Google is hiring a new Search Quality Analyst who would work on fighting spam in the Google Search results. A new job posting by Google is currently accepting applications, the job seems to require you to be available to work on-site at the Mountain View, California office.
Job details. The job description defines the job of a Search Quality Analyst as someone who “will be working to measure and prevent inorganic user behavior through enforcement and development of our webmaster guidelines.” It also requires you to “support search ranking launches through qualitative and quantitative analyses.” As a Search Quality Analyst, Google said, “you will solve problems across data sets, with the power of Google’s technology to identify issues occurring in Google Search and related product areas.”
Make a difference. Google said this job will make a difference and have a “direct impact on users every day.” Plus you will get to work “closely with engineers and other analysts to launch algorithms and lead efforts that improve the overall search experience.” In short, you get to understand the search ranking algorithms in a deeper way and actually work on overall search quality.
Responsibilities. Google lists out these are the core responsibilities of the job:
Prevent abuse of Google Search by analyzing search trends, identifying inorganic activity, and developing solutions.
Solve analytical problems and apply analytical methods as needed within datasets.
Engage cross-functionally with a wide variety of people and teams. Work closely with Engineers and Analysts to lead the development of long-lasting solutions.
Prepare and present recommendations to multiple levels of stakeholders.
Qualifications. Here is a listing of all the qualifications to apply for this job:
Minimum qualifications:
Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience.
Experience working with one or more of the following languages: SQL, HTML, PHP, JavaScript, Python, Go and/or C++.
Experience in data analysis, or working as a data scientist, abuse analyst, or law enforcement investigator.
Experience managing projects and defining project scope, goals, and deliverables.
Preferred qualifications:
Master’s degree in a quantitative discipline.
Experience in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or experience as a webmaster.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
Why we care. If you love search, SEO and how search algorithms work, this might be the job for you. For some in SEO, it is the dream job to work at Google on Google Search, specifically working on search quality. For others, this might be a great opportunity to learn about why search quality is important.
We often see only from the side of marketers, we want our sites to be at the top of the Google Search results. But did you ever think about it from the search engine’s perspective?
Discover the fastest ways to create the kind of content that will attract your audience. You can use these video strategies to rank on each channel, advertise online, and post to social media. In addition, you’ll even get insights into abiding by new privacy laws and the cookieless web.
Learn more about this event from Ignite Visibility speakers John Lincoln, CEO, Jen Cornwell, Director of Digital Strategy, Carl Bivona, Director of Social Media and Oscar Lutteroth, VP of Creative.
Video has taken over social media and found its way into the search rankings and has produced incredible returns for marketers who have integrated it into their marketing strategies.
86% of video marketers say video has increased traffic to their website. 84% say video has helped them generate leads. And 78% report that video has directly helped increase sales.
Video can increase all your KPIs. You just have to use it the right way.
On November 17, 2021, Ignite Visibility is hosting a free event for marketers and entrepreneurs called How to Launch a Winning Video Strategy and Increase Conversions.
During this live event, our award-winning team will take some of the guesswork out of creating and optimizing video content. You’ll see step-by-step how to incorporate video into your strategy and use it to increase traffic and leads.
You’ll learn:
The simplest ways to engage your audience across different platforms
SEO strategies to make sure your videos are seen by viewers and rank in search results
Creative best practices to quickly produce high-quality videos
Common misconceptions and mistakes when it comes to video content
Our methods for optimizing videos for different search algorithms
And more.
By the end of this training, you’ll be able to confidently add video into your marketing strategy and create the kind of content your audience will love.
To register or learn more about this event, click here.
Google will begin rolling out the page experience ranking update to desktop search results starting in February 2022. Google said the rollout will finish rolling out by the end of March 2022. This update will include all the current signals of the mobile version of the page experience update, outside of the page needing to be mobile friendly.
“This ranking launch will be based on the same page experience signals that we rolled out for mobile earlier this year,” Jeffrey Jose, Product Manager on Search at Google said.
We knew this would be coming, Google told us this would happen back in May 2021 at Google I/O.
Mobile vs desktop. Which factors is will be included in this desktop version? Google said all of them with the exception of the mobile friendliness requirement, which is kind of obvious. Here is a chart Google designed showing the specific factors:
Search Console tools. Google will be updating the Google Search Console tools and reports to help site owners prepare for this update. “We are also planning to help site owners understand how their desktop pages are performing with regards to page experience using a Search Console report which will launch before desktop becomes a ranking signal,” Google said.
