The SEOs Diners Club - Issue #37 - Weekly SEO Tips & News

November 06, 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: Backlinks Will Be Less Important As a Ranking Factor In The Future

Google's John Mueller said that backlinks as a ranking factor will not be as necessary and significant a ranking factor as they are today over time.

In a Search Off The Record podcast recorded at the Brighton SEO sessions, John Mueller said he believes that over time backlinks as a ranking factor will not be as necessary and as significant a ranking factor as they are today." In short, links won't be as heavily weighted in Google's ranking algorithm in the future as they are today.

When it comes to John Mueller, I think these words are not personal wishes but rather a way to convince and acclimate us to the new situation. So, I don't know, what do you think?

The trend over the last few years, with Google's increased use of artificial intelligence algorithms, improvements in E-A-T and the latest helpful content update, suggests that the impact of backlinks is waning.

Of course, the fact that a site needs to have backlinks to be discovered by Google will likely continue for a long time.

Google has published on the Search Off The Record podcast, which was a recording from brightonSEO session, where John Mueller of Google said that he believes that over time, links as a ranking factor will be not as important and not as big as a ranking factor as it is today.

How Seasonality Affects SERPs and What Does It Mean for SEO?

Tracking how SERPs change seasonally helps us update our SEO strategies to maintain brand visibility.

We have entered another seasonal period. It's time to prepare our holiday strategies to maximize customer SEO visibility.

Many of us accept that we will see a change in traffic levels in November and December and attribute it to seasonality.

One thing to consider in your SEO strategies as a threat and opportunity during such periods is how Google's search results pages (SERPs) react to changes in user search frequency and intent.

Why Seasonality Affects Search Result Pages

Google's ultimate goal is to provide a high-quality SERP that meets user needs and supports a query by delivering high-quality results.

Google determines if a query requires a seasonal or temporary change in how certain value propositions and functional purposes are presented in SERPs. For example, they may be considering the following:

  • Have searches been increased for this query (comparing period Y to period X)?

  • Has there been a change in user SERP behaviour for this query (changes in click patterns, scrolling, quick returns)?

  • Has there been an increase in the number of users performing more queries to refine the query?

  • Has there been a change in additional terms or stop words added to the second query?

For this reason, it is crucial to follow the changes in the SERPs in such periods when it is evident that there will be a shopping spree. Recently, the number of SEO tools that do this has been increasing. Personally, as a Semrush user, I regularly follow the SERP features.

Assessing how the SERPs will change during these seasonal periods helps inform our SEO strategies to maintain brand visibility.

How To Compose Seductive Page Titles That Appeal to Humans & Robots - Maddy Osman

Your content can be excellent, but people won't read it if you leave out one element.

So, what is more important than excellent research and impeccable writing skills?

Your page title.

In this Medium.com article, Maddy Osman discusses the importance of creating page titles that grab readers' attention.

According to Osman, online readers are bombarded with content in a constant state of "content shock". According to Contentsquare's 2021 Digital Experience Benchmarking report, the average time online readers spend on a web page (across industries) is about 54 seconds!

According to Osman, our chance to stand out from the noise is to create compelling headlines. The headline is the only element that will decide whether your article is clicked or skipped.

Here's how to create the most effective on-page and search engine optimization (SEO) headlines, find headline ideas, and measure their effectiveness.

“How To Compose Seductive Page Titles That Appeal to Humans & Robots [Quick + Easy Guide]” is published by Maddy Osman.

SEO Best Practices for Black Friday and Shopping Season

Are you looking to boost your sales this Black Friday and shopping season? Then, you can plan and implement these seasonal SEO tips.

It doesn't take a soothsayer to predict that the shopping spree that takes place every year in November and December will reach its peak this year.

The world economy is showing an inflationary trend, meaning that prices in almost every country are rising faster than ever.

In such periods, consumers generally follow the following behaviour; "let me buy a product that I know I will buy more expensive later due to inflation, even if it is not a necessity, at a discount during the campaign period."

SEO activities can also significantly contribute to companies' turnover in such periods. In the Search Engine Land article below, the work you need to do is well explained.

Looking to boost your holiday sales this Black Friday/holiday season? It's best to plan ahead of time and implement these seasonal SEO tips.

Google: Creating Content Based on Keyword Search Volumes Will Result in Mediocre Content

Google's John Mueller said that if you make your content creation decisions based solely on keyword search volumes, those pieces of content will be mediocre at best.

Google's John Mueller said that if you make your content creation decisions based solely on keyword search volumes, those pieces of content will be mediocre at best. "Don't focus on keywords and 'search volume' lists like that; it will lead you to mediocrity," John said on Twitter.

John is saying that if you're looking for content ideas and basing them on a list of keywords that show high search volume, the content probably won't be good enough to rank well in Google Search. So, in short, write content you can write great things about and don't force yourself to write based on what people are searching for, especially if you don't know the topic well.

"seeing a list like this as a target for content makes me worry that you won't get much out of your work or that your work will be quite superficial," John added. "I would look for topics that match your expertise and passion - where can you contribute that hasn't been covered by others before and will provide something new and useful? Don't focus on keywords and 'search volume' lists like this; they will lead you to mediocrity."

