Microsoft has announced an expansion of Bing’s generative search capabilities.
The update focuses on handling complex, informational queries.
Bing provides examples such as “how to effectively run a one-on-one” and “how can I remove background noise from my podcast recordings.”
Searchers in the United States can access the new features by typing “Bing generative search” into the search bar. This will present a carousel of sample queries.
Screenshot from: blogs.bing.com, October 2024.
A “Deep search” button on the results page activates the generative search function for other searches.
Screenshot from: blogs.bing.com, October 2024.
Beta Release and Potential Challenges
It’s important to note that this feature is in beta.
Bing acknowledges that you may experience longer loading times as the system works to ensure accuracy and relevance.
The announcement reads:
“While we’re excited to give you this opportunity to explore generative search firsthand, this experience is still being rolled out in beta. You may notice a bit of loading time as we work to ensure generative search results are shown when we’re confident in their accuracy and relevancy, and when it makes sense for the given query. You will generally see generative search results for informational and complex queries, and it will be indicated under the search box with the sentence “Results enhanced with Bing generative search” …”
This is the waiting screen you get after clicking on “Deep search.”
Screenshot from: blogs.bing.com, October 2024.
In practice, I found the wait was long and sometimes the searches would fail before completing.
The ideal way to utilize this search experience is to click on the suggestions provided after entering “Bing generative search” into the search bar.
Potential Impact
Bing’s generative search results include citations and links to original sources.
Screenshot from: blogs.bing.com, October 2024.
This approach is intended to drive traffic to publishers, but it remains to be seen how effective this will be in practice.
Bing encourages users to provide feedback on the new feature using thumbs up/down icons or the dedicated feedback button.
Looking Ahead
This development comes as search engines increasingly use AI to enhance their capabilities.
As Bing rolls out this expanded generative search feature, remember the technology is still in beta, so performance and accuracy may vary.
In SEO, making strategic decisions without empirical data is like relying on luck for consistent results.
But how can you effectively harness data to guide your SEO efforts and ensure you’re not just shooting in the dark?
This comprehensive guide will show you how to leverage data for confident, results-driven SEO strategies.
The Power Of Data-Driven SEO: A Case Study
Let’s start with a compelling example. Glassdoor.com, before its sale to Recruit Holdings in 2018, had an impressive 29,500,000 in monthly traffic – almost entirely organic.
Screenshot from Semrush, September 2024
Their success wasn’t by chance; it was the result of a meticulous, data-driven approach to SEO.
Glassdoor’s strategy involved analyzing data from various internet sources to identify content gaps and create high-value, well-optimized content.
This approach led to over 200,000,000 backlinks from more than 200,000 websites, establishing their influence and authority in the online employment industry.
The takeaway? Glassdoor used data to identify valuable content assets and gaps, creating content that brought them closer to their prospects.
This data-driven strategy significantly influenced their rankings in search results for the online employment industry.
What Types Of Data Are Important In SEO?
Before diving into strategies, it’s crucial to understand the types of data that matter in SEO:
Each of these data types provides unique insights that can inform your SEO strategy.
The Importance Of Data In SEO
Data takes the guesswork out of SEO, allowing you to focus on what works based on empirical evidence. For instance:
Keyword research data helps you understand your target audience’s pain points.
Bounce rate data can help you address issues affecting user engagement.
Engagement metrics show which content resonates with your audience.
How To Use Data In Your SEO Strategy
Now, let’s explore how to implement data-driven strategies in your SEO efforts:
Identify KPIs that align with your objectives and establish baseline metrics to measure current performance. This provides a reference point for evaluating the impact of your SEO strategy.
Screenshot from Semrush, September 2024
3. Understand User Intent
Analyze search intent behind keywords to effectively optimize your content. Use tools like Google Search Console to track click-through rates (CTR) for individual pages, which can indicate how well your content matches user intent.
4. Choose High-Opportunity Keywords
Identify “low-hanging fruit” keywords with significant search volume and low to moderate competition. Evaluate their business potential before targeting them.
Screenshot from Ahrefs, September 2024
5. Gather And Analyze Your Website Data
Use tools like Google Analytics to track your website traffic and user engagement metrics. This data can provide insights into your search performance and help you identify areas for improvement.
6. Conduct Competitor Analysis
Identify your SEO competitors and analyze their strategies. Tools like Semrush can help you find keyword gaps and backlink opportunities.
Screenshot from Semrush, September 2024
7. Create A Data-Driven SEO Strategy
Based on your gathered data, create an informed SEO strategy. This should include:
Creating your ideal customer profile.
Targeting the right keywords.
Conducting a site-wide audit.
Creating a content calendar.
8. Double-Down On High-Performing Keyword Categories
Identify which keywords drive the most organic traffic and conversions on your site. Use Google Search Console to see which terms rank highest and attract the most click-throughs from search results.
If you use a rank-tracking tool, combine this data with Google Analytics to see how pages perform in terms of traffic, engagement, and conversions.
Once you’ve identified your best-performing keywords, expand your content footprint within these high-value areas.
For example, if “beginner yoga poses” is a top performer, consider developing content for related terms like “yoga poses for flexibility,” “yoga routines for beginners,” and “best yoga mats for beginners.”
These “content clusters” around a topic will help you capture more traffic from thematically related keywords and can increase your domain’s overall authority for that topic area.
9. Analyze What Makes Your Best Content Effective
Examine your highest-performing content to identify factors that make it engaging for users. Consider aspects like:
Word count: Is longer content performing better, or do users prefer concise information?
Tone of voice: Is a casual, conversational tone more effective, or do users respond better to a formal, authoritative voice?
Presentation: How does the use of headings, bullet points, images, and other visual elements impact engagement?
Originality: Are unique insights or original research driving more engagement?
Call-to-action (CTA): Analyze the clarity and appeal of your CTAs. Are they driving the desired user actions?
Understanding which of these variables plays a part will guide you in crafting future content that might mirror the same success.
10. Eliminate Friction From Your Conversion Paths
Analyze which user journeys lead to the highest levels of conversions. Look for commonalities in these high-converting paths and aim to replicate these elements across your site.
11. Prioritize Core Web Vitals
Use Google’s PageSpeed Insights to evaluate your site’s performance across Core Web Vitals metrics. Implement recommended fixes to improve your site’s user experience.
12. Enhance Your Site’s Mobile Usability
With mobile accounting for about 63% of organic search traffic in the U.S., optimizing for mobile users is crucial. Use Google’s Lighthouse tool to test your site’s mobile-friendliness and implement necessary improvements.
13. Analyze Backlinks For More Targeted Outreach
Study your site’s backlink data to optimize your link-building strategy. Use this information to tailor your outreach strategy and target high-authority websites that are likely to find your content valuable.
