Searchers who expect a website to always be available may be disappointed to encounter a 503 status code.
However, brief downtime is perfectly acceptable.
During the April edition of the Google Search Central SEO office hours, a question was raised about the potential impact of intermittently serving 503 “Service Unavailable” status codes.
Gary Illyes, a long-time Google webmaster trends analyst, clarified the search engine’s stance.
“Serving a 503 status code for an extended period of time will cause a decrease in crawl rate.
Fortunately for you, 10-15 minutes every now and then is not ‘extended’ by any means, so you should be fine.”
The Importance Of Uptime
While 100% uptime may be ideal, it’s not required to maintain good rankings in Google’s search results.
Websites undergo periods of maintenance and updates and can experience unplanned outages from time to time.
As long as these downtimes are brief and infrequent, they’re unlikely to impact crawling and indexing severely.
An extended period wasn’t clearly defined, but the example of 10-15-minute windows several times per week was deemed acceptable.
Previously, Google stated it would start deindexing webpages if a site is down for over a few days.
Planning For Updates
Advanced planning and strategy are recommended for websites expecting extended downtime.
Techniques like shadowing a staging site or employing progressive rollouts can reduce the visibility of errors and downtime.
Illyes advises:
“If you do things by the book, meaning the website keeps being resolvable and the actual downtime is minimal, changing [configuration] should not have negative effects on your pages’ rankings in Google’s search results.”
While continuous uptime is ideal for user experience, Google’s systems can tolerate short downtime without negatively ranking the website in search results.
Why SEJ Cares
Google’s guidance on brief 503 status codes provides relief for publishers who may be concerned about the potential negative impacts of website downtime.
Many sites go through regular update cycles on a weekly or monthly cadence, requiring some downtime windows.
These can be for publishing new content, product updates, security patches, and general housekeeping.
Additionally, unplanned outages, server issues, and other unavoidable downtime happen.
As long as temporary blips are being actively resolved, there’s no need to panic about losing rankings and search visibility.
How This Can Help You
Website owners, developers, and SEO professionals managing websites can benefit from understanding Google’s tolerances for 503 status codes.
Some key takeaways:
Plan for and minimize downtime during updates, but don’t stress over short periods serving 503s.
Monitor analytics and user feedback to ensure users aren’t severely impacted by unavailable periods.
Uptime and swift error resolutions should be prioritized as much as possible for overall website health.
Investigate techniques like staged rollouts to reduce errors for major updates requiring extended downtime.
With reasonable expectations set by Google, websites can make informed decisions about balancing downtimes with SEO priorities.
Hear the full question and answer in the video below:
Google has ended support for the video carousel (limited access) markup documentation and the associated rich results because after testing the structured data they realized that it wasn’t useful at scale. Site publishers who use this specific structured data don’t necessarily have to remove it, other search engines may find it useful. However, Google won’t use it for rich results.
Google removed a paragraph from the section of the documentation that was labeled “Video with key moments in search results”.
Removed paragraph:
Video host carousel (limited access): Enable users to explore your video gallery pages by adding ItemList structured data. This feature is currently limited to a small set of providers. Google Search may automatically show a host carousel for your site without you having to add ItemList structured data.”
Google also removed the entire structured data example.
Screenshot Of Removed Structured Data Example
Screenshot of a webpage featuring a videoobject json-ld structured data example. the text and code snippets are clearly visible, intended to explain how to implement structured data for a video about self-driving bicycles.
Google removed a link to the “Carousel guidelines” from the section titled Guidelines where Google links to specific guideline documentation but curiously the page that’s being linked to still exists.
Google removed the following phrase from the “Structured data type definitions” section:
“ItemList: Mark up pages with a list of videos to enable a video host carousel.”
And the entire section listing the recommended properties is now gone.
Screenshot Of Removed Recommended Properties Section
Screenshot of a coding tutorial page showing json code examples for adding video objects to an itemlist, with explanations of the listitem and itemlist properties and urls.
“Removing video carousel (limited access) documentation What: Removed video carousel guidance from the video structured data documentation.
Why: We initially tested video carousel markup with a group of site owners, and ultimately found that it wasn’t useful for the ecosystem at scale. You can leave the markup on your site so that search engines and other systems can better understand your web page.”
Read the updated guidance for video structured data
Brave announced their new privacy-focused AI search engine called Answer with AI that works with its own search index of billions of websites. Their current search engine already serves 10 billion search queries per year which means that Brave’s AI-powered search engine is now one of the largest AI search engines online.
Many in the search marketing and ecommerce communities have expressed anxiety about the future of the web because of AI search engines. Brave’s AI search engine still shows links and most importantly it does not by default answer commercial or transactional queries with AI, which should be good news for SEOs and online businesses. Brave values the web ecosystem and will be monitoring website visit patterns.
Search Engine Journal spoke with Josep M. Pujol, Chief of Search at Brave who answered questions about the search index, how it works with AI and most importantly, he shared what SEOs and business owners need to know in order to improve rankings.
Answer With AI Is Powered By Brave
Unlike other AI search solutions, Brave’s AI search engine is powered completely by its own search index of crawled and ranked websites. The entire underlying technology, from the search index to the Large Language Models (LLMs) and even the Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) technology is all developed by Brave. This is especially good from a standpoint of privacy and it also makes the Brave search results unique, further distinguishing it from other me-too search engine alternatives.
Search Technology
The search engine itself is all done in-house. According to Josep M. Pujol, Chief of Search at Brave:
“We have query-time access to all our indexes, more than 20 billion pages, which means we are extracting arbitrary information in real-time (schemas, tables, snippets, descriptions, etc.). Also, we go very granular on what data to use, from whole paragraphs or texts on a page to single sentences or rows in a table.
Given that we have an entire search engine at our disposal, the focus is not on retrieval, but selection and ranking. Additionally, to pages in our index, we do have access to the same information used to rank, such as scores, popularity, etc. This is vital to help select which sources are more relevant.”
Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG)
The way the search engine works is it has a search index and large language models plus Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) technology in between that keeps the answers fresh and fact-based. I asked about RAG and Josep confirmed that’s how it works.
He answered:
“You are correct that our new feature is using RAG. As a matter of fact, we’ve already been using this technique on our previous Summarizer feature released in March 2023. However, in this new feature, we are expanding both the quantity and quality of the data used in the content of the prompt.”
