Hamsterdam Part 49: SEO News Recap from 3/11 to 3/17, 2024
By Ethan Lazuk
Last updated:
A weekly look-back at SEO news, tips, and other content shared on social media & beyond.
Opening notes:
> Hamsterdam has a new spin-off project: Hamsterdam History! Each week, we’ll look at a vintage SEO article or case study to see what’s the same or what’s changed since.
> The first official Hamsterdam History article is still to come, but I wrote another post analyzing a 2011 article that kind of inspired the idea: “Why SEOs “Still” Shouldn’t Fixate on Keyword Rankings“
> The Hamsterdam newsletter is on hold this week. MailPoet is MailPoeting … but hopefully it’ll be back next week!
> We have a new section called, “This week in SEO history,” where we’ll look at something that happened this week in SEO news from years ago.
*Feel free to jump down to this week’s recap, or continue for a historical anecdote, introduction, and summary of the week’s news!
This week in SEO history
On March 14th, 2008, Barry Schwartz wrote a story for Search Engine Land called, “The Google Quality Raters Handbook” that describes how Brian Ussery discovered some updates.
Funny enough, we had updates last week to this document (officially called the “Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines“) on March 5th, coinciding with the core update.
The updates in 2024 related to untrustworthy information on pages with multiple factual inaccuracies. (Document here.)
However, back in 2008, the document’s contents and updates included:
1) Identifying query types, which were then navigational, informational, and transactional but today are know, do, website (queries), visit-in-person, and queries with multiple intents.
2) The quality rating scales, which then included vital, useful, relevant, not relevant, and off-topic, but now are a page quality scale of simply highest to lowest.
3) Categories of results for ratings, then including didn’t load (404, 403, etc.), foreign language, and unratable, which today are more akin to the needs met scale from fully meets to fails to meet.
4) Spam labels (then a new addition) that included not spam, maybe spam, or spam, while today there’s a “Spammy Webpages” section that mentions no purpose, hacked, auto-generated content (aligning with the new scaled content abuse spam policy), and copied content.
5) Flags for adult or malicious content, which again are similar to today’s needs met score on the fails to meet side.
Here’s an excerpt from Brian Ussery’s blog post in 2008:
I don’t think the site is still active, but you can see more of Brian’s content via his SEL author page.
My favorite part of those 2008 SQRG updates is “Maybe Spam,” a classification for when a page seems “spammy,” but you’re not entirely sure.
Which ties in nicely with our introduction this week!
Introduction to week 49: “What’s past is prologue”
That’s a quote from Bill Shakespeare’s play The Tempest.
Now, I have an affinity for certain academic texts, but I struggle at literature, so I can’t interpret it beyond the most literal phrasing.
Fortunately, we live in an age of AI chatbots to break things down:
What do you know, “it depends.” 😉
But I find Gemini’s final point the most interesting: the past either can be a stepping stone for the future (positive) or a trap that holds us back (negative).
Something I believe the SEO industry excels at is staying abreast of new developments. I mean, it’s largely why Hamsterdam exists!
But I’m not the first.
If you search Google for “weekly SEO news,” you’ll find several resources, including Garret Sussman’s The SEO Weekly video show (iPullRank), Aleyda Solis’s SEOFOMO (newsletter), or Olga Zarr’s Weekly SEO News (YouTube). We also have Barry Schwartz’s weekly SEO video recaps (YouTube).
Now, these are all different presentations of information, but the focus is clear — current affairs matter.
But that also speaks to a theme that I’ve heard from veteran SEOs, including writers like Roger Montti at SEJ (example here), which is that sometimes newer SEOs can get so caught up in what’s new that they reinvent ideas that have been around for years.
It’s a sentiment I’m sensitive to, especially coming from a social sciences background, where attributing your sources and crediting the evolution of ideas is fundamental.
That’s why I’m quite excited to start Hamsterdam History. Each week in this spin-off project, we’ll analyze a vintage SEO article or case study for its modern lessons.
The insights from each Hamsterdam History article will then be shared here in Hamsterdam weekly recaps, along with our new, “This week in SEO history,” as seen above.
The inspiration for these ideas was a combination of things, but mostly they were born from personal need and interest.
I’m curious about SEO history and would enjoy learning more about it regularly, so I’ll bet there are plenty of others, perhaps yourself, who’ll find the topic interesting, as well.
Until then, let’s refocus on our present, where the knowledge journey also never stops. 😉
Buckle up for a full week’s recap, and enjoy the vibes:
Summary of the week’s SEO news and content
- Shawn Anderson reminds us SEO isn’t personal.
- Rand Fishkin and Sparktoro published a cool study about web traffic referrals.
- INP is officially a core web vital …
- Google’s Perspectives filter is being replaced by the Forums filter; Perspectives carousels (etc.) will remain.
- Quite a few traffic trend or rank fluctuation charts shared.
- And much more!
Missed last week? Don’t worry, I got you! Read Part 48 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!
Introduction to OpenAI and LLMs – James Serra
Articles, videos, case studies & more
These are longer-form content pieces shared on social and elsewhere.
5 local SEO “hacks” that just waste your time – Darren Shaw (Watch on TikTok)
Technical SEO
Everything from basics to advanced techniques.
ChatGPT Hack for Teachers – Tome from AI Basics (Watch on TikTok)
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!
Great job making it to the end. You rock!
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