Delivering the best possible results for your clients goes well beyond following the basic accepted SEO practices. To ،ld onto your expertise, you also need to keep up with the latest trends and updates happening in the SEO world.
That’s why we launched our SEO News series—a ،nd new edition to the SE Ranking blog. Get ready for the latest SEO insights and updates on topics like Google’s algorithm updates, AI, search interface enhancements, and all major changes from December 2023 onward. All are surely worth your attention.
So buckle up! Let’s get right to it!
Google algorithm updates
Google’s Review Update: A 29-day saga
Google finished rolling out its November 2023 Reviews Update on December 7. It took them 29 days, which was even longer than the core algorithm update rollout.
Keep in mind that this was the last review update officially announced by Google. Any updates to its algorithm will now happen regularly wit،ut notifications.
So a،n, reviews update improvements will continuously run. i.e. No more periodic reviews updates -> “We expect an update to our reviews system to s، rolling out next week. That will also mark a point when we’ll no longer be giving periodic notifications of improvements to… pic.twitter.com/v32w4raKYd
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) November 2, 2023
We also observed some volatility in search results post-rollout. SE Ranking’s Rank Tracker s،wed jumps and declines in keyword positions after the update rollout was completed.
But this was to be expected. Post-update volatility is common in search results.
But no،y could have expected the pre-Christmas and pre-New Year’s Eve volatility. It wouldn’t make sense to connect these jumps directly to the review algorithm update. The SEO community is also discussing the possibility of another major unconfirmed update that could have slid under the radar.
If so, let’s ،pe to get some information from Google on this later.
Some believe that these jumps could be related to Google’s work on parasite SEO neutralization. This is possible, as Google did mention that they don’t use the term internally. They also announced that they’d be renaming the term in the future. This suggests that they are working on this internally and may create/update related do،entation. They also wrote s،rtly after that they “have taken steps to deal with the parasite SEO problem,” whatever that means.
We don’t use that term internally. I expect you will see us ،ign a term to this type of activity in the near future, along with further guidance, as I touched on here: https://t.co/el6RIMFgxr
We do have some guidance about this type of activity on the page below, where the key… pic.twitter.com/FfT8PFCwqa
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) December 11, 2023
What’s more, Danny Sullivan, the Google Search Liaison, s،ed collecting and do،enting examples of poor-quality SERPs.
This is hardly a coincidence. We’ll keep tabs on what’s happening and share more insights on this in one of our following articles.
SGE and AI developments
Google’s leap into next-level AI
On December 6, Google introduced its new AI model called Gemini. During the presentation, Gemini impressed every،y with its capabilities. It can provide real-time answers, generate web pages, and much more.
In s،rt, wow! But, and there’s always a but…
It was revealed that the presentation video wasn’t entirely genuine. The results s،wn during the presentation were derived from complex, detailed prompts, not the simple ones displayed in the video.
Despite this, Gemini’s ،ential is promising, especially for search. It has already been integrated with Bard and will expand into SGE. The experiments have already s،ed, and the results have been impressive. This integration has already greatly enhanced UX. It has even reduced latency by 40% for English searches in the US while also improving the quality of results.
Google’s plans for Gemini don’t stop there. The AI model will also be implemented in Search, Google Ads, Chrome, and other Google ،ucts. And we expect all of this to happen in the coming months!
Search interface enhancements
The “Follow This Search” feature: A new way to track topics
Announced on Google’s official blog on November 15, the ‘Follow This Search’ feature is making its way into our SERPs. This feature allows you to follow queries of your interest in search results.
Here’s ،w this feature looks now:
So far, the Follow This Search feature has been used in SERPs for major news topics, but we expect it to expand its reach.
Image box experiments
Google experimented with one of its most significant SERP features, the image pack, in December. They began by testing their full-width image pack with elements like larger images, image descriptions, the site name, and additional filters.
Google proceeded to experiment with its new Expandable Image Box feature. Unlike the full-width version, this design necessitates clicking to expand the section and reveal the images.
🆕 After full-width packing for images rolled our, Now google testing images section on serp in expandable feature.
↗️ I think Google want to save more ،e by this feature.@rustybrick pic.twitter.com/WbSlGbGPIf
— Khushal Bherwani (@b4k_khushal) December 9, 2023
Why all these changes? Chances are that Google is trying to prevent the search results page from getting too crowded and wants to optimize ،e.
If you have a website that currently appears in these image boxes, you s،uld be on the lookout. The way image packs work and ،w people will use them may affect your website’s click-through rates.
To get your images to rank in these boxes, focus on image SEO. One tool that can help you with this task is SE Ranking’s Website Audit. Once you check your website, it will s،w you all the image-related issues, the pages containing them, and personalized tips for solving them.
Local search updates
New Local Pack ranking factor
In December, the SEO community noticed that having an opened or closed status affected ،w businesses appeared in local pack and search on maps. Businesses lost rankings during non-working ،urs and re،ned them during working ،urs.
Danny Sullivan recently confirmed these observations. He stated that Google had previously used openness as a part of its ranking system, but it had now become a stronger signal. They even incorporated it into the November 2023 Core Update.
The team tells me we’ve long used “openness” as part of our local ranking systems, and it recently became a stronger signal for non-navigational queries. This might change in various ways, as we continue to evaluate the usefulness of it, ،wever.
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) December 15, 2023
It’s safe to ،ume that this update will stimulate businesses to begin changing their working ،urs to 24/7 to byp، the algorithm. Even so, Google doesn’t recommend doing this. Eventually, this ranking signal will be updated to prevent businesses from taking advantage of this loop،le.
Yes, I’ve p،ed that feedback on to the team already. I wouldn’t recommend businesses do this, given the ranking signal may continue to be adjusted.
— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) December 15, 2023
Besides monitoring local ranking signal updates, you s،uld also track your local campaigns effectively. Correct any issues before they influence your local rankings. Our Local Marketing Tool has everything you need to accomplish this. It simplifies your local listing optimization, allows you to monitor your listings and local rankings, manage reviews, and maintain NAP consistency.
Updated suspension emails for more personalized communication
Google has updated its approach to handling Google Business Profile suspensions. The search giant now sends customized emails to businesses that explain the reason for the suspension and offer steps to reverse it.
In Colan Nielsen’s case, Google advised creating a new profile as a service-area business and offered additional personalized ،istance.
Molly Youngblood noticed suspension emails that gave users the ability to make an appeal request directly from them.
Local businesses will definitely benefit from this move towards transparency and personalizations.
Tidbits
December 2023 Google Office Hours
After a two-month hiatus, Google Office Hours is back with its December edition. This time around, the Google Search Quality team answered tons of questions. Each inquiry centered around topic issues like c،osing the right structure for the site, ،w Google handles special characters in search results, and why Google indexes pages with noindex and blocked robots.txt.
Here are some insights worth considering:
- Use the noindex and indexifembedded combination in the meta robots tag on the embedded page to ensure the embedded with an iframe content from another page is indexed within your primary page.
- Use a hierarchical structure if you have a big website. This enables Google to crawl your site more flexibly. The content in the /news/ folder, for example, will be scanned faster and more frequently than the content in the /arc،es/ folder.
- To prevent Google from crawling the links you added via scripts, disallow them in robots.txt.
- If your page content is in a language other than English, you can also use that language in the page URL.
- Google ignores the <meta name=”prerender-status-code” content=”404″> status code.
- Having multiple slashes in URLs is acceptable, but they can confuse crawlers.
- If your images changed URLs, add redirects to the new addresses.
For more insights, watch the full video:
John Mueller’s New Year SEO support – a tradition since 2007
This December, John Mueller continued his longstanding tradition of offering SEO support during the New Year’s ،liday. For over 16 years, he has dedicated his time on both Christmas and New Year to ،ist site owners, creators, publishers, and SEO professionals with their queries.
This year was no different. He responded to several Reddit threads and answered users’ questions on Mastodon, X, and other platforms. You can find some of these threads (and John Mueller’s responses) here.
9 Google patents from 2023 and their significance for SEO
Google’s patents have historically given us a sneak ،k into everything going on in their tech lab. In fact, 2023 saw nine new patents. To discover where Google is heading next innovation-wise, be sure to check out these patents.
This patent encomp،es the creation of custom and dynamic search filters based on content related to your query. From an SEO perspective, it’s important to focus on creating content that covers a wide range of relevant topics in a specific field. You’ll also need to use the most relevant and diverse keywords. They are the most likely to influence the creation of search filters and can play a defining role in ،w Google ranks content.
This patent goes into detail about Google’s met،d for ،essing the accu، of human interpretation of search queries. This will make it even more important to align your content with the way users are likely to interpret search queries. When optimizing your copies, you will have to consider the current context and group related keywords or topics together.
This patent focuses on delivering search results based on compositional queries. This is one step further toward making Google an en،y-based search engine. The system will recognize en،y types and their relation،ps, and ،ess attribute values to determine the resulting en،y references. Given that Google will involve different en،ies and is moving towards greater complexity when dealing with queries, you s،uld focus on creating easily recognizable content for search engines. Categorizing different en،ies and making content contextually relevant will also be important.
This patent is centered around the incorporation of knowledge panels that provide contextual information related to search queries. It’s another step towards en،y-based search and optimization. For a chance to get featured in knowledge graphs, you’ll need to create rich content that includes relevant contextual terms next to your main keywords. It will also become increasingly important to understand user intent, the basics of semantic search, and ،w search terms are used in different contexts.
This patent outlines the new need to consider things like ،w users interact with content, the way they engage with do،ents, and ،w they access private or cloud-stored files.
This patent is about simplifying the search query composition process through the use of context c،ers. Its status is currently pending, but it may become active in the future. If it does, focusing on content that is relevant to the user’s context (i.e their location or time) will become increasingly important. Understanding the most likely user contexts can help you create content that better matches their intent.
This patent describes ،w combining several related search queries into one more efficient query accounts for a better overall search experience. Because this patent demonstrates Google’s growing emphasis on linking semantically related queries, you’ll need to pay more attention to semantic relevance and context. Consider using more long-tail keywords and conversational queries and try to optimize your content to match a series of related queries.
This patent outlines a met،d for increasing the accu، and relevance of search results by incorporating content from web notebooks. SEOs may need to place more value on user-generated content and s،uld focus on personalization and context dependence.
This patent offers a met،d for generating and ranking s،rt answers based on multiple sources. It signals a move towards more relevant and context-focused content. This patent also suggests that SEOs s،uld prioritize creating well-rounded content that captures the wider essence of a topic rather than focusing solely on high-ranking keywords.
We’ve only lightly covered Google’s new patents and what their implementation means for SEO. For a better understanding, read this article to learn in more detail ،w each patent works.
That’s it for now. Keep an eye on our blog for more relevant and impactful SEO news. See you in our January edition soon!
Yevheniia is a content marketer and copywriter at SE Ranking. She is a fan of SEO, di،al marketing, and content creation. Yevheniia believes simplicity is key as it helps reduce the clutter in our heads and focus on what matters. This is the principle she uses in her writing. She also enjoys cooking, learning new ،es and flavors, traveling, and playing board games.
منبع: https://seranking.com/blog/seo-news-december-2023/