Hamsterdam Parts 37-38: SEO News Recap from 12/18 to 12/31, 2023
By Ethan Lazuk
Last updated:
A bi-weekly look-back at SEO news, tips, and other content shared on social media & beyond.
Quote source: Decoder
*Feel free to jump down to the recap, or keep reading for opening notes, an introduction, and a summary of the last two weeks’ news!
Opening notes:
We made it! Only a few more hours to go until 2024.
Thanks for a great year, encompassing 38 weeks of Hamsterdam news recaps! (If all goes according to plan, 2024 will see the 100th recap come to fruition.) 😉
I’m not superstitious myself, yet psychologically, reaching a new year is powerful for many of us.
For me, this will be the year of a new website, and new adventures that accompany it.
Speaking of which …
You may notice this Hamsterdam recap is in two parts (37 and 38). You may also be reading it on ethanlazukconsulting.com instead of the usual ethanlazuk.com.
Neither is intentional.
Somehow — not pointing fingers … — my WP-config file was deleted and all of my site files were lost.
This happened two days before the Christmas holiday.
Naturally, it’s been a rough and busy week, so I wasn’t able to post Hamsterdam Part 37 on time last week.
I’ve finally gotten back control over the ethanlazuk.com domain. At the moment, it 301 redirects to ethanlazukconsulting.com, except the SSL certificate (set up automatically through WP) is still pending … (it can take up to 72 hours) … so if you visit ethanlazuk.com, depending on the browser, you may get a scary warning first.
No fear. If you bypass that non-secure website warning, it’ll redirect to this secure domain.
I’m hoping to have ethanlazuk.com back online by Tuesday (Jan. 2nd) to kick off the new year in style.
Speaking of style, this site has much the same content as ethanlazuk.com, but with a new design!
Again, not intentional, but I do like this UX better. 😉
Unfortunately, I lost my original site files, so I had to rebuild as much content as possible using cached versions of my webpages on Google Search.
It’s been a race against the clock the last few days, as some pages were dropped from the search index (ending up as “Crawled, not indexed” in my Google Search Console data), so I can’t recover their content just yet. (I’m hoping my old hosting company has a backup and can help me recover the lost content … if they ever get back to me …)
I plan to create some case studies about this experience to help others, as well. 😉
Because let me be real honest with you … when your website gets hacked and your files deleted, and your managed WP hosting company is nowhere to be found, searching [what to do when your wordpress site gets hacked] on Google isn’t much fun.
There are plenty of guides, sure, but none applied to my situation.
All I really wanted was for someone, anyone, to jump through the screen and help.
Never happened.
The hosting company I was using is run by well-known people in the SEO community. They’d helped me with issues before, yet based on having submitted help tickets with them in the past, I wasn’t hopeful they’d get back to me in a timely manner, holiday or not.
So by Christmas Eve, I started rebuilding my site on ethanlazukconsulting.com. It’s been over a week’s time, and we’re nearly back to normal.
A few more days to go, hopefully …
But Hamsterdam must go on!
So while I haven’t been on social media much lately, and I missed last week’s Hamsterdam recap, I’m going to catch up here with parts 37 and 38.
And Mark (Hamill) my words, Hamsterdam Part 39 will be back on ethanlazuk.com next week come hell or high water! 😉
Ok, enough whining.
Let’s kick off 2024 right!
Introduction to weeks 37-38: “Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose.”
That’s a quote from Yoda.
He’s a smart little character.
But let’s say I’m not a Star Wars fan, and I didn’t know his name, so I asked Google Search for [smart little green character from star wars] …
Hmm, Google Search is pretty smart too (that image with Grogu, the other little smart character, not withstanding).
If Google Search has a “force,” it’d likely be comprised of its knowledge graph coupled that with its generative AI capabilities, now with Gemini in the mix.
I think we’re in for a wild ride in 2024 and beyond, where the levels of acceptable “SEO content” reach new heights, and we embrace bolder user-centric standards and new frontiers for organic search visibility beyond rankings.
Ok, that’s been my obligatory EOY SEO prediction.
But it’s not just me, and it’s not just on Google Search.
The CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella, recently talked about SEO and Bing.
Did you catch that?
ICYMI:
“Whether it’s in the answer, whether it’s in chat, these are just different ways to represent the ten blue links, more in the context of what the user wants. So the core measure, even what SEO looks like, if anything, that will be the thing in the next multiple years we’ll all learn. Perhaps there will be new incentives in SEO to even generate more authoritative content that then gets in.”
– Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO, Decoder with Nilay Patel (TikTok)
Like Yoda says, we must train ourselves to let go of what we fear to lose.
I was devastated to lose my website this week because I had achieved good rankings (including featured snippets and SGE citations) for notable SEO-related keywords, I was on track to receive 250 clicks from Google Search in 28 days, my latest blog article was starting to get meaningful traffic from Google Discover, and I was developing a personal knowledge panel.
Now that SEO equity was being diminished day-by-day (and still is, frankly), through no fault of my own, and as an SEO, that’s a devastating feeling.
But so what? I can get it all back, and then some in 2024 and beyond, right?
My dad said it best, when I was talking to him on FaceTime while in a sour mood on Christmas day over this whole website fiasco, when he said: “You’re a prolific writer. You’re not going to run out of ideas. They can’t prevent you from creating more.”
Exactly.
I try to make the world and the web better through my actions. I believe in charity and the golden rule.
But maybe there are hackers, spammers, and scammers out there who just want to see it all burn. Or maybe they’re desperate for something themselves.
I can’t control that.
All I can worry about is what I can control.
And if work gets lost along the way, or things change, so be it. There’s always more. 🙂
The same applies to SEO on the whole in 2024. Say we get another substantial helpful content update, SGE or the next big thing rolls out, and there’s even more carnage to “traditional” SEO content.
Train yourself to let go of the past.
Embrace new opportunities for Search, as in life.
Buckle up for a full two weeks’ recap, and enjoy the vibes:
Summary of the week’s SEO news and content
- There are reports of New Year’s Eve search rankings volatility. (I recently wrote about what this general SERP volatility may mean going into 2024 and beyond.)
- Google has been battling spam in its search results.
- Overall, a slow week in terms of highlights, but big things are on the horizon!
Except don’t just take my word for it. All this info and more is contained below in the weekly recap!
Final notes:
- If the article times out on mobile, my apologies. Please try viewing on desktop or WiFi.
- If you’d like to see more posts, scrolling through my likes on X or following the people in this recap is probably the best place to start. 😉
Missed the last recap? Don’t worry, I got you! Read Part 36 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.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on compensating creators for AI training – (Watch on TikTok)
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.
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
Longer-form content of all kinds.
Google’s shifting approach to AI content: An in-depth look – Mark Williams-Cook, SEL
Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) simply explained – Luc van Donkersgoed’s Notes
New Google SGE insights: Content formats, YMYL, product views – Danny Goodwin, SEL
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?
Tools, AI & reporting
A recap of updates to tools, new tools, along with tips for reporting and AI insights.
Humor
Humor is subjective; hope you find these funny, as well!
General Marketing & Miscellaneous
This is for great content that isn’t necessarily SEO (i.e., PPC, PR, dev, design, and social friends, check it out!) or even marketing-specific.
Rick Rubin on creating art as a “diary entry” – (Watch on TikTok)
Jeff Bezos: Truth is uncomfortable – (Watch on TikTok)
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: I’m on social at @EthanLazuk, available by text or call at 813-557-9745, or email me at ethan.lazuk@gmail.com.
Cheers to a great 2024!
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