cjfeti

[cjfeti @FetiKalayci]

@glenngabe Not sure if we can trust what Google says about disawoving. We get so many backlinks, as a result of negative SEO, with anchors related to porn, drugs etc. And if skip disawoving them for a month, they are getting reported in GSC next. Does G really ignore them?

[Charles Floate 📈 @Charles_SEO]

One of the #1 recommendations in SEO is to "create unique content."

This is largely wrong.

Google doesn't want unique. It wants consensus, the algo has it baked in.

What actually works: Create content that matches what's already ranking but is significantly better optimised - not from a "user angle" (though we still want good engagement signals) but from an algorithmic angle.

Templated content that matches broad consensus outperforms highly individualised pieces almost every time in search.

I know this triggers people but I've tested it across hundreds of sites.. The data doesn't lie.

[Koray Tuğberk GÜBÜR @KorayGubur]

Google has finally openly acknowledged how it uses social signals and your social media accounts to understand your website borders.

This topic is too deep for a short post, but one thing must be clear:
Google does not rank websites. Google ranks Web Entities.

Your website is only one surface of that entity.

Over time, Google has started to integrate social media channels into Google Search Console. This is not accidental. It serves two major purposes from Google’s side.

First:
Yes, AI may reduce some organic clicks. But Google compensates by routing visibility and traffic through social platforms, especially those with strong forum and discussion contexts.

Second:
Google actively incentivizes content creation on platforms it owns or partners with, such as YouTube and Reddit.

Back in 2022, Google introduced Perspectives. Since then, the algorithm has increasingly favored experience-focused language, first-hand narratives, and human tonality aligned with language models.

Now look at the timeline.

• December 8, 2025: Google announced social channel integration in Search Console
• December 12, 2025: Google released the December BCAU
• Social platforms continued expanding their presence in rankings, AI Overviews, and AI Mode

This is not coincidence.

Since 2019, we have been measuring and processing the impact of social media signals in our case studies.

One conclusion has remained consistent.

If you have traffic diversification combined with strong brand attribution, you are far more resilient against BCAUs.

This leads to the core concept.

Your site does not end where your .com ends.

These are cross-domain Web Entities.

Your Facebook profile is part of your Web Source.
Your YouTube channel is part of your Web Source.
Their performance directly influences how Google understands, trusts, and ranks the whole entity.

Just as websites and Google Business Profiles tend to move together in rankings, social channels usually gain visibility when your entity wins a BCAU.

This update marks a new phase.

It is an open invitation to social engineering at scale, with stronger relevance configuration and a deeper illusion of choice inside the SERP.

Next year, around June, we plan to launch a new course and lecture series covering algorithmic authorship rules, Web Entity understanding, and layout and visual semantics.

To learn more, join our community:
https://t.co/pbnF18gPmh

#SEO via @seo_holistic

[Cyrus SEO @CyrusShepard]

Spammers point 1000s of spammy links at Disney

Google tells us we can safely ignore links like these

Yet the anchor text clearly shows up in Disney's sitelinks. So is Google actually ignoring these links? H/t @rus

[Glen Allsopp 👾 @ViperChill]

Twenty-one years writing about SEO (15 > 36) and I've finally published something on the Ahrefs blog. 🎉

Thanks to the recent launch of our MCP server, you can connect Ahrefs to AI assistants like ChatGPT and Claude to get actionable SEO insights.

Amongst the incredible feedback, the most common question people had about "chatting" with our data was...

"What should I ask?"

The aim isn't to replace human insights, but to help scale what you already know how to do, and provide an additional perspective on your next plan of action.

I've spent a lot of time testing out different prompt ideas and yet I'm still scratching the surface of what's possible.

If there are any angles you're having a lot of success with, let me know and they might end up in the next version of our guide (with credit, of course).

Link to the prompts you can copy and paste in the first reply. 🙏

[Screaming Frog @screamingfrog]

Internal Linking Guide for SEO with Google Colab (Python) - https://t.co/Orlg67uffs from @anaperezbotella

[Marie Haynes @Marie_Haynes]

This is really good. Thanks for sharing Glenn. Love that you are doing a podcast. You are a natural!

[Brodie Clark @brodieseo]

SEO News: Semrush just launched my most requested feature ever - I’m very happy. The ability to track AI Overviews in Organic Research is here (not just in Position Tracking). This is a big deal for the industry, am able to see some killer insights in there already!

