Ecommerce Management Advisors
Ecommerce Management Advisors
Google’s Martin Splitt answers whether adding an audio version of a blog article will impact the page’s search ranking.
Last month I addressed Google’s updated guidelines for its quality raters, the thousands of people who manually review websites.
I explained Google’s emphasis on EEAT — the author’s Expertise and Experience and the site’s Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness.
Yet the guidelines (PDF) go beyond EEAT with instructions to determine a page’s quality. Google’s definition of “quality” is critical for search optimizers because its core search algorithm now includes a “helpful content” component.
The updated guidelines provide insights.
Google’s guidelines state a page’s main content depends on the goal and industry. The raters should determine the page’s goal and then evaluate whether the content achieves it. Financial institutions, the guidelines add as an example, differ from hobbyists’ sites.
Pages with vague or no goals deserve the lowest rating.
Raters should assign a quality rating of the main content based on effort and originality.
MC [main content] should add value compared to similar pages on the web.
An example of low-effort content is “best” lists based on existing reviews and lists with little added value.
According to Google’s guidelines, owners and creators should display the most helpful and essential content prominently — near the top of the page — so visitors can immediately access it.
Content that supports the page’s purpose without directly contributing to the goal can be valuable but placed in a lower, less prominent position. For example,
on recipe pages, the recipe itself and important supporting content directly related to the recipe should be prominently displayed near the top of the webpage.
The guidelines included an example of what not to do, citing a butterbeer recipe page that starts with a story of a family going to Universal Studios to try the beer that inspired the recipe — instead of leading with the recipe itself.
The guidelines repeatedly focus on what Google calls “Your Money or Your Life” topics, those that affect a person’s health, safety, financial stability, and well-being. The raters are to review YMYL pages more closely, checking factual accuracy as well as consistency with experts.
I advise clients to confirm YMYL claims with reputable sources and, when possible, quote them in the piece.
Google asks raters to assign pages as low-quality if there’s excessive content that prevents readers from quickly finding the information they came for. An example filler page, according to the guidelines, offers:
tutorial instructions on how to make a basic craft and lots of unhelpful “filler” at the top, such as commonly known facts about the supplies needed or other non-crafting information.
Filler can result in a poor experience for people who visit the page, especially if placed prominently ahead of helpful content for the purpose of the page.
Google considers title tags as main content since they often appear in search results.
The guidelines instruct raters to label exaggerated or shocking titles as low quality, and misleading titles as the very lowest, offering this example of “exaggerated”:
A page titled “Eat the Healthiest Foods in the WORLD to Extend Your Life!!!!” for a list of tips on how to add more fruits and vegetables to meals.
Despite rumors and assumptions, Google doesn’t consider ads on a page as a red flag, stating:
The presence or absence of Ads alone is not a consideration for page quality rating.
However, ads send unhelpful signals when they prevent visitors from interacting with the main content.
Per the guidelines, this page should receive the lowest rating:
The MC [main content] is deliberately obstructed or obscured due to Ads, SC, interstitial pages, download links, or other content that is beneficial to the website owner but not necessarily the website visitor.
And this page should receive a low rating:
The Ads or SC [Supplementary Content, such as navigation links or content behind tabs] significantly distract from or interrupt the use of the MC.
Google also instructs raters to assign the lowest ratings to pages that deceptively hide ads or disguise them as main content, navigation links, or contextual links.
It’s possible none of these rating guidelines directly impact rankings, but they inform us of Google’s priorities.
In short:
This post was sponsored by Bright Data. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own.
Struggling to adapt your SEO strategy to ever-changing AI-driven SERPs?
Have the most recent Google updates left your rank-tracking methods outdated?
What happens when you can no longer deliver key information on traffic sources?
Generative AI (GenAI) technologies like Google Gemini and Bard are reshaping search results.
This is creating unprecedented challenges, especially when it comes to the elephant in the room: “The New Position 0.”
In this article, we’ll help tackle the key ways to:
Just this week, Google rolled out unexpected changes to SERP structures, causing widespread disruptions for many SEO strategies that rely on SERP rankings.
