The tools that monitor how much change there is in Google's search results have been off the charts.

Semrush sensor hit 9.3 this weekend which they call a "Google Quake".

Here's Algoroo.

This may be the norm now as machine learning systems are continually learning.

What are… pic.twitter.com/xcYvAT2Awa

— Marie Haynes (@Marie_Haynes) July 17, 2023

To be clear, I was explaining that AI content has no special ranking powers and that clearly lots of it doesn’t rank. It’s not about how content is generated. It’s about the purpose and quality of the content. Pretty much what we said here: https://t.co/w4LGtiJRXI

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) July 19, 2023

Reminds me of the days when we were desperate for Penguin to run and waited for 2 years.https://t.co/gC7vNE9X5M

(The next update was September 2016)

— Marie Haynes (@Marie_Haynes) July 20, 2023

Google Search ranking algorithm update with explosive volatility and chatter off this weekend – I posted a rare weekend story on this at https://t.co/c0IAKTB7Qz pic.twitter.com/NbprPKb2IK

— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) July 16, 2023

A lot of talk about volatility in Google's results and a possible major unconfirmed update happening for the past couple of weeks

My money is on an unconfirmed update to the Reviews system (maybe among other updates) starting July 3

Many affected sites are Product Review sites pic.twitter.com/UKNoTryWJd

— Lily Ray 😏 (@lilyraynyc) July 18, 2023

Based on the drops and surges I have been digging into recently (and starting w/this craziness in early May), I believe we are seeing increased testing of whatever is coming… which I think could be the next HCU (which will *both* promote & demote). More in my next tweet… https://t.co/P7vYnzvtHv

— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) July 18, 2023

Is this the end of 10 BLUE links? Google is now testing out a new mobile format for organic links, featuring darker text with a grey underline. Could this be the early stages of seeing the SGE format (which looks similar) roll out to Search… Source: https://t.co/JF3Bu5xUfv pic.twitter.com/J2wXClFLaQ

— SERP Alert (@SERPalerts) July 19, 2023

It's going away. It hasn't really worked that well for some time, as in some cases, the information was dated. It's also rarely used. Potentially we might revisit another way to show this type of info in the future.

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) July 19, 2023

It is important to realize that SERP volatility tools sometimes go crazy with no actual Google algo update happening (or ranking changes) but are simply caused by a tiny Google UI/HTML change!

Don’t panic immediately when you see it. Look at the entire picture and whether this… https://t.co/WoKdinel9T

— Olga Zarr SEO (@olgazarr) July 18, 2023

SEO Analysis 101:

Divide & Conquer: Segment your website into clusters for laser-focused tracking of performance.

Forget about ⛔️:

• Useless tools
• Vanity metrics
• Fancy graphs
• Theories

The first steps to analyze websites (the right way) 🧵

— Henedy (rankentity.com) (@HenedyVP) July 20, 2023

The SEO industry often uses the term "Google algorithmic penalties" to describe situations where a website doesn't perform well in Google Search, but this term is a misnomer:
⚡️Google doesn't issue algorithmic penalties.
⚡️Instead, Google uses two primary methods to evaluate… pic.twitter.com/ENaOIlQQO1

— Olga Zarr SEO (@olgazarr) July 21, 2023

This is a known problem for years and Google changes the DOM all the time. Some CSS divs/ids are even randomized to prevent specific forms of scraping (mostly ad scraping, from what I've found). We know how to correct for this, at least 90%+ of the time.

— Dr. Pete Meyers (@dr_pete) July 18, 2023

As to why this might change (or not) from an incognito window, results are pretty dynamic. It might be hitting a different data center or other things. Will check on this, it’s definitely not a case of trying to serve a featured snippet for what we think you or someone prefers…

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) July 19, 2023

Focus on topics over the semantics of keywords.

Start by identifying topics that your audience is interested in right now.

Be as close as possible to providing content of value.https://t.co/Kujk9oVNC0 pic.twitter.com/rdXMZBBypi

— Jeannie Hill (@essentialskill) July 19, 2023

Lots of local pack SERP turbulence today via @brightlocal pic.twitter.com/eBy0ldHQTE

— Joy Hawkins (@JoyanneHawkins) July 18, 2023

New to me!

