ianschaefer

SEO enabler @webstaurant. Strong tech SEO bent. Musician & printmaker as time permits.

[ianschaefer @ianschaefer]

@KDruckSEO @rustybrick @devakatalk @brodieseo Sure! To be clear, I'm not convinced what they told me is a good explanation.

[ianschaefer @ianschaefer]

@rustybrick @KDruckSEO @devakatalk @brodieseo And this GMC Policy update: https://t.co/xhMzNYew7h

[ianschaefer @ianschaefer]

@rustybrick @KDruckSEO @devakatalk @brodieseo Seeing this param on non-product URLs at large scale. Since this is coming from Merchant Center, we inquired with Google Ads Support and were told it was expected behavior and sent to a couple GMC help docs. 🫤https://t.co/9XKJWfkOR1

[ianschaefer @ianschaefer]

@brodieseo *edit - starting 7/24, same day.

[ianschaefer @ianschaefer]

@brodieseo Interesting. We saw an anomalous uptick in srstlid sessions *in GA4* starting 7/25, but so far can't reproduce in SERP or in other reporting. 🤔

[ianschaefer @ianschaefer]

@pedrodias @googlesearchc 💯 yes please.

[ianschaefer @ianschaefer]

Good counterpoint.

[Ryan Jones @RyanJones]

My take on the leaked docs.

We don’t know if this is for production or for testing. My guess is it’s mostly for testing potential changes.

We don’t know what’s used for web or for other verticals. Some things might only be used for a Google home or news etc.

We don’t know what’s an input to a ML algo and what’s used to train against. My guess is clicks aren’t a direct input but used to train a model how to predict clickability. (Outside of trending boosts)

I’m also guessing that some of these fields only apply to training data sets and not all sites.

Am I saying Google didn’t lie? Not at all. But let’s examine this leak objectionably and not with any preconceived bias.

[ianschaefer @ianschaefer]

Shaping up to be a busy week for SEOs.

[Mic King @VeryWellVersed]

Ok, let's get this party started!

A couple weeks ago I said I was publishing the most important thing I ever wrote. I was wrong.

Documentation related to the Google Search algorithm leaked and I spent the weekend tearing it apart.

https://t.co/v71B16Ggov

✌🏾

[ianschaefer @ianschaefer]

@Similarweb @Kevin_Indig @lilyraynyc I have trouble seeing how the success of Yahoo broadly could account for the jump in search market share at the expense of Google but in tandem with Bing. Something seems off with GlobalStats' data.

[ianschaefer @ianschaefer]

@Kevin_Indig @lilyraynyc @Similarweb Exactly this.

[ianschaefer @ianschaefer]

@rustybrick Was new to me last week, but it had been some time since I was last in there!

[Mordy Oberstein @MordyOberstein]

This is great!

[ianschaefer @ianschaefer]

@brie_e_anderson Great stuff here, Brie! Alert to @ThePrinceEvanM 👀

[ianschaefer @ianschaefer]

Actually, yes. We're going to be on the hunt as well.

[Adam Gent @Adoubleagent]

The age of winter is over.

The time of recruiting SEOs has begun.

[ianschaefer @ianschaefer]

@lilyraynyc Can confirm: it's a bigger deal than we realized. 😑

[ianschaefer @ianschaefer]

@CyrusShepard If our own index bloat and *variation* are any indicator, this is quite the challenge for Google and other SEs 😅

[ianschaefer @ianschaefer]

@lilyraynyc Ew.

[ianschaefer @ianschaefer]

@jonoalderson Agree. My team recently updated some SEO best practices for one of our front-end dev teams using a new-to-them JS framework. Sure, there are particular pitfalls, but it's all driven by the same principles.

[ianschaefer @ianschaefer]

@jonoalderson @me__emi__ Agree about canonicals. Could you clarify what you mean about performance of '#' over '?'?

[Cyrus SEO @CyrusShepard]

It here! The DOJ finally released "Life of a Click" - explaining how Google used clicks for ranking

3 Pillars of Ranking:

• On-page
• Links+Anchors
• User-interaction

1/5 🧵