Consider this post your EOY reminder that, if you haven’t accomplished the above things on your website, you should get started on doing so immediately. When Google starts enforcing the above signals anyone who is not prepared may be in for quite a shock to their rankings.
Search engines have not only changed the world from a consumer perspective but from a job seeker’s as well. Working in search is not only a viable career option but one that is in high demand.
For anyone who has an interest in search engines, here are a couple of real world career-level positions in the modern workforce that should be considered:
Search Engineer
Main goal for a search engineer at a company is to structure the company’s data into useful information groups that can help for grow their customer base as well as improve internal processes overall.
If you are interested in a search engineer position then a background in computer science, engineering, mathematics or information technology is best to have accroding to many career information hubs online.
Learning programming is a must but which specific language is debatable. The ones that seem to be most desired by companies are the following:
Java
SQL
C++
Python
Scala
Search Engineers’ work is quite technical to say the least. Much of the work involves developing and operating search software, including indexing, query parsing and algorithms
According to ZipRecruiter, the average annual salary for an SEO Engineer as of December 2020 is $65,289 a year in the US.
SEO Manager
Although many SEO projects can be done by a single SEO expert there many others that are simply too large to tackle singlehandely. The amount of SEO work needed for a website with 20 pages is not the same as SEO for a site with over 100,000 pages. For large projects, a team of SEO professionals may be needed. A person with strong leadership ability and vast SEO knowledge would serve as the SEO manager and keep the team the focused.
An MBA in business management and a solid understanding of modern SEO practices would be a good canidate for this role however a “taskmaster” with years of experience in both SEO and group leadership (instead of an MBA) woud be suitable as well. Once you get past keyword research, certain parts of SEO work can be reduced to data entry since they tend to be monatonous and detailed tasks (meta descriptions, header tags, etc.).
As for the pay, expect to make somewhere between 50K-100K (depending on company and experience) a year according to PayScale.
A couple of days ago a tweet went out directed to John Mueller voicing disapprovement on how Google Search works, stating that “the whole process doesn’t seem fair” and John promptly replied (Full Discussion).
Simply put, John was blunt in his reply and reduced SEOs down to 1 of 4 types:
Spammers
Lazy
Lost folks
Well-meaning folks
A brutal truth to say the least. Learning to execute SEO effectively is not an overnight process and the temptation is strong to look for shortcuts or just give up all together. Also, there are heaps and heaps of information (some good. some bad.) regarding effective SEO practices that stay within Google and other major search engine’s guidelines. It is a daunting task to read through all the latest “news” when so much of it is riddled with speculation and uncertainty. It’s all part of an SEO’s work, however, so being aware of any latest developments in search is crucial in order to stay ahead of the game.
Another key point Mueller makes is that there are more competitors in search than ever before for many, if not most, industries. There simply isn’t enough room for everyone to be on page 1.
On top of everything else John even admits that Google is “far from perfect. It’s a challenging problem.”
Everything mentioned above must be taken into consideration post-update. Google core updates come and go but following a best practice SEO strategy is a win 100% of the time even if your rank is not exactly what you want. We all want to be first in search but that doesn’t mean that the other ranks on the first page don’t get traffic.
It is completely understandable that SEOs get frustrated with the process from time to time but I find paying attention to what actual Google representatives say helps even if their statements are vague at times.
Getting a 2nd opinion on an SEO matter and talking to those who like to experiment with SEO strategies can be eye opening but chasing theories can be a big waste of time if you are not careful.
I, for one, look forward to see how Google develops it’s search engine.
Despite any recent setbacks an SEO might have had as a result of the recent algorithm update, I think all of us can agree it is a privilege to be working in this space.
Separating fact from opinion has always been a goal for machine learning usage in search quality development. Speculative journalism has it’s place as sharing opinions can be a good thing and can help people develop new ideas and improved systems for all kinds of purposes. It is important to isolate fact from fiction especially with YMYL (Your Money Your Life) searches, which can greatly affect peoples financial, physical, and mental health if bad information is given.
Recently John Mueller spoke on the extent to which machine learning is used in search and it was pretty interesting to learn this new information.
“There are always so many algorithms in play; some are more suitable for ML (Machine Learning) than others. Suitability also requires room to remove bias, allow debugging, allow critical corrections, etc. — in addition to delivering better results.” – John Mueller
If topics are easy to understand and a website has clear and concise content machine learning can do much of the work alone but when concepts get more complicated and searches are extremely open ended as far as intent goes sometimes machine learning, in it’s current state, has to take a back seat and let human intervention take over. Because of this, there is no real negative effect machine learning has on SEO and can actually makes the SEO process quicker by speeding things up if the content being SEO’d is simple and easy to understand.
