SEO Newsletter #99: Black Week SEO News & Deals – SEOSLY

Vernon November 28, 2023

0 8 minutes read

I was meaning to prepare some special Black Friday audit SEO deal for you but I am so overbooked that it won’t happen this year. Maybe in 2024…

Instead, there is a huge deal from my main SEO sponsor JetOctopus. JetOctopus offers 35% OFF for yearly plans. Normally, you get 25% OFF but with a special code blackfriday2023 you get 35%. This is really a huge DEAL.

I’m getting back on track after coming back from Barbados SEO last week. I hope to get back to sending my SEO newsletter once a week, not twice a month… 😆

I have so many ideas and there is so little time to execute on them all. But I can assure you that a lot of cool stuff is coming next year.

Anyway, there is a lot of good stuff in this newsletter and lots of *** SEO news.

JetOctopus 35% OFF With YEARLY Plan

JetOctopus is a cloud-based website crawler and SEO log analyzer. The tool allows you to analyze your website structure, check for broken links, detect technical SEO issues, and monitor your website’s ranking in search engines.
JetOctopus is the fastest and most affordable SaaS crawler and logs analyzer without limits.
I would not be able to do my work the way I do it without JetOctopus (seriously).

Normally, you get 25% OFF but with a special code blackfriday2023 you get 35%.

Upcoming LIVE event (don’t miss it)

Join me and Adrijana Vujadin – Coach for SEO professionals – in a LIVE event during which we will be sharing our SEO career success tips. We will also be answering your questions. Feel free to ask questions LIVE or put them in the chat. We can’t wait to do it. Share this even with other SEOs! Click “Notify Me” to get notified when the event airs (18 December at 6 PM CET).

Top SEO news

Here is the most important SEO & AI news from last week.

Google Search now supports discussion forum and profile page structured data

Google Search supports discussion forum and profile page structured data. This functionality allows Google to show “first-person perspectives from social media platforms, forums, and other communities” within the search results.

Upcoming deprecation of Crawl Rate Limiter Tool in Search Console

The crawl rate limiter tool in Search Console is being deprecated on Jan 8th, 2024. This tool has been available for over a decade, but with the improvements we’ve made to our crawling logic and other tools available to publishers, its usefulness has dissipated.

Google Search Console experience and enhancement reporting bug

Google has confirmed a bug with some of the reporting within Google Search Console. The bug impacts the experience and enhancement reports, including the core web vitals, mobile usability, HTTPS, AMP and other enhancement and experience reports. The issue is it shows a drop in the number of valid URLs being reported.

Google’s Index Size Revealed: 400 Billion Docs (& Changing)

Google rarely discusses the size of its web index—at least publicly. Many might believe you can simply search Google for any page on the web, but the opposite is actually more true. Out of trillions and trillions of possible pages, Google must narrow it down to mere “billions” of the most important documents.

Videos & photos from Barbados SEO

Here is my YouTube playlist with a few short videos showing Barbados and the Barbados SEO conference venue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=videoseries

😱🌴 It’s been a week since I got back from @BarbadosSeo and I’m missing this place so much. The only thing that is left now from Barbados with me is COVID…😷 I hope to get back into SEO shape quickly.

In case you want to see what a beautiful place it was, here is the Barbados… pic.twitter.com/XZO0XTgE3N

— Olga Zarr SEO (@olgazarr) November 27, 2023

And speaking about Barbados SEO, here is an awesome presentation by Cindy Crum on managing the future of SEO without keywords. I was lucky to be able to watch that presentation live.

Cora Pro SEO Software 25% OFF (my SEO tool of the year)

Cora SEO Software has been an absolute game-changer for me. I can honestly say that this the the ONLY tool you may need if you want to improve rankings and do it in the most efficient and effective way.

Cora SEO Software is capable of measuring thousands of factors and tells you exactly which ones appear to influence rankings and how much you need of each to compete with higher ranking competitors. More and more we are finding that having a broad diversity of ranking signals is the most important ranking factor and no SEO tool on the market handles factor diversity better than Cora.

You don’t need to believe what I’m saying. Just try for yourself! I have a special lifetime deal 25% OFF (and free training) for my newsletter subscribers.

Check my interview with Ted Kubaitis, the creator of Cora.

Watch my interview with Ted Kubaitis, the creator of Cora, to learn more about how game-changing this tool is.

More AI & SEO news

Here is other SEO news, less breaking but equally important.

Google Bard Can Now Understand YouTube Videos

Google Bard can now respond with answers based on the spoken words in a YouTube video. Google said, it is “expanding the YouTube Extension to understand some video content so you can have a richer conversation with Bard about it.”