14. Collaborate With Cross-Functional Teams
Communicate the value of SEO to all stakeholders and align it with broader business goals. Integrate feedback from various teams to improve your SEO workflow efficiency.
15. Monitor And Iterate
Remember, SEO isn’t a set-it-and-forget-it strategy. Continuously monitor your progress and be prepared to iterate based on new data and insights.
Tools To Find SEO Data
To implement these strategies effectively, you’ll need the right tools. Here are some essential ones:
Google Analytics: For traffic data and user behavior insights. GA4 provides detailed information about your website visitors, including their demographics, interests, and how they interact with your site.
Google Search Console: For keyword research and onsite data. Google Search Console shows you how your site appears in Google search results and can help you identify and fix indexing problems.
Ahrefs: For backlink data and competitor analysis. It offers comprehensive insights into your backlink profile and helps you identify link-building opportunities.
Semrush: For comprehensive competitor data and keyword research. It’s particularly useful for understanding your competitors’ strategies and finding keyword gaps.
Screaming Frog SEO Spider: For technical SEO data. This tool crawls your website to identify technical issues that could be impacting your search engine performance.
PageSpeed Insights: For Core Web Vitals analysis. It provides both lab and field data about page performance, with suggestions for improvement.
Lighthouse: For mobile usability testing. This open-source tool audits performance, accessibility, progressive web apps, and more.
Remember, while these tools provide valuable data, the real power lies in how you interpret and act on this information.
Regularly review your data, look for trends and patterns, and use these insights to continuously refine your SEO strategy.
Leverage Data For Decision Making
Success in SEO isn’t luck or magic. With the right data, you can make informed strategies that cut through the noise and achieve better results on the search engine results pages (SERPs).
Remember, SEO is not just about theory – it’s about implementation. The final step of your data-driven decisions is to put your strategies into action and benchmark against your previous performance.
By leveraging data as a foundation for decision-making, you can create more effective SEO strategies.
From capitalizing on high-performing keywords to enhancing mobile usability and optimizing backlink strategies, each data-driven action you take helps solidify your online presence and improve your rankings.
Stay analytical, stay informed, and let the data illuminate your path to SEO success.
This post was sponsored by Wix. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own.
SEO courses seem to be everywhere. In that sense, they’ve become a dime a dozen. That’s generally because they’re both a lead magnet and a solution to a real problem.
To the latter, SEO isn’t an exact science, and it’s not like you can major in SEO at a traditional university. Instead, we have a disparate set of publications (like the one you are reading right now) offering collections of various resources and media from which to learn SEO.
Moreover, most practitioners “somehow” fall into SEO from other disciplines. So you’re really starting from scratch. It’s why a lot of SEOs start off following some pretty bad advice from some pretty questionable (yet highly popular) marketers.
It all makes for a pretty messed up learning curve when trying to “uplevel” (sorry for the marketing buzzword) your SEO know-how.
The solution? A set of organized material from knowledgeable sources built on sound pedagogical tactics—AKA a course.
The problem is, even if a course is free, it’s a serious time commitment. So before you fork over your money and/or your time, how do you know if a course is even worthwhile?
To help answer this question, I am going to take you behind the scenes of how I constructed our SEO course (while of course—pun intended—subtly selling you on the idea of taking our course as this is indeed a sponsored article; I just smashed like three “fourth walls” in one sentence).
Let’s get started. Here’s what I was looking for when I constructed the course and what you should look for when taking or recommending an SEO course.
1. Look For Course Instructors That Align with Specific Expertise
If you see a course and it’s just a bunch of random “big names” you’ve seen all over social media, run.
Yes, you do want a course created by experts in the field. However, it’s not as simple as having a “big name” on board.
To start, popularity on social media doesn’t always equate with actual SEO expertise. What you want to do is sniff out if the course instructors are there for the substance they provide or if this is just some sort of influencer marketing play.
When we went about creating our SEO course, one of the things I was adamant about was that the instructors we hired weren’t just experts in “SEO,” but experts in a specific type of SEO (local SEO, tech SEO, etc.). Meaning, it wasn’t just “Are these folks well-respected,” but are they known in the industry for focusing on that subtopic within wider SEO?
I was also looking for good communicators, not just the folks with the largest social followings. Being a good communicator on social media is different from being able to convey information in a more formal setting that relies on video as the medium.
Aside from areas of specialization, there are all sorts of practitioners who are used to doing SEO in different contexts. There are enterprise SEOs, in-house SEOs, consultants, SEOs who work at agencies, etc.
We thought it was important to have course instructors from all these backgrounds to offer a more complete set of approaches to various SEO considerations.
So if you’re looking into an SEO course, ask yourself:
Is there something to the instructors beyond their name recognition?
Do the instructors have strong subtopic alignment with their course sections?
Are the various subsets of SEO represented? (In-house, agency, etc.)
Do the instructors have previous presenting experience or just big social media followings?
1. There Is No ‘Best’ Course
If a course names itself something like “Best SEO Course”—run. There is no such thing as a “best” SEO course. There is a course that is great at dealing with advanced SEO topics, or courses that are geared towards specializing in something like tech SEO or local SEO, and there are courses that offer a wider breadth, etc.
The right course depends on your needs and objectives and where you are in your SEO journey. As such, the “best SEO course” is a fictitious construct.
To pull the curtain back, we were debating what to do with the term “best” for our course. The query “best SEO course” is certainly a lucrative one. Perhaps it would be strategic for our SEO to include the term “best” in the name of the course.
We decided not to do so even if there was an SEO benefit to it.
We had an idea of who we built the course for: We specifically wanted to help people having a hard time piecing together the topic and who are relying on doing so for their business needs and/or careers. (That’s not to say the course doesn’t apply to other demographics, but rather this is the primary pain point and audience we had in mind when designing the course).
This is basically because when we sat down to discuss the course, we all felt that when we were first starting out in SEO, it was a struggle to piece it all together.
This not only shows why there is no “best” SEO course, it also leads me to my next point.
2. Make Sure The People Behind The Course Are Genuine SEO Experts
Instructors are one thing. The people responsible for developing the course overall are another thing entirely. Now, I am not saying that if the people behind the course are not SEOs, they can’t create a wonderful course. What I am saying is that you better hope they gave creative control to the SEOs involved.
That’s not just for SEO accuracy per se (although that is a big part of it), it’s also because SEOs who have themselves struggled to grasp SEO concepts at some point in their career will better understand what to include in an SEO course.
Then, of course, there is the actual accuracy of the content. While the instructors may be a part of the process, they are far from in control of the course and what it ultimately looks like in post-production.
The question is, how can you tell if SEOs were involved in the backend of the course and to what extent?
There is no 100% tell-tale sign. However, I can say that from my experience working with our course, the way the course is structured might provide hints.