Maybe the formula should be: look at search volume, think about why people are doing these searches and what their basic expectations are, analyze the results on Google, and then engage in the content production process. What do you think?

Google's John Mueller said that if you make your content creation decisions based off of keyword search volume lists, then those pieces of content will be mediocre, at best. John said on Twitter

Free SEO Content and Audit Templates - Mike Ginley

You may find the content production and moderation templates created by Mike Ginley useful.

You need to have a strategy when producing content.

As you can see from the title above, producing content based only on keyword volumes leads us to a dead end.

For this reason, you should clearly define each content's purpose, target audience and needs and take SEO into account.

On the other hand, it can be beneficial to evaluate the performance of your existing content routinely. According to Google, you are "only as good as your worst content". So it is also worth questioning whether you are producing helpful content.

Below are two free templates created and shared by Mike Ginley that you can use for content orders and audits.

Content is extremely important for SEO. Use this free SEO Content Template to think deeper about writing for your users. Learn more here.

Content is extremely important for SEO. Use this free SEO Content Audit Template to surface poor performing content that can be optimized. Learn more here.

Free Programmatic SEO Course - Allison Seboldt

If you want to create pages that are more or less identical to each other in a short period, based on data, I recommend programmatic SEO.

If you are encountering the concept of programmatic SEO for the first time, let me give a summary.

If you are planning to create a large number of similar pages, with only minor differences, the shortest solution may be Programmatic SEO.

Using tools like https://pagefactory.app/, you can quickly generate content based on a specific template and data set.

We can give https://nomadlist.com/ as an example of a site created by producing content in this way. It is a site with guiding content for people working as digital nomads in different cities. It has content on specific topics in all cities; only some details differ. With a template and data set, you can create the content of the pages you will make for hundreds of cities with Programmatic SEO.

Naturally, the following question comes to mind: "Well, does Google know about this?"

Yes, and it doesn't seem to be a problem as long as helpful content is produced. Below you can see Nomadlist.com's SEO visibility for the last year, according to Semrush.

If you are interested in this topic, you can sign up for the free Programmatic SEO course by Allison Seboldt.

To produce content this way, you first need to consider what kind of content you can create. Although not for a website, I can think of using it for the meta descriptions of a website's pages or product-category page content.

On the other hand, I would advise you to consider Google's negative attitude towards this kind of auto-generated content and be cautious when using such tools.

Tired of spending countless grueling hours writing and researching articles for SEO?You're not alone!Getting traffic through search is a gold mine, but creating content is a huge pain.Keyword research and writing articles take a lot of time. Even the most experienced copy writers take hours or even days to produce high ranking content.

Long Form Content Guide

Learn how to improve long-form content in this guide.

What do you think of when you think of "long-form content"?

A never-ending blog article?

Long-form content is also:

  • 40-minute podcast episodes.

  • 20-minute YouTube tutorials.

  • 60-minute webinars.

  • Longer carousel posts on Instagram or LinkedIn.

The more you think about it, the more you realize that we consume a ton of long-form content daily.

The article published in the Search Engine Journal shares some valuable methods for long-form content.

Gain more authority in your industry by creating long-form content. Learn how to develop long-form content in this guide.

Observe Changes in User Intent with Alsoasked.com

Did you know that you can use Alsoasked.com to observe changes in user intent?

I've mentioned the Alsoasked.com tool many times before. It allows you to see the questions listed in the "People Also Ask" section of some Google search queries by country and in aggregate.

Mark Williams-Cook, the creator of the tool, showed me another use for the tool in a post on LinkedIn that I had not realized until now.

With the tool, it is possible to see users' changing searches about the new prime minister of the UK, Rishi Sunak. This is also important because it shows us that when Google created this section, it quickly reflected actual user searches in the search results.

People Also Ask — “Rishi Sunak” — 17.10.2022

People Also Ask — “Rishi Sunak” — 27.10.2022

Below you can see Mark Williams-Cook's LinkedIn post on this topic and the ongoing discussion and comments below it:

Unsolicited #SEO tip: You can use People Also Data (via AlsoAsked) to monitor how intent for queries changes over time. Here we can see how questions asked...

Book Of The Week: Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones - James Clear

No matter your goals, Atomic Habits offers a proven framework for improving - every day.

James Clear, one of the world's leading experts on habit formation, reveals practical strategies that will teach you exactly how to form good habits, break bad ones, and master the tiny behaviours that lead to remarkable results.

If you're having trouble changing your habits, the problem isn't you. The problem is your system. Bad habits repeat themselves repeatedly, not because you don't want to change but because you have the wrong system for change. As a result, you do not rise to the level of your goals. Instead, you fall into the status of your plans.

Clear is known for his ability to distil complex topics into simple behaviours that can be easily applied to daily life and work. Here, he draws on the most proven ideas from biology, psychology, and neuroscience to create an easy-to-understand guide for making good and bad habits inevitable. Along the way, listeners will be inspired and entertained with true stories from Olympic gold medalists, award-winning artists, business leaders, life-saving physicians, and star comedians who have used the science of small habits to master their craft and vault to the top of their field.

Amazon.com: Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones (Audible Audio Edition): James Clear, James Clear, Penguin Audio: Audible Books & Originals

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