Search Quality Raters Guidelines update

As of November 16, our Search Quality Rater Guidelines have been updated to simplify our guidelines. Specifically, we’ve simplified the “Needs Met” scale definitions, added more guidance for different kinds of web pages and modern examples including newer content formats such as short form video, removed outdated and redundant examples, and expanded rating guidance for forum and discussion pages. None of these involve any major or foundational shifts in our guidelines.

List your courses with new course info structured data

Google has announced a new set of recommendations to provide course structured data to Google. Publishers now have the opportunity to surface supplemental course information on Google Search by providing detailed information like pricing, educational level, ratings, and length with structured data.

Sam Altman returns to OpenAI as CEO ‘in principle’

Days after being ousted as CEO by the OpenAI board, Sam Altman will return to the company, restoring the status quo.

New Yahoo Search experience to start rolling out in the first weeks of 2024

Yahoo Search is expected to start rolling out aspects of its redesigned search experience in the first weeks of 2024. Brian Provost, the Senior VP and General Manager of Yahoo Search, said Yahoo Search will be launching in the very early days of 2024.

Google launches new personal search experience with follow button and personalized ranking

Google is rolling out a more personalized search experience that aims to show searchers more information about what they care about directly in the search results. This is being done with several new search features, including a new Follow button, search results tailored to you, perspectives results updates, creator snippets and more.

Google Search tests Notes on search results

Google launched a new search labs experiment named “Notes.” Notes gives searchers a way write their own notes on a specific search result listing and within Google Discover while also allowing others to read people’s notes on that search result listing.

SEO Interviews

New amazing interviews with SEO stars like Cyrus Shepard, Barry Adams, Kaspar Szymanski, Kristina Azarenko and more are coming! Stay tuned! Get notified when they air.

Top SEO Tips

And here are the Google SEO tips for you.

In this video, Ryan from Norzer Me (make sure to subscribe) shows you how to find OpenAI C Custom GPTs created by other community members since there is no search. This video will likely become obsolete once the store\library is created in the coming month or so and a search functionality becomes available. Keep in mind some of these GTP’s may not be functional. Just play around and learn.

2: Google: The SEO Value Of Bringing Back A 404 Page Is Less Than The Effort

Google’s John Mueller answered a question about finding broken links that 404 and if there is SEO value in working on bringing those links back to life. John ended his response by saying on Reddit, “The SEO “value” of bringing a 404 back is probably less than the work you put into it.”

3: Which aspect of my site should I focus on?

In this episode of Search Off the Record, Martin, Gary, and John discuss aspects of SEO that website owners often overlook. From overall quality to more technical aspects, The Search team talks about where they focus on their SEO work and why the details add up to a better SEO experience.

4: 3 tips for setting up a sitemap

Learn how to set up a sitemap for your website to let Google Search know about all your pages. In this episode of SEO Made Easy, Martin Split shares 3 tips to help make the most out of your sitemaps.

Videos to watch this week

Here are the latest videos from other SEOs I find especially interesting and worth watching.

Must-read resources

And you need to allocate some time to read these articles from other SEOs. They are brilliant.

How to use Bard to get ahead of Google algorithm updates

Here’s how Bard’s real-time insights and direct access to Google resources can help you navigate algorithm changes.\

SEO Expert Lily Ray from Amsive shares an awesome guide explaining how to correctly implement pagination for SEO and UX.

Preparing for Google SGE: Surviving SEO’s Next Wild West

We’ve seen Google’s SGE (Search Generative Experience) in action for quite some time now, and its experimental phase in Search Labs is set to end in December.

3 Steps to Move Your Service Area Business Google Business Profile Without Destroying Your Ranking

Many business owners aren’t sure what to do when they operate out of their house and then have to move. In many cases, these moves aren’t close by and the business owner is trying to figure out if they have to start from scratch. The good news is that if nothing else is changing about your business, you should be able to move without any issues if you follow these steps.

Rethinking AMP: Is it time for SEOs to let go?

In this article, Nati Elimelech explains why some SEOs are—after the better part of a decade—stepping back from AMP so that you can make the right decision for your website.

PageRank is a system designed to measure the importance of web pages based on the quantity and quality of links pointing to them. In essence, every link to a page acts like a vote of confidence, with links from authoritative pages carrying more weight.

When Not to Use Artificial Intelligence in Digital PR

From an industry point of view, AI has divided marketers of all kinds. Will it replace your job? Does it do your work better than you? Maybe you’ve even seen companies liquidate, citing AI as their downfall.