How To Survive The Google Ranking Algorithm Holiday Updates

Marketing Junto is sponsored by Rocket.net, super-fast managed WordPress hosting. Read on to get an exclusive discount from Rocket, later in the newsletter!

'Tis the season for merriment, family gatherings, your politically-incorrect Uncle Bob (sorry to all those Bob's out there) and the algorithm changes that Google inflicts every holiday season. Surviving Google algorithm changes, especially during the busy holiday season, requires a stiff drink and a deep breath.

To help you get through the already tumultuous holiday season with family and Google here are ten tips to help you maintain or improve your website's visibility:

1. Focus on Quality Content: Ensure your content is high-quality, relevant, and provides value to users. Regularly update and refresh your content to keep it current. Don't just use AI and slap it up on your site. Use AI strategically. To give you ideas and then expand upon the output to make it your own.
2. Optimize for User Experience: Improve site navigation, loading speeds, and mobile responsiveness. A user-friendly experience can positively impact your rankings. If you're going to use pop-ups make them easily closable and on topic/relevant/helpful to your visitors
3. E-E-A-T Principle: Emphasize Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness in your content and overall website structure. This is extremely important and goes hand-in-hand with focusing on quality content and not over-using AI.
4. Keyword Research and Optimization: Continuously research new keywords and update your content accordingly. Avoid keyword stuffing, but make sure they are naturally integrated. If you can't get a keyword in a sentence, don't get it in that sentence. Write for the user more than the search engines. Google and it's pals can figure out more than you think.
5. Backlink Strategy: Build a strong backlink profile by earning links from reputable and relevant websites. It never hurts to ask for link in blog posts and articles that your content provides relevant and excellent value. ALWAYS avoid low-quality or spammy link practices. For example, just getting your link on a site to get your link there without any value add.
6. Technical SEO: Regularly audit your website for technical SEO issues. This includes things like broken links, schema markup, and XML sitemaps. You'd be surprised how much the under-the-hood structure matters.
7. Use Structured Data: Implement structured data markup to help search engines understand your content better and enhance SERP visibility with rich results. Structured data can be a pain to implement but in the end it's well worth it.
8. Engage on Social Media: While social media signals are not direct ranking factors, active engagement can drive traffic and improve your visibility indirectly. But, as you've heard me rant about, put your content first on your blog and site, then share it to the social media sites.
9. Monitor Analytics and Updates: Keep a close eye on Google Analytics 4 and Search Console for any changes in traffic patterns or indexing issues. Also consider using tools like Koko Analytics (a WordPress Plugin), Fathom Analytics, and Plausible Analytics as good alternatives/additions to GA4.
10. Adapt to Voice Search: Optimize for voice search by focusing on longer, conversational keywords and ensuring your website is mobile-friendly. This is often overlooked. People use smart speakers and their phones to ask questions. If you have some longtail search phrases that are more conversational then you have a better chance of appearing in those searches as well.

Ultimately, the key is to stay informed about Google's latest updates, test different strategies, and be ready to adapt as needed. And breathe deeply. The holiday season will be over in a flash.

The Latest From The Entrepreneur's Enigma Podcast

https://entrepreneursenigma.com/melissallarena

Web Jawn

How to deactivate your X account

You can leave X for greener social meadows.

The Verge

This is a thing, especially now with Elon Musk having a role in the Trump 2.0 administration.

Google Says Some SEOs Over Focus On URL Structure

Google’s John Mueller said that some SEOs over focus on URL structure and that if your context from your pages aren’t c…

Search Engine Roundtable •Barry Schwartz

I totally agree. URL structure is important, but not a huge factor, IMHO. Just make it logical and not complex.

Why we’re not releasing on wp.org... yet - Wooping

Why we’re not releasing on wp.org… yet When we were planning the release of our new WooCommerce plugin Shop Health a fe…

Wooping •Luc Princen

A growing trend for plugin developers to steer clear of the WordPress directory due to the ongoing WordPress/Matt Mullenweg/WP Engine Drama.

Improving Private Signal Calls: Call Links & More

If you love group calls on Signal, but don’t want to create a group chat for every combination of your friends or colle…

Signal Messenger

This is pretty cool. I don't think it's going to unseat any of the incumbent platforms, but if you're in the Signal ecosystem this is a major value add.

