In the fourth episode of SEO Mythbusting season 2, Martin Splitt (Developer Advocate, Google) and Glenn Gabe (Digital Marketing Consultant, G-Squared Interactive) discuss the most common SEO questions and myths around site moves, URL migration, domain name changes, and more!
Specific timestamped topics discussed in this episode:
Redirecting images during a site redesign or migration (0:00)
Will you always experience a drop in traffic with a domain name change or a site migration? (1:53)
Buying a new domain name with history & traffic anomalies (2:40)
Site merger vs site move (6:24)
What goes on on the Google side once a domain name change is triggered? (8:12)
Why would one use the Change of Address Tool? (10:16)
If a site moves, is there a reassessment of content quality by Google? (11:15)
Should you revert back if a site migration results in a major drop in traffic? (14:54)
Should one unblock URLs normally blocked by robots.txt during a site migration? (17:31)
Most common problems after a site moves & doing things step-by-step (18:16)
(19:32)
Documentation mentioned in this episode:
How to 301 redirect images during a website redesign or CMS migration → https://goo.gle/32tGMJz
Site moves (with URL changes) → https://goo.gle/2FQti2E
Change of Address Tool → https://goo.gle/3lh3uNq
Penguin update → https://goo.gle/32j0ibi
Watch more SEO Mythbusting episodes → https://goo.gle/SEO-Mythbusting
Subscribe to the Google Search Central Channel → https://goo.gle/SearchCentral
In the third episode of SEO Mythbusting season 2, Martin Splitt (Developer Advocate, Google) and Eric Enge (General Manager of Digital, Perficient) discuss the most common SEO questions and myths around page speed.
Specific timestamped topics discussed in this episode:
The general misconception about page speed & ranking (0:00)
Why is page speed important? (1:57)
Page speed vs content relevancy (3:00)
Average vs recommended web page size (4:54)
Page speed optimization (5:48)
The intricacies of Lighthouse reports, data, and scores (7:44)
Page speed on the different user devices and connections (9:18)
Page speed, Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), and Progressive Web Apps (PWA) (11:36)
More on page speed as a factor in Google Search ranking (13:06)
Documentation mentioned in this episode:
Evaluating page experience → https://goo.gle/2ZOnBd3
Why performance matters → https://goo.gle/3hmaHJh
Mobile page speed – industry benchmarks → https://goo.gle/3joze29
Lazy loading → https://goo.gle/30wEGYh
Lighthouse → https://goo.gle/3jqspgD
Chrome User Experience Report → https://goo.gle/2WHxLdP
Progressive Web Apps → https://goo.gle/3fQ95XQ
Watch more SEO Mythbusting episodes →
https://goo.gle/SEO-Mythbusting
Subscribe to Google Search Central → https://goo.gle/SearchCentral
This video debunks some of the most common SEO myths and suggests what you should do instead.
Subscribe ► https://www.youtube.com/AhrefsCom?sub_confirmation=1
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Additional SEO Resources
SEO For Beginners: A Basic Search Engine Optimization Tutorial for Higher Google Rankings ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvwS7cV9GmQ
Republishing Content: How to Update Blog Posts For More Organic Traffic ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HWna4hK47c
Link Building Tutorials (Step-By-Step) ► https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLvJ_dXFSpd2tjUTuAHpHidz5e2hAedP_m
Link Building with Google Ads: Results from $1,245 in PPC Ads [Ep. 3] ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uz2bGhdnJN0
SEO Checklist: How to Get More Organic Traffic (Step-by-Step) ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taU9P98zfjk
On Page SEO Checklist for Higher Google Rankings ► https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDYjjkvtOVo
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Most myths are harmless. But the same can’t be said for most SEO myths. So, we need to bust these common myths and get you focused on tactics and strategies that’ll move the needle.
The first myth we need to debunk is that SEO is dead.
Journalists like to say that many things are dead. These kinds of headlines often lead to opinion editorials that end up being nothing more than clickbait.
SEO is alive and well. How do we know that?
You’ll find out in the video.
The second myth is that Google only ranks “fresh” content.
Does Google rank fresh content? Of course. But Google also ranks content that hasn’t been updated in years.
The thing is: freshness is a query-dependant ranking factor. That means fresh content matters for some search queries, but not so much for others.
Learn how to tell when a query relies on freshness in the video.
The third myth is that duplicate content will get you penalized.
Duplicate content is exact or near-duplicate content that appears on the web in more than one place. But there is no such thing as a duplicate content penalty.