What do I mean?
Usually in an SEO course’s “on-page SEO” section, you would discuss concepts related to all things content, from E-E-A-T to strategy.
In our course, I purposefully did not put this course material under “On-Page SEO.” Rather, the deep dive into content, quality, and algorithms were placed under keyword research.
Why?
I felt that, often, the SEO industry thinks about topics like keyword research a bit too linearly and without enough depth and nuance. I wanted to contextualize keyword research by connecting it to a discussion about what creating quality content for the SERP looks like.
This is what I mean by looking at unique course structuring as a sign that there is real SEO expertise going into the material.
If a course follows an overly generic format, this (combined with other signals might) be a sign that folks without genuine SEO experience have too much input. Which is, obviously, not what you want.
3. Look For Signs of Pedagogy
This has nothing to do with SEO itself, but is purely about what it means to create a good course.
Yes, the curriculum needs to be accurate, but it also has to be delivered in a way that is conducive for learning. Our own process involved a lot of back and forth with our educational team to ensure that we structured everything from the assessments to the course scripts in a way that facilitates learning.
To give some context, we borrowed something that I used to do back in my teaching days—backward planning.
At the start of the process, we developed learning goals within the course section. These goals would form the basis for the assessments that we offer at the end of each course section. All of the course sections were built to fulfill those specific learning goals. In this way, the course itself directly aligns with the assessment, which is only fair.
On top of that, we made sure to use the assessments to extend the learning by mixing in scenario-based questions.
There are millions of ways to go about constructing a course that incorporates sound pedagogy. If you’re looking at a course and it all seems very linear, that might be a good indication that the course lacks pedagogical depth. Which is clearly not what you want, no matter how amazing the instructors listed are.
So when looking at an SEO course and deciding to dive in, don’t just look at it from an SEO perspective. Getting the SEO education right is only half the battle. The course also has to effectively communicate that information to you.
Look for signs of pedagogical life when choosing an SEO course.
Learning SEO can be hard. It can be a very informal process that leaves you wondering what gaps you might have and what you still need to learn.
The need for an SEO course can be real. There are a lot of great SEO courses out there. There are also a heap of “grifters” looking to take advantage of people who need a comprehensive way to learn SEO.
When it comes to signing up for an SEO course, if it feels too “markety” or too “salesy,” it probably is.
Look past the “certifications” every course offers (ours included). They’re nice, but no one is hiring you or giving you a raise because you have one.
Look past the big names a course may have procured.
Look past the overpromising (“Our users have improved their organic traffic by 1000000000000000000000000.9% in just 1 day after completing our course”).
Instead, think about what your specific needs are and if the course is suitable and substantial enough to help you fill those needs.
It pays to dig a bit deeper into a course and pull the curtain back a bit before investing money and in the case of a free course, time.
Ready to start optimizing your website? Sign up for Wix and get the data you need to deliver great user experiences.
Google’s Lighthouse doesn’t use the Interaction to Next Paint (INP) metric in its standard tests, despite INP being one of the Core Web Vitals.
Barry Pollard, Web Performance Developer Advocate on Google Chrome, explained the reasoning behind this and offered insights into measuring INP.
Lighthouse Measures Page Loads, Not Interactions
Lighthouse measures a simple page load and captures various characteristics during that process.
It can estimate the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) under specific load conditions, identify issues, and advise on improving these metrics.
However, INP is different as it depends on user interactions.
Pollard explained:
“The problem is that Lighthouse, again like many web perf tools, typically just loads the page and does not interact with it. No interactions = No INP to measure!”
“If you as a site-owner know your common user journeys then you can measure these in Lighthouse using ‘user flows’ which then WILL measure INP.”
These common user journeys can be automated in a continuous integration environment, allowing developers to test INP on each commit and spot potential regressions.
Total Blocking Time As An INP Proxy
Although Lighthouse can’t measure INP without interactions, it can measure likely causes, particularly long, blocking JavaScript tasks.
This is where the Total Blocking Time (TBT) metric comes into play.
According to Pollard:
“TBT (Total Blocking Time) measures the sum time of all tasks greater 50ms. The theory being:
Lots of long, blocking tasks = high risk of INP!
Few long, blocking tasks = low risk of INP!”
Limitations Of TBT As An INP Substitute
TBT has limitations as an INP substitute.
Pollard noted:
“If you don’t interact during long tasks, then you might not have any INP issues. Also interactions might load MORE JavaScript that is not measure by Lighthouse.”
He adds:
“So it’s a clue, but not a substitute for actually measuring INP.”
Optimizing For Lighthouse Scores vs. User Experience
Some developers optimize for Lighthouse scores without considering the user impact.
Pollard cautions against this, stating:
“A common pattern I see is to delay ALL JS until the user interacts with a page: Great for Lighthouse scores! Often terrible for users 😢:
Sometimes nothing loads until you move the mouse.
Often your first interaction gets a bigger delay.”
Pollard’s Full Post
Why This Matters
Understanding Lighthouse, INP, and TBT relationships is necessary for optimizing user experience.
Recognizing limitations in measuring INP helps avoid misguided optimizations.
Pollard’s advice for measuring INP is to focus on real user interactions to ensure performance improvements enhance UX.
As INP remains a Core Web Vital, grasping its nuances is essential for keeping it within an acceptable threshold.
Practical Applications
To monitor site performance and INP:
Use Lighthouse’s “user flows” for INP measurement in common journeys.
Automate user flows in CI to monitor INP and catch regressions.
Use TBT as an INP proxy, but understand its limitations.
Prioritize field measurements for accurate INP data.
Balance performance optimizations with UX considerations.
New data from BrightEdge shows significant changes to Google AI Overviews, prioritizing topic-specific sites and a stronger focus on ecommerce ahead of the year-end shopping season.
Google Core Update And AIO
An interesting insight from the data is that there is more overlap between AIO and Google’s organic search results, that there is more agreement between the two results. Is AIO mirroring the organic search results or are the organic search results more closely aligned with AIO?
The organic search results themselves changed after the August 2024 core algorithm update and so did AIO. BrightEdge’s data offers evidence of how Google’s organic search results changed.
BrightEdge data shows:
The overlap of URLs cited in AI Overviews with those ranking in the top 100 increased from 37% to 41% post-update.
This is following Google’s August 15th Core Update.
The shift indicates that AI Overviews are prioritizing organic results more than before, pulling from lower-ranked results to create comprehensive responses.
BrightEdge data shows that AIO is ranking lower-ranked web pages for more precise answers. Something else to consider is that both AIO and the organic search results changed and it could be the criteria for ranking changed in a similar way for both AIO and organic, that the algorithms for both are doing something similar.