These updates led to outages and inaccurate data across the industry, forcing many businesses to quickly adapt to avoid prolonged disruptions.
“The disruptions caused by Google’s latest SERP changes left many platforms unable to deliver accurate data to their users. Our clients, however, were unaffected thanks to our immediate response and robust infrastructure. If not for the media and search community, they wouldn’t have known there were any changes.” – Ariel Shulman, VP Product at Bright Data
Generative AI has fundamentally altered how search engines deliver results.
Classic SERP features have become central to understanding user intent and the user journey.
Until now.
The SERP layout we know and love has changed.
These overall changes present challenges for rank-tracking platforms tasked with capturing and analyzing SERPs:
The challenge for rank-tracking platforms is clear: adapt to these AI-driven shifts or risk leaving users without the insights they need to thrive.
Position 0 on Google refers to any of the featured snippets that appear at the very top of the search engine results page (SERP), above all organic search results.
It’s a special box that highlights concise information in response to a query, often in the form of a paragraph, list, or table.
For example, if you search for “How to tie a tie,” the featured snippet might display step-by-step instructions directly at the top. Being in Position 0 can boost your SEO strategy significantly since it’s considered premium real estate in search rankings.
The featured snippet is designed to provide users with quick answers to their questions without requiring them to click on a website. It’s highly coveted by website owners because it significantly increases visibility and click-through rates.
However, it’s becoming more difficult to track what is ranking in position 0 due to 5 different issues that baffle the current MarTech stack.
So, let’s dive deeper: What did Google change that you’ll need to change?
As we’re seeing in real-time, AI technologies like Google Gemini (previously Bard) and Microsoft’s Bing AI are reshaping SERP layouts.
So far, SERP structures are evolving rapidly with AI updates.
Elements like conversational answers or rich media snippets appear inconsistently, requiring you to constantly adapt your SEO strategy and data collection methods.
Instead of seeing Google Ads placements, featured snippets, positions 1-3, and People Also Ask, we’ll now be seeing:
However, this is not its final state. The new layout of SERPs is dynamic; it will continue to change, and you have to be ready.
With position 1 pushed down at least 3 scroll lengths, this is no longer the top clicked result.
Additionally, the layout of a searcher’s query will also vary based on new advances in SERP personalization.
Now, clicks are possible in many new locations on the SERP, such as in a cited link for Google’s AI Overview (AIO).
These are not as easily trackable nor attributable.
SEO analysts and SEO strategists will see a massive impact on their traffic data and how they optimize their content to display above the fold.
Finally, position 1 on Google SERPs has seen its decline from providing at least 33% of organic search clicks to just 11% as of January 2025 depending on the search term.
Organic CTR declined ~70% when an AIO was present on the SERP.
AIO not only makes it difficult to obtain clicks, but one final change has made it nearly impossible to attribute clicks to positions.
In short:
What does this mean?
Google AIO and other dynamic SERP features are the new Position Zero.
Many SERP elements, especially those influenced by AI, load dynamically based on user interaction.
As we know from past SEO knowledge, dynamic and lazy-loading content cannot be seen by bots and scrapers until something triggers the content to load.
Therefore, to retrieve all the necessary data, you’ll need to simulate interactions like clicks and scrolls, which adds complexity and latency.
As you can see so far, dynamic and personalized search results are more prominent.
Your favorite SEO keyword research and rank-tracking tools rely on bots to crawl the web for key data to help you build your SEO strategy.
However, Google has removed a large piece that makes that data scraping possible: bots.
Google’s evolving anti-bot measures further complicate real-time data collection, pushing platforms to the brink of what their systems can handle.
Sophisticated anti-bot defenses, such as CAPTCHA challenges, IP-based blocking, and JavaScript obfuscation, make real-time data collection a significant hurdle. Many traditional scraping tools cannot meet these challenges.
Control data is something that remains the same from one experiment to another. It enables you to have direct comparisons to build conclusions from when you’re building your SEO strategy.
The old SERP’s control data was the standardized layout. SERP layouts and results were similar enough for the same search query, meaning you could compare multiple searches for the same query to create conclusions that drove your strategy.