Large Language Models Used
I asked about the language models in use in the new AI search engine and how they’re deployed.
“Models are deployed on AWS p4 instances with VLLM.
We use a combination of Mixtral 8x7B and Mistral 7B as the main LLM model.
However, we also run multiple custom trained transformer models for auxiliary tasks such as semantic matching and question answering. Those models are much smaller due to strict latency requirements (10-20 ms).
Those auxiliary tasks are crucial for our feature, since those are the ones that do the selection of data that will end up being on the final LLM prompt; this data can be query-depending snippets of text, schemas, tabular data, or internal structured data coming from our rich snippets. It is not a matter of being able to retrieve a lot of data, but to select the candidates to be added to the prompt context.
For instance, the query “presidents of france by party” processes 220KB of raw data, including 462 rows selected from 47 tables, 7 schemas. The prompt size is around 6500 tokens, and the final response is a mere 876 bytes.
In short, one could say that with “Answer with AI” we go from 20 billion pages to a few thousand tokens.”
How AI Works With Local Search Results
I next asked about how the new search engine will surface local search. I asked Josep if he could share some scenarios and example queries where the AI answer engine will surface local businesses. For example, if I query for best burgers in San Francisco will the AI answer engine provide an answer for that and links to it? Will this be useful for people making business or vacation travel plans?
Josep answered:
“The Brave Search index has more than 1 billion location-based schemas, from which we can extract more than 100 million businesses and other points of interest.
Answer with AI is an umbrella term for Search + LLMs + multiple specialized machine learning models and services to retrieve, rank, clean, combine and represent information. We mention this because LLMs do not make all the decisions. As of now, we use them predominantly to synthesize unstructured and structured information, which happens in offline operations as well as in query-time ones.
Sometimes the end result feels very LLM-influenced (this is the case when we believe the answer to the user question is a single Point of Interest, e.g. “checkin faro cuisine”, and other times their work is more subtle (e.g.”best burgers sf”), generating a business description across different web references or consolidating a category for the business in a consistent taxonomy.”
Tips For Ranking Well
I next asked if using Schema.org structured data was useful for helping a site rank better in Brave and if he had any other tips for SEO and online businesses.
He answered:
“Definitely, we pay special attention to schema.org structured data when building the context of the LLM prompt. The best is to have structured data about their business (standard schemas from schema.org). The more comprehensive those schemas are, the more accurate the answer will be.
That said, our Answer with AI will be able to surface data about the business not in those schemas too, but it is always advisable to repeat information in different formats.
Some businesses only rely on aggregators (Yelp, Tripadvisor, Yellow Pages) for their business information. There are advantages to adding schemas to the business web site even if only for crawling bots.”
Plans For AI Search In The Brave Browser
Brave shared that at some point in the near future they will integrate the new AI search functionality directly in the Brave Browser.
Josep explained:
“We plan to integrate the AI answer engine with Brave Leo (the AI assistant embedded in the Brave browser) very soon. Users will have the option to send the answer to Leo and continue the session there.”
Other Facts
Brave’s announcement also shared these facts about the new search engine:
“Brave Search’s generative answers are not just text. The deep integration between the index and model makes it possible for us to combine online, contextual, named entities enrichments (a process that adds more context to a person, place, or thing) as the answer is generated. This means that answers combine generative text with other media types, including informational cards and images.
The Brave Search answer engine can even combine data from the index and geo local results to provide rich information on points of interest. To date, the Brave Search index has more than 1 billion location-based schemas, from which we can extract more than 100 million businesses and other points of interest. These listings—larger than any public dataset—mean the answer engine can provide rich, instant results for points of interest all over the world.”
To get the most out of the resources you put into creating content, you have to share it.
The right sharing strategy can boost your content’s effectiveness and engage with users it might not otherwise reach.
However, each platform is increasingly focused on keeping users within its specific ecosystem, so careful research and planning are key to success in each algorithm and for each audience.
Content sharing is not as simple as reposting content exactly as it appears on your website or blog. Content has to be optimized for each channel or method of distribution.
With platforms so focused on keeping users on their sites, is there hope for using them to generate traffic? Yes, and here are some tips I’ve found helpful.
3 Tips To Help Funnel Platform Users To Your Site
Map The Audience Journey
An audience journey map is a visual map of the steps your audience takes as they make a decision to solve a problem or take an opportunity. It outlines the path from initial awareness through engagement and onto conversion, highlighting key touchpoints.
This tool helps understand and address your audience’s needs, motivations, and pain points at each stage, enabling more effective and targeted content marketing, SEO, and PR strategies.
Analyze an audience’s journey online to gain insight into their motivations and touchpoints for gathering information and making a decision about a given pain point or opportunity. Use these touchpoints and motivations to entice users to search your content.
I find most journey map templates difficult to implement, so I created a new type of audience map template that allows marketers to turn audience insight into an integrated PR and SEO plan.
Screenshot from author, March 2024
Using the audience journey, identify assets based on the audience’s needs at various journey steps. These steps provide opportunities to entice users to search for your content in Google or even type the URL directly into the browser.
Owned Asset Marketing (OAM)
Instead of sharing blog posts or article links directly, create a unique asset with a unique value proposition (UVP) for a specific audience or archetype. Then, optimize that asset for different channels or platforms.
I call this owned asset marketing (OAM).
I reached out to Amanda Natividad, VP of Marketing at SparkToro, who put it like this: “Beat the platforms at their own game and publish zero-click content. Zero-click content is content that offers standalone insights with no need to click. Clicking might be additive, but it’s not required.
This means summarizing conference presentations into shorter LinkedIn posts, taking one key idea from a webinar and writing it as a Threads post, or repurposing a blog post entirely into a video tutorial on YouTube.”
Studies, research, uniquely valuable resource lists (e.g., tools), training courses, expert commentary, or framing on a complex topic identifying an opportunity are all types of assets that can be converted to zero-click content.
For example, I recently launched a Mini MBA about Integrating PR & SEO. As part of the course, I created templates, checklists, how-to videos, and case studies to help marketing leaders integrate their internal PR & SEO teams.
Screenshot from author, March 2024
However, I don’t just share the course online; I repurpose the content to share on social or in my guest articles. The audience map template above is a repurposed asset from my course.
I also had my research team analyze the impact of brand mentions on a site’s ability to rank in the top 3 of Google for the course. I then took the charts and created a unique post on LinkedIn.