A significant characteristic of the last update is that it is showing less of the big brand sites and more of the independent niche sites. BrightEdge data shows that AIO is also ranking websites that are more precisely about a topic.
Keep reading because there’s more about that in BrightEdge’s data which could offer insights into what’s going on in the organic SERPs.
BrightEdge Dataset
Research was conducted using the BrightEdge Data Cube X, an SEO and content performance platform for researching industries. |
Data Cube X Facilitates:
Comprehensive Keyword Research
Competitive Analysis:
Automated AI-Powered Content and Keyword Research
Traffic Fluctuation Analysis
Non-Logged-In AI Overviews
Google has rolled out AI Overviews (AIO) to users that are not logged-in to Google accounts, expanding the audience for AIO to a greater amount of people. But it’s not showing across all industries. The data shows that the integration of AIO varies.
Within the context of users who are not logged in, Ecommerce search results for not logged-in users dropped in AIO is less than logged-in users by a whopping 90%.
Users that are not logged-in didn’t see AIO in the following topics:
Education: 21% relative decrease
B2B Tech: 17% relative decrease
Healthcare: 16% relative decrease
Although there’s a decrease in AIO shown to non-logged-in users for ecommerce queries, there is an increase in product grids that are shown to these users compared to logged-in users. BrightEdge speculates that Google is better able to target logged-in users and is thus showing product grids to them on a more precise basis than to non-logged-in users.
More Product Comparisons
BrightEdge’s data indicates that Google AIO is showing more product comparisons and visuals.
Their data shows:
In August, product carousels for apparel-related queries increased by 172%.
The use of unordered lists across industries rose by 42%.
These adjustments make AI Overviews more user-friendly by organizing complex product features and specifications for easier decision-making.
All of those features allow users to make comparisons between products by what the products look like as well as by price. A takeaway from this data is that it may be increasingly important to show original product images (if possible) and to make sure that images shown are high quality and allow users to get a good sense of the product.
Data is always important and it’s a good way to make a product listing or product review stand apart from competitors. Any information that makes improves a consumer’s decision making is valuable.
A good example is for clothing where it’s not enough to indicate that something is a size small, medium or large. Sizes are inconsistent from manufacturer to manufacturer and even within a brand’s own products. So, for clothing, it may be useful to add comparison information about actual sizes within a product line in terms of inches or metric measurement so that a consumer can make an even better choice.
Comparison between products, especially within the context of a product review, is important. One of the product review best practices (and maybe a ranking factor) that is recommended by Google is a comparison of the product being reviewed. Google’s product reviews best practices recommendation is that publishers compare a product to another product so that users can presumably make a better decision.
“Cover comparable things to consider, or explain which might be best for certain uses or circumstances.”
According to BrightEdge:
“As the holiday shopping season approaches Google is refining AIO search results to focus on comparative content, which rose by 12% in August. AIOs prioritized product carousels with engaging imagery, which rose by 172%. Unordered lists (lists of items that are related but in no specific order, such as general searches for ‘winter boots’ or ‘iPhone cases’) also increased by 42%.”
Google AIO Rankings Are More Precise
A data point that all search marketers should be aware of is that Google is ranking more precise content in AIO in a way that might reflect on what is going on with the organic search algorithms.
BrightEdge discovered that generalist sites had massive decreases in rankings while specialists sites had increases. People like to talk about “authority sites” and what they’re usually referring to is “big brands” with a lot of money and reach. But that’s not authority, it’s just a big brand with reach.
For example, most people consider news organizations as authority sites. But who would you go to for SEO information, Search Engine Journal or big sites like the New York Times or Fox News? What the BrightEdge data shows is that AIO is making a similar consideration of what kinds of sites are actual authorities on a given topic and then showing those sites instead of a big brand site.
The obvious question is, does this have something to do with Google’s last core update in August? One of the goals of Google’s last update is to show more independent sites. If the AIO trends mirror the organic search results to a certain extent, then perhaps what Google’s algorithms are doing is identifying sites that are authoritative in a topic and showing those sites instead of a more general big brand site.
BrightEdge’s data shows that AIO rankings of generalist technology review sites dropped. TechRadar.com dropped by 47.3 and TomsGuide.com dropped by 16.4%. This trend was also seen in health related queries where the kinds of sites that AIO quotes also became more precise.
AIO showed less consumer-focused sites and blogs and began showing more sites that are precisely about health. The BrightEdge data showed that consumer news and general sites like VerywellHealth.com experienced 77.9% drop in AIO exposure and EverydayHealth.com virtually dropped out of AIO with a 95.6% decline.
Sites like MayoClinic.org experienced a 32.4% increase and citations of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services AIO increased by +83.2%. It’s not just a trend away from consumer and general news sites, it’s a trend toward more precise rankings of expert and authoritative content.
BrightEdge noted that the following precisely-focused sites experienced increases:
Spine-Health.com +266.7%
Arthritis.org +89.5%
BrightEdge’s report observes:
“This demonstrates Google’s push toward more detailed, factual content in AI Overviews.”
AIO And Organic SERPs
Google has significantly increased the use of product carousels for apparel-related queries, reflecting a 172% rise. These carousels and grids allow for easier product comparisons based on visuals, pricing, and features.
AI Overviews and Google’s organic search results have more overlap than before. The reason for that may reflect a change to prioritize increasingly precise answers from sites that are authoritative for specific topics. Niche sites have gained prominence in both organic and AI Overviews while large more general sites have lost visibility.AI Overviews continues to evolve but the changes from last month indicate that there is a certain amount of agreement between what’s in the SERPs and AIO.
In a recent interview with Aleyda Solis, Google Search Liaison Danny Sullivan discussed the increasing prominence of user-generated content (UGC) in search results.
Explaining the motivation behind the shift, Sullivan cites a growing demand for UGC, and a rise of “terrible” content created by marketers.
Sullivan explained that, through surfacing UGC, Google aims to provide firsthand perspectives that complement traditional webpages.
He stated:
“It really is something that people are craving, and also part of the reason people are craving is because there’s just a lot of terrible content out there, and there’s a lot of terrible content out there that’s been generated through content marketing.”
Here’s more from Sullivan on Google’s shift toward surfacing more UGC in search results.
The Rise Of UGC In Search Results
Over the past year, there’s been an uptick in forum discussions, Reddit threads, and other types of UGC in Google’s search results.
This content often ranks high, sometimes even outranking established websites and brands.
According to Sullivan, Google is evolving to meet the needs and expectations of searchers:
“People are trying to get more authentic information they want to hear from other people with experiences they value that type of thing and we want to show it when it’s relevant or when we actually think it’s of good quality or that it will be helpful.”
Sullivan acknowledged the challenges of executing this UGC-forward approach:
“We’ll show UGC, and it’s not perfect, sometimes from forums, and it’s embarrassing, and there’s been no lack of people who will show us examples of that happening, and I’m sure that that will continue.”
