Hamsterdam Part 43: SEO News Recap from 1/29 to 2/4, 2024
By Ethan Lazuk
Last updated:
A weekly look-back at SEO news, tips, and other content shared on social media & beyond.
Opening notes:
- I included a TikTok video in the miscellaneous section at the end. It’s from a former IBM CEO who talks about growing by being uncomfortable. Great advice! But she also brings up a point that stood out to me: “Would a man in your position have asked that question?” (regarding accepting a job promotion).
- I like to help anyone who’s interested in SEO get involved in ways that interest them, particularly the women in my life.
- My younger sister, Abbey, just started a blog about fashion and animal adoption. I helped her a bit with setup and some on-page, but mostly want to let her take her own journey. Check out her first post about the 5 animal rights.
- My wife, Dania, has also been getting more interested in SEO over the years. She took some digital marketing courses last year and is now a co-owner of our company.
- That’s a nice thing about Hamsterdam — everyone is welcome here.
*Feel free to jump down to this week’s recap, or continue for an introduction and summary of the week’s news!
Introduction to week 43: “feeling adventurous”
Every time Google Search Central (or Search Liaison, or anyone associated with Search, really) publishes a new document or insight, or updates a current one, we tend to analyze the reasons behind it.
We look at what the document says, what it doesn’t say, what it’s trying to say, what it’s trying not to say without saying it, what it’s saying without trying to say it’s not saying it, and so on.
In my experience, the more Google documentation I read, the more context I have when making and evaluating the performance from site optimizations.
As Freamon’s character says in the Wire, “… all the pieces matter.”
Google’s SEO Starter Guide, officially called the “Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Starter Guide,” was updated on February 2nd, 2024.
There’s a Search Off the Record podcast episode talking about its refresh.
But what I found most fascinating was the accompanying blog post, “The SEO Starter Guide got a makeover.”
It talks about some of the changes and rationales behind them.
For example, the team removed the glossary section to explain “the individual terms in context.”
That made me think about chunking for LLMs (or maybe SGE snapshots, featured snippets, etc.), but who knows? Because some of the myths mentioned later in the guide (like about a duplicate content penalty) cover some of the same information from earlier in the guide, so that’s kind of the same idea, I guess.
As another example, in the “Do I Need an SEO” section (and yes, you likely do), the team compressed the section and linked to a doc with fuller context.
Not really a surprise there, but it reminds me of this idea of hyper-relevance and streamlining each page for a focus topic or entity. Conversely, I’ve heard people suggest going the other way, all in with comprehensive vs. lighter pages. Maybe try both?
But back to the Starter Guide itself …
As mentioned, there’s a section about duplicate content. It says it isn’t a spam policy violation, but can confuse readers and waste crawl resources.
But what I find interesting is this line, “If you’re feeling adventurous, it’s worth figuring out if you can specify a canonical version for your pages.”
A big focus of the post-game analysis on this refresh was Google saying how E-E-A-T isn’t a ranking factor, but honestly, no one I know has ever said that.
I’m not sure where that comes from, or why we care about that distinction?
Google Search uses ranking systems. E-E-A-T helps conceptualize what those systems in totality look to achieve, particularly for YMYL topics.
Many of Google’s ranking systems use AI, machine learning, or deep learning, which means you can’t really game them and should instead focus on users, and aligning your content with E-E-A-T helps with that.
I included some Reddit posts about this “is E-E-A-T a ranking factor” topic in the humor section as well. I think those users describe it well, haha.
But what stood out to me most from the Starter Guide refresh were the words “feeling adventurous.”
That phrase was used twice.
I checked Wayback Machine. The last Starter Guide version didn’t use the word “adventurous.”
This version talks about “feeling adventurous” in the contexts of assigning a canonical to duplicate content as well as whether to try SEO yourself or hire a professional.
The reason I think the word “adventurous” is so implicative of SEO today is that, as mentioned above, we don’t always know why our webpages are (or aren’t) ranking well.
To that end, Danny Sullivan, as Google Search Liaison, also provided some content advice this week to a site owner about how to improve a particular page.
Again, the rationales for his advice were interesting, as there was no talk of on-page optimization or ranking signals. It was all focused on meeting the user’s expectations.