The thing is: Google and its representatives have said on numerous occasions that Google doesn’t have a duplicate content penalty.
But that doesn’t mean duplicate content is good for your site.
Why? Find out in the video (plus, how to find and fix this issue.)
The fourth myth is that SEO is a “set it and forget it” job.
While SEO can lead to free, passive, and consistent traffic that doesn’t fade over time, it doesn’t mean that you can simply rank your pages and call it a day.
SEO is like going to the gym. It’s ok to miss a workout here and there, but you have to go consistently in order to get and maintain those results.
If you choose to ignore all efforts after you’re ranking high, you’ll likely lose backlinks while your competitors are building them. Your content will get stale for queries that rely on a freshness factor.
The fifth myth is that social shares help you rank higher in Google.
It’s reasonable to believe that the more your content gets shared on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, the higher those pages will rank. But Google’s John Mueller has said that social signals don’t directly impact rankings.
Learn why this myth persists in the video.
The sixth myth is that Pay Per Click Advertising won’t help you rank higher in search.
Paying for ads doesn’t directly influence rankings. Google won’t rank you higher in organic search just because you’re paying them.
But PPC can indirectly help your pages get more backlinks because of increased exposure, just like social shares.
How? Watch the video to find out.
And the final myth we’re busting is that SEO is always about ranking #1.
We all want top Google rankings. But there’s a point where boosting your position for a single keyword may not be worth the required time and effort.
Why? You’ll find out in the video.
Now, these aren’t the only SEO myths that are out there. There are more to cover. But when you understand why these myths are not to be believed, you’ll be better off with your SEO strategies.
Timestamps
0:26 #1 SEO is dead
1:36 #2 Google only ranks “fresh” content
3:06 #3 Duplicate content gets you penalized
4:43 #4 SEO is the “set it and forget it” job
5:26 #5 Social shares help you rank higher
6:32 #6 PPC Ads won’t help you rank higher
7:12 #7 SEO is about ranking #1 in Google
#seomyths #seo #searchengineoptimization
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In the last episode of SEO Mythbusting season 2, Martin Splitt (Developer Advocate, Google) and Barry Schwartz (CEO, RustyBrick) discuss the relationship between Google and the SEO community.
Specific timestamped topics discussed in this episode:
What does ‘it depends’ depend on? (0:00)
Introduction to the episode (0:59)
Featured snippets, publishers & Google (2:03)
Too little transparency, too much transparency? (5:03)
Submitting feedback (7:00)
Not using Android or Chrome data for ranking (7:56)
AMP & the Top Stories Carousel (9:15)
More on Google’s communication with the SEO community (11:52)
Why doesn’t Martin Splitt want to know about ranking? (16:02)
‘The best possible website’ & user testing (17:04)
Bloopers 🙂 (19:16)
Documentation mentioned in this episode:
Google Surveys → https://goo.gle/3iSDu9s
Google Search Liaison → https://goo.gle/35XANjo
Top Stories and AMP → https://goo.gle/2El8JLk
Top Stories and page experience → https://goo.gle/3cigi26
Watch all SEO Mythbusting episodes →
https://goo.gle/SEO-Mythbusting
Subscribe to the Webmasters Channel → https://goo.gle/Webmasters
In the sixth episode of SEO Mythbusting season 2, Martin Splitt (Developer Advocate, Google) and Lily Ray (SEO Director, Path Interactive) discuss if more content is always a good thing for SEO or not.
Specific timestamped topics discussed:
Updating the same type of content each year vs creating new one (00:00)
Introduction to the episode (1:07)
How much content should I have and to what extent does this help my performance? (1:52)
Does having a blog / producing new content help my performance on Google? (03:02)
Updating older pieces of content (04:00)
Is there any way that Google tells us if there’s ‘too much content’ or maybe that content is underperforming? (04:40)
Underperforming content and the overall trustworthiness or authority (05:36)
Grouping and consolidation of one’s content (06:19)
Is word count a ranking factor? (08:07)
Specific keywords and word count (8:39)
Auto-generated content & canonicalization (9:32)
How does Google determine duplicate content? (11:35)
Documentation mentioned in this episode:
Quality evaluator guidelines → https://goo.gle/2RclxGG
Watch more SEO Mythbusting episodes → https://goo.gle/SEO-Mythbusting
Subscribe to the Webmasters Channel → https://goo.gle/Webmasters
