The SEOs Diners Club - Issue #31 - Weekly SEO Tips & News

September 25, 2022

Here are the weekly SEO insights for the SEOs Diners Club members. You may also join our free SEO Diners Club network to ask questions and share your thoughts on these topics.

Google Launches September 2022 Product Review Algorithm Update

Google launched the September 2022 product review algorithm update.

Google has released the September 2022 product review sites algorithm update, the fifth in a series of updates targeting low-quality review sites. The update began rolling out on September 20 and is expected to take up to a week to complete.

What Is Product Review Sites Algorithm Update?

Google's product review algorithm update rewards high-quality product review pages that share in-depth research.

Low-quality product review pages contain thin content that summarizes standard information readily available on a manufacturer's website.

Google is trying to make product reviews more visible, written by people who have personally tested and tried the product they are reviewing. You can make this clear to Google and your readers by adding details such as photos and videos, pros and cons, comparisons to competing products, and other first-hand observations.

Google begins rolling out the September 2022 product review algorithm update.

Are Title Tags an Important Google Ranking Factor?

There are claims that title tags are a weighted ranking factor. Find out if these claims are exaggerated.

Google uses the undisputed HTML title tag to understand what pages are about so it can rank them in search results.

The company's official SEO beginner's guide recommends unique, accurate, and short yet descriptive titles on all website pages.

But when it comes to the strength of page titles as a ranking factor, the evidence shows that they are only a slight signal.

John Mueller of Google states that page titles are not critical for rankings, at least compared to the main content:

"…if ranking changes negatively impact you, I think just tweaking the titles and meta tags won't give you what you're looking for. Changing titles and meta tags make it easier for us to understand what's happening on a page, but it doesn't significantly change the website's overall visibility."

There are persistent claims that title tags are a strongly weighted ranking factor. Find out whether these claims are overblown.

How To Detect If Google Rewrites Your Page Titles Or Not?

Are you sure your page titles appear the way you want them in Google results?

Mark Williams Cook's LinkedIn post and video below helped me to raise this issue:

Unsolicited #SEO tip: (Number 600! - you can win our SEO course for free, read on! 🚨🚨🚨)

It is common for Google to rewrite page titles that don't ... 30 comments on LinkedIn

Google announced with a reference page they published last year that they can regenerate page titles in some cases. Below you can find the reference link to the relevant page:

Learn how you can write an SEO-rich titles for your website pages and Google Search by following these best practices.

How Can We Check If Our Page Titles Appear The Way We Want In Google Results?

You can use a Google Chrome extension like Compare SERP Titles for this. When you activate the plugin, you can check the title that appears in the Google results and the title defined on the page, and you can see the mismatched titles in the search results:

This extension will save you time. It's a fact :) two in one.

1. Compare the real tag of website to the one you see in the…

Google Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines: An Overview

It is helpful for all SEO experts to review this document, which Google published with the Google Quality Evaluators Guidelines update in July 2022.

I learned about a vital SEO document thanks to Dr. Marie Haynes.

I read this 32-page document in one breath. It has helped me establish the link between Google algorithms and the Quality Assessment Guidelines. You can access the document via the link below:

What Is The Percentage Of Duplicate Content That Is A Problem For Google?

John Mueller of Google answered a question about whether there is a percentage threshold that Google defines as duplicate content.

According to Google, when talking about duplicate content, it's not possible to give a percentage threshold where they detect that content is duplicate.

From Google's point of view, there is a big difference between some of the content being copied and the exclusive content being copied.

Google's John Mueller answers if there is a percentage threshold at which Google identifies something as duplicate content

How Can You Avoid Cannibalization Problem When Your Products Are Too Similar?

You can avoid the cannibalization problem by following the methods suggested in this article.

Cannibalization is a problem that gives us a headache in SEO projects.

It describes that more than one page ranks in the same search query and competes with each other in case of very close page titles and content. As a result, the ranking competition of these multiple pages often results in almost all of them being excluded from the Google first page.