Overall, it is a relief to hear John tell us that machine learning isn’t always used and it depends on the circumstances since it is one less thing that any SEO has to worry about as far as causing a ranking disturbance.
This Summer John Mueller (@JohnMu), Google’s Search Liaison, let everyone know some very useful information about images in regards to SEO for Google Search.
Mueller was asked if an original photo needs to be used to get the best results for SEO?
“It doesn’t matter for web-search directly.”
This would make sense on the surface as a website can use any image it wants to help convey it’s message. Even something abstract without a clear, direct message. Obviously this can save money on any website’s marketing budget since original photos require time or money to procure.
Free Stock Images Ok For SEO But What About For GMB?
Can the same be said for a Google My Business profile? Nope.
If you try to use stock photography for a GMB profile (the #1 component for local SEO) it’s quite possible the photo might be rejected and/or not shown (Plenty of personal experience with this through working with multiple GMB profiles over the years). This makes perfect sense when the photo is being used for verification and not expression. It’s not to say that you can’t upload all types of photos to a GMB profile but Google still requests original outdoor and indoor photos of any physical business location.
No Duplicate Content Penalty?
Then there is always the matter of duplicate content. Google hates duplicate content and exact match content will simply not be ranked. Does this rule apply to images though? John Mueller’s statement is one thing but this long term duplicate image experiment seems to send a different message suggesting there is actually a slight ranking advantage to original images, however, the heads of the experiment admit that “although this experiment shows a clear advantage for sites with unique images, it does not convey in any way the strength this advantage has in comparison with other signals.”
Google uses several signals but the overall feeling is that stock photos won’t hurt SEO but they are still missing a signal advantage and maybe more as image identification technology continues to improve.
December has been a bad month in Google for adult webmasters. John Mueller dropped a bombshell on blackhatters and adult webmasters (often 1 in the same) by letting everyone know that just because your website features adult content doesn mean it is excluded from Google Search guidelines:
“I understand that some people might say ‘oh, well, everyone in my niche is doing it the wrong way therefore I also need to do it that way.’ And I don’t know. It might be that there are individuals in special niches where our systems just aren’t picking up the abusive or problematic techniques well enough.”
The adult industry tends to be the most innovative when it comes to marketing and the use of technology. With technology comes many, many products and with marketing comes a seemingly unlimited amount of variety in aestetics. This leads to major volume in adult niches which lead to tremendous amounts of websites being created that Google needs to regulate and keep from exploiting the flaws in their search engine’s ranking system.
To throw gas on the fire, Mueller also announced that rich snippets are longer allowed on adult websites:
“It’s more that our systems recognize: oh this is an adult website, and it wants to show these rich results types, but since it’s an adult website we just won’t show them. So it’s not like it will be demoted or anything.”
Not all search engines allow adult content and in a industry that may be pioneers in innovation also greatly suffer when there is a lack of it. Long term content value is hard when content volume is created at such a rate that it is in the adult entertainment. Because of all this adult webmasters need as much help as maximizing their search potential making it a difficult niche to perform well in.
Will Google continue to crackdown on Adult websites? Most likely as it is a niche that is usually a “test bed” for blackhat methodology and pushing the limits to see what is possble to do in Google Search.
I will actually put the most important point in the title since I will tell you right now that Apple has NOT officially announced a new search engine. It is a rumor for now but, to be fair, a rumor with some basis for existing in the first place.
This basis mainly comes from Apple’s new iOS 14 program which allows iPhone users to search topics that they choose themselves that also can be displayed on the screen without a third-party search engine (i.e. Google) Quite an interesting feature that could possibly lay the groundwork for Apple to release a new search engine.
A Financial Times report (subscription required for full report) claims Apple has been further motived to ramp up activity in releasing the search engine is Google’s recent antitrust lawsuit. This is clearly speculation but a good point as far as timing for release goes.
More food for thought against Apple releasing a search engine comes from this article on using keyword traffic data that shows why Apple is not releasing a new search engine from a new perspective.
What it most likely seems is that it’s not a search engine but instead Apple is working on trying to improve AI and it’s Siri technology.
Of course, if Apple actually does release a search engine it would be quite interesting to see how it competes with Google’s and probably do wonders for Apple’s stock price.
Search intent is a difficult thing to gauge. However, search popularity isn’t thanks to Google Trends.