[Tim Denning @Tim_Denning]

I bet my life-savings Pieter Levels will become a billionaire by 2029.

Not because he currently makes $195K/month with zero employees from his laptop.

Because he found the secret formula for online business (it’s so basic I couldn't believe it):

[Mark Williams-Cook @thetafferboy]

SEO updates you ✨NEED✨ to know [19 Aug]:

📈 Google has launched the August 2024 core update. This appears to be a response to the September 2023 Helpful Content Update with some affected sites beginning to see some recovery for the first time according to @lilyraynyc

❌ ​An ongoing issue is affecting rankings in Google Search. This incident was first reported on 15 August 2024 and Google has confirmed that it is unrelated to the core update rollout.

✨ ​The latest update to AI Overviews has arrived. AI Overviews are now available in six new countries, specific results can saved for future reference and site links are now displayed at the end of paragraphs.

📑 ​Google has also updated its documentation about core updates (we don't mean this newsletter). The update includes advice for checking if rankings have dropped in GSC and how to assess large drops in positions. via @aleyda

🔑 ​A "Mentioned in key answers" feature is being tested in Google SERPs. Most reported cases seem to be famous people when their name is mentioned in a featured snippet. via @gaganghotra_

🪓 ​Google may be forced to 'break up' elements of its business such as Android, Chrome and Google Ads. This follows the recent antitrust trial loss but is seen as "a severe response" to the trial decision by reports from Bloomberg.

🗳️ ​Over 30% of SEOs believe core updates have been the main source of traffic instability over the last year. The latest SEJ State of SEO report also includes other barriers to SEO success such as budget limitation. via @Juxtacognition

📊 ​GSC doesn't only show 35% of your performance data. This statistic from the GSC recommendations last week has been misinterpreted and the amount of available data can vary depending on the site. via @rustybrick

💌 If you like tldr SEO news like this and don't want to miss it, I send these updates every Monday (along with SEO tips and a deep dive podcast) on my completely free newsletter at CoreUpdates[dot]com

Links to everything in my next tweet ⬇️

[Google Search Central @googlesearchc]

We are excited to announce Search Console recommendations, a new feature that provides websites with optimization opportunities and suggests actions they can take to improve their presence on Google Search. Check out our blog post https://t.co/75tUuN4fmu

[Bartosz Góralewicz @bart_goralewicz]

🛑 ALERT 🛑
Google just launched a new layout of Google AIOs.
- Links to websites on top of the page
- A new structure of AIO responses
- Different coverage per verticals we track

More updates are coming soon!

Check out https://t.co/yi4UHVQA6m for tracking & optimizing!

[OpenAI @OpenAI]

We’ve acquired Rockset, a leading real-time analytics database that provides world-class data indexing and querying capabilities. We'll integrate Rockset’s technology across our products, empowering companies to transform their data into actionable intelligence. https://t.co/INE0MzT3DB

[Aleyda Solis 🕊️ @aleyda]

🚨 Google Search’s Internal Engineering Documentation Has Leaked and analyzed by @iPullRank 👀 Many of these had been denied to be used by Google👇

* There are 14K ranking features and more in the docs
* Google has a feature they compute called “siteAuthority”
* Navboost has a specific module entirely focused on click signals representing users as voters and their clicks are stored as their votes
* Google stores which result has the longest click during the session
* Google has an attribute called hostAge that is used specifically “to sandbox fresh spam in serving time”
* One of the modules related to page quality scores features a site-level measure of views from Chrome

And more! A must read for SEOs, check it out: https://t.co/acQeQHKjL7

[Brodie Clark @brodieseo]

Must-read if you work in SEO. New Google leak based on 14K attributes (features).

Interesting stuff related to Chrome, homepage trust, page title & more.

-> Secrets from the Algorithm: Google Search’s Internal Engineering Documentation Leak by @iPullRank https://t.co/k3k2tq1Mea

[Jeremiah Johnson 🌐 @JeremiahDJohns]

Google's new AI search results are having quite the week. Here's a thread with some of my favorite answers:

[Rahul @sairahul1]

Less than 2 weeks since OpenAI started rolling out GPT-4o.

And people have been busy executing god-like tasks.