GBP offering automated FAQs based off on your profile information such as hours, contact info, etc.@DarrenShaw_ @JoyanneHawkins Have you guys seen this?

cc: @rustybrick These are different from this https://t.co/LwBrG3RDUs pic.twitter.com/eGzJ8V1IQI

— Darcy Burk (@darcyburk) July 20, 2023

Nearly half of travelers don't leave reviews for local businesses. Beat the odds with these effective tactics to get more local reviews for your business! 🏆 https://t.co/5RYngPaGP8 via @Miriam_Ellis_

— Moz (@Moz) July 19, 2023

Google updated its URL structure guidelines to specify supported characters in URLs and a couple more additions https://t.co/8AeS5tsFwl pic.twitter.com/VGEzU6d38l

— Barry Schwartz (@rustybrick) July 21, 2023

I have shared several examples of sites 'all in the green' with outstanding Core Web Vitals scores, yet they got HAMMERED by several broad core updates (and some in a row). For SEO, unless you have a major performance problem, focus on more important things… https://t.co/xsUgr8JBAD

— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) July 19, 2023

The GSC Link report has never been "complete",
nor has it shown anything of particular importance or value.

It's merely a sample of some of the links G sees.
It may include:
* links they use …
* links that are nofollowed …
* links that are spammy …
… or not

— Darth Autocrat (Lyndon NA) (@darth_na) July 21, 2023

Here's a link to some regular expressions you can use to segment Shopify URLs using the new @screamingfrog segments feature.https://t.co/1XkxswkpYA pic.twitter.com/jo3GVCLz3Q

— Jonathan Moore (@nathanless) July 17, 2023

After about a year, this still is one of the most impressive PBNs that I've seen. 230 domains linking together. https://t.co/hCO5SVQSlD

— Bill Hartzer (@bhartzer) July 17, 2023

To be honest, none of this would be a problem if you just do it all as yourself; it's fine for one person to run a site, you don't need multiple fake personas.

— John (@JohnMu) July 17, 2023

For clarity: *Stock photos on websites are fine*.

However, if *you* are a maker and publisher of photos, people expect to find samples of photos *you* have made on your site. This does not need to be a ranking factor™️, I hope. https://t.co/fY0zdugEFY

— John (@JohnMu) July 18, 2023

And don't forget, remarkably popular with your site visitors

— Marianne Sweeny (@msweeny) July 18, 2023

CONTENT REPURPOSING 101:

– Turn key quotes into graphics
– Turn graphics into slide shows
– Turn slide shows into live videos
– Turn in-depth guides into PDFs
– Turn podcasts into audiograms
– Remix or repurpose old content
– Turn slides into social carousels
– Make…

— Ross Simmonds (@TheCoolestCool) July 18, 2023

I'm yet to see a single "case study" of AI-sites,
that have anything other than short-term indexing/ranking success,
that actually make money.

The general pattern is:
1) G see's new content
2) G crawls and indexes new content
3) G sees people don't like it
4) G drops it

— Darth Autocrat (Lyndon NA) (@darth_na) July 18, 2023

I’m not a fan of noindex.

I’m also not a fan of doorway pages.

Virtual silos (pages that link other pages) are acceptable (hi people creating glossary content) but nothing beats creating something helpful:

Frame the topic,
Provide the essential jobs to be done,
???
Profit

— Victor Pan 🇹🇼🇺🇲 (@victorpan) July 19, 2023

The amount of trust signals that NerdWallet puts in every article is remarkable — but also needed when you're in the "Your Money, Your Life" space.

Users love this stuff. And that's why Google does, too. This one ranks #1 for "business credit cards."

Props to their SEO team. pic.twitter.com/vxGoaPwqym

— Matt McGee (@mattmcgee) July 21, 2023

Google is testing a product that uses artificial intelligence technology to produce news stories, pitching it to news organizations including The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal’s owner, News Corp.https://t.co/Z8U5v6dpHE

— Marie Haynes (@Marie_Haynes) July 20, 2023

Yep, you can often see quite a bit of activity on larger-scale sites focused on YMYL content. The screenshot I shared (see below) was from a health/medical site, but I see a good amount of activity across financial as well. https://t.co/8tBgjJDtif

— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) July 17, 2023

Bard Extensions are coming, and possibly very soon -> First look: Bard ‘Extensions’ will add Google and third-party services

"Unfortunately, while the UI is available, the extensions don’t seem to work yet. There may be as many as 9 extensions at launch." https://t.co/0kz88lfI16 pic.twitter.com/ugzbWB9WK3

— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) July 18, 2023

srsly WHO makes these pic.twitter.com/YmC4jsXt8s

— Travis Street (@travisstreet_) July 15, 2023

Fancy a laugh? Check out this thread. We bet the OP had a lot of fun on Google Maps to create this. 😂 https://t.co/AjPvdZeERX

— BrightLocal 🇺🇦 (@brightlocal) July 18, 2023

Oh, I didn't realize niche sites felt like they belonged in this group. Interesting take.

— John (@JohnMu) July 20, 2023

Interaction design separates good from great products.

The best way to learn it is with examples.

So I made this massive post with 43 original examples!

1) Remove friction with suggested options pic.twitter.com/g8Tgd5h2Lx

— Carl Vellotti (@carlvellotti) July 20, 2023