Sullivan explained that the challenge is assessing the relevance and quality of user-generated content at scale.
The Value Of Niche Forums
Sullivan shared a personal anecdote to illustrate the value of UGC in search results.
When trying to solve an issue with his HVAC system, he came across a niche forum dedicated to his unit’s specific make and model.
Sullivan recounted:
“I ended up in this form just for people who have that car who were sharing, and then someone shared an entire thing on how they managed to do it, and I was like, this is amazing, and it was amazing content. I don’t know if you want to say it wasn’t expert content, but it certainly was experiential content that I found immensely helpful, and I don’t think I’m the only one and it wasn’t from a big giant Forum.”
UGC In Medical Searches
Sullivan touched on the concerns around UGC in medical-related searches, which has been the subject of much debate.
He stated:
“Anybody who’s ever actually suffered a medical ailment may find it’s really useful sometimes to be able to connect to other people who have that same ailment and understand what their experiences were like going through a treatment, or what their experiences were like dealing with an illness or how they’re coping with something.”
Sullivan doesn’t believe in excluding UGC from a whole category of searches.
He continued:
“You really, in my view, don’t just rule out the idea that you just could never show UGC for anything. You try to figure out where you can use the signals and how you can figure out with the system to show the stuff when it seemed to be relevant, when it seemed to be helpful, when it seemed to be part of an overall collection of search resources that you can present to people.”
Refining The Signals
Sullivan said that Google will continue to refine the signals and algorithms to address issues and improve the quality of UGC in search results.
He stated:
“Like with everything in search you should just keep working to try to improve it and adjust it and figure out how to get the better signals and how to get the better information that you’re going to present.”
Sullivan claims that including UGC in search results isn’t about prioritizing certain content.
Rather, he frames it as presenting the most relevant and helpful information for each query.
Sullivan states:
“The balance should really be can we do a better job of showing the best content overall doesn’t matter if it’s from a big site, doesn’t matter if it’s from a small site.”
Clarifying Past Statements
Sullivan emphasized that including UGC in search results is not only about “giving people what they want,” a point he feels he has been misquoted on.
He clarified:
“I again when I go back to nuance because you share things and try to explain to people, and then people will take one little thing and throw it back at you. Like, “It’s what people want,” and I’ve got that over and over. Thank you for everybody who shared, and I’m sure you can share it again, but that’s not what I said in full.
I said that people are trying to get more authentic information. They want to hear from other people with experiences. They value that type of thing, and we want to show it when it’s relevant or when we actually think it’s of good quality or that it will be helpful.”
Looking Ahead
While Google’s championing of UGC is already underway, Sullivan portrayed it as an “evolutionary process” that will continue.
For websites and content creators, this emphasis on UGC reaffirms the value of fostering engaged communities and encouraging discussions around your brand and industry.
Hear Sullivan’s full statements in the interview below:
For those interested in Google’s perspective, another book provides insights into the company’s philosophies and principles.
Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced professional, this list caters to diverse interests and skill levels, ensuring there’s something for everyone.
Books On Search Engine Optimization
1. SEO For Beginners: An Introduction To SEO Basics
Published by Search Engine Journal, this is a comprehensive guide to SEO. It covers everything from link building and SEO history to busting common myths and offering expert tips.
While it’s for beginners, veterans can also gain new insights. The book breaks down complex ideas into bite-sized pieces, making it a great starting point.
It’s well-structured, with each chapter tackling a different SEO aspect – from search engine mechanics to the latest algorithm updates.
The authors don’t just stick to theory. They provide real-world examples and case studies to show how these concepts work in practice. This mix of theory and application makes the book a valuable resource for anyone looking to improve their SEO.
Key reasons to give it a read:
Get a solid grasp of SEO basics from industry pros.
Easy-to-follow explanations of tricky concepts.
Practical advice you can apply to your SEO strategies.
Stay in the loop with current SEO trends and Google updates.
Benefit from the collective wisdom of top SEO experts.
It explains how search engines now use the Knowledge Graph to understand relationships between concepts and offers practical advice on adapting your SEO strategy.
Key points:
Making your brand an “entity” in your niche.
Using structured data effectively.
Getting quality links and mentions.
Creating content rich in entity information.
The book uses real examples to show how these concepts work in practice. It’s meant to help SEO professionals at all levels understand and prepare for where search is heading.
Worth reading if you want to:
Get a solid grip on entity SEO.
Learn actionable entity optimization tactics.
Establish your brand as a recognized entity.
Master the use of structured data for SEO.
Future-proof your SEO strategy.
3. The Art Of SEO: Mastering Search Engine Optimization
The authors break down complex strategies into actionable steps, making implementation a breeze.
What sets this book apart is its holistic approach. It’s not just about ranking; it’s about aligning SEO with your business goals and integrating it into your digital strategy. The book also discusses the role of content marketing and social media in boosting SEO performance.
Reasons to read this book:
Get a complete SEO education, from basics to advanced strategies.
Learn to align SEO with your business objectives.
Access practical, step-by-step guides for implementing SEO tactics.
Understand how to integrate SEO with content marketing and social media.
Benefit from the collective wisdom of three renowned SEO experts.
4. The Psychology Of A Website: Mastering Cognitive Biases, Conversion Triggers And Modern SEO To Achieve Massive Results
Matthew Capala’s “The Psychology of a Website” offers a fresh take on website optimization. Instead of focusing on technical aspects, it dives into the psychology behind user behavior and conversions.
Capala, a seasoned digital marketer, shares actionable tips for creating websites that perform well in search results and keep visitors engaged and more likely to convert.
The book kicks off by exploring how our brains work when we browse websites. Capala then gets into the nitty-gritty of optimizing different website elements, from how they look to what they say.
A big focus throughout is user experience (UX). Capala stresses that a great website isn’t just about ranking high on Google – it needs to be easy and enjoyable for people to use.
While UX is key, Capala doesn’t ignore SEO. He offers practical advice on keyword research, on-page optimization, and building links while keeping the focus on creating content that actually connects with users.
By blending psychological insights with practical digital marketing strategies, Capala offers a well-rounded approach to website optimization that can lead to significant improvements.
Reasons to read this book:
Gain insights into the psychology driving user behavior and conversions.
Learn to create websites that not only rank well but also engage visitors.
Get practical strategies for optimizing design, content, and calls-to-action.
Discover how to enhance user experience and mobile performance.
Learn to integrate SEO best practices with a focus on user engagement.
Benefit from real-world examples and expert insights from a seasoned digital marketer.
5. The Best Damn Website & Ecommerce Marketing And Optimization Guide, Period
It starts with SEO essentials and then dives into advanced topics. The book’s standout feature is its focus on ecommerce, addressing product pages, category optimization, and effective product descriptions.