Screenshot from author, March 2024
With touchpoints identified across the audience journey and potential asse ideas, distribute the content in a way that drives the audience to search your content. A PR topic tour can help with that.
Use A PR Topic Tour
A PR topic tour is a strategy that focuses on identifying a trending topic and creating a media tour to share an asset: commentary, data, resources, or unique insights about that topic.
The more an audience engages with you about a topic, the more likely they are to search your content or website when they are investigating the topic. This is because they begin to see you as an expert source on the subject.
Here’s the gist of how to create a PR topic tour:
Identify an industry or media trend: Analyze the last six months of media coverage on a topic to identify recent trends. Use Google News, relevant social media (e.g., LinkedIn or Reddit), or BuzzSumo to find a list of trends.
Identify topics: Identify topics that you have an asset about or to create a new asset for.
Create or Optimize an asset: Create a unique asset related to the trend or optimize an existing one for different platforms.
Pitch or distribute at audience touchpoints: Create a list of podcasts, journalists, op-ed sites, relevant social communities, and even blogs to pitch various story angles based on the audience or opportunities in each platform.
A PR topic tour is a great way to establish an individual or company as an expert in a specific topic.
I recently created a PR topic tour case study about Rand Fishkin’s concept of an “influence map.”
Creators write posts using Substack’s editor, publish them, and then email them to subscribers. Creators can earn money through paid subscriptions, which offer them financial support directly from their audience and facilitate a direct writer-reader relationship without the need for advertisements or sponsorships.
Setting up a newsletter through substack is very easy:
Set up your newsletter: Choose a name for your newsletter, customize its appearance, and set up subscription options (free, paid, or both).
Create content: Write your articles or newsletters directly in Substack’s editor and format them as desired.
Publish and promote: Publish your newsletters and share them on social media or other platforms to attract subscribers.
Engage your subscribers: Interact with your readers through comments and feedback to build a community around your newsletter.
2. LinkedIn Newsletters
A LinkedIn Newsletter is a feature that allows LinkedIn users to regularly publish and send a series of articles to their followers directly through LinkedIn.
LinkedIn Newsletters are highly underrated. When you launch a new newsletter, you can notify all of your followers at once, giving you instant access to thousands of subscribers.
Access: Go to your LinkedIn homepage and use the Write an article option.
Select “manage”: Under the Manage button in the article writing interface, select Newsletter.
Screenshot from LinkedIn, March 2024
Create or select: Either create a new newsletter or select one you already have. If you create one, then just name it, provide a description, upload a logo (I recommend a logo and branding for your newsletter), and then click Done.
Screenshot from LinkedIn, March 2024
3. OnePitch
OnePitch is an AI-based journalist pitching tool and is one of my favorites for media relations. However, your pitches have to be really targeted and strong to secure media coverage.
I use OnePitch for:
Write a pitch: Write a pitch for an interesting story idea. A pitch can be for data or expert commentary on a trending topic, a product launch, or another other newsworthy story.
Upload pitch: Use the editor to upload and parse the pitch.
Screenshot from OnePitch, March 2024
Use AI to build a list of journalists: After you submit the pitch, OnePitch uses AI to identify a list of journalists who have written about similar topics.
Screenshot from OnePitch, March 2024
Pitch: Submit a pitch using the tool, which will email the journalist through your email address.
4. Medium
Medium is an online publishing platform where any writer can share their content. It’s useful for those looking to publish their thoughts, stories, and ideas on a wide range of topics through direct republishing or creating new, unique stories or assets.
Medium articles can also rank well on Google if they are unique pieces.
Medium allows you to republish your existing blog posts (if you use their import feature, they even add a rel=canonical link), but you can also use this platform to increase traffic to the full blog posts on your site.
To post on Medium:
Sign up: Visit Medium’s website and sign up using email, Google, Facebook, or Apple.
Set up profile: Complete your profile by adding a photo, bio, and other details.
Write: Click on your profile picture, then Write a story to start drafting your post.
Edit and format: Use the editor tools to format your text and add images or links.
Publish: Once satisfied, click Publish at the top, choose tags, and then “Publish” again to share your post with readers.
5. Reddit
Reddit is a network of communities called subreddits, each focused on different interests, topics, or themes. Users can share news, content, and opinions, engage in discussions, and vote on content. It’s a place for finding trends, advice, and varied perspectives on almost any topic.
And if you haven’t heard, Google has been ranking Reddit content in the top spots more frequently and recently announced a deal to show more Reddit content. So, posting on subreddits can gain additional exposure or traffic directly to your content if you can get a link posted in a thread that ranks well in Google.
Finding relevant subreddits can be overwhelming, but try using SparkToro to simplify the process. This tool allows you to find subreddits based on the audience you want to target.
You can search based on a link to a site, social profile, or keywords your audience uses and then find subreddits that the audience also visits.
Setup SparkToro: Sign up for a free account or one of the paid subscriptions.
Select a seed list: Create a list of social profiles, websites, keywords, social profile descriptions, or hashtags that the audience uses.
Select a version of SparkToro: Currently, SparkToro has two versions. V1 just lets you find subreddits, but V2 allows you to search comments.
Screenshot from Reddit, March 2024
Post on the subreddit: Share content on a subreddit as a personal account and ensure the content creates some unique value for the audience. You can create a new thread or post a comment on existing ones.
Redditors are very conscious of brands attempting to “spam” subreddits with their own content, so this is usually best left to a few employees with active Reddit accounts who may occasionally share company blog posts once or twice a month.
6. LinkedIn Articles
A LinkedIn article lets you publish longer content directly on LinkedIn, which is shared with your followers and potentially a wider LinkedIn audience through the platform’s network effects.
When you publish an article, it appears on your profile and can be seen in the feed of your connections or followers, increasing its visibility. LinkedIn also sometimes distributes articles more broadly based on their relevance and interest to other users beyond your immediate network.
Just like with the LinkedIn newsletters process, you can create a long-form article and post it to your feed.
Screenshot from LinkedIn, March 2024
In the article post editor, just click next instead of creating a newsletter.
Screenshot from LinkedIn, March 2024
7. LinkedIn Personal Posts
LinkedIn posts are highly underrated. As you can see from my personal LinkedIn post below, I received over 57,000 impressions from a single post.