Now, user-specific factors like location, language, and device type create unique SERP views with vastly different orders of results.
It’s no longer simple to look at SERP data for [What is a 5-star hotel?] and know which link was clicked from which position:
Capturing this variability at scale while maintaining accuracy is critical yet immensely difficult.
AI-generated responses are constantly updated, with position-zero content shifting based on new data and context.
These AI-generated responses are part of an evolution of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) called Answer Engine Optimization (AEO).
You’ll need tools that have been updated to extract data from Answer Engines in real-time.
To regain your lost traffic, you’ll need to refer to more sophisticated tools to gain access to new SERP data streams to inform your organic traffic strategy.
Tools that previously helped you understand your position on SERPs are now outdated.
Rank-tracking platforms that have upgraded should be ready and able to collect data using more modern sources that align with the roadblocks above.
These tools don’t just need to collect data, they need to deliver actionable insights to help their users optimize for “The New Position 0” based on the data and AIO’s best practices. By extracting the right data and presenting it clearly, platforms empower users to improve their strategies effectively.
Here’s how platforms are leveraging Data from GenAI results:
Platforms will need insights into which content types (e.g., FAQs, schema markup, and structured data) are prioritized by AI-driven search engines. This will help their users create concise, authoritative content that aligns with SERP preferences, improving visibility and relevance in position zero.
They will need metrics such as click-through rates (CTR), impressions, and engagement specific to position zero. These metrics will help their users monitor performance and refine their strategies to maintain or improve their rankings.
Platforms will need geo-targeted and device-specific data to provide segmented insights. This will help their users tailor their optimization efforts to specific regions, languages, or devices, ensuring their strategies are more precise and effective.
They will need data on conversational and intent-driven search queries. This will help their users align their content with how large language models prioritize conversational patterns, resulting in higher engagement and relevance.
SEO tools using Bright Data’s toolkit have access to all this data in real-time and at scale. That’s why the leading SEO tools choose Bright Data as their go-to data provider. Platforms leveraging these insights position themselves as indispensable tools for helping their users dominate “The New Position 0.”
As “The New Position 0” continues to redefine search, rank-tracking platforms face mounting challenges in delivering accurate, actionable data. Choosing the right data collection partner is no longer optional, it’s the key to staying ahead. Platforms leveraging Bright Data’s SERP API are equipped to meet these challenges, empowering their users to succeed in an AI-driven search landscape.
Bright Data’s proactive approach meant their clients experienced uninterrupted services during the disruptions that affected many in the industry. SEO tools leveraging Bright Data’s SERP API maintained seamless operations, continuing to deliver accurate, real-time insights to their users without issue.
Integrating your platform with Bright Data’s SERP API is quick and straightforward. Want to see what it’s all about? Check out the documentation here or test it out in the SERP API playground to see if it’s the perfect match for your SEO tool. When data matters, companies choose Bright Data.
This article has been sponsored by Bright Data, and the views presented herein represent the sponsor’s perspective.
Image Credits
Featured Image: Image by Bright Data. Used with permission.
Google hires human teams to review the search results for various queries and assign quality ratings for each ranking URL. Google says the purpose is to help ensure helpful content for searchers.
The ratings do not impact search results directly, but Google’s guidelines for the human raters suggest its ranking priorities — what it looks for — and algorithmic scrutiny.
Here’s Google’s video explainer:
Google updated the guidelines (PDF) last week.
A recurring focus is what Google calls “Your Money or Your Life” topics, which can include ecommerce. Google’s human raters are to review YMYL pages more closely.
Your Money or Your Life topics affect a person’s health, safety, financial stability, and well-being.
Some pages clearly fall into that category; others are not as straightforward. Google provides a few examples in the latest guidelines.
| Type of Topic | Clear YMYL Topic | Possible YMYL Topic | Unlikely YMYL Topic |
|---|---|---|---|
| Information | Evacuation routes for a tsunami | Weather forecast | Music award winners |
| Personal opinion | Personal view of why a racial group is inferior | Personal view of why a exercise is inferior | Personal view of why a rock band is inferior |
| Ecommerce and product reviews | Purchasing prescription drugs | Review of a car | Purchasing pencils |
Sites that provide health- or money-related advice or sell products that can affect health or wealth must have clear signs of (i) high-level expertise and (ii) first-hand experience with the topic.
