SEO Digest #3: Google Link Spam Update, Disqus Tricks and more

Hi Reader,

We've handpicked top pieces of content from all around the SEO community from the past week. Here's everything you need to stay up to date on new developments in search.

Search updates straight from the source

Google is rolling out link spam update

Google’s been continuously fighting shady link-building schemes and this week they’ve introduced a change big enough to warrant a name — link spam update. From the post, it looks like the main focus is on affiliate links and guest posts, which Google asks us to tag as paid links.

FAQ schema, product pages, and more questions from office-hours

John Mueller addresses audience questions in weekly Google SEO office-hours. Of particular interest this week were questions about why Google would suddenly remove FAQ schema from a website and how to rank product pages.

Core Web Vitals replace page speed factors

Perhaps stating the obvious, but, in case you needed a confirmation, John Mueller replies on Twitter that yes, page experience factors have now replaced page speed factors.

How does user feedback impact search results?

It doesn’t. Here are 3 minutes and 37 seconds of John Mueller saying absolutely nothing as a part of the #AskGooglebot series on YouTube. Do not check it out unless you specifically enjoy John Mueller doing what he does best.

Cool stuff from the rest of the SEO world

The dos and don’ts of link building

On this week’s episode of SEO Rant Podcast, Judith Lewis rants about bad links, good links, and how to approach link-building outreach properly.

Secrets of effective SEO discovery

An often overlooked part of onboarding new SEO clients is the process of discovering a client's true needs. Take a look at this discovery guide — it provides a list of detailed questions that’ll help you align with your client’s expectations.

Do Google posts affect local pack rankings? (experiment)

A small-scale experiment of regularly publishing Google posts for three GMB listings has seen no improvement in local pack rankings. Although it should be noted that Google posts’ primary value is engagement, not rankings.

Adding “with video” to titles — surprising result (experiment)

Although the post does not reveal all the details of this experiment (duration, scale, etc.), it’s still a curious insight into the ranking impact of adding “with video” to the title tags.

How to audit content on your website (template)

Christina Brodzky shares a handy template for auditing your website’s content. Use it to decide whether to update, merge, remove, or monitor each piece of content — handy tool for prioritizing tasks for your content team.

How to optimize tags and tag managers for Core Web Vitals

Katie Hempenius discusses best practices for tags and tag managers, particularly how tags relate to page performance and individual Core Web Vitals metrics.

Take the survey on the state of technical SEO

If you have a minute, take this survey on the current state of technical SEO. The survey is run by Women in Tech SEO and Aira, it’s fun to fill out, and the more of us do the more reliable the results.

Hottest threads from SEO forums

Reddit: How to deal with broken links on your website

It’s been quiet on Reddit this week, so how about this thread on managing broken links on your website. Although the thread fails to mention WebSite Auditor, it’s my duty to remind you that we offer broken link audit as a part of the technical optimization process.

BHW: How to get a do-follow link from Disqus

Rachmaninoff of BlackHatWorld shares a trick for getting do-follow links from Disqus, which usually automatically tags all links as no-follow and is not considered suitable for link-building.

Meme of the week

The sheer cuteness.. I can’t.. Credit goes to Izzi Smith of Twitter.

That's it for this week. Till next time!

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