The SEOs Diners Club - Issue #33 - Weekly SEO Tips & News

October 09, 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 Shares Recommendations on Artificial Intelligence Generated Images

Google discusses the use of AI images on web pages.

In a recent Search off the Record podcast, Google's Lizzi Sassman and John Mueller discussed using AI (artificial intelligence) generated images on websites.

Some of their views may seem surprising, given how Google handles AI-generated text content. John Mueller highlighted the inherent limitations of AI image-creation technology.

Is the Use of AI Images Problematic for Google?

My impression from this podcast is that using AI images on a website is not a problem for Google.

Although the ranking of automatically generated text content in Google Search is prohibited/limited, surprisingly, there is not yet a similar prohibition or warning about AI-generated images and ranking in Google Images.

Google discusses the use of AI images on webpages

You can find the Search Off The Record podcast below:

A Guide to Google's Knowledge Graph Search API for SEO

Help your customers find you faster than your competitors by using the Knowledge Graph and ranking better in SERPs.

The Knowledge Graph API created by Google allows us to find entities for specific queries in the Google Knowledge Graph.

It provides direct access to the database to see the entities marked for each query. It is also independent of the user's location and provides a more accurate view of the Knowledge Graph.

Here are some example use cases of the API provided by Google:

  • Getting a ranked list of the most important entities that match specific criteria.

  • Predictive completion of entities in a search box.

  • Annotating/organizing content using Knowledge Graph entities.

As mentioned in this document, the API itself only returns individual matching entities rather than graphs of related entities.

The following article explains how you can effectively use the knowledge graph search API for SEO.

Help your customers find you quicker than your competitors by using the Knowledge Graph and ranking better on the SERPs.

What is Semantic SEO and How to Use It to Increase Your Traffic?

Andy Crestodina shared his knowledge about semantic SEO, its benefits and disadvantages, and much more.

Semantic SEO is about optimizing content for a broader topic, not just for a specific keyword. Instead of using only the primary keyword in the page title, post title, and content, the content is optimized by including semantically related phrases, questions, and subtopics in the article.

Google does not match the words in the searcher's query with the keywords on your page. Google tries to understand the searcher's intent and deliver search results that meet their information needs.

Therefore, to be discovered in search, content and keyword usage should extend beyond primary and secondary keywords, answer relevant questions, address adjacent topics, and include words and phrases semantically related to the primary keyword.

Here is a great article that will give you some insight into this:

Want to know how to optimize your content for search engine changes and get more traffic? Andy Crestodina shared his knowledge in semantic SEO, its benefits and drawbacks, and much more.

Google: We Do Not Consider "Link Juice"

John Mueller shared his thoughts on the concept of "link juice" that we often encounter in SEO literature.

Google's John Mueller said on Twitter that "all the talk about 'link juice' should be ignored." Instead, he said, "make great websites with useful and inspiring content for real people."

"Link juice" or "link juice" is generally used to explain the SEO scores of backlinks to a page are passed on to other pages through internal links.

Although Google doesn't call it that, we know it has similar metrics.

Google's John Mueller said it again, he said on Twitter

Google Working to Get Timestamps Right in Search Results

The publication times you see at the bottom of pages in Google search results may not reflect reality.

Google is working on getting timestamps right in search results and news search results. However, several publishers, including USA Today's SEO Director and the Wall Street Journal's SEO Editor, have recently complained about incorrect timestamps in Google Search.

In response, Google's Danny Sullivan said he believes the Google Search team is looking into these issues.

USA Today SEO Director Kyle Sutton wrote on Twitter, "Google... between on-page update times and structured article markup, you should have all the data you need to show new timestamps. So why can't you keep up? You're frequently crawling. Users think we're not up to date when we are."

Will Flannigan, SEO Editor at the Wall Street Journal, said, "We have timestamp issues too. Sometimes we see "4 days ago" on stories published less than 4 hours ago. It's frustrating. I've found that asking for a rescan works."

Google is still working on getting the timestamps accurate in the search results and news search results. Several publishers, including the Director of SEO at USA Today and the SEO Editor for WSJ complained about the inaccurate timestamps in Google Search the other day.

Should We Write Separate Pillar Content Posts for Each Category?

Not sure if you should be producing pillar content? Expert Tony Wright offers advice on content structure in this week's Search Engine Journal's "Ask SEO" program.