Don’t expect drastic changes. Google said with this rollout and this new Google update, do not expect drastic changes. “While this update is designed to highlight pages that offer great user experiences, page experience remains one of many factors our systems take into account… Given this, sites generally should not expect drastic changes,” said Google. We expect the same to be true for the desktop rollout.
Why we care. While, I do not believe this page experience update will be a significant update where you will see tons of sites see their rankings drastically change, those working towards improving their page experience have been primarily focused on their mobile pages. Now, that you have your mobile pages ready for this update, you can shift focus towards your desktop pages.
Google Search Console is piloting a new method to contact Google for support related to Google Search Console. Google opened up previously a method to contact Google about indexing issues. This new tool is to contact Google about domain verification and user management issues with Google Search Console, the company said on Twitter.
New tool. Google said “Earlier this year, we expanded our program for site owners to report urgent bugs or other issues related to indexing. That program has been working well, so we’re expanding it to handle domain verification and user management issues for Search Console.”
Report verification issues. You can now report verification issues in the Google Search Console help docs over here. If all your debugging fails, scroll to the bottom of that help document and click on “report verification issue.”
Report user management issues. You can also report user management issues in a different Google Search Console help doc, over here. If you are having issues with user management in Search Console and you cannot figure it out, click on the “report user management issues” button.
Pilot release. You may not see this feature in the help documents yet. Google said this feature is “currently piloting this in the US only and it should be fully available to all in the US within a week or less.” Plus this is only supported for English now. Google said the company will “reassess the usefulness of a support expansion in this direction in a few weeks.”
Why we care. For some, verifying your domain name and gaining access to Google Search Console can be an issue. These new contact methods will give those having issues more methods to verify and gain access to their sites in Google Search Console. And access to Google Search Console unlocks a ton of useful information, reporting, and debugging for site owners.
Yahoo! halted its services in mainland China on Monday, according to Reuters. The company cited an “increasingly challenging business and legal environment” and is the second major American platform to shutter its Chinese operations over the last month.
America’s tech presence has evaporated in China. In October, Microsoft announced that it would shut down its localized version of LinkedIn in China, similarly citing “a significantly more challenging operating environment.” The Chinese government has also made numerous other platforms, including Facebook, Google, Instagram, Twitch, Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit and YouTube, unavailable to its domestic users. Bing seems to be the only major platform for search marketers that is still accessible to Chinese users.
Why operating in China may be unfeasible for American companies. Under Chinese law, companies must submit their data to local authorities if requested to do so. The data could be used to identify and persecute dissidents, as it was in 2007 when Yahoo! turned over sensitive e-mails to Chinese authorities. Thus, companies operating in China may face pressure from the local government there but also back in America for helping Chinese authorities suppress free speech.
Although not specifically cited in Yahoo!’s statement, the withdrawal coincides with China’s new Personal Information Protection Law, which also went into effect on November 1, 2021. The law limits what data companies can collect and establishes requirements for how it must be stored. In Microsoft’s announcement that it was closing the localized version of LinkedIn, the company cited “greater compliance requirements” as a cause for its departure.
Why we care. China has 854 million internet users, the most in the world and more than twice the amount of users in the U.S. (313 million). As the platforms that marketers can use to potentially reach the Chinese audience withdraw from the country, so too do opportunities to tap into that user base. The opposite is not necessarily true, however, as TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance, is one of the most popular social media platforms in America at the moment.
Sarah Bird, the CEO of Moz, said that it is “time for me to move on and make space for new voices, new leaders,” on the company blog. After 14 yeas with the company, almost 8 of those years as the CEO of Moz, and the previous years as Moz’s President and COO, she is leaving the company.
Sarah Bird took over as the CEO in January 2014, after Rand Fishkin, the co-founder, stepped down from that role. Rand Fishkin explained that Sarah Bird was the President and COO of the company and was taking over as the CEO then. She has been with the company for 6 years and has been acting in many ways as the company’s CEO, prior to her taking on that role. In 2017, Rand Fishkin left day-to-day operations of the company.
Moz has been through many ups and downs over the years but most recently in June of this year, just about five months ago, Moz was acquired by iContact. While Sarah Bird did not specifically say much about the reason she is leaving outside of saying “I’m going to take the winter off to reflect, rest, and cherish my loved ones. I don’t know what the future holds for me, but I know it will be a grand adventure.” One can guess that she accomplished her goal of getting Moz acquired and is now moving on to a new role.
We wish Sarah Bird much luck with her next adventure and we wish Moz and its employees much success with its new leadership, which has yet to be disclosed.
Sarah Bird said “I feel good knowing that I’m leaving Moz, and all of you, in good hands.”