We also keep hearing things like “HTML structure” matters little for rankings.
When we have fewer known levers to pull, but are instead focused on users, that’s healthy, sure, but it can also get tricky.
It’s easy to identify when an H3 follows an H1 instead of an H2. It’s easy to say, “this is our focus keyword.” It’s easy to say, “add a section of content for XYZ after ABC.”
It’s not as easy to say, “What do our users want on this page, and how can we ensure, by giving it to them, Google will reward the page with visibility in Search for relevant queries or user journeys?”
To participate, one needs to be a bit adventurous.
Whether or not that’s how they meant it, I think it aptly describes SEO today.
Are you feeling adventurous right now?
Buckle up for a full week’s recap, and enjoy the vibes from one of the most adventurous bands I know:
Summary of the week’s SEO news and content
- Danny Sullivan (Google Search Liaison) gave advice to a site owner about how to improve a specific page’s content, all from a user’s POV — super insightful!
- Anton Shulke has organized an SEO for Paws Charity live stream on February 29th. Excellent list of participants, and all for a great cause!
- Cached pages on Google Search are going away for good. This is how I recovered my old site’s content, so I’m a little bummed.
- Google Search Central published their refreshed SEO Starter Guide, as promised last week. No, E-E-A-T still isn’t a ranking factor, but I was more interested in the use of the word “adventurous,” twice!
- Google Bard can now generate images. (Google even updated their profile photo on X with an artistic Bard photo.)
- Bing Deep Search is rolling out to more users, but I personally don’t have it yet, and others have said there’s work to be done on the speed and additive value fronts.
- Google is bringing generative AI to Maps, and their announcement even mentioned a vegan.
- And much more!
But don’t just take my word for it. This and a lot more is waiting for you to enjoy in the recap below.
Missed last week? Don’t worry, I got you! Read Part 42 to catch up.
Thank you for supporting Hamsterdam and helping make SEO accessible to all! 🙂
Ok, 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
Or keep scrolling to see it all.
Also, feel free to support content you find valuable with a like, follow, or friendly comment.
Now, let’s step inside the white flags …
Top posts
These are highlights of news items, tips, or other content for the week. Great for when you just want a quick recap!
SEO news, Google updates, & SERP tests
These are newsworthy events in the SEO world, search engine updates, or SERP tests to be aware of from the last week.
Google might be considering another name for Assistant with Bard: Gemini – Abner Li, 9to5 Google
Google showing TikTok videos in featured snippets, SGE – Danny Goodwin, SEL
SEO tips & tidbits
This section has actionable tips, cool tidbits, and other findings and observations that can be teaching moments.
SEO fundamentals & resources
If you’re new to SEO, this section is for you and includes essential information, concepts, or resources to learn more.
Articles, videos, case studies & more
These are longer-form content pieces shared on social and elsewhere.
Confusing Tools, Reporting Fake Reviews, ‘Highly Rated’ LSAs – Mike Blumenthal, Near Media
The Biggest SEO Trend Isn’t About Rankings: Tracking 10+ Years of Changes to Google Search Results – Andy Crestodina, Orbit Media Studios
Local SEO
If you’re into local Search, this section is for you!
Technical SEO
Everything from basics to advanced techniques.
Measure Web Performance with Web Vitals – Jakub Andrzejewski, Dev.to
Shopify Site Speed Optimization: 6 Tips to Improve Your Site – Hava Salsi, Semrush Blog
Content marketing
What’d SEO be without helpful content?
Tools, AI & reporting
Here’s a recap of AI news, SEO tool updates, new tools, along with tips for reporting on data.
How to measure organic traffic in GA4 – Gemma Fontane, SEL
Humor
Humor is subjective; these are funny!
We’ve all seen Reddit thriving in Search. I think these dialogues about E-E-A-T as a ranking factor show us why …
Comment
byu/WebLinkr from discussion
inbigseo
Comment
byu/WebLinkr from discussion
inbigseo
Er, maybe not.
General Marketing & Miscellaneous
This is for great content that isn’t necessarily SEO or marketing-specific. PPC, PR, dev, design, and social friends, check it out!
Growth and comfort never coexist – How Leaders Lead
Great job making it to the end. You rock!
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