Marketers have played with our vocabulary by creating terms like "Pillar Pages" or "Topic Clusters."

In reality, a topic cluster is a group of content centered around a specific topic. A core page is a page that acts as a category page for a topic cluster.

Let's think about this in terms of e-commerce.

It is natural to have e-commerce product pages on our website. But we also want category pages to help direct site visitors to our products.

Category pages usually contain descriptions and links to a specific product category.

For example, a category page might contain descriptions of a specific group of products sold on our site.

But this page will also link to a specific sub-category page.

So in terms of e-commerce, the navigation of my site will be like this:

Home > Category Page > Subcategory > Product page

This content structure is suitable for SEO experts.

So, let's get to our initial question; do we have to create separate pillar content for each category?

You can find more detailed information on this topic in the article below.

Not sure whether you need to do pillar pages? Expert Tony Wright gives his advice on content structure in this week's Ask An SEO.

Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO): How to Get Started?

Driving traffic to your site is not enough - visitors need to take action. But you may only need to make a few simple changes to your website to optimize your conversion rate.

To me, SEO without conversion rate optimization is like farming without water. Fertilize as much as you want, but without water, you can't get any yield from the soil.

There are currently over 1.1 billion websites on the internet. That's an almost unfathomable number of pages competing for a finite amount of traffic, views, and clicks.

If you are getting your share of them, congratulations - you are on the right track. But just getting visitors to your website is not enough, especially if you are a business owner.

You need to convert visitors to your site into customers.

One of the best ways to do this is to implement a conversion rate optimization (CRO or Conversion Rate Optimization) strategy.

If you do it right, you will improve your lead quality, increase your revenue, and lower your customer acquisition cost. In other words, this work will help you grow.

The following post will provide you with all the essential information about CRO. You can start practicing it today:

It’s not enough to get traffic to your site – you need visitors to take action. But it may only take a few simple tweaks to your website to optimize your conversion rate.

Google Advice on When Duplicate Sites Beat Your Original Content

Google has shared how to deal with pages that copy our content and rank above our original page.

Google's Danny Sullivan shared some advice about a page that copies an original research article from a website and ranks above the original research page for the target search word.

Sullivan suggests the following methods for such situations;

(1) ask the sites that picked up your original research to cite and link to your content,

(2) make it clear on your page that the original research is yours and yours alone,

(3) make sure that the details on the page show that the research was done uniquely,

(4) and describe the methods you used in your original research.

Danny Sullivan from Google provided some advice and took some feedback on a specific example of when an original piece of research from a website was being outranked by a site copying its information.

Google, Apple, Meta, Amazon and Microsoft Unite to Improve Voice Recognition

The new Speech Accessibility Project brings together five technology companies to bring voice recognition for people with non-standard speech patterns. Instead of working separately, all five companies are joining forces to improve voice recognition.

Google announced its participation in the Speech Accessibility Project to help develop advanced speech recognition systems that can serve the needs of people with speech impairments.

Speech recognition is used to access websites, translate speech, and operate voice assistants and devices.

But voice-activated devices and services can be challenging if a user's speech pattern is affected by conditions such as Lou Gehrig's disease, Parkinson's disease, or Down Syndrome.

The project will bring together five technology companies that can work together to solve the challenge of doing speech recognition work for people with non-standard speech patterns.

The project will first work with English and then expand to other languages.

The new Speech Accessibility Project brings together five technology companies to bring voice recognition to those with non-standard speech patterns. Rather than work separately, all five companies are joining forces to improve voice recognition

Book Of The Week: "Creative Blindness (And How To Cure It): Real-life Stories of Remarkable Creative Vision" - Dave Trott

Creativity is all around us. Not in art galleries. But on the train, at work, outside the street, and in schools, hospitals, and restaurants. Creative vision exists wherever people are.

In this entertaining collection of real-life stories, Dave Trott applies his crystal-clear lens to define what genuine creative vision looks like. It is problem-solving, clarity of thought, seeing what others do not see, and removing complexity to make things as simple as possible.

The timeless lessons revealed here can be applied in advertising, business, and everyday life. By seeing things differently, you can think differently and change the world around you.

Amazon.com: Creative Blindness (And How To Cure It): Real-life stories of remarkable creative vision: 9780857197306: Trott, Dave: Books

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