The guidelines provide much detail on how the raters should assess EEAT — the Expertise and Experience of the author and the Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness of the site — by reviewing these elements:
Google also lists elements that should not be considered for evaluating EEAT:
None of those EEAT elements are confirmed algorithm factors; Google includes them in the guidelines to assist human evaluators. The factors are Google’s definition of EEAT and presumably have a ranking role — algorithmic or manual — for all sites, especially YMYL-focused.
Google has released its first major update to the Search Quality Rater Guidelines since March.
Human evaluators use the Search Quality Rater Guidelines (PDF link) to assess the quality of search results. Although these guidelines don’t directly affect rankings, they provide useful insights into what Google views as high-quality content.
This update reflects Google’s evolving approach to determining quality, particularly regarding AI-generated content and new types of spam.
Here’s what you need to know.
Section 2.1, “Important Definitions,” now formally addresses AI-generated content, providing clear guidance on how raters should evaluate machine-learning generated materials.
The definition reads:
“Generative AI is a type of machine learning (ML) model that can take what it has learned from the examples it has been provided to create new content, such as text, images, music, and code.”
Sections 4.0 through 4.6 have been substantially revised, introducing detailed subsections on new forms of spam and low-quality content. The update identifies three key areas of concern:
“Expired domain abuse is where an expired domain name is purchased and repurposed primarily to benefit the new website owner by hosting content that provides little to no value to users.”
“Site reputation abuse is a tactic where third-party content is published on a host site mainly because of that host site’s already-established ranking signals, which it has earned primarily from its first-party content.”
“Scaled content abuse is a spam practice described in the Google Search Web Spam Policies. Scaled content abuse occurs when many pages are generated for the purpose of primarily benefiting the website owner and not helping users.”
The guidelines specifically address AI-generated content under scaled content abuse:
“Using automated tools (generative AI or otherwise) as a low-effort way to produce many pages that add little-to-no value for website visitors as compared to other pages on the web on the same topic.”
Section 4.7 provides specific examples of how to identify and rate AI-generated content. Under “Lowest: Scaled content abuse cancers,” the text reads:
“The contents of the page show it is created with generative AI with likely no original content and provides no value to users. For example, the article starts with ‘As a language model, I don’t have real-time data and my knowledge cutoff date is September 2021.’ The end of the text of the article appears to be cut off with an incomplete sentence ‘Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (NETs): Pancreatic NETs are a rare type of pancreatic cancer that can have a poor’”
The guidelines now specify that raters must turn off ad blockers to ensure accurate evaluation:
“Some browsers such as Chrome automatically block some ads. As a rater, you are required to turn off any ad blocker capabilities of the browser you use to view webpages for rating tasks. Check your browser settings before rating tasks to ensure your ratings accurately reflect how people experience the page without ad blocking settings and extensions.”
Here are the key takeaways for content creators and SEO professionals:
When producing content for your website, keep these tips in mind:
Following these guidelines can help ensure you create content that aligns with Google’s quality standards.
Featured Image: Masha_art/Shutterstock
This post was sponsored by “Skynet Technologies USA LLC”.
Did you know that 1 billion people have not reached you or your customers’ websites yet.
1 billion potential customers are waiting for businesses to step up and do what’s right.
Find out if your website is accessible to 1 billion people >>>
Accessibility isn’t just a compliance checkbox anymore – it’s a growth strategy.
The demand for scalable, innovative accessibility solutions has skyrocketed.
And your competition is already making these improvements.
For agencies, this means an unprecedented opportunity to meet clients’ needs while driving revenue.
Learn how you can generate additional revenue and boost your clients’ SERP ranking by gaining access to:
Ready to get started?
The digital economy thrives on inclusion.
There is a large market of individuals who are not included in modern website usability.
With over a billion people globally living with disabilities, accessible digital experiences open doors to untapped markets.
