used as part of a group of algorithms that together produce search results.

The Reviews System goes into effect when ranking review related content and search queries.

The purpose of the Reviews System is to rank people-first content. Google has published guidelines to help publishers understand what kind of content the Reviews System tries to rank.

It’s important to note that the guidance is not a list of ranking factors but rather general advice on what kinds of content Google is trying to rank so that publishers have a better idea.

Google’s general guidance about the reviews system notes:

“The reviews system aims to better reward high quality reviews, content that provides insightful analysis and original research, and is written by experts or enthusiasts who know the topic well.”

Google Reviews System Rollout Finished

The reviews system update was announced on November 8, 2023 and was finished rolling out on December 7, 2023 at 9:21 Pacific Standard Time.

Google updated their Search Status Dashboard with the following notation:

“The rollout was complete as of December 7, 2023.”

That announcement was accompanied by a tweet from Google Search Central account:

“The roll-out of the November reviews update is now complete.”

Reviews Update Finale Preceded By Ranking Drops

Curiously there were multiple reports of ranking drops reported in Facebook SEO groups in the days leading up to the end of the reviews system rollout.

Normally there are ranking drops and increases every single day. However it becomes notable when there’s a surge of reports across multiple Facebook SEO groups, especially the ones that are popular with edgy SEO practices.

Moving Forward What To Expect

Google hasn’t discussed what it means when it says that the reviews system will be improved on an ongoing and regular pace. It could be that it’s a daily process where data from new webpages are ingested and rankings are adjusted. We don’t know and it’s probably not going to help anyone be a better SEO knowing the details.

The best practice is to acquaint oneself with Google’s guidance on the reviews system and self-assess according to those guidelines if one should find their site is possibly affected by the reviews system.

Four Important Google Update Resources

1. Google Resources On Updates And Ranking Systems
   A Q&A on Google Search updates
2. List Of Google’s Ranking Systems
   A guide to Google Search ranking systems
3. Information About The Reviews System
   Google Search’s reviews system and your website
4. Guidance On How To Write High Quality Reviews
   Write high quality reviews

Featured Image by Shutterstock/MustavArt