I don’t need to walk you through the posting process on LinkedIn, but note that a post’s reach can be very large.
A few quick tips that help me are:
Use data and charts in posts to increase engagement.
Focus on topics that you’re an expert in.
Use documents that can entice the audience to engage with your post. Engagements seem to increase reach for me.
Screenshot from LinkedIn, March 2024
8. Forbes Councils
The Forbes Councils is a collective of invitation-only communities created by Forbes. Members are selected from various industries and can publish articles on Forbes.com, networking with other leaders.
If you do get approved, you can publish articles every month on a topic that you are an expert in.
And as of the time I wrote this, these articles rank really well in Google. As you can see in the screenshot of Google for the keyword [seo and public relations].
Screenshot from search for [seo and public relations], Google, March 2024
9. Email
Promoting your content through email is an “oldie but goodie” tactic that still pulls major weight.
59% of consumers say marketing emails have influenced their decisions to make a purchase.
I personally use a few email tools: MailChimp, Apollo.io, and PitchBox. Each has a different application.
I’ll focus on Apollo here as it has a built-in contacts database, and I find the UI very easy to use. You can also upload your own list of contacts or use their database to build a new list.
In the tool, you can create automated sequences that work well for sharing informational content related to a theme or topic.
Screenshot from Apollo, March 2024
10. DZone
DZone is an online community and publishing platform where technology professionals and developers share articles, tutorials, and news about software development, programming languages, and emerging tech trends.
It serves as a repository of technical knowledge, offering insights, code snippets, and discussions aimed at helping developers and tech enthusiasts stay updated with the latest in technology and software development practices.
On DZone, you can post a wide range of technical and programming-related content, including tutorials, guides, articles, and news updates covering various aspects of software development, programming languages, DevOps, cloud computing, and more.
It’s aimed at helping developers, programmers, and technology professionals share knowledge and learn from each other.
To post content on DZone, you need to become a community member. Once you’re a member, you can submit articles through its submission process, which involves creating content that aligns with their guidelines and submitting it for review. If approved, your content will be published on the platform.
11. X (Twitter) Personal Accounts
X (Twitter) has changed significantly over the last few years since Elon Musk purchased the platform. Some platform users have said they have seen a drop in engagement over the last few years, but others have seen an increase.
Sharing on X isn’t overly complex, but to garner the largest reach, don’t just share your links but create unique content for the platform. Share images or videos directly with unique content.
12. Personal Page On Facebook
This one seems obvious, but it is a place many people forget.
If you are concerned about spamming your family or friends who aren’t in the industry, consider creating a Facebook list for work folks.
This way, you don’t have to worry about confusing your Great Aunt Gertrude with a step-by-step guide to PPC.
13. Facebook Groups
Facebook Groups are still alive and well! Because many users already use Facebook in their personal time, they are usually more active in Groups.
Join a few industry-related Groups, share your best content once a month, and contribute to the group when possible.
Be sure to stay active as a member of the chat or Group by answering questions, reading others’ content, and contributing genuinely to the Group.
14. Slack Communities
Niche Slack communities are popping up everywhere. I find that these communities are very active.
However, the community guidelines on posting tend to be very strict. Many communities limit the type of content you can post, and typically, you won’t be able just to share links to your content.
To share on Slack Communities, share unique data or insights directly in the community where the threads create their own unique value and engagement instead of trying to get users off the platform.
15. SlideShare
SlideShare is a platform that allows users to share slide presentations, infographics, and other professional content.
It’s a valuable resource for professionals looking to learn new skills, share insights, and present ideas in a presentation format. Users can upload content in various formats, making it accessible to a wide audience for educational, marketing, and informational purposes.
One way to get the most mileage out of your content is by taking highlights and turning them into a presentation for SlideShare.
16. Quora
Quora has been around forever and is known as the internet’s premier question-and-answer website.
Users post a question, and users answer that question. Pretty straightforward.
But when you consider that a business or a representative can research what kind of questions customers are asking and have a detailed blog post ready to answer it, it becomes a great opportunity.
Knowing what your audience is having a problem with can help give you great ideas for content that will drive traffic to your site.
For example, if everyone is asking for information about how to hang a picture on a wall, and you sell the best picture-hanging nails ever, why not flex some of your expertise on the matter?
You get to personally answer a potential customer’s question while providing a handy link to your blog’s detailed explanation of it.
17. Growth Hackers
Most businesses want to scale to take on more work and overcome new obstacles.
Growth Hackers is an online community of user-generated content that provides insights on any topic that can be done to increase your company’s size, revenue, customer base, lead generation, etc.
Every article is detailed and insightful to many different niche industries. Make your voice heard while shining a light on the many ways you are trying to grow your business. It is well worth it.
18. Flipboard
Flipboard is a neat app that condenses the internet into digestible bite-size blocks. It shares content from every major publication you can think of and targets it to the people who are looking for it.
Creating an account and posting your content is a great way to drive traffic directly to your blog. It is also a great way to keep track of industry insights and even your own social media feeds.
What really sets this apart is its simplistic interface, which is backed by some serious clout, algorithmically speaking.
19. Scoop.it
Boasting organic traffic with over 2 million monthly users, Scoop. has become a powerhouse platform for marketers.
Offering content curation software, it helps marketers find authoritative content in their industry, which can then be easily shared on social media.
You can post your content in the hopes that others will also see it and share it with their followers.
Everyone wants to share their content with the world, and this tool makes it easy. It is also a great way to come up with new topic ideas based on what is trending.
20. Listly
Listly is a platform that allows users to create, share, and engage with lists on various topics.
These lists can include items like articles, products, resources, or ideas that other users can vote on, add to, and comment on. It’s designed to facilitate collaborative list-making and sharing, making it easier to collect and discover crowd-sourced information on specific interests or themes.
Screenshot from Listly, March 2024
Sign up for the community, and you’ll be able to post immediately.
21. Threads
Threads is a new social media app developed by Meta, the company behind Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. The app is a direct competitor to X (Twitter).
Threads reached over 100 million users in the first 5 days of being live. However, according to Sensor Tower, the daily active user count was down 82% around July 31st.
Natividad recommended Threads for sharing links directly, saying: “I don’t believe we’ve seen evidence that links are buried in Threads’ algorithm. For now, that seems to be a decent place to drop links in posts. But arguably, one of the best places to include links in your posts is Mastodon, which offers a chronological feed, not an algorithmic one.”
