Hamsterdam Part 24: SEO News Recap from 9/18 to 9/24
By Ethan Lazuk
Last updated:
A weekly look-back at SEO news, tips, and other content shared on social media & beyond.
Quote source: Google Search Central
Opening notes:
*Feel free to jump down to the recap, or keep reading for an introduction and summary of the week’s news!
Introduction to week 24: Clarifications
The September 2023 Helpful Content Update is in full swing this week, and many sites are experiencing shakeups in their rankings. As Google’s helpful content documentation explains:
“Google’s automated ranking systems are designed to present helpful, reliable information that’s primarily created to benefit people, not to gain search engine rankings, in the top Search results.”
– Google Search Central, Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content
As Marie Haynes pointed out in a post on X last week about updates to that documentation, this involves “content created for people” that is “written or reviewed by an expert” with accurate publish dates. (If you’re interested, I’ve also created guides for creating helpful, people-first content and doing people-first SEO in general.)
In the helpful content documentation, Google encourages content creators to self-assess their own content against different questions. Among the expertise questions is:
“Does the content present information in a way that makes you want to trust it, such as clear sourcing, evidence of the expertise involved, background about the author or the site that publishes it, such as through links to an author page or a site’s About page?“
– Google Search Central, Expertise Questions Section (Helpful Content Documentation)
This reminds me of Episode 8 in Season 5 of The Wire, Clarifications. Journalist Scott Templeton had been embellishing and eventually fabricating information for the sake of personally benefitting from his newspaper reporting. Editor Gus Haynes, among others, were catching on, and eventually it came to a confrontation.
“Anonymous attribution in a public setting, there’s no need for it.”
– Augustus “Gus” Haynes, The Wire Season 5, Episode 8
(Viewer discretion advised for all video clips. 🙂 Credit to The Wire.)
Buckle up for a full week’s recap.
Summary of the week’s SEO news and content
- This week was all about Google’s September 2023 Helpful Content Update. Although it rolled out officially on September 14, 2023, and will take about two weeks to complete, it seemed to really kick-in this week and cause quite a lot of shakeup in the rankings for certain websites.
- Similar to the August 2023 Core Update, websites with UGC like Quora and Reddit are seeing visibility gains in some areas. Even oft-criticized LinkedIn articles are seeing visibility increase for some articles. Meanwhile, a lot of niche site owners are sharing stores of dramatic drops. Some kind SEOs are offering help or advisement for some of these site owners, but in some cases, it may be a fundamental issue with the approach to content creation.
- There’s also been some criticism of the impact of the helpful content update on some sites, yet Googlers like John Mueller confirmed today nothing will be rolled back, and they’re committed to the direction things are moving.
- This website you’re on currently has seen about a 225% increase in clicks from Google Search since the Helpful Content Update, but don’t get too excited! I’ve also published new content since then. That said, some older articles did pick up clicks for the first time this week. Unfortunately, Bing Webmaster Tools is down for me at the moment, so I can’t check if there’s been parallel growth there. But, if you use WMT, it too had some cool updates this week as well, including chat data (though no query data from chat) as well as the removal of the disavowal tool.
- Another announcement kind of buried this week is that Google Search may soon integrate into TikTok. To me, this feels like a potentially seismic development, given the proclivity of Gen Z for using TikTok as a search engine (RIP college research papers). But maybe it’s Google (and E-E-A-T) to the rescue?
- We also saw some interesting developments from Google’s ongoing antitrust trial.
But don’t just take my word for it! All of this info and more is contained below in the weekly recap.
Notes:
- If the article times out on mobile, my apologies. Please try viewing on a desktop or WiFi.
- I’ve cut back on the amount of info I include; if you’d like to see more, scrolling through my likes on X or following the people in this recap is probably the best place to start. 😉
Missed last week’s recap? Don’t worry, I got you! Read Part 23 to catch up.
Okay, time for (home)work.
Jump to a section of this week’s recap
- Top posts
- News, Google updates, & SERP tests
- SEO tips & tidbits
- Fundamentals & resources
- Articles, videos & case studies
- Local SEO
- Technical SEO
- Content marketing
- SEO tools, AI & reporting
- Humor section
- Miscellaneous & general posts
Enjoy the recap below! And please support content you find valuable with a like or follow. 🙂
Top posts
These are key news items, tips, or other content I felt were relevant to highlight for the week, particularly if you just want a quick glance.
SEO news, Google updates, & SERP tests
These are newsworthy events in the SEO world from the last week or SERP tests to be aware of.
Bing Webmaster Tools disavow link tool is going away – Barry Schwartz
SEO tips & tidbits
This section has actionable tips, cool tidbits, or other findings and observations that can be teaching moments.
SEO fundamentals & resources
If you’re new to SEO, this section includes essential information, concepts, or resources to learn more about.
Articles, videos, case studies & more
These are longer-form content shared on social.
The Unique Rank Volatility Patterns of the August 2023 Core Update – Mordy Oberstein, Semrush
GenAI and the Future of Branding: The Crucial Role of the Knowledge Graph – Sara Moccan-Sayegh
Local SEO
If you’re into local Search, this section is for you!
Technical SEO
Yep, it still matters. 😉
Content marketing
What’d SEO be without content?
Google Gary Illyes: Comments Sections On Websites Can Be Good – SERoundtable
Tools, AI & reporting
Here’s a recap of updates to tools, and new tools, along with tips for reporting on data.
Humor
Humor is subjective; hopefully, you find these funny as well!
General Marketing & Miscellaneous
This is for great content that isn’t necessarily SEO (i.e., PPC, PR, dev, and social friends check it out!) or even marketing-specific.
TikTok Video: The Future of Fashion & Passion – Lewis Hamilton
Great job making it to the end. You rock!
Show your support for creators: If you liked any of the content shared above, please support that person by liking their post or following them. 🙂
Hungry for more? Check out the past weeks of Hamsterdam.
Or sign up for the newsletter! (Until I get the form back up and running, feel free to shoot me an email to get added to the list.)
Want to work together on your brand’s SEO?
I’m currently taking clients for SEO and content audits and strategy consulting, and soon training. You can learn more about me on my about page.
Get in touch: hit me up on social at @EthanLazuk, by text or call at 813-557-9745, or via email at ethan.lazuk@gmail.com.
Cheers!
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