The short answer is yes.
Traffic comes from people who have needs. Of course, everyone has needs, including people with disabilities.
Accessible websites and tools cater to all users, expanding reach to a diverse and often overlooked customer base.
Global Potential & Unlocking New Audiences
From a global perspective, the global community of people with disabilities is a market estimated to hold a staggering $13 trillion in spending power.
By removing barriers and ensuring inclusive digital experiences, you can tap into this 1 billion-person market and drive substantial economic growth.
Digital accessibility helps to increase employment opportunities, education options, and simple access to various banking and financial services for everybody.
Boosts User Experience & Engagement
Accessibility improvements run parallel with SEO improvements.
In fact, they often enhance overall website performance, which leads to:
Ensures Your Websites Are Compliant
Increasing lawsuits against businesses that fail to comply with accessibility regulations have imposed pressure on them to implement accessibility in their digital assets.
Compliance with ADA, WCAG 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, Section 508, Australian DDA, European EAA EN 301 549, UK Equality Act (EA), Indian RPD Act, Israeli Standard 5568, California Unruh, Ontario AODA, Canada ACA, German BITV, Brazilian Inclusion Law (LBI 13.146/2015), Spain UNE 139803:2012, France RGAA standards, JIS X 8341 (Japan), Italian Stanca Act, Switzerland DDA, Austrian Web Accessibility Act (WZG) guidelines aren’t optional. Accessibility solution partnerships ensure to stay ahead of potential lawsuits while fostering goodwill.
We know this is a lot.
If this sounds good to you, let us help you get set up.
Partnering for digital accessibility isn’t just about inclusivity — it’s a game-changer for SEO, too!
Accessible websites are built with cleaner code, smarter structures, and user-friendly features like alt text and clear headings that search engines love.
Plus, faster load times, mobile-friendly designs, and seamless navigation keep users engaged, reducing bounce rates and boosting rankings. When you focus on making a site accessible to everyone, you’re not just widening your audience—you’re signaling to search engines that the website is high-quality and relevant. It’s a win-win for accessibility and SEO!
All in One Accessibility®: Simplicity meets efficiency!
The All in One Accessibility® is an AI-powered accessibility tool that helps organizations to enhance their website accessibility level for ADA, WCAG 2.0, 2.1, 2.2, Section 508, Australian DDA, European EAA EN 301 549, UK Equality Act (EA), Indian RPD Act, Israeli Standard 5568, California Unruh, Ontario AODA, Canada ACA, German BITV, Brazilian Inclusion Law (LBI 13.146/2015), Spain UNE 139803:2012, France RGAA standards, JIS X 8341 (Japan), Italian Stanca Act, Switzerland DDA, Austrian Web Accessibility Act (WZG), and more.
It is available with features like sign language LIBRAS (Brazilian Portuguese Only) integration, 140+ multilingual support, screen reader, voice navigation, smart language auto-detection and voice customization, talk & type, Google and Adobe Analytics tracking, along with premium add-ons including white label and custom branding, VPAT/ACR reports, manual accessibility audit and remediation, PDF remediation, and many more.
Agency Partnership: Scaling accessibility with ease!
Affiliate Partnership: A revenue opportunity for everyone!
The All in One Accessibility® Affiliate Partnership program is for content creators, marketers, accessibility advocates, web professionals, 501 (c) organizations (non-profit), and law firms.
Endeavoring for strategic partnerships with accessibility solution providers is a win-win for agencies aiming to meet the diverse needs of their clients. These partnerships not only enhance the accessibility of digital assets but also create opportunities for growth, and loyalty, top search engine rankings, boost revenue, improve compliance with legal standards, and make you to contribute into digital accessibility world.
With Skynet Technologies USA LLC, Transform accessibility from a challenge into a revenue-driving partnership. Let inclusivity power the success.
Ready to get started? Embarking on a digital accessibility journey is simpler than you think! Take the first step by evaluating the website’s current WCAG compliance with a manual accessibility audit.
For more information, Reach out hello@skynettechnologies.com.
Image Credits
Featured Image: Image by Skynet Technologies. Used with permission.
