Building Authorship:
What We Know:
Google explicitly stores and evaluates author information, emphasizing content authored by recognized experts.
How It’s Measured:
Topical Authority Development: Focus on creating valuable, user-centric content that establishes your site as an authoritative source on specific topics.
Tips:
Start using a brand ambassador at the company or the writer and add their byline. Whether people stay or go at your organization, over time you will build upon their Authorship value which will always live on your site.
Timeliness is of the essence:
What We Know:
The byline date, which is the explicitly set date on the page, is shown on search results and has value. (Technically there’s even 3 date measurements!)
How It’s Measured:
Real Time Boost: A ranking system based on the freshness of the content, determined primarily by the publishing or update date and other dates mentioned in the content.
Tips:
Make sure you refresh content (not just a couple words but really review the content, update it) and only then update the date that this content was updated.
The Future of AI in Ethical SEO Practices:
The ethical use of AI in SEO extends beyond technical know-how; it encompasses a broader sense of responsibility among SEO professionals.
Upholding Ethical Standards
SEO practitioners need to uphold high ethical standards, ensuring that their use of AI fosters fair, unbiased, and transparent practices in digital marketing.
Educating and Raising Awareness
There’s a critical need for educating and raising awareness about the ethical aspects of AI in SEO among professionals and stakeholders. This includes understanding the limitations of AI and the importance of human oversight.
Brand Reputation Matters:
What We Know:
Google is clearly evaluating a brands reputation and is going a step further to ‘whitelist’ brands. By “whitelisted,” we mean sources like websites and publishers that Google deems trustworthy and reliable. These sources likely go through a specific evaluation process through Google or may already have a strong reputation in their field.
TIPS:
Google will scour the web to see if you’re a ‘real’ brand (does your company go by a non-brand URL or what looks like a real brand URL) and check your social media presence to confirm you are an authentic brand. So, ensure you work on your own brand visibility on third party sites, especially social media (and scratch the non-brand URL strategy).
This also means continue to build your Domain Authority through PR and brand citations.
Links Still Matter:
What We Know:
Caught you Google! Links still matter, but Google want to see you have attained links from these ‘whitelisted’ (what Google deems reputable) sources. Google monitors the number of links being built and anchor text to detect and nullify link spam.
TIPS:
If you’re conducting a link building campaign (or better yet a PR Campaign) don’t stuff with anchor text and don’t build an number of links that simply looks unnatural.
This also means continue to build your Domain Authority through PR and brand citations.
Do People Really Like you?
What We Know:
Google is determining if your content is what people are looking for (want to read) based on if people are clicking on your site in the search results & no pogo sticking (leaving Google to go to another site then super quick back to Google).
How It’s Measured:
Navboost: Navboost is Google’s way to improve search results based on engagement from actual users in the search results. Some of these signals measure clicks, hovers, swipes and more to prove to Google people like this website/content.
TIPS:
Meta descriptions still matter to entice someone to click to your organic result in Google, so don’t let Google create them automatically for you. Furthermore, make sure your title & description match up super well with your content to limit any pogo sticking.
Tips on Content:
What We Know:
- Title tags have significant value (as long as keywords match up in the content)
- Google hates keyword stuffing
- Font Size & Text Weight: Even things like the size of the font and bold improves accessibility
- NO MENTION OF AI was in the leaks
How It’s Measured:
QualityBoost: A ranking algorithm by Google tackles the quality of content with various signals
TIPS:
The items listed above speak for themselves. Ensure you put the time to craft a title tag that hits on the target keywords, resonates with users, and matches the content on site with keyword in the content
Use but don’t abuse different font type (example links) or bold key elements. Same comes to using keywords add relevant and semantic terms but don’t overdo it.
AI is still not mentioned as an issue with Google. Google is expecting unique, high-quality content from trusted sources with proof your site is an expert on the subject (from the thoroughness of their content). So, while AI is not bad and definitely adds value to support with your content strategy ensure it’s not the end all be all.
In Summary,
Google is equally fighting what it believes to be spam content, links and websites with demotion, or downgraded ranking factors (not a penalty). While Conversely Google is consistently adding elements to support in proof ‘this’ website delivers the best answers to people’s questions. If you want to learn more, please book a meeting with us here.