Welcome to “Keeping Up With Google: the November Edition.”
Through this blog, we will help you get a detailed overview of all the latest updates from Google. Whether it is a silent update that nobody knows about or a major change in the search algorithm, we cover it all here.
November was a stable month in the Google universe. There was no major change except a few tweaks to the existing features and information.
Google Algorithm Updates
Last month we saw a few major algorithm updates from Google, such as the "22 spam update," which aimed at improving the user experience by penalizing unhelpful content on the internet. This update had everybody in the SEO community keeping a close eye on their websites, looking for the slightest change in traffic.
However, after a month, it is safe to say that websites that focused on creating helpful content for users saw no significant drops in traffic. If you were impacted by the update, you'd be relieved to know that there was no Google algorithm update in November. So you can focus on optimizing your existing content and creating new insightful, helpful content.
Other Google Updates
The absence of algorithm updates doesn’t mean that people at Google are on vacation. It means that they were focusing on different aspects of the search world. There were a few updates, such as the release of a new guide to search rankings, the introduction of a shopping listing tab in the search console, and many documentation updates in their repository, Google Search Central.
November 22, Eligible Criteria for Rich Result Appearance
Rich results have changed the SEO game forever. Websites are leveraging this Google feature to display more than just the meta description of their pages. From related links to direct shopping CTAs, rich results are a great way of standing out from the crowd of thousands of SERP websites.
Google recently issued a clarification on the eligibility criteria for rich results. This impacts all the websites that have structured data and are looking to create rich results for their website.
What Do You Need to Do About It?
Simply adding your target keywords to structured data is not enough to give the result a rich appearance. Website owners must make sure their structured data doesn't break Google Search's rules on content, including the rules about spam.
You might want to look at this detailed guide from Google about how to make structured data work best.
November 21, New Guide to Google Search Ranking System
Google published a new guide to its search ranking systems. This is part of a wave of information reorganization that began with the release of Google Search Essentials last month.
The new documentation is a comprehensive source of information on the most important aspects of Google’s search ranking algorithm. It talks about all the important updates from the past that are still a part of the search algorithm, such as BERT and Rankbrain, and lists down some common best practices every website owner should follow.
What Do You Need to Do About It?
If your website is struggling on Google, you should go through this guide to Google search ranking. List down points that you are missing in your website structure, content, and meta attributes.
Once you have gone through the entire document, you should have a list of actionable steps to improve your Google search indexing and rankings. Some best practices may take a little more time than others to adapt to, but do not lose hope. If you do the work, Google will recognize it and rank your website.
November 16, Introduction of the Shopping Tab Listings
In a bid to make it easier for online sellers to list their products in the Google Shopping tab, Search Console introduced a new section called “Shopping tab listings.”
What is the Shopping tab on Google?
Whenever you search for a product on Google, the search engine has a dedicated section for shopping. For example, if you search for leather shoes, Google will produce a separate list of all leather shoe sellers online.
It is an excellent way to market your product online without putting in much effort.
Only merchants who have set up product markup in their search console merchant listing report can use this feature. If you have done this earlier, you will see a new section in your search console called “Shopping tab listings.”
From this section, merchants can create a merchant center account if they don’t already have one.
What Do You Need to Do About It?
The shopping tab listings will automatically look for markups on products and figure out which ones to put on Google SERPs. As a website owner, you should keep your product markup data updated to reflect the latest inventory, prices, and offers.
This new feature only works for online sellers of physical goods. Here is a helpful resource if you want to enable shopping tab listings in Google Search.
The Buzz!
The SEO community was mostly buzzing about Google events, such as the SORTPodcast about redirects and Search Central Live Tel Aviv 2022.
The SORTPodcast about redirects was an educational event that saw our favorite Googler, John Mu, talk about how Google understands redirects and suggest best practices.
The Search Central Live in Tel Aviv will be held at the Google TLV office on December 1. Registrations for this event were open until November 13. Like every other Search Central Live, this is going to be an amazing event aimed at helping SEO professionals understand how Google works.
Another major event was the introduction of interactive videos on YouTube. Google released "Right to be Forgotten Game #1" on YouTube on November 8, 2022.
The video explains the concept of why or why not Google deletes information about a person from its database.
The video gives viewers two options to answer a question at the end of every concept in the video. This way, viewers stay engaged with the video.
Give it a try yourself. Watch the ‘right to be forgotten video game.’
There was some chatter in the SEO community about Google taking a deep dive into the shopping experience. Barry Schwartz tweeted about the change of the “More recommendations” button to “More products,” which gives a sneak peek into Google’s plans for the near future.
That was all from Google's updates in November. We will continue to monitor the SEO community for major updates in December. Until next time!
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