Rarely do we see more than one-page ranking in the same search query within the first page results. We don't mind such situations. Who wouldn't want to be listed with multiple pages in the Google first page results for the same search query? However, this is a rare occurrence.

In the article below, what should be done to prevent cannibalization of product pages that are very close to each other is very well summarized.

Reduce the keyword cannibalization issue you’re facing with two solutions, as advised by expert Adam Riemer.

John Mueller Explains When, Where and How to Use Hreflang

John Mueller made a statement to clear up the confusion about the Hreflang implementation.

Google's John Mueller provides detailed and thoughtful answers to SEO questions on Reddit.

In one of his most recent SEO posts, he published a very detailed and end-to-end post on when, where, and how we should use hreflang on our site.

In my opinion, the most crucial part of John Mueller's answer is this section. Instead of applying hreflang to all pages, Mueller suggests:

In practice, you can simplify the problem. Which pages do you see issues with people coming to the wrong country/language version? This is where you should implement a minimal level of hreflang (and of course, a JS country/language recognizer/popup to catch any direct visits). Probably most of these will be limited to same language/different country situations, so in German Switzerland/Germany might be the right place to start. If you set hreflang for 2 versions and you have 4 unrelated versions, nothing will break.

Google's John Mueller often posts detailed and thoughtful responses on Reddit related to SEO and also general gadget tinkering. In one of his latest SEO posts, he posted a very detailed and throughout post on when, where and how to go about using hreflang on your site.

Content Brief Templates: 19 Downloadable Examples

The best content brief templates for Google Docs, Notion, Word, PDF, and more. Plus, tips for automating your team's content digest workflows.

Content briefs are critical to managing and streamlining your content schedule. But creating your content brief templates from scratch is a painstaking process and often akin to trying to reinvent the wheel.

The following article from Content Harmony lists 19 free and paid content brief templates to get you started faster.

The best content brief templates for Google Docs, Notion, Word, PDF, and more. Plus tips on automating your team’s content brief workflows.

Case Study: Site With Artificial Intelligence Penalized By Google Useful Content Update

SEO expert Kevin Indig shared a case study of a site with artificial intelligence that was penalized with a helpful content algorithm update.

There was a widespread belief that Google's "useful content" algorithm update was far less effective than initially anticipated.

However, as the days passed, it started to appear that this was not the case and that some sites were becoming more and more affected by this update.

It was known that the update specifically targeted sites that produced artificial intelligence-supported content. But for the first time, thanks to Kevin Indig's case study, we got clues on how to detect artificial intelligence content by Google.

Google's HCU update punished low-quality AI content after all. In this case study, I show why and how to detect it.

Book Of The Week: "Building Brand Experiences: A Practical Guide to Retaining Brand Relevance" - Darren Coleman

Retaining brand relevance is fundamental to organizational success and an increasing challenge that high-level marketing professionals now face.

Many have responded with the product or price-based competition in the past, yet this can only propel a brand so far when retaining long-term relevance. Research shows that consumers are, in fact, driven by emotion and positive brand experiences have the power to drive engagement while simultaneously offering countless options for competitive differentiation. Building Brand Experiences enables managers and executives to realize this and create tailored, relevant experiences that will appeal to consumers and drive brand performance.

Practically structured around The Brand Experience Blueprint, Building Brand Experiences provides a step-by-step guide to building compelling brand experiences based on tried-and-tested tools, templates, and scholarly research. Combining expert insight and real-world examples in an anecdotal and digestible way, Building Brand Experiences is the essential guide to crafting relevant experiences that consumers will love, to improve brand engagement and drive results.

Building Brand Experiences: A Practical Guide to Retaining Brand Relevance - Kindle edition by Coleman, Darren. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading Building Brand Experiences: A Practical Guide to Retaining Brand Relevance.

I hope you enjoyed my weekly SEO insights. Hope to see you the following Sunday in the new episode. I wish you all a great week.

Best,

Mert Erkal