Why we care. Moz is one of the more reputable toolsets in the industry, we hope to see future leaders in the search community represent the company going forward.
For members of the search community at Moz, many of whom have been featured here or at SMX, we hope the future has exciting things in store for you at Moz.
When Google released the real-time Penguin algorithm update, which some SEOs code-named 4.0, back in 2016, Google told us this version devalues or ignores most spammy links. For the most part, Google’s Penguin algorithm no longer penalized for bad links because it would aim to neutralize the spammy links and just not count them, as opposed to penalizing for them.
John Mueller, a Search Advocate at Google, said on Friday in a video question and answer session that Penguin does try to ignore the spammy links. However, in the cases where Google cannot because there is a “very strong pattern” of spammy links pointing to the site, Penguin may penalize and distrust the site as a whole and not act in the granular way it was designed for.
John Mueller said this at the 37:06 mark in this video he posted on Friday on the Google Search Central YouTube channel.
What was said. The question John was asked was “Is the Penguin penalty still relevant at all or less relevant spammy toxic backlinks are more or less ignored by the ranking algorithms these days.”
John responded, “I’d say it’s a mix of both.” He explained, “For the most part when we can recognize that something is problematic and any kind of a spammy link and we will try to ignore it.” “If our systems recognize that they can’t isolate and ignore these links across a website, if we see a very strong pattern there, then it can happen that our algorithms say well we really have kind of lost trust with this website and at the moment based on the bigger picture on the web, we kind of need to be more on almost a conservative side when it comes to understanding this website’s content and ranking it in the search results and then you can see kind of a drop in the visibility there.”
John is saying, that in some cases, Google’s Penguin link algorithm can demote the whole site based on the links and not just ignore the specific spammy links. But it seems like it has to be very high levels of spammy links.
“But for the most part like the web is pretty messy and we recognize that we have to ignore a lot of the links out there. So for the most part I think that’s fine. Usually, you would only see this kind of a drop if it’s really a strong and a clear pattern that’s associated with the website,” John added.
John came back on Twitter to clarify that “this is the case for many spam & low-quality signals” in the Google algorithms. He explained, “we’ll work to ignore the irrelevant effects, but if it’s hard to find anything useful that’s remaining, our algorithms can end up being skeptical with the site overall.” “Our spam algorithms are pretty nuanced and they do look at a number of factors,” he added.
Disavow links. So do we need to disavow links now, even when Google said we really don’t need to? The answer is no, you don’t need to disavow links. You can John Mueller said, “I’d either ignore it or use the disavow file (for the worse domains).”
The video. Here is the video embed where John said this:
SEO consultants chime in. I asked a few SEO consultants their opinion on what John said in this video and here is what they had to say:
Lily Ray, the Senior Director, SEO & Head of Organic Research of Amsive Digital told us, “John’s advice here shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to SEOs who have dealt with companies engaging in large scale link building initiatives using tactics that violate Google’s guidelines, only to encounter massive declines in ranking and traffic.” “Google doesn’t always send out a manual action when the sites run into trouble. But in many cases, sites can either struggle to rank or feel that they’ve received an algorithmic penalty without any formal notification. Often, when you take a look at their backlink profile and talk to the company about their SEO strategy, you might discover that most of the links are paid links, guest posts, footer links, exact match anchor text, etc. on websites no one has ever heard of. In these cases, I believe it’s important to reconcile Google’s trust issues with your site by disavowing the paid/offending links, as well as earning new, trustworthy links organically,” she added.
Glenn Gabe, SEO consultant at G-Squared Interactive told us, “Rolling out Penguin 4 was a great move by Google in 2016, since it devalued link spam versus penalizing it. But as John explained, if Google’s algorithms cannot find any useful links (which would be an extreme situation), and there is a strong and clear pattern of spammy links, then it can be skeptical with the site, and Google can lose trust with the site overall. As a result, the site can see a drop in search visibility. The problem is that many site owners believe they are being attacked via negative SEO (and that those link attacks are working — and it’s the reason they have seen drops over time). Google has explained in the past that negative SEO attacks don’t work and that its algorithms can just ignore the link spam (especially for sites with a normal mix of links). So for many of those sites fearing negative SEO attacks, the situation John covered in the latest Search Central Hangout would not really apply. In my opinion, if a site has an overwhelmingly spammy link profile (almost all of the links are unnatural and spammy), without any other quality links, then that obviously can be problematic. But for most sites that have a normal mix of links, what John is explaining should NOT be a problem. Unfortunately, I’m already hearing from site owners about this… when their sites definitely don’t fit into the situation John explained in the video.”
