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Diggity Marketing SEO News Roundup—November 2024

Nov-2024-SEO-News

This month’s news is almost entirely about Google. The company is facing heavy criticism, making some leadership shakeups, and possibly preparing for another big update.

In the month’s top stories, you’ll learn why one top tech voice thinks Google Search is falling apart. You’ll also learn whether Google’s changes have affected its share of the search market (as one huge paper claims) and what it means that Raghavan has left Search to become the Chief Technologist of Google.

You’ll also find other top SEO stories you shouldn’t miss, covering how AI overviews have changed since the last update, what Google doesn’t want you to know about their algorithm, and what to do next if SEO is truly “dead.”

Why Google Search is Falling Apart

Why Google Search is Falling Apart.

Tech influencer Mr. Whosetheboss brings you this video explaining why he feels Google Search is in serious trouble. He performed a deep dive, and the video has attracted more than three million views since its release.

In his video, he lays out three problems that he covers in a large amount of depth.

The first problem he points out is the front page of SERPs itself. As he demonstrates with several live examples, sponsored content makes up nearly all the top results.

These sponsored events have also gone from being highly labeled and brightly colored to nearly disguised, so you spend more time than ever working to verify that a result is correct. The situation is worse for products where sponsored results take up more space than ever before.

Mrwhosetheboss even accuses Google of “playing dumb.” He uses one example to show that Google understands search intent well when delivering ads but delivers all the wrong items in the organic results.

Even the state of the ads isn’t good. Plenty of ads lead to scam products, and scam companies continue to be promoted.

He doesn’t think Google is the only party to blame, though. He considers SEOs who have constantly worked to find holes in Google’s system as part of why Google won’t invest in fixing some problems.

He identifies AI as the final problem and suggests that Google’s awkward implementation of it may point toward a future where they summarize your options rather than provide them for you to choose from.

Check out the full video to see everything he has to say and some examples he uses to make his point. Next, you’ll see some in-depth research covering what practices like these are doing to Google’s search market share.

Is Google Losing Search Market Share?

https://sparktoro.com/blog/is-google-losing-search-market-share/

Rand Fishkin breaks down a recent Wall Street Journal article. In that article, the author argued that Google could lose its lead in search advertising words. It predicted that Google may fall under 50% of the total share by 2025.

The article attributed this staggering market loss to several phenomena, including the rise of TikTok, AI, and Google’s long-term legal troubles. Rand was dubious about these claims and looked into them to determine what SEOs should know.

percentage of digital
Using his own research, Rand doubts that Google is experiencing these problems. He is able to present some recent research showing that search advertising is expanding rather than declining—something that doesn’t make much sense if Google is losing market share.

Rand confirms that Google stock prices have dropped (a signal that isn’t necessarily linked to search market share), but they haven’t dropped much more than any other tech stock.

He found other problems with the story, including that the relative strength of competitors was being overstated. At the end of the piece, he argues for the importance of tech literacy when reading the news. His own analysis doesn’t find that Google is particularly threatened.

However, Google has been dealing with many problems that could threaten its position lately. That may be the reason for some recent big leadership changes.

Google Is Replacing the Exec in Charge of Search and Ads

https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/17/24272786/google-search-prabhakar-raghavan-nick-fox

Emma Roth brings you this look into Prabhakar Raghavan’s recent departure from the head of Google Search & Assistant. Raghavan is a figure named in multiple reports critical of Google, including the writeup by Ed Zitron that we covered in a prior roundup.

Raghavan has now moved to another position and Nick Fox has stepped up to lead Search. Fox was already a member of Raghavan’s leadership team when he was moved into the higher position.

Google Is Replacing the Exec meme

Emma notes that this followed several other big leadership changes around Google’s AI projects and apps.

Google is arguably facing more pressure than it ever has before, following the declaration by the US government that the company was running a monopoly. Google may be preparing for a future where it could be broken up.

For the time being, Google hasn’t said much about the changes. It’s possible that the shakeup could mean big changes in how Search is run in the future. What you can learn more about now is how AI overviews are treating sites hit by HCU updates.

Google AI Overviews Not Linking To Sites Hit By Helpful Content Update

https://www.seroundtable.com/google-ai-overviews-hcu-38225.html

Barry Schwartz brings you this look at how Google’s AI overview features are treating HCU-affected sites. He claims, after a series of tests, that there is reason to believe these sites have been blacklisted from the features.

First, he reminds you that there are links between the HCU and the AI overview that have been discovered before. Initial tests were done by other SEOs like Lily Ray and Glenn Gabe who found sites affected by the updates would not be linked when searched in Google AI.

who is retro dodo search result

The story contains multiple examples of this policy in action. Multiple SEOs in the community confirmed that their HCU-affected sites were not linked or appeared in AI overviews even when bounced back.