Google has released FAQ guidance on its site reputation abuse policy.
The update covers important points about managing third-party content and recovery processes.
Google wants to clarify what counts as a violation. Using third-party content is not a problem in itself.
A violation happens when that content is used to take advantage of a site’s existing rankings.
Google explains:
“Having third-party content alone is not a violation of the site reputation abuse policy. It’s only a violation if the content is being published in an attempt to abuse search rankings by taking advantage of the host site’s ranking signals.”
This is especially important for publishers using:
Google defines third-party content as:
“Content created by a separate entity than the host site,” including “users of that site, freelancers, white-label services, content created by people not employed directly by the host site.”
Publishers who want to fix manual actions now have clear instructions on what to do with their content:
What Not to Do:
As stated in the FAQ:
“Moving content to a subdirectory or subdomain within the same site’s domain name: This doesn’t resolve the underlying issue and may be viewed as an attempt to circumvent our spam policy, which may lead to broader actions against a site in Google Search.”
However, Google notes that:
“Moving content to a new domain: This is far less likely to be an issue if the new domain has no established reputation and you follow our spam policies.”
What to Do:
Good news for publishers: Google confirmed that affiliate content is not affected by this policy.
The documentation clarifies:
“The policy is not about targeting affiliate content… Affiliate links marked appropriately aren’t considered site reputation abuse.”
To comply, publishers must properly mark their affiliate links. This means you can continue to earn money through legitimate strategies while following the new rules.
For websites under manual action, Google has outlined important technical requirements:
The documentation reads:
“You still need to reply to the manual action in Search Console and explain that the content has been noindexed. We recommend doing this rather than letting the manual action remain against your site.”
The guidance also addresses linking practices:
“If you link from the old site to the new site, make use of the nofollow attribute for those links on the old site.”
This FAQ release shows that Google is improving how it communicates policy changes.
The clarifications arrive at a crucial time as publishers work to align their strategies with Google’s evolving standards while maintaining sustainable businesses.
Featured Image: Mameraman/Shutterstock
Google announced its site reputation abuse policy in March 2024 as part of a core update to its organic search algorithm.
Google defined site reputation abuse as “when third-party pages are published with little or no first-party [editorial] oversight or involvement, where the purpose is to manipulate Search rankings by taking advantage of the first-party site’s ranking signals.”
News sites that publish recommendations from third parties are example abusers, per Google. To date, they reportedly include CNN Underscored, Forbes Advisor, and WSJ Buy Side.
Google has since expanded the policy to include any third-party content with or without oversight.
Google enforces compliance with its reputation abuse guidelines via manual actions. If it considers a site an abuser, Google will notify the verified owner of a manual penalty in Search Console.
The penalty doesn’t affect the entire site, only the section that hosts the third-party content. To date, only sites that receive the manual action notice are penalized.
But in an update last month, Google stated it could algorithmically detect “if a section of a site is independent or starkly different from the main content of the site.” When the detection occurs, Google says it will treat that section as a separate site and not apply the main site’s authority.
Thus expect Google to monitor and enforce site reputation abuse algorithmically.
There’s no recovery from this penalty. If your site hosts third-party content in the manner Google defines, there’s no way to fix it, even with editors or reviewers.
Moreover, moving the penalized section to another subdomain or subdirectory will make matters worse, as Google explains in the policy circumvention section of its “Spam policies,” stating:
Circumvention includes but is not limited to:
Google adds:
If a site continues to engage in actions intended to bypass our spam policies or content policies for Google Search, we may take appropriate action, which may include restricting or removing eligibility for some of our search features (for example, Top Stories, Discover) and taking broader action in Google Search (for example, removing more sections of a site from Search results).
The best response for penalized sites is to develop traffic-generating content that doesn’t come automatically from third parties.
Google’s site reputation abuse penalty thus far applies only to the offending sections, not sitewide. But I foresee it becoming sitewide if the policy becomes part of the core algorithm, such as what occurred with the helpful content updates.
So noindex your third-party content now. Recovery from Google’s core algorithm updates can take months and years.