22. Mastodon
Mastodon is a free, open-source social networking platform emphasizing decentralization, privacy, and freedom from corporate control.
Unlike traditional social media platforms like Twitter or Facebook, Mastodon is built on a network of servers, each with its own rules, policies, and community.
As of February 2024, Mastodon had over 8 million users. Once you have your lists created, you can publish them to your audience.
Summary
Natividad provided further clarity, saying: “Social platforms notoriously want to keep us on-platform, so if you’re optimizing for sheer impressions of your ideas, rewriting your content as a fully formed LinkedIn post or a longform Twitter/X post is, sadly, your best bet.
For instance, when Twitter/X changed to the current ownership and they open sourced their recommendation algorithm, users saw proof that links in tweets were penalized and thus, suppressed by the algorithm.”
Content sharing across various platforms requires more than just replication; it demands strategic optimization and understanding of each platform’s unique dynamics.
Content creators can significantly enhance the visibility and impact of their work by employing targeted strategies such as mapping the audience journey, creating optimized assets, and leveraging PR topic tours.
Engaging with platforms like Substack, LinkedIn, and newer entrants like Threads and Mastodon while adapting to their specific content preferences presents a comprehensive approach to not just sharing but amplifying content in a way that resonates and even funnels the audience to your website.
More resources:
Featured Image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal
If you own a local business, it’s quickly becoming imperative to understand Google’s new Search Generative Experience (SGE) and how to adjust your local SEO strategies to maintain and even enhance your presence for optimal visibility, traffic, and revenue.
The good news is if your business has been employing local SEO and content marketing best practices all along, you are well-positioned to adjust to this evolution of search.
AI is rapidly changing how much of the digital world works.
Search engines are also evolving in how they work and deliver results to searchers.
SGE, while still experimental and currently available in 120 countries via Google Labs, is likely going to transform the way people interact with search results by pulling those results directly into Google, providing a more interactive search experience with follow-up content and link suggestions.
In many cases, this may negate the need for searchers to click through to websites at all.
SGE uses a variety of AI-based technologies, including natural language processing, machine learning, and deep learning.
These technologies enable the search engine to understand a user’s search query, process relevant content, and formulate an appropriate response.
Understanding SGE: Beyond Just Links
Traditional search engine results typically provide a list of links relevant to a searcher’s query, where the searcher may need to investigate further to find the optimal answer to their question.
The goal of Search Generative Experience is to go several steps further. Powered by advanced artificial intelligence and language models, SGE aims to:
Synthesize, not just curate information: SGE doesn’t just find relevant websites. It analyzes the content on web pages, extracting specific facts, figures, and insights in order to present a concise, informative answer directly within the search results. As such, SGE is more likely to come into play for searches with informational, rather than navigation or commercial, intent.
Understand nuances: SGE aims to better interpret the intent behind a user’s search. Instead of only focusing on keywords, it will try to grasp the reason for the question. This means local businesses must focus on solving problems, not just selling services or products.
Provide multi-faceted answers: Sometimes, a simple, single answer to a question isn’t sufficient, and SGE provides opportunities for searchers to ask follow-up questions and/or dig deeper for complete answers. If you’re in an industry or niche with divergent approaches, ensure your content is comprehensive enough to be considered and included.
Be creative (sometimes): In select cases, SGE can even generate its own suggestions or solutions to a problem. While not the norm, this demonstrates the shift towards search engines becoming more proactive problem-solvers. This is also one of the known hazards of AI, as it can be prone to “hallucinations” in its attempts to provide answers.
From a local search perspective, SGE looks to enhance experience via a Places module, which replicates a local pack in traditional results, including citations, reviews, and other pertinent local business details.
Let’s clarify SGE’s approach with an example. Imagine a consumer searching for “best hikes to see fall foliage near me.” SGE might do the following:
Locate: Access real-time location data and understand “near me.”
Gather information: Scan hiking websites, hiking or outdoor adventure blogs, local park authority pages, etc., focused on the user’s region.
Prioritize “fall”: Identify content within those sources specifically discussing fall foliage, not just general hiking information.
Potential response: Display a short list of suggested hiking trails, their difficulty level, estimated foliage peak dates pulled from websites, images sourced from relevant pages, and maybe relevant hiking guide services.
Herein lies an opportunity for a local provider of hiking-related services or products to appear within the results for such a query; provided they have relevant, experience-backed, trustworthy, helpful content for Google to reference.
For reference, here’s an actual result SGE provided for this search:
Screenshot from search for [best hikes to see fall foliage near me], Google, March 2024
SGE’s Impact On Local Search
How are local search results pages (SERPs) changing with SGE? Here’s what we’ve seen so far:
Google Business Profile is King: With organic website traffic potentially decreasing, high-performing Google Business Profiles (GBP) with updated information, strong reviews, and relevant content will become even more critical for visibility.
Evolving Map Packs: While traditional local Map Packs will remain important, as noted SGE includes a Places module depending on the type of search being conducted. SGE may incorporate information from businesses featured in the Map Pack, but also include additional businesses to provide even more comprehensive and helpful answers to a user’s query.
Featured Snippets matter: Businesses with content optimized to be concise, accurate, and directly answerable to queries are poised to dominate Featured Snippets.
Screenshot from search for [fixing my knee pain in Barrie], Google, March 2024
Prioritizing user intent: Search engines will become even better at understanding why a user is searching. Localized searches (i.e. those including “near me” or a geographical identifier) will continue to have high relevance.
Mind the long tail: A preliminary SGE study by SE Ranking has found that SGE is more likely to be engaged by long-tail (multi-word) keywords, where searcher intent is generally clearer and more precise.
Less reliance on traditional “10 blue links”: You’ll likely see a decrease in prominence for standard website listings, though they won’t disappear completely. As such, there has been the suggestion of organic search traffic for some websites dropping by as much as 30%. While initially alarming, there is also the optimistic hope with SGE any organic website traffic received will be of higher quality, as consumers are better informed.
Key Strategies For Local Businesses To Thrive With SGE
Far too many local businesses still don’t appreciate the value of GBP and local directories, which may be as, if not more, important than their website in many cases.
Become A Review Magnet
Positive reviews and high star ratings aren’t just a nice-to-have, they’ll likely influence SGE’s assessment of your business.
