Christian Collett

He/Him | SEO @Merkle | Oregon State Grad | Beer Snob | MUFC Fan(atic) | Star Wars Nerd | Proud Alpha Sig

[Brodie Clark @brodieseo]

This change to Google's search results could move your website from the bottom to the top overnight.

In an attempt to introduce perspectives from trusted sites, without the use of generative AI, Google is now highlighting answers from multiple domains within featured snippets.

The last time Google was testing this format on desktop was in June of 2023, where various featured snippet answers were first presented in a full-width view (rather than inside the middle column like today).

When comparing this format to what the Search Generative Experience (SGE) presents, the intent is quite different. With the test, Google is trying to highlight 3 different answers to a specific query for fast identification in the words of the authors themselves.

With SGE, Google starts with a disclaimer about the answer. Mentioning that the answer does not constitute medical advice, with it then creating a more lengthy summary that tries to generate middle ground among the answers – without highlighting a specific section.

In my opinion, for this specific query, I can see where a triple featured snippet may be most pleasing to the searcher. They are able to quickly scan through the highlighted text and make their own judge based on each context.

In the case of SGE, it feels quite unlikely that Google would roll out the AI-generated answer to all users. There is too much liability involved, which is dispersed in the case of seeking various perspectives from trusted authors.

Keep an eye out for this test in Google's search results – they've brought it back for good reason. Which will come first: multiple featured snippets by default, or SGE answers? Or will there be a combination among the two?

#seo #searchengineoptimization #google

[Christian Collett @Csqrd1124]

@RyanMews This keeps me up at night man...

[Glenn Gabe @glenngabe]

I've been working on this one for a bit and it's important for any site owner that's working on improving quality overall -> Highly Visible and Low Quality (or Unhelpful) – A Most Dangerous SEO Combination

In my post, I first cover some history around user interaction signals and SEO, then I cover John Mueller's evolving comments about removing low-quality content, and then I tie that together with the latest testimony from Google's antitrust trial (with a focus on Navboost). https://t.co/QMUhoFAHQm

[Christian Collett @Csqrd1124]

@dr_pete Merchant listings is what I've used, popular products being the most common example of them https://t.co/i1pZbzNZpO

[Britney Muller @BritneyMuller]

♥️ My favorite people talk love behind other's backs.

—There was a lot of that @ #BrightonSEO last week ✨

From @willcritchlow (secret pro basketball player) saying how we should invent an industry 'Lifetime Achievement Award' & give it to @randfish 🏆💯💯💯

to @maxxeight, myself & others gushing about the brilliant @lilyraynyc & @aleyda ✨

to @SusanEDub & I fangirling over @ashleymadhatter 's incredible talk! 🥳

to JR Oakes saying what a badass @brie_e_anderson is on stage 🔥

to @azarchick and I in awe of @danaditomaso (not only is she a wealth of knowledge in this space but a 3D printing EXPERT!) 🪴

to @dannysullivan @JohnMu @rustybrick & @mattcutts all getting tons of behind-their-back praise ♥️

to all the engineers + true data people screaming after basically everything @samtorresatl had to say 🤯You're a breath of fresh air, Sam!!!

Also heard soo many beautiful things about @navahf @iPullRank @HeatherPhysioc @navahf @kristaseiden @RossHudgens @Suzzicks @AkvileDeFazio & Dale Bertrand as ppl + their talks & panels. 🔥🔥🔥

+Many speakers and attendees saying what a wonderful event BrightonSEO was & how @kelvinnewman + his team @LynsLittle, @CharleneDitch + others absolutely NAILED their first US event 🚀🐊 Thank you!!!!

I could go on & on! Tons of incredible people to appreciate within this space.

[Glenn Gabe @glenngabe]

I'm seeing impressions & clicks jump a bit across sites, but cannot reproduce in the SERPs. My guess is this is a bug of some sort (either a bug in the SERPs or in GSC). I've tried a number of queries that supposedly triggered FAQ snippets across sites & cannot reproduce. Stay tuned.

[Brodie Clark @brodieseo]

Welcome back... FAQ rich results?

I'm seeing FAQ rich results return for a bunch of GSC properties across both mobile and desktop.

The expectation was that they would be gone for good for most sites, aside from well-known, authoritative government and health websites.

The wording Google used in their announcement did however say it "will no longer be shown regularly" for other sites, which does leave some room for the treatment to show again.

When checking my GSC properties and Google's SERPs, the treatment is showing, but is quite inconsistent for sites and looks to be showing sporadically – either pointing to a bug or a test they are running.

At the time of the recent FAQ/How-to update rollout, I did notice that tabular snippets were also removed for all sites at the same time (which you can see for Kayak in the attached image). They also look to have returned with this change, which is interesting to note.