Optimizing content for organic rankings involves editing text and other on-page elements for the words and concepts people use when searching. The effectiveness of those keywords depends on how and where they appear on a page.
The checklist below will help ensure maximum keyword prominence to search engines.
A title tag is an HTML element that provides a concise and informative description of a web page. This title shows in browser tabs but is not immediately visible to a web user.
Search engines rely on title tags to determine the page’s contextual and keyword relevance. It’s the most essential element for rankings and often included by search engines in visible organic snippets. Thus a title tag should appeal to both humans and search algorithms.
Sample title tag: “Practical Ecommerce | News, How to, Definitions, Guides, Examples.” Click image to enlarge.
Here’s Practical Ecommerce’s home page title tag used as the link in Google’s organic search snippet.
Practical Ecommerce’s home page title tag in organic search results. Click image to enlarge.
Only the first 60 characters (or so) of a title tag will show in a snippet. Hence ensure those words invite (human) clicks, although Google will evaluate the full title as a ranking signal. Still, don’t overuse keywords.
A meta description is an HTML attribute that summarizes a page. It is not visible to visitors, but search engines frequently show it in organic results below the title.
Sample meta description: “Practical Ecommerce: Independent analysis and strategy for online merchants — Amazon, SEO, analytics, marketing, design, payments, social media, cross-border, multichannel, shipping, much more.” Click image to enlarge.
Here’s Practical Ecommerce’s home page meta description used by Google in search results.
The meta description for Practical Ecommerce’s home page in Google’s search results. Click image to enlarge.
Meta descriptions are not ranking signals but can influence searchers’ decisions to click the listing in organic results.
Words that people use in a search are bolded in the description of the search snippet, as shown above with the query “practical ecommerce.” Thus including searchers’ terms in the meta descriptions is important for clicks, as are calls to action.
Google shows only the first 150 characters (or so) of meta descriptions in search results, although it experiments continually with that length.
The H1 HTML tag defines the most important heading of a page. Google often shows it in search snippets instead of the title tag, and it’s visible and dominant to page visitors.
Use similar writing principles for H1 tags as for titles, but keep in mind an H1 could impact visitors’ engagement, a ranking factor. Thus compose H1 headings to entice visitors to read and scroll on a page.
The body copy is why visitors access a page. Use keywords naturally in language that reads well. The beginning is more critical than the end. Forget about keyword density. The more natural the copy, the better.
In an era of AI search, include question and conversational words, related terms, and intent-based keywords, such as:
I’ve addressed tools and resources for AI search.
H2 and H3 subheadings help Google and humans understand a page’s structure. They also improve visitor engagement by making it easier to skim and find what’s helpful.
Use keywords in subheadings, but don’t overdo it. Like anything on the page, subheadings should be natural.
Contextual linking — linking from body copy — sends a stronger ranking signal than linking from the navigation menus. Always include internal links to related content (and products). External links to trusted sources and related tools are helpful, too.
Both internal and external links help Google understand the relevancy of a page.
SE Ranking sponsored this post. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own.
Wondering how AI is affecting your traffic?
Want to learn how to get into the AI Overview at the top of SERPs?
Miss the days when you could appear as the top result on a SERP?
It’s possible to relive those SEO glory days by learning how tuned in your website is to AI.
AI Overviews, or AIOs, are one of Google’s newest search features to grace the SERPs.
AI Overviews provide users with AI-generated answers and topic summaries, and they are gaining momentum. Google launched it as an experiment in May 2023, and since then changed the traditional search to kick off a new era of SEO.
Now the focus for SEO is on optimizing websites for AI Overviews.
According to SE Ranking’s studies, this feature is often observed for longer, mainly informational queries. These queries are common in niches like Relationships, Food and Beverage, Business, and more. While AI Overviews were initially only available in the US, they have recently expanded to six countries, where they can now hold top positions in search results.
No doubt, this is only the beginning of the rise of AI Overviews. To stay ahead in SEO, start tracking the impact of AIOs on your sites now. Let’s look at how to do this quickly and easily!
Begin by finding out which of your keywords trigger AIOs and which ones you can optimize your content for.