Encourage happy customers to leave reviews and be sure to quickly respond to any and all reviews as this speaks to the quality of service you offer.
Conduct A ‘Question Audit’
Identify the most common questions your customers ask. Turn the answers to those questions into dedicated content pieces on your website or blog.
Example: A local bakery might find customers frequently asking, “Do you offer gluten-free options?” They create dedicated content addressing this, perhaps even a full FAQ page about dietary restrictions.
Keyword Research With A Twist
Look beyond simple keywords tied to services and products. What problems are people trying to solve that your business addresses?
What questions might they be asking related to your specific niche? Target long-tail keywords and create content that specifically addresses them.
Example: Instead of just “pizza delivery,” a local pizza business might also target “late-night food options near me”, “kid-friendly birthday party places” or “affordable first-date options.”
The Power Of Structured Data
Search engines love structure as they crawl across the web. Schema markup code can be added to your website, providing Google with structured data about your business and a clear understanding of your content.
Schema removes the guesswork, providing an “instruction manual” for search engines. It’s like a neatly organized label for search engines, clarifying details like;
Business type: Are you a restaurant, a clothing store, or a plumber?
Location: Precise address, not just the general city.
Hours of operation: When you’re open and when there are any holiday changes.
Services: What you specifically offer.
Reviews and ratings: Aggregated star ratings from your website or elsewhere
And more: Schema can cover menus, pricing, events, etc.
SGE is new and will undoubtedly evolve, but schema is a standardized format, ensuring that even if the way search engine results are presented changes, your essential data will be readily crawled and understood.
Answer Questions, Clearly
Break down your content into easily digestible question-and-answer formats. FAQs and clear content sections addressing common queries will boost your chances of inclusion in SGE results.
Example: A gardening center might have a section titled “When to plant tomatoes in [City Name]?” followed by a concise answer with climate-specific information for the specified location.
Mobile-First Is A Must
Mobile searches dominate, particularly for local queries, as busy consumers look for answers on the run. Ensure your website is optimized for smaller screens and loads lightning-fast.
Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness are key signals for SGE. Ensure content available to SGE demonstrates your in-depth knowledge of your services and products.
Highlight credentials, awards, or testimonials that support your trustworthiness, both on your website and any reputable external platforms.
Examples: A hair salon features stylist bios mentioning advanced certifications or years of experience on its website. Medical professional bios link out to the institutions where they obtained their credentials. Trades-related businesses highlight the training and certifications their staff members have received.
Linking for Authority
Any solid local SEO strategy must include linking (external website links to reputable, relevant local/industry and backlinks from the same) to provide Google with additional signals of a business’ localness and topical focus; thereby enhancing local and topical authority.
Examples: A local med spa utilizing a particular piece of equipment as part of its service offering links to a detailed product page on the equipment manufacturer’s website. The same med spa obtains a listing and link to its service page via a partner directory offered on the manufacturer’s website.
Visual Content Optimization
Use descriptive file names and alt-text (with location data, where applicable) for images and videos as these assets will also undoubtedly make their way into SGE results.
Add captions to images and transcripts to videos. Showcase visuals highlighting your local area and establishing your “localness.”
Example: A restaurant includes an image of their patio with the file name “outdoor-dining-[neighborhood-name].jpg”
Leverage AI Content Generation With Caution
With the call for more content and the rise of generative AI, there is naturally a temptation to just let the machine do all the work.
However, a recent Google algorithm update has already punished many websites for taking this approach. The focus, as always, should be on quality over quantity, and here are a few reasons why AI-generated content lacks the former:
Accuracy concerns: AI-generated content may not be factually accurate, especially on specific details or niche topics. Remember the “hallucinations” mentioned earlier. This could negatively impact your E-E-A-T and damage your reputation, so be sure to fact-check everything.
Lack of originality: AI often struggles to create genuinely original content. Generic, repetitive text is a common pitfall. SGE is likely to pick up on this and may not include such content in its responses.
Inconsistent voice and tone: Maintaining a consistent brand voice is essential for building trust with customers. AI-generated content can sound robotic or disjointed, failing to capture your brand’s unique personality.
Missing the ‘why’: Great content doesn’t just answer what, but also why. AI might provide factual answers to questions but struggles to explain the reasoning or incorporate valuable insights derived from personal human experience.
So, by all means, leverage AI to ideate, create first drafts, edit or proofread your content, but be sure to add your human touch to any and all content published and shared.
Monitor And Adapt
SGE is relatively new. SEO best practices will continue to evolve.
Use local SEO monitoring tools to track changes in your authority/visibility and stay informed, being ready to adjust your content strategy as needed.
The Future Is Bright: Seize The Opportunities Of SGE
Search Generative Experience presents exciting challenges and opportunities for local businesses.
Similar to Google, a local business’ goal should be to equip its customers with all of the information they need to make informed, confident purchase decisions.
By understanding its mechanisms, prioritizing helpful, relevant content, demonstrating E-E-A-T, and always keeping the user experience central, you can position your small business for success in the evolving search engine results.
It’s a call to truly know your customers, provide value, and leverage technology in a customer-centric way.
Google’s structured data documentation for vacation rentals was recently updated to require more specific data in a change that is more of a clarification than it is a change in requirements. This change was made without any formal announcement or notation in the developer pages changelog.
Vacation Rentals Structured Data
These specific structured data types makes vacation rental information eligible for rich results that are specific to these kinds of rentals. However it’s not available to all websites. Vacation rental owners are required to be connected to a Google Technical Account Manager and have access to the Google Hotel Center platform.
VacationRental Structured Data Type Definitions
The primary changes were made to the structured data property type definitions where Google defines what the required and recommended property types are.
The changes to the documentation is in the section governing the Recommended properties and represents a clarification of the recommendations rather than a change in what Google requires.
The primary changes were made to the structured data type definitions where Google defines what the required and recommended property types are.
The changes to the documentation is in the section governing the Recommended properties and represents a clarification of the recommendations rather than a change in what Google requires.
Address Schema.org property
This is a subtle change but it’s important because it now represents a recommendation that requires more precise data.
This is what was recommended before:
“streetAddress”: “1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy.”
This is what it now recommends:
“streetAddress”: “1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy, Unit 6E”
Address Property Change Description
The most substantial change is to the description of what the “address” property is, becoming more descriptive and precise about what is recommended.