Dr. Marie Haynes, the CEO of MHC inc told us, “Google’s communication on what site owners need to know about Penguin has been frustrating. At a Pubcon conference in late 2016 Gary Illyes told us that it was indeed possible for Penguin to algorithmically cause harm saying, “If Penguin sees signs of manipulation, it can decide to discount ALL the links, which can be pretty bad for a site.” Our belief is that while this can happen, it is reserved for cases where there is an obvious history of links being built solely to manipulate PageRank on an astronomical scale. While we have seen improvements for some sites after filing a thorough disavow, even if no manual action is present, the only cases that we feel we can attribute improvements to disavow work are for sites with a history of years of very manipulative link building.”
Why we care. Ultimately, when it comes to link building, you should be careful. Don’t buy links, don’t look for cheap and easy ways to get links to your site. Make sure to review Google’s documented link schemes help document and stay far away from those methods.
When working on client sites that may have link issues, you need to decide if you really need to disavow links or not and then which links you should disavow. At the same time, Google is likely already ignoring most of the bad links, so you may not have to worry too much about it.
It may just be easier to avoid the practice of link building and build a website and content that other sites naturally want to link to without you asking them.
Google has removed 12 documented structured data fields from its help documents citing these were removed because they are “unused by Google Search and Rich Result Test doesn’t flag warnings for them.”
What was removed. Google removed 12 different structured data fields from within HowTo, QApage and SpecialAnnouncements rich results types. These include:
QAPage: mainEntity.suggestedAnswer.author, mainEntity.dateCreated, mainEntity.suggestedAnswer.dateCreated, mainEntity.acceptedAnswer.author, mainEntity.acceptedAnswer.dateCreated, and mainEntity.author fields.
SpecialAnnouncement: provider, audience, serviceType, address, and category fields.
Google removed these 12 fields from the help documents to more accurately describe what Google Search and the Rich Results Test support.
Remove the code? Should you remove the code and fields from your structured data and code on your web pages? No, you do not have to. Google simply will not support them, but it doesn’t hurt you to keep the fields populated on your pages. Google simply won’t use them for Google Search.
Why we care. If you are using these fields, just be aware that these have been officially removed from Google’s Search help documentation. They do not work for rich results in Google Search and the testing tool won’t notify you if there are errors or warning with these field types.
Again, you do not need to remove the fields from your structured data, but Google will simply ignore them.
Search Engine Land’s daily brief features daily insights, news, tips, and essential bits of wisdom for today’s search marketer. If you would like to read this before the rest of the internet does, sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox daily.
Good morning, Marketers, what if Microsoft hadn’t fumbled so hard with smartphones?
Today is Bill Gates’ 66th birthday, and regardless of how you feel about him, his successes and failures have helped shape the environment that we market in. Bing is the default for Windows, making the search engine an important consideration for some B2B marketers or for brands with audiences that primarily use desktop devices. I also regularly see PPC experts praise the efficiency that Bing Advertising offers, although they acknowledge the tradeoff in search volume.
Returning to my question at the top, Gates once said that, “The greatest mistake ever is whatever mismanagement I engaged in that caused Microsoft not to be what Android is — that is the standard [non-Apple] phone platform. That was a natural thing for Microsoft to win.” Gmail, Google Maps and Search were among the top 20 free apps in Apple’s app store last year, even though iPhones are pre-loaded with Apple’s own mail and map applications (Google pays Apple to be its default search provider on iOS). If Microsoft had succeeded, Google’s ecosystem might not be the powerhouse it is today and perhaps search marketing would look less like a monopoly, or maybe just a different monopoly.
George Nguyen, Editor
Core Web Vitals: SEOs aren’t sold the work was worth it
Image: Google.
Since its announcement in May 2020, the page experience update generated much speculation among SEOs. This was because it made user experience more of a Google ranking factor than it had been before and because it was announced more than a year ahead of its rollout. Before it went live, Google told us that “Page experience remains one of many factors our systems take into account. Given this, sites generally should not expect drastic changes.”
Now that the update has completely rolled out, SEOs are reflecting on how it actually played out for their brands. Although opinions vary, the general consensus seems to be that the page experience update didn’t result in major rankings fluctuations, but ROI isn’t just on the SERP — “Performance optimization may not be a silver bullet for rankings, but we don’t optimize just for that,” said Detlef Johnson, Search Engine Land’s SEO for developers expert. “[Core Web] Vitals, as determined by Google, are the tip of the spear that you can sharpen to cut through the network to load the experience faster, which can lead to more add-to-cart actions because it builds confidence and trust,” he added.