50 truly mind-boggling examples:

(29th is my favorite)

[Brodie Clark @brodieseo]

Google is now running a test that allows forums such as Reddit to take up much more space in search results. The test extends upon the sitelink treatment, allowing upvotes/comments to appear alongside answers from users. More variations of this test: https://t.co/8Cm8sE0hsO

[Google SearchLiaison @searchliaison]

Two different things. A site could have an algorithmic spam action. A site could be not ranking well because other systems that *are not about spam* just don't see it as helpful.

I've looked at many sites where people have complained about losing rankings and decide they have a algorithmic spam action against them, but they don't. That's why I'm supportive of the idea we'd perhaps share as much in Search Console. That maybe you could go into Search Console and if you have an algorithmic action, you'd see a notice just like if you have a manual action. I was just talking about this with some folks on the search team last week, and I expect to revisit the idea.

It's not a new idea, either. It's challenging, however, in two key ways. First, there are some sites that do really bad spamming. Anyone who thinks that's not them -- you're right, it probably isn't. Those that do, they know. And if you tell them what the algorithm thinks is spam, then they can adjust and try to game it -- not good for anyone, searchers or other sites. Second, there's no way to "manually" lift an algo action. It's the algorithm. It's not focusing on a specific site. It doesn't have a list of sites added to it. It's automatically understanding patterns that make it think "across all this content, I see these patterns, and this makes me think generally I see spam here." So there's no way to go in and somehow "remove" a site, if that makes sense. With an actual manual action, we can -- because an action was placed against a specific site.

And ... I'm greatly sympathetic to the idea that with a manual action, you can file for reconsideration and get the manual action removed versus with the algo, a sense of not only do I not know, but if I did, I can't even talk to someone about it. One thing I'm wondering is if there's a way, at least as a start, that we could let people who got notifications say "Not spam!" kind of like with email. And maybe we could use those reports in aggregate to better improve the automated spam systems overall. Of course, the challenge is actual people who are knowingly spamming might say the same thing, so it takes some thinking about how we might come up with a system that would be useful. Part of what I'm hoping to talk to folks more internally about.

Before I leave the spam thing -- you don't really want to think "Oh, I just wish I had a manual action, that would be so much easier." You really don't want your individual site coming the attention of our spam analysts. First, it's not like manual actions are somehow instantly processed. Second, it's just something we know about a site going forward, especially if it says it has change but hasn't really.

Moving away from spam, we do have various systems that try to determine how helpful, useful and reliable individual content and sites are (and they're not perfect, as I've said many times before, anticipating a chorus of "whatabouts....." Some people who think they are impacted by this, I've looked at the same data they can see in Search Console and ... not really. Some of them ranking really well. But they've moved down a bit in small positions enough that the traffic drop is notable. They assume they have fundamental issues but don't, really -- which is why we added a whole section about this to our debugging traffic drops page: https://t.co/Gk2298Z0Gv

But some clearly have had large drops. Another thing I've been discussing, and I'm not alone in this, is could we do more in Search Console to show some of these indicators. This is all challenging similar to all the stuff I said about spam, about how not wanting to let the systems get gamed, and also how there's then no button we would push that's like "actually more useful than our automated systems think -- rank it better!" But maybe there's a way we can find to share more, in a way that helps everyone and coupled with better guidance, would help creators.

Which is a lot of words. But I'll end on this, I've spent a huge amount of time looking at the feedback over the past few months, diving deep into sites, writing up thoughts and talking with people internally. I fully recognize that there are "small" or "independent" or whatever you want to call them sites that are diligently producing great content but our systems aren't recognizing it as well as they should (there's also a lot of really poor content that our systems are indeed recognizing, and there's also great content that is doing very well -- but those doing very well with great stuff tend not to talk about that on the socials). I'd like to see us do better with that subset I mentioned, the great content not well recognized. Better in helping to guide away from maybe unhelpful things that have been learned by others? By better guidance. Maybe better reporting. And some other things I'm pondering we might try.

I just can't do that overnight, nor can I do it myself, nor is is the primary thing I'm responsible. I work with other teams and suggest, encourage, recommend -- but other teams have to go-ahead on stuff. And they also have to balance various trade-offs and other things. But why I can do -- have been doing and will continue to do -- is take the external feedback, channel that back to various teams and provided advocacy and recommendations in ways that I think would help all around.

[Screaming Frog @screamingfrog]

Little tip - To crawl with the new gpt-4o model in @screamingfrog, just update the model in the ‘(ChatGPT) Template’ snippet.