The description before the change:
PostalAddress Information about the street address of the listing. Include all properties that apply to your country.
The description after the change:
PostalAddress The full, physical location of the vacation rental. Provide the street address, city, state or region, and postal code for the vacation rental. If applicable, provide the unit or apartment number. Note that P.O. boxes or other mailing-only addresses are not considered full, physical addresses.
This is repeated in the section for address.streetAddress property
This is what it recommended before:
address.streetAddress Text The full street address of your vacation listing.
And this is what it recommends now:
address.streetAddress Text The full street address of your vacation listing, including the unit or apartment number if applicable.
Clarification And Not A Change
Although these updates don’t represent a change in Google’s guidance they are nonetheless important because they offer clearer guidance with less ambiguity as to what is recommended.
Google’s John Mueller answered a question on Reddit about why people don’t use hyphens with domains and if there was something to be concerned about that they were missing.
Domain Names With Hyphens For SEO
I’ve been working online for 25 years and I remember when using hyphens in domains was something that affiliates did for SEO when Google was still influenced by keywords in the domain, URL, and basically keywords anywhere on the webpage. It wasn’t something that everyone did, it was mainly something that was popular with some affiliate marketers.
Another reason for choosing domain names with keywords in them was that site visitors tended to convert at a higher rate because the keywords essentially prequalified the site visitor. I know from experience how useful two-keyword domains (and one word domain names) are for conversions, as long as they didn’t have hyphens in them.
A consideration that caused hyphenated domain names to fall out of favor is that they have an untrustworthy appearance and that can work against conversion rates because trustworthiness is an important factor for conversions.
Lastly, hyphenated domain names look tacky. Why go with tacky when a brandable domain is easier for building trust and conversions?
Domain Name Question Asked On Reddit
This is the question asked on Reddit:
“Why don’t people use a lot of domains with hyphens? Is there something concerning about it? I understand when you tell it out loud people make miss hyphen in search.”
And this is Mueller’s response:
“It used to be that domain names with a lot of hyphens were considered (by users? or by SEOs assuming users would? it’s been a while) to be less serious – since they could imply that you weren’t able to get the domain name with fewer hyphens. Nowadays there are a lot of top-level-domains so it’s less of a thing.
My main recommendation is to pick something for the long run (assuming that’s what you’re aiming for), and not to be overly keyword focused (because life is too short to box yourself into a corner – make good things, course-correct over time, don’t let a domain-name limit what you do online). The web is full of awkward, keyword-focused short-lived low-effort takes made for SEO — make something truly awesome that people will ask for by name. If that takes a hyphen in the name – go for it.”
Pick A Domain Name That Can Grow
Mueller is right about picking a domain name that won’t lock your site into one topic. When a site grows in popularity the natural growth path is to expand the range of topics the site coves. But that’s hard to do when the domain is locked into one rigid keyword phrase. That’s one of the downsides of picking a “Best + keyword + reviews” domain, too. Those domains can’t grow bigger and look tacky, too.
That’s why I’ve always recommended brandable domains that are memorable and encourage trust in some way.
Since link building helps your site rank higher, we can assume that the highest-ranking sites on SERPs have lots of good backlinks.
The same is true for your competitors who rank higher than you.
And if there are a lot of authoritative sites linking to them, wouldn’t it be nice if they linked to you too?
Of course it would.
Find those sites, and you can start building links there too, right?
Not so fast.
Step 1: Uncover Your True Competitors
First, you need to know which sites are your online competitors. You don’t want to waste your time trying to outrank sites that are not even stealing your customers, after all.
Here’s how to identify a direct competitor:
Their site serves the same purpose as yours and targets the same audience.
It ranks for the same keywords you want to rank for.
Their business operates in the same area as yours.
Click on the Settings button and visit these tabs:
Keywords: enter your ranking keywords there.
Competitors: if you already know some of your competitors, add their URLs there.
Search engines: add the search engines where you want to rank. Local business owners will also want to select locations to narrow down the results.
Click on Save, and the tool will generate a table of sites belonging to your potential competitors. Visit those sites to make sure they are indeed your competitors.
Open Settings and enter your competitors’ URLs in the Competitors tab.
Press Save, and the tool will list all of your competitors’ backlinks – specifically, the pages which link to your competitors.
And now all you need to do is find promising domains among those linking pages. Visit those sites and look for the ones who are likely to give your site a backlink, too – after you’ve created link-worthy content and presented your case to those sites.
By the way, your competitors can also be your backlink donors. Feel free to build links on their sites too!
2. Must-Do Websites For Link Building
Before other sites start linking to yours, you can create a few powerful backlinks yourself. There are websites for that exact purpose:
Carefully pick sites that are relevant to your niche and create listings for your business there. Now you have several authoritative sites in your backlink profile.
What’s more, other websites’ owners can find you there, too. Exposure to others is the first step towards gaining even more backlinks down the line.
And if your site is already well-known enough, you can try creating a Wikipedia page about it. Even though links from Wikipedia are nofollow, the website itself possesses significant authority and can share some of it with you.
3. Run A Blog & Write Articles About Relevant Topics
In order to gain backlinks, you want to have linkworthy content on your website – the more, the better. Write about many different, but related topics about your niche and your business. For example:
Your products.
News in the industry.
Interesting case studies.
Recent going-ons in your company.
Interviews with clients and partners.
The options are limitless. And the more you know about your work, the more you can share with your visitors. Curious writers attract curious readers. Go wild with your pen!
And when you create your content, there are a few more things you can do to help it get more backlinks:
Optimize it for keywords. The higher your content appears in search, the more likely users are to find it – and link to it in their own content if they need to. Use WebCEO’s Keyword Research tool to find search queries your target audience uses the most often.
List your sources – with links. If you refer to other sources in your content, then listing them will make you appear more credible, especially if those sources are also good. And users love linking to credible sites.
Link to other pages on your site. Help your visitors find all the content they may need. Navigation and footer bars are a must since they have links to your homepage, FAQ, contact info pages, and more. However, blog articles on related topics should also link to each other, in case your users need more details.
Screenshot from WebCEO, March 2024
4. Write Guest Articles
Good old guest blogging! The tried and tested method of building links. Write an article for another site and include a link to yours – what could be easier?
Of course, there’s a catch. There are two important steps to take first:
Find relevant sites whose backlinks would be a boon for you;
Convince them to accept a guest post from you.