Priority Hints, a new, experimental feature to help site owners and Chrome browsers prioritize which resources to load first, can help you deliver a faster experience to your users. It can be used to boost the priority of the LCP image, causing LCP to happen sooner and thus improve the associated metric — in a test on Google Flights (shown above), Priority Hints improved LCP from 2.6 seconds to 1.9 seconds. Conversely, you can also lower the priority of above-the-fold content that may not be as important, like the second, third or fourth images in a carousel.
Google makes it easier to remove images of kids from the search results
Google is now letting anyone under the age of 18, or their parent or guardian, request the removal of their images from the Google Search results. The removal request can lead to the image no longer appearing in the Google Images tab or as thumbnails in any feature in Google Search, the company said.
Why we care. Sometimes teenagers and kids do rash things with their phones. Having these controls in place can help undo some of the harm. On a more professional level, this may give more tools for online reputation management firms to deal with some content removal within Google Search.
In 2022, retailers will lose half of sales on backordered items unless they compensate with experience, according to Forrester
Research company Forrester has released its 2022 consumer and customer experience predictions, highlighting pandemic-related issues and evolving consumer sentiment. Here are the most important predictions for search marketers:
Brands stand to lose 50% of their sales on backordered items unless they compensate with customer support. Brands that can stabilize their supply chains suggest in-house alternatives to products that are out of stock and proactively message customers about shortages and expected availability are in the best position to curb customer churn.
Customers will want some pandemic-era services to be part of the new normal. People may have become accustomed to services like remote health appointments, curbside pickup and senior shopping hours; removing them wholesale could be a mistake.
One-fifth of retail and consumer goods firms will compromise on customer experience. Over the last few years, consumer demands, like faster fulfillment, have resulted in poor conditions for workers at companies like Amazon. Now, nearly 40% of U.S. consumers say concerns about companies’ labor practices influence their purchasing decisions.
Company values will continue to be a differentiator. By July of this year, three-fifths of Fortune 500 companies had committed to climate action, up from 32% the year prior. “Brands that take a stand on more highly charged issues will cater to a small segment of hyper aware consumers with a personal connection to those values,” said Lai et al.
Why we care. These predictions align with what many businesses have been experiencing and how consumer sentiment has changed since the start of the pandemic. While most of the predictions aren’t directly related to SEO or PPC, they may affect reviews, ad campaigns and customer loyalty, which greatly influences strategy for search marketers.
The non-impact of URL length, iOS 14’s effect on ad revenue and morbid Squid Game memes
No, URL length doesn’t matter. “I’m currently only aware of one part of our systems where the URL length plays a role. That part is canonicalization,” Google’s John Mueller said in the latest #AskGooglebot video, adding, “If we find a shorter and cleaner URL, our systems tend to select that one. This does not affect ranking, it’s purely a matter of which URL is shown in Search.”
Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising earnings both up over 40%. Both Google and Microsoft released earnings statements on Tuesday. Year over year, Google Ads grew 43% (from $37,095B to $53,130B) and Microsoft Advertising’s business was up 40%. It seems that YouTube’s earnings weren’t impacted as dramatically as some might have expected by Apple’s app tracking transparency initiative.
Just for fun. The first two are funnier/more disturbing if you’ve seen Squid Game — tip of the hat to Suganthan Mohanadasan and Crystal Carter. And, here’s one I think SEOs that work for publishers will really be able to relate to, courtesy of Izzi Smith.
Google is changing the enforcement policy around unique product identifiers for Google Merchant Center from immediate disapproval to limited performance capabilities for free listings. “Products that are missing such attributes will remain eligible to serve but their performance may be limited,” the company said.
What are unique product identifiers (UPIs). Google said a unique product identifier, also known as UPIs, are considered products that include Global Trade Item Numbers (GTINs), Manufacturer Part Numbers (MPNs), and brand names in the product feed you submit to Google Merchant Center.
Previous enforcement. In September, Google said if a product listing was missing these required attributes, the product was immediately disapproved and no longer shown in free listings. Google said “in order to unify the enforcement of UPIs across programs, specifically the enforcement for multiple different products that use the same GTIN, we’re expanding this enforcement and applying it to products listed in free listings.” Google said then, “beginning September 15, 2021, the following enforcement will apply to products shown in free listings.”
New rules. Now, starting in November 2021, “with the introduction of limited performance enforcements, products that are missing such attributes will remain eligible to serve but their performance may be limited,” the company said.
Why we care. If you are taking advantage of the free Google Merchant Center and you are not using UPIs on your products in those feeds, you previously may have seen those products being rejected and disapproved. Now, instead, those product listings will likely continue to be served but their performance in Google Search may be limited.