Google search trends has shown that the recent cryptocurrency bull run reflects search data differently than previous bull runs have shown in trends.
The volume of search discovery is significantly different compared to last time. Could it be the institutional investors that have been spoken about it the news? Maybe, considering Bitcoin has hit new all time highs this week.
What does this reveals about the usefulness of Google Trends as a speculative investor tool? Nothing that doesn’t involve reliance on other signals such as trading volume and news stories (and more speculation) but as time goes on and how exactly this most recent cryptocurrency bull run plays out and what the trend data shows along side it may reveal some new information. After all, it’s possible things are still getting started and those old familiar large spikes might be showing up indicating new search search discovery (or at least a reignited interest from past searchers).
If the recent hype is true, and institutional investors have been entering the crypto-space, then Google Trends data may be speaking some loud truths, revealing what a trend of search discovery is like and how sudden spikes and crashes can parallel similar trading volume patterns but, in contrast, flat search trends indicate a more stable market because those entering the market are not doing so for the first time, or, at least not hearing about the market for the first time.
In conclusion, if the recent crypto bull run with Bitcoin shattering it’s all time high this week is something more permanent then Google’s recent flat search trends for “Bitcoin” and “Cryptocurrency” may be displaying search trend data in front of all our faces showing that this run isn’t temporary but something much bigger…
– Official tweet from Google’s public liaison of search @searchliaison
After first being launched on December 3rd, Google’s December 2020 core update completed on December 16th which was announced via Google’s twitter feed.
Google’s December 2020 core update has been the biggest update in a while. Significantly more impactful than an earlier core update Google ran back in May this year which affected a wide scope of site types. We have seen extensive coverage all month long from multiple search engine news publishers.
So, what does Google want? How can a site rank well in this current search environment?
What has become apparent is that useful and unbiased, context-focused content seems to thrive even in business oriented searches made up primarily of sites that need to promote their brand and their message. If you are looking for a service or product by searching in a search engine the results may contain sites that aggregate content related to the service or product you are looking for rather than being made up of only individual companies who actually sell you said service or product. This is why so many directories like Yelp, Homeadvisor, and Upcity continue to rank well in Google.
Whether or not this December 2020 core update has had any effect on directory sites hasn’t been completely determined but because many still maintain a 1st page ranking so it’s clear they haven’t been negatively affected overall.
Content > Backlinks
It’s still early but backlinks are being weighed less it seems. Content is being weighed more. This is not anything surprising. Since 2014, when Matt Cutts of Google first spoke on links losing value over time, we’ve officially known links have been losing importance in Google’s algorithm. Any veteran SEO who has been in this game for the last 10 years has first hand experience when it comes to links losing strength in Google. My Facebook page ranking at the top for my core keywords in my city is some proof of this. It has some social shares with nofollow links behind each one so you could argue that the page has hardly any links at all and none that Google officially recognize to pass authority (dofollow) but it does have a healthy amount of content related to SEO. My official website (what you’re on now) has better backlinks but that doesn’t matter with this update at least. Examples of this can be seen in many cases by anyone who is familiar with looking at backlink profiles.
So far this core update has definitely changed the landscape of search but the core of search seems to be showing the same 1st page batch of sites for their respective keywords relieving SEOs everywhere including me. It means the foundations are still here and there is a right way to do SEO to get constant and stable (somewhat) rankings.
The most common use case for SEO is business promotion. Simply put, ranking a website in Google that has commercial purposes and represents a business.
Here are 3 other lesser known use case for SEO:
Self-Promotion
It’s not uncommon for people to create a website just to promote their resume. With proper SEO, employers finding a potential employee’s resume in Google search is possible. Furthermore, employers may find it impressive that a particular resume shows up in search, adding to a wow factor that can greatly influence an employer’s decision.
Additionally, influencers, entertainers and educators on YouTube can use SEO to rank their videos in search and grow their channel.
Awareness
Bringing social awareness and promoting non-profits using SEO is smart as many people seeking to learn about specific issues affecting the world will turn to major search engines.
Smaller, lesser known, organizations that depend on donations and are working on a shoe-string budget find the free traffic SEO can generate a life saver.
Affiliate Marketing
A personal favorite of many SEO experts everywhere.
A steady stream of organic traffic derived from SEO can be used to create passive-sales generation affiliate marketing vessels. A literal flow of passive money. Part of the draw comes from the fact that many affiliate marketing sites sell digital products so people must turn to the internet to search and download them.
SEO is powerful not just to traditional businesses looking to promote online but to anyone everywhere looking to receive attention online.