This will help you attract more traffic through the new search.
Doing this manually can take a long time, especially if you have a large project with thousands of keywords.
To automate this process, use SE Ranking’s Competitive Research tool. This tool contains 22 million AIO-triggering keywords in the US region and 2.2 million in the UK region.
Pro tip:
Explore the intent, search volume, position, and difficulty of all keywords triggering AIOs. This will help you prioritize content optimization for AIOs. For example, if a keyword is likely to bring in very little traffic, don’t focus too much on monitoring and optimizing content around it.
The next step is to streamline how you monitor your presence in AIOs. Keeping track of every keyword manually is difficult and time-consuming, so having an automated tool is a must.
We suggest using the handy AI Tracker because it lets you add and monitor up to 1,500 keywords.
The AI Tracker is available to all users during the 14-day trial of SE Ranking. Access this tool and our complete SEO suite to outperform competitors and boost traffic.
To get started:
Once you’ve added the keywords, the tool will check their positions in AIOs daily. This makes it easy to monitor changes in AI results and your presence in them.
Of course, many SEO specialists are concerned most about whether their site is included in the AI Overviews source list.
Consider using the AI Overview Presence graph in SE Ranking’s AI Tracker to understand the situation clearly and see how visible your site is in AIOs. This tool shows how many of your added keywords triggered AIOs and how many AIOs feature your site in Google’s list of resources.
Look at the table below to see which keywords triggered AIOs and which didn’t. If the icon has a gray strike-through, there are no AIOs for that keyword. If the icon is gray, there are AIOs present, but your site is not included. If the icon is purple, your site is featured in AIOs.
What do these numbers mean? If there are 100 AIOs but your site appears in only 10 of them, you’re likely losing traffic. When AIOs appear in search results, users often won’t scroll past them to find your site. This still holds even if it ranks first in regular results. Recent research from SE Ranking confirms this, stating that featured snippets show up alongside AI Overviews 45.39% of the time, while ads appear with AI Overviews a staggering 87% of the time.
This data helps you identify which keywords to focus on. You can then track how your new AIO strategy performs over time. If you take steps to get into AI snippets, each graph will show a rising curve.
But remember: AI Overviews are constantly shifting. AIOs might appear one day for a query and then disappear the next. You might even see your site in an AI snippet at the top one day only for it to disappear completely the next. Moreover, Google is constantly changing the appearance of its AI snippets.
When it was first released, the snippet looked like this:
Now, it looks like this:
There are currently fewer links, with Google shifting them to the right to give them less importance. This ensures they don’t distract users from the main AI-generated information. It’s important to keep an eye on AIOs in case other changes occur. You’ll need to understand what to expect and whether you’ll still be visible in AIOs, even if you’re included in them.
In these cases, the tool stores cached copies of every SERP it crawls. This allows you to see how the appearance of AIOs has changed over time. You can easily check if your website links were prominently displayed in the AIOs or if they were hidden behind a button.
Another important step is to monitor the sites that appear in AIOs where your site is missing. Why is this useful? It helps you identify gaps in your content and allows you to optimize it. This increases its chance of being included in AIOs.
You can use the Organic-AI Overlap graph to check how many sites from the top 20 are currently featured in AIOs for your keywords.
Use the AI SERP Competitors section to fully analyze this data. It will show you:
If you notice that the AI snippet includes many sites outside the top 20, focus on what these sites are doing to be cited by Google. Conversely, if Google favors the top 20 sites for certain keywords, continue optimizing your site. It may eventually reach the top and greatly increase your chances of being featured in AIOs.
AIOs may also disappear, so aiming for top rankings is always a winning strategy.
The entire digital world is entering a new era of AI-driven search. What we are seeing now is just the beginning. While the future is a mystery and holds more changes, one thing is certain: AI is here to stay, and we must adapt to work with it.
Monitoring AIOs is an essential part of this new strategy. Setting up this process correctly will undoubtedly give you results.
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This article has been sponsored by SE Ranking, and the views presented herein represent the sponsor’s perspective.
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Image Credits
Featured Image: Image by SE Ranking. Used with permission.