Bluesky says 1 million people signed up for the platform in last 24 hours | TechCrunch

Bluesky said Thursday evening that over 1 million people signed up for the platform in the last 24 hours, making it one…

TechCrunch •Ivan Mehta

Bluesky, the Twitter-alternative, started by Jack Dorsey, is coming into its own. Including a massive uptick in users and, with that, downtime. Time for a "Fail Butterfly."

Musk’s amended lawsuit against OpenAI names Microsoft as defendant | TechCrunch

Elon Musk has filed an amended complaint against OpenAI, accusing the company — and its close partner, Microsoft — of a…

TechCrunch •Kyle Wiggers

Musk is now going after Microsoft in his OpenAI lawsuit.

Knowledge graphs: An introduction

Understand the building blocks of knowledge graphs – entities, relationships and attributes – and how they relate to in…

Search Engine Land •Paul DeMott

A good introduction to Google's knowledge graph.

SEO reality check: 13 hard-hitting truths you need to hear

Insights into today’s SEO landscape, from the value of brand authority to the SERPs’ evolution and why AI-powered searc…

Search Engine Land •Jason Barnard

This article highlights a lot of what I was talking about in my monologue above.

TikTok Adds New Gen AI Video Creation Tools for Marketers

TikTok’s AI video generation tools and getting an upgrade.

Social Media Today •Andrew Hutchinson

Part of me thinks that adding more AI to help with content creation is a cool idea. I worry about the misinformation it'll cause and other issues with teens and young adults.

Snapchat Adds New Safety Features, Including Live Location Requests

Some handy new connective features to help reassure parents.

Social Media Today •Andrew Hutchinson

Snap is staying relevant and providing some good safety tools.

Bluesky’s stormy day: How its explosive growth led to inevitable outages

The swift expansion of the X rival reveals the urgent need for decentralized infrastructure to ensure a scalable, user-…

ZDNET •Jason Perlow

It's bound to happen. As it decentralizes this will be less of an issue. And there is always Mastodon/ActivityPub services to use too.

Maybe Bluesky has “won”

November has sucked so far. One upside of the terrible nonsense is that more people are fleeing X. Many are choosing Bl…

Gavin Anderegg •Gavin Anderegg

Good piece from Gavin on Bluesky and the road ahead.

How To Prepare for the Future of SEO: 17 Tips From Lily Ray

Struggling to keep up with SEO changes and traffic drops? Lily Ray shares 17 strategies on the future of SEO to help yo…

Moz •Lily Ray

This article is a must read. Lily Ray is one of my favorite SEO pundits!

Bing Search Autosuggest Gains Rich Cards, Images & More Search Features

Bing Search has updated its autosuggest (auto complete) search bar to include rich entity cards and popular follow-on s…

Search Engine Roundtable •Barry Schwartz

Bing is making improvements. Worth checking out!

A Word From Rocket!

Rocket.net** is WordPress Hosting provider that I use for my business websites and my clients' as well. They are super fast, reliable, and have great support 24/7.

Every time I need them they're there ready to help. It can be as simple as a plugin gone haywire to something silly I did to the site. Their support reps know WordPress inside and out. They're always there to help!

As a reader of Marketing Junto you can snag 50% off for the first 3 months with Rocket. Go to https://gmedia.sh/rocket and enter junto at checkout!

I love Rocket! Take them for a spin! You'll be glad you did!

** Full disclosure we get compensated by Rocket.net, but we've been longtime customers and fully endorse their hosting services.

Web Finds & Other Random Fun Stuff

Needed right now!

Would be funny if it wasn't so anger-inducing

“Why Is It So Expensive To Repair My Devices?”

Now, of course, we’ve all dropped a cell phone, picked it up, and realized that we’ve absolutely destroyed its screen. …

Electronic Frontier Foundation •Christian Romero

Interesting. Infuriating. Sad. Needs to change.

🎙️New Offering: Podcast Coaching 🎙️

You've got questions. I've got the answers!

I've been podcasting since 2010. During those 12+ years I've learned a thing or two about the ins and outs of the industry and approaching it the right way.

I've recently decided to offer podcast coaching as a service to share the knowledge that I've accumulated over the decade-plus in the industry.

More information click here.

That's It For This Week! Keep Rocking It!

-Seth

Thanks for reading! If you're liking the newsletter and the content that I curate, please consider signing up for a pay-what-you-want subscription to help me continue to write this weekly newsletter.