DeGeyter emphasizes a holistic SEO approach that aligns with business goals and user experience. He also covers analytics for strategy refinement.
This guide suits both small business owners and ecommerce marketers.
Reasons to read:
Master SEO fundamentals and advanced strategies.
Learn ecommerce-specific optimization tactics.
Discover product page and description best practices.
Understand user-generated content’s SEO impact.
Align SEO efforts with business objectives.
Benefit from decades of industry expertise.
6. Ecommerce SEO Mastery: 10 Huge SEO Wins For Any Online Store
Kristina Azarenko’s “Ecommerce SEO Mastery” offers 10 key strategies for online stores. The book tackles common ecommerce SEO challenges like thin content and complex site structures.
Azarenko breaks down each “SEO win” with practical advice on implementation.
Topics include:
Ecommerce keyword research.
Product & category page optimization.
Leveraging user-generated content.
Building quality backlinks.
Site speed and mobile optimization.
Structured data.
The book provides real-world examples and emphasizes data-driven SEO. It guides readers through using tools like Google Analytics and Search Console to track progress.
Reasons to read:
Learn 10 powerful ecommerce-specific SEO strategies.
Gain insights from a renowned SEO expert.
Discover how to optimize product and category pages.
Leverage user-generated content for SEO benefits.
Learn to build high-quality backlinks.
Apply real-world examples and case studies.
Adopt a data-driven approach to ecommerce SEO.
7. Product-Led SEO: The Why Behind Building Your Organic Growth Strategy
It covers link building basics, tactics for acquiring high-authority backlinks, content creation, and practical steps for planning and executing campaigns.
The book emphasizes white-hat techniques and quality over quantity, making it valuable for both SEO novices and pros.
Reasons to read:
Master link building fundamentals and best practices.
Learn diverse tactics for acquiring high-quality, relevant links.
Understand how to assess potential linking websites.
Discover content strategies that naturally attract links.
Learn to plan and execute effective link building campaigns.
Benefit from practical advice and real-world examples.
Access updated, valuable insights at no cost.
Books On Local SEO
9. Local SEO Secrets: 20 Local SEO Strategies You Should Be Using NOW
“Local SEO Secrets” by Roger Bryan is a must-read for businesses targeting local customers. It offers 20 proven strategies to boost local search visibility and drive growth.
Key topics include:
Local SEO fundamentals and how it differs from traditional SEO.
Building local citations and leveraging structured data.
Creating local content and managing online reputation.
Implementing and tracking local SEO strategies.
The book provides actionable advice, real-world examples, and step-by-step instructions. It’s valuable for small business owners, marketers, and SEO consultants working with local clients.
Reasons to read:
Learn 20 proven strategies for improving local search visibility.
Understand key local ranking factors like Google Business Profile, reviews, and citations.
Master GBP optimization for local SEO success.
Discover how to use structured data and local content effectively.
Learn reputation management best practices.
Get practical, easy-to-implement instructions and examples.
Learn to measure local SEO performance with analytics tools.
“How Google Works” by ex-Google execs Schmidt and Rosenberg offers an insider’s view of the search giant. While not focused on SEO, it provides valuable insights for digital marketers and business leaders.
The book offers practical advice and real-world examples applicable to businesses of all sizes.
Understanding Google’s philosophy can inform more effective, customer-focused digital marketing strategies.
Reasons to read:
Get an insider’s view of Google’s success principles.
Understand how to create a user-centric business strategy.
Discover ways to foster innovation and experimentation in your organization.
“Entity-Oriented Search” by Krisztian Balog is a deep dive into modern search engine tech. It focuses on entities, knowledge graphs, and semantic search and is aimed at readers with a background in information retrieval (IR).
A key strength is its coverage of cutting-edge research, like neural entity representations and knowledge-based language models. While tech-heavy, it touches on applications in QA, recommender systems, and digital assistants and discusses future trends.
It’s essential reading for IR, natural language processing (NLP), and artificial intelligence (AI) pros seeking in-depth knowledge of modern search engines.
Reasons to read:
Deep dive into entity-oriented and semantic search tech.
Research on knowledge graphs and semantic understanding.
A detailed look at entity extraction, linking, and ranking algorithms.
Insights on neural entity representations and knowledge-based language models.
Expert knowledge from a renowned IR and search engine specialist.
Conclusion: Choosing Your Next Book
These 11 SEO books have got you covered – whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned pro.
For beginners, “SEO for Beginners” and “The Art of SEO” are solid starter packs that’ll teach you the SEO fundamentals.
As you level up, books like “Entity SEO” and “Product-Led SEO” explore more advanced topics like optimizing for entities and aligning SEO with business goals.
Several books focus on specific areas:
“Local SEO Secrets” is a must-read if you’re targeting local customers.
“Ecommerce SEO Mastery” zeroes in on ecommerce SEO.
“The Link Building Book” is your starting point to master link building.
On the technical side, “Entity-Oriented Search” dives deep into semantic search and cutting-edge search engine tech. “How Google Works” gives you the inside scoop on Google’s mindset.
The key is picking books that match your skill level and areas of interest. Whether you want to learn SEO from scratch, level up your game, or specialize, there’s a book for you.
The Amazon links in this post are not affiliate links, and SEJ does not receive compensation when you click or make a purchase through these links.
More SEO & Marketing Books Worth Your Time:
Featured Image: PeopleImages.com – Yuri A/Shutterstock
Google’s John Mueller clarified the longstanding confusion about whether it’s appropriate to use a noindex rule and a canonical tag on the same page. A 2021 statement suggested that using both might ‘maybe’ work, but his latest statement provides a more detailed and definitive answer.
Noindex Rule And Rel=Canonical
An HTML element is like a building block of a web page. An attribute (like rel=canonical) is something that modifies the element with additional information.
“rel=”canonical” link annotations: A strong signal that the specified URL should become canonical.”
Here is how the noindex and canonical are supposed to work:
The noindex rule is a directive that Google must obey.
The rel=canonical is a “strong signal” that can be ignored.
The conundrum is that the noindex seemingly cancels out the canonical because in theory Google won’t see it. So if Google can’t see the canonical then why did John Mueller previously say in a 2021 video that it’s okay to use both?
What Mueller Said In 2021
The person asking the question cited an SEO Office Hours Hangout YouTube video from 2021 where Mueller had recommended using either the canonical or the noindex rule, explaining the differences. But then later he hedged and said that both noindex and canonical can be used at the same time but qualifying that statement by saying that “maybe” Google might forward the canonical signal, thereby keeping a page out of the index while also canonicalizing the preferred web page.
This is the part of the 2021 video of Mueller that the person asking the question referred to:
“…you can also do both of them.