Check out the complete story for more perspectives and examples. Not all participants are sure that the effect is intentional, but so far, Google has not provided more clarity.

What Google Doesn’t Want You to Know About Their Search Algorithm

What Google Doesn’t Want You to Know About Their Search Algorithm

Sam Oh of Ahrefs brings you four big insights that his team pulled from the recent Google leak. He believes his team has narrowed down four revelations about Google’s inner workings that will forever change how we see the Search algorithm.

He starts the story with 2012, the date Google’s Matt Cutts was first asked whether Chrome browser data was used to inform the algorithm. Matt denied it at the time. A decade later, Mueller effectively denied it again.

We now know from the leaks that Chrome data is being used. Rand Fishkin, who is quoted in the video, accuses Google of using its monopoly power to dominate video, maps, flight searches, news searches, and other areas.

The second lie Sam identifies is Google’s claim that clicks aren’t used in the ranking algorithm. He even shows examples of Google mocking SEOs over these theories. However, the leaks revealed that this data is used in CTR, Navboost, and other areas.

The leaks show that Google not only counts clicks but categorizes them. All of this has now been confirmed in testimony. Sam guesses that these lies may have been used to keep SEOs from catching up with Google too quickly,

Google also claims not to use a domain’s authority in its rankings. The SEO community has developed its own relative scores for years but has not discovered Google’s related scores for years.

It’s important to understand that we don’t have all the context for what the leaks have revealed. The existence of these signals doesn’t tell us how they are used. These discoveries may, however, be the basis for an entirely new approach to ranking effectively.

Or maybe there’s no point because Google SEO is…dead? That’s the argument I’m making in the next video coming up.

Google SEO is DEAD. Do this Instead…

Google SEO is DEAD. Do this Instead…

All the recent changes have me wondering: Is SEO still worth it? In this video, I break down what I think matters in the world of endless algorithm updates, insurmountable backlink whales, and AI overviews.

If so much effort is worth so little, is there somewhere else you could be working? I argue that YouTube may represent the future of SEO and the best place to invest your efforts for the easiest return.

We already know the money is there. Since launching, the site has made multiple billionaires. I have six of my own channels, and I’ve driven over $1,000,000 in affiliate commissions and leads with them. In this video, I explore what I’ve done and whether it’s too late for others to follow.

First, I explain in more detail why I think Google SEO might be dead (at least for some sites). I think things look the worst for content sites that don’t have another business behind them.

As I pointed out in the video, small-to-medium content sites were nearly destroyed with the first Helpful Content Update. Most of their traffic went to sites with monstrous backlink profiles that nearly cannot be out-competed. Think of sites like Reddit.

Also, remember that Google itself (your partner in advertising) is competing with you for traffic. It collects data about what you’re ranking with, then competes with you using features. I show one example of a feature simply stealing my friend’s article as the top result even when I used his site’s name in the search.

So, why YouTube? I argue there are a lot of reasons. First, the platform is consistently growing at double digits. On top of that, you achieve unmatched connections and conversion rates with video content. The trust is built more effectively, and you know what I’m saying is coming from me.

There are other advantages. First, you can start collecting traffic immediately with video content, while written content languishes for weeks before it starts collecting traffic. YouTube even tries to find traffic for you.

I also love that the ranking game on YouTube is very straightforward. Did you provide a good title and thumbnail? Is your audience growing? Then, you’re usually in a good spot. You don’t need to consult confusing graphs to be good at this.

Check out the complete video to learn more, including some downsides you must be prepared for. Now that your mind is on the potential of new platforms, you’re ready to learn which AI will most likely refer to your business.

Searchgpt Gives Brands 4X More Referrals vs. Perplexity, Claude

https://searchengineland.com/searchgpt-referrals-vs-perplexity-claude-447604

Danny Goodwin brings you this straightforward look at several generative engines and shows how generous they are in linking their readers to brands like yours. SEO platform BrightEdge released a study that covers several emerging AI trends.

SearchGPT gives brands 4x more referrals

According to that study, SearchGPT’s growth rate exceeds 150% and easily outpaces the two others. Those grew by only 22% in the same period. When providing referrals for brands, it sends 4x as many as competitors.

While these numbers are likely to change, they suggest that SearchGPT (soon to be folded into ChatGPT) may currently represent one of the best potential platforms for AI-based SEO. At the very least, you have a much higher chance of having your brand listed.

That’s what we know for this month. Make sure you return for next month’s roundup to learn how these major forces are shaping our industry.

Matt-Author-Img

Article by

Matt Diggity

Matt is the founder of Diggity Marketing, LeadSpring, The Search Initiative, The Affiliate Lab, and the Chiang Mai SEO Conference. He actually does SEO too.

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"One of the most effective SEOs I've ever met"- Cyrus Sheppard

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