In terms of How-to rich results, I am seeing a very minor uptick in GSC when using the search appearance filter. This rich result is however said to have been completely deprecated, so I wouldn't expect a return there.

As another note on How-to rich results, the expectation was that the search appearance report in GSC and support in the Rich Results Test would be removed in September, but both are still yet to happen.

If you're noticing the FAQ search appearance filter start to yield clicks/impressions in GSC or that they are appearing in Search, you're not going crazy. They are there, but it's unclear as to what Google's intentions are by bringing them back.

[Christian Collett @Csqrd1124]

Yet another phenomenal model to get the strategic juices going from the brilliant @HeatherPhysioc - CX, job theory, and search (oh my) #BrightonSEO

[Miriam Ellis @Miriam_Ellis_]

#LocalSEO #SmallBusiness An absolutely packed menu of elements you can include on location/city landing pages for your #localbusiness in my @Moz column today. Cheat sheet, keyed mockup, and more! https://t.co/lhXKI88WLd

[Darren Shaw @DarrenShaw_]

Google's new "Activities" feature is a BIG deal 👏

We have never been able to add or edit events on our Google Business Profiles, but it looks like we will soon be able to, according to @rustybrick.

Currently, Google pulls event data into GBP from other event sites, and the info is often wrong. It's annoying 😩

Previously, the way to try to fix this was to add the event info to your own website with schema markup, but that's a complicated and arduous task for most businesses.

So, this will be a welcome addition!

#localseo #seo

[Britney Muller @BritneyMuller]

My 'LLM Guide' Part 2 is:

1. 🔥🔥🔥
2. Going to upset some large companies

♥️ Feels so refreshing to speak freely about LLMs, their history, issues, unethical dataset aggregation methods, algorithmic bias, etc.

🤖Ya'll deserve to know how the AI hotdogs are made!

[Christian Collett @Csqrd1124]

@ConPonbro Until they're downstream?

[Glenn Gabe @glenngabe]

Focus on ecommerce & interested in Discover? Interesting to see a "Clothing" module show up yesterday as we approach the Q4 shopping season. 4 products showed up, some that were viewed, leading to a shopping page with stores. The title led to a fresh SERP for "Shop Clothing":

[Christian Collett @Csqrd1124]

@RyanMews Mac version maybe??

[Marie Haynes @Marie_Haynes]

New helpful content update for September 2023.

They have improved the classifier.

Here's what I've noticed has changed in Google's helpful content documentation:
https://t.co/wJ1F5AjxwE

They've changed the opening paragraph to say, "content written by people for people" to "content created for people".

They've added this:

"If you host third-party content on your main site or in your subdomains, understand that such content may be included in site-wide signals we generate, such as the helpfulness of content. For this reason, if that content is largely independent of the main site's purpose or produced without close supervision or the involvement of the primary site, we recommend that it should be blocked from being indexed by Google."
and,

"What does this system and updates to it mean for my site?

If you're producing helpful content, then you don't need to do anything; in fact this system may be good for your site, as it is designed to reward helpful content. If you've noticed a change in traffic you suspect may be related to this system (such as after a publicly-posted ranking update to the system), then you should self-assess your content and fix or remove any that seems unhelpful. Our help page on how to create helpful, reliable people-first content has questions that you can use to self-assess your content to be successful with the helpful content system."

There are also some minor changes to the helpful content documentation.

"Is this content written by an expert" has changed to

"Is this content written or reviewed by an expert."

Also added:

"Are you changing the date of pages to make them seem fresh when the content has not substantially changed?

Are you adding a lot of new content or removing a lot of older content primarily because you believe it will help your search rankings overall by somehow making your site seem "fresh?" (No, it won't)"

https://t.co/I5ZaA11xX3

[Christian Collett @Csqrd1124]

@lilyraynyc The amount of times I type a query then add Reddit to the end... makes sense I suppose!

[Ryan Mews 🤓 SEO & GEO @RyanMews]

Pro Tip 🚨: If you need a reference line for a graph in Looker Studio (formerly Data Studio), click on the graph and go into the Style tab and add a reference line. It can be on X or Y axis and fully customized including a label. Enjoy! 🤝

[Christian Collett @Csqrd1124]

@JacobDVandever Always two other great rotational options

[Barry Pollard @tunetheweb]

Well it seems like a lot of you are getting emails from Google Search Console warning the INP on your site could be improved and you don't know what to make of them! So let's take a deep breath and delve into what this all means and how you should action them. 🧵 (1/20)

[Lidia Infante is on BlueSky @LidiaInfanteM]

You might be familiar with those “top SEOs to follow in 2023” lists or “the 10 best SEO experts” kind of thing.

They usually include a bunch of white men who don’t work in SEO (and Neil Patel).

This is not that kind of list. At all.
https://t.co/aj5uB972x9