And it’s something… if external links, for example, are pointing at this page then having both of them there kind of helps us to figure out well, you don’t want this page indexed but you also specified another one.
So maybe some of the signals we can just forward along.”
Screenshot Of 2021 SEO Office Hours Hangout Video
As you can see above, John Mueller qualified his statement with a “maybe” which implies that it’s not an absolute black and white statement but rather a statement that’s colored with shades of gray. Mueller didn’t explain why he used the word “maybe” when he answered but it’s a nuance that’s worth noting.
Is It Okay To Use Noindex & Canonical Tag?
This is the question that was asked on Reddit:
“Hi u/johnmu I was watching this …where you advise using noindex and canonical tags at the same time.
Can you please confirm if this is still valid and in case noindexed page has canonical tag you will forward backlink signals to the canonical version?
For example CNN links to /t-shirt/gray/?price=50 page which is noindexed. One can add canonical tag /t-shirt/gray/ alongside with noindex and google may forward CNN link signal to the canonical version.
thanks”
John Mueller Answers Noindex & Canonical Question:
Mueller offered a more absolute answer by affirming that it’s best to pick one or the other, explaining that a noindexed canonical might nor might not be picked up by Google, thereby explaining why he said “maybe” in the 2021 YouTube Video.
He wrote:
“…I’d just pick one (noindex or followed links). Links on a noindexed page can be picked up, but it’s not guaranteed. SEO is often about making your preference very clear and not about maybe’s. Also, it’s helpful to be realistic: sometimes (often) having a good site structure that generally works well for search engines is better than hyper-focusing on links (or any other individual aspect of SEO).”
Mueller’s Answer Explains Use Of Noindex & Canonical
His answer explains a lot and clears up why he hedged in 2021 with a “maybe” while not exactly getting into the details of why Google may or may not pick up a canonical when a noindex rule is invoked.
For those who want a little more detail about why Mueller said the canonical might be picked up, there’s a tweet from 2020 by Google’s Gary Illyes in which he explains the technical reason why Google might see links when there is a noindex in place.
A nerdy detail is that the person who tweeted the question in 2020 was asking about a robots meta noindex with a “follow” directive but the thing is that there is no such thing as a “follow” directive, according to Google’s robots meta tag documentation. The reason there’s no such thing as a “follow” directive is because following links is the default Googlebot behavior.
When it comes to large websites, such as ecommerce sites with thousands upon thousands of pages, the importance of things like crawl budget cannot be understated.
However, doing that properly oftentimes involves new challenges when trying to accommodate various attributes that are a common theme with ecommerce (sizes, colors, price ranges, etc.).
Faceted navigation can help solve these challenges on large websites.
However, faceted navigation must be well thought out and executed properly so that both users and search engine bots remain happy.
What Is Faceted Navigation?
To begin, let’s dive into what faceted navigation actually is.
Faceted navigation is, in most cases, located on the sidebars of an e-commerce website and has multiple categories, files, and facets.
It essentially allows people to customize their search based on what they are looking for on the site.
For example, a visitor may want a purple cardigan, in a size medium, with black trim.
Facets are indexed categories that help to narrow down a production listing and also function as an extension of a site’s main categories.
Facets, in their best form, should ideally provide a unique value for each selection and, as they are indexed, each one on a site should send relevancy signals to search engines by making sure that all critical attributes appear within the content of the page.
Example of Facet Navigation from newegg.com, August 2024
Filters are utilized to sort items with a listings page.
While the user can use this to narrow down what they are looking for, the actual content on the page remains the same.
This can potentially lead to multiple URLs creating duplicate content, which is a concern for SEO.
There are a few potential issues that faceted navigation can create that can negatively affect SEO. The main three issues boil down to:
Duplicate content.
Wasted crawl budget.
Diluted link equity.
The number of highly related pieces of content continues to grow significantly, and different links may be going to all of these different versions of a page, which can dilute link equity and thus affect the page’s ranking ability as well as create infinite crawl space.
You need to take certain steps to ensure that search engine crawlers aren’t wasting valuable crawl budgets on pages that have little to no value.
Canonicalization
Turning facet search pages into SEO-friendly canonical URLs for collection landing pages is a common SEO strategy.
For example, if you want to target the keyword “gray t-shirts,” which is broad in context, it would not be ideal to focus on a single specific t-shirt. Instead, the keyword should be used on a page that lists all available gray t-shirts. This can be achieved by turning facets into user-friendly URLs and canonicalizing them.
For example, Zalando’s facets are great examples where it uses facets as collection pages.
Screenshot from Zalando, August 2024
When you search in Google [gray t-shirts] you can see Zalando’s facet page ranking in the top #10.
Screenshot from search for [gray t-shirts], Google, August 2024
If you try to add another filter over a gray t-shirt, let’s say the brand name ‘Adidas,’ you will get a new SEO-friendly URL with canonical meta tags and proper hreflangs for multiple languages in the source code
https://www.zalando.co.uk/t-shirts/adidas_grey/
However, if you decide to include a copy on those pages, make sure you change the H1 tag and copy accordingly to avoid keyword cannibalization.
Noindex
Noindex tags can be implemented to inform bots of which pages not to include in the index.
For example, if you wished to include a page for “gray t-shirt” in the index, but did not want pages with price filter in the index, then a noindex tag to the second result would exclude it.
For example, if you have price filters that have these URLs…
…And if you don’t want them to appear in the index, you can use the “noindex” meta robots tag in the
tag:
This method tells search engines to “noindex” the page filtered by price.
Note that even if this approach removes pages from the index, there will still be crawl budget spent on them if search engine bots find those links and crawl these pages. For optimizing crawl budget, using robots.txt is the best approach.
Robots.txt
Disallowing facet search pages via robots.txt is the best way to manage crawl budget. To disallow pages with price parameters, e.g. ‘/?price=50_100’, you can use the following robots.txt rule.
Disallow: *price=*
This directive informs search engines not to crawl any URL that includes the ‘price=’ parameter, thus optimizing the crawl budget by excluding these pages.
However, if any outbound links pointing to any URL with that parameter in it existed, Google could still possibly index it. If the quality of those backlinks is high, you may consider using noindex and canonical approach to consolidate the link equity to a preferred URL.
Otherwise, you don’t need to worry about that, as Google confirmed they will drop over time.
Other Ways To Get The Most Out Of Faceted Navigation
Implement pagination with rel=”next” and rel=”prev” in order to group indexing properties from pages to a series as a whole.
Each page needs to link to children pages and parent. This can be done with breadcrumbs.
Only use canonical URLs in sitemaps in case you choose to canonicalize your facets search pages.
Include unique H1 tags and content in case of canonicalized facet URLs.