You already know how to find backlink donors: with Competitor Backlink Spy. Local bloggers, newspapers, and magazines won’t be able to hide from you.
What about the second step? Your best bet here is email outreach.
Pick a promising site whose contact information is available and send them an email like this:
Hi Susan!
I’m John Doe, and I write for {Example Blog}. Nice to e-meet you! I’ve been following your blog for a while, and I’ve found your recent post series about networking very helpful.
Anyway, I’m writing to you because I’m quite familiar with your blog’s topics and I would love to contribute if you’re open to new guest authors. I’ve been brainstorming some topic ideas that I think would be a good match for your blog:
{Topic idea #1}
{Topic idea #2}
{Topic idea #3}
If you have different topics in mind, I will be glad to write about them as well. I appreciate your time and really look forward to working together.
Cheers!
John Doe
If you don’t get a reply, it’s okay to try again – with a different text indicating that it’s not your first try.
Be polite and remember that it’s meant to benefit you both. Good luck!
5. Turn Unlinked Mentions Into Links
If you’ve been around and doing business for a while, people are bound to talk about you. On their sites too.
This is the easiest way to make backlinks. Somebody has already mentioned your business on their site – that’s already most of the work done! All that’s left is to add a link.
Simply contact the person who can edit the page (via email or social media) and ask them to insert your site’s URL into the mention. Done and done.
Just add your brand’s name in the Settings, and the tool will find pages with its unlinked mentions.
6. Provide An Excellent User Experience
Who will want to link to a page that’s barely working? Not the people who give out backlinks, that’s for sure. Even ordinary users will run if a page refuses to work – or even simply offends their eyes.
On the other hand, there are only positives to pages providing good UX:
User activity leading to conversions (potentially spreading across the entire site).
Positive customer reviews.
Increasing Google rankings.
And new backlinks, of course.
Imagine a perfect web page from your dreams, or just remember the best website you’ve ever visited some time before. Then make the same thing on your own site (or even better, if you can).
What’s the recipe for the best user experience?
Helpful, high-quality content. Being helpful is more important than ever due to Google’s Helpful Content update. Your page can be informative and optimized with the best keywords, but if it doesn’t actually help your visitors, then it’s a huge problem.
High-quality visuals. Users love eye-catching images and videos, especially when they not only inform but also entertain. Make sure your images load correctly! If any of them don’t, find them with WebCEO’s Technical Audit tool and replace them.
No site errors. Broken images are but one possible issue that may ruin your site. Scan it for all types of errors with the same Technical Audit tool and fix them ASAP.
Screenshot from WebCEO, March 2024
Fast loading speed. A slow-loading page is a useless page: if visitors leave, nothing happens there. Test your site pages with WebCEO’s Speed Optimization tool and follow its tips for making them load faster.
Mobile friendliness. Smartphones drive as much traffic as PC, so your site must be optimized for screens of all sizes. Scan your site with the Mobile Optimization tool and follow its recommendations for becoming more mobile-friendly.
User accessibility. Make sure your site can be easily used by everybody regardless of their physical ability. Test your site with a tool like EquallyAI’s ARIA to see where you can make improvements.
7. Get Rid Of Harmful Backlinks
Next, make sure your backlink profile isn’t hurting your site. What kind of backlinks can do that?
Bought backlinks.
Spammy backlinks.
Links from irrelevant sites.
Links from non-authoritative sites.
If Google detects too many backlinks like that in your profile, it may deem your site untrustworthy and lower its search rankings. It may even incur a manual action.
You can’t let harmful backlinks pile up and bring you down.
By default, it looks for linking pages that are obviously spammy: those with tons of outbound links and a low trust level. If you want to, tweak the tool’s search criteria to your liking in the Settings. You can even exclude specific domains from the tool’s search if you trust them.
Screenshot from WebCEO, March 2024
Once you have your list of toxic backlinks, start getting rid of them. Your options are:
Delete the backlinks from those pages yourself.
Ask somebody who can edit those pages to do it.
Generate a disavow list in Toxic Pages and submit it to Google Disavow.
Screenshot from WebCEO, March 2024
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A recent report shows that while Gen Z increasingly turns to social media platforms for information searches, Google remains the primary starting point for a significant portion of this age group.
The data published by Axios shows that 46% of internet users aged 18-24 begin their online queries on Google, compared to 58% of those aged 25-39.
This suggests a shift in search habits between Gen Z and millennials, who came of age during Google’s rise to dominance.
However, the numbers also indicate that the move away from traditional search engines may not be as dramatic as some have suggested.
Only 21% of Gen Z users start their searches on TikTok, while 5% begin on YouTube.
The Current Landscape Of Internet Searches
Despite the perceived competition from social media platforms, Google remains the leader in the search engine market.
MaryLeigh Bliss, chief content officer for YPulse, tells Axios:
“Google is still top overall for initial searches, followed by TikTok and YouTube.”
This reinforces the idea that traditional search engines remain at the core of information gathering while usage patterns change.
Challenges & Adaptations
Google has taken steps to adapt to changing user preferences, expanding its AI-powered Search Generative Experience (SGE) tool and highlighting results from forum websites like Reddit.
The company reports that 18-—to 24-year-olds have given the highest satisfaction scores for its AI search results.
Despite these efforts, some users have expressed dissatisfaction with the quality of Google’s search results.
A recent study by researchers in Germany found that low-quality results are often well-optimized to appear high in Google’s search rankings, particularly for product searches.
Looking Forward
Web usage habits are constantly shifting. Compared to older generations, Gen Z’s way of looking for information online will likely continue to evolve.
While social media is becoming a bigger part of how people search, traditional search engines like Google still dominate.
The tug-of-war between emerging and traditional platforms will shape how younger generations seek information on the web.
FAQ
In the context of SEO and online marketing, what are the implications of Gen Z’s shifts in search habits?
The data on Gen Z’s search habits have several implications for SEO and online marketing strategies:
Marketers should consider diversifying their SEO tactics. They should not solely rely on traditional search engines but also consider optimizing for vertical video platforms.
Understanding that younger audiences may start their product or information searches on platforms like TikTok means marketers may have to develop unique strategies to reach them.
To maintain visibility online, consider monitoring and adapting to Gen Z’s preferences, as their satisfaction levels could guide future algorithm adjustments.