Facets should always be presented in a unified, logical manner (i.e., alphabetical order).
Implement AJAX for filtering to allow users to see results without reloading the page. However always change the URL after filtering so users can bookmark their searched pages and visit them later. Never implement AJAX without changing the URL.
Make sure faceted navigation is optimized for all devices, including mobile, through responsive design.
Conclusion
Although faceted navigation can be great for UX, it can cause a multitude of problems for SEO.
Duplicate content, wasted crawl budget, and diluted link equity can all cause severe problems on a site. However, you can fix those issues by applying one of the strategies discussed in this article.
It is crucial to carefully plan and implement facet navigation in order to avoid many issues down the line when it comes to faceted navigation.
When implementing effective SEO strategies for clients, a frequent challenge is managing limited resources, especially in content creation and the technical capabilities needed to execute SEO recommendations.
This complexity increases when working with organizations operating across multiple territories and markets.
Each region may have its own set of regulations, language requirements, and market-specific needs, adding another layer of difficulty in executing consistent and compliant SEO strategies across different territories.
In these cases, strategies and routine activities often need to be adjusted to meet the specific laws and regulations of each location.
Non-compliance with these regulations might not directly impact your overall digital performance.
The organization could face significant consequences in the form of legal charges and potential fines.
Adjusting to these differences is essential for maintaining compliance and ensuring the successful implementation of SEO strategies.
Common Legislation
While understanding legislation may not fall entirely within the scope of SEO, being aware of the limitations it imposes on activities and data collection is crucial.
Legal regulations can directly impact how data is gathered, used, and stored, influencing SEO strategies in significant ways.
Beyond the DMCA, other legal frameworks can also affect SEO efforts, depending on the region in which a business operates.
Compliance with data privacy laws – like GDPR in Europe or CCPA in California, for example – can shape how businesses handle user data, adjust targeting, and execute their SEO tactics across different jurisdictions.
Global Privacy Legislation
Privacy regulations have a significant impact on SEO, as they influence how businesses can collect, store, and use personal data.
When we talk about privacy legislation, the two that generally come to the top of mind are the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
Other privacy legislations that you may come into contact with when working with a global organization include:
Understanding these different privacy laws and how they affect data handling (and user tracking) is important, as data between regions may not be directly comparable because of these laws.
European Accessibility Act (EAA) 2025
The EAA 2025 aims to improve accessibility for persons with disabilities across the EU by setting common requirements for certain products and services.
It aims to standardize practices, so that businesses comply with unified accessibility standards by June 28, 2025, promoting equal access to digital products and services.
This means that web design will need to adapt to meet specific accessibility standards, ensuring that websites are usable by individuals with disabilities.
This could include incorporating features like keyboard navigation, screen reader compatibility, alternative text for images, accessible forms, and adequate color contrast, allowing for a more inclusive online experience.
As companies work to adapt (and become compliant) to this legislation, third-party software may be introduced to websites to facilitate a number of (if not all) of the requirements.
This means adding scripts and potentially altering how a page loads and renders for both users (and search engines).
Geo-Blocking Regulation (EU) 2018/302
The Geo-Blocking Regulation (EU) 2018/302 is a European Union regulation aimed at preventing unjustified geographical discrimination of customers within the EU’s single market.
It came into effect in December 2018.
The regulation specifically targets practices that aim to block or redirect users trying to purchase goods, or services, online from a website “based” in a different EU member state.
A key feature of this is geo-blocking. The regulation aims to prevent geo-based redirects, such as automatically redirecting users to a different section of the website (such as a localized subfolder) based on IP.
During the Covid pandemic, there were calls for regulation to adapt to the shifts in user behavior with online shopping.
Anecdotally, I’ve not seen many instances of companies in the EU falling foul of this regulation for geo-blocking.
In 2021, Valve, the company behind Steam, along with a number of video game publishers, were fined €7.8 million for geo-blocking practices. Outside of this instance, very few have surfaced in my news feeds.
Differences Between US State Laws
Laws governing consumer protection, digital goods, and subscription services differ widely across U.S. states, resulting in unique legal frameworks that businesses must consider when operating in multiple regions.
These variations create challenges for companies, particularly in advertising and data compliance, as they must tailor their practices to meet the specific requirements of each state’s regulations.
Consumer Protection & Advertising Laws
Many states implement their own criteria for defining deceptive advertising, with some, like California and New York, establishing stricter guidelines than federal standards.
California’s Unfair Competition Law (UCL) and New York’s General Business Law are prime examples of state laws that set specific requirements for advertising practices.
These regulations often demand a higher level of compliance, making it essential for businesses to adjust their marketing efforts accordingly.
An example from the tangible world is the claim of “Made in the USA.”
In California, the definition of what qualifies as “Made in the USA” is notably more stringent than federal guidelines, directly influencing how companies can promote their products.
Businesses must carefully navigate these rules to ensure their advertising aligns with state-specific standards.
Laws Governing Digital Goods & Services
The sale and advertisement of goods and services online in the U.S. are often governed by varying state regulations. One area where this is evident is in the treatment of digital goods, such as ebooks and software.
Some states, like Texas, classify digital goods as taxable, requiring businesses to apply sales tax to their transactions.
Other states, such as Delaware, do not impose taxes on digital goods. These differences mean that businesses selling digital products must remain aware of each state’s rules to ensure compliance across multiple jurisdictions.
Subscription Renewals
Some states, like California, have specific rules around automatic subscription renewals. Businesses must clearly disclose renewal terms, obtain affirmative consent, and make it easy for consumers to cancel. Other states have less stringent or no such regulations.
This could lead to retention and MRR data being lower for states like California than others, and is important to understand this when reviewing data, and then using this to further inform marketing strategy.
Companies must ensure that any third-party marketing vendors they work with are also compliant with these privacy laws.
This includes reviewing contracts and agreements with vendors to ensure they follow proper data-handling practices, including the ability to delete, disclose, or limit the use of consumer data.
Why This Matters
Global compliance is essential for businesses to effectively manage the complexities of the international digital landscape.
Ensuring that SEO strategies align with the legal frameworks of each region is a key part of this process and building long-term, sustainable organic campaigns that drive value across multiple territories.
Looking ahead, it’s not out of the question that Google may introduce a user accessibility metric, similar to how Core Web Vitals serve as a proxy for user experience.
There is some historical basis for this, with prior emphasis on HTTPS for securing the web, along with mobile-first strategies and page speed optimizations.
While these factors are “ranking factors,” the greater emphasis on them was to enact change across the wider internet to benefit users.
Screenshot from: blogs.bing.com, October 2024.
Screenshot from: blogs.bing.com, October 2024.
Screenshot from: blogs.bing.com, October 2024.
Screenshot from: blogs.bing.com, October 2024.
