May 2023 SEO Industry Updates

Industry News
May 18, 2023
By multiple authors
6 minutes read

Google and the search industry had some major announcements roll out in May 2023. Here are the things you need to know from the Conductor Customer Success team.

Google Unveils Search Upgrades at I/O

By Rachel Schardt

The what

Google has introduced a new search experience that includes generative AI to help deliver more comprehensive results.

Google is also integrating a new feature called “Perspectives” that will highlight long-form videos, images, written posts, Q&A sites, and social media platforms directly within the search results.

The why

Google’s labeling this new experience, the Search Generative Experience (SGE for short), and is incorporating AI into their search results to help simplify complex search tasks when there is No One Right Answer (NORA).

These features are being designed to help users understand topics through different experiences and perspectives of others, which can now provide a more human touch to their search queries.

For everyone

Take a proactive approach and try to scope out how much of an impact the roll out of SGE will have a change on your business. If you’re responsible for the SEO of an affiliate site, travel, eCommerce - try and figure out other ways to diversify your traffic sources.
Start planning how to repurpose existing content but for different mediums such as Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, etc.
Prepare your business for potential changes in organic traffic, clicks, and rankings as SGE begins to roll out.
As new A.I. features begin to be released, monitor your clicks, impressions, rankings, and traffic in GSC and analytics
Moving forward, it could be helpful to have different types of content or media formats to help answer a question on your site as they might all be surfaced in the search results.

For Conductor customers

Nothing to do but wait and see what happens in search.
When Google does release it, we need to monitor our priority keywords and pages.
Set up keyword groups and page groups to monitor if there is any decrease in rankings and traffic.

You can also use ContentKing to monitor the technical health of your website to identify page speed issues, broken links, and any other technical issues.

Google says Page Experience is not a ranking system, but it is ranking signal

By Rodrigo Hernandez

The what

Danny Sullivan, Google’s Search Liaison, wrote a tweet on April 28th about Google’s statement where they discussed removing the following from it’s ranking system: page experience system, the mobile-friendly system, page speed system and the secure site system. However, Google has explained that page experience is still considered a ranking signal

The why

Google made this change so they wouldn’t confuse users who may have thought these were actually ranking systems when in fact they are ranking signals.

We should continue to provide a good page experience as Google has stated this is a ranking signal and we want to make sure our users have a good experience when they come to our website.

For everyone

While Page Experience was never considered a ranking system by Google, customers need to not only take care of their content pages, but also look after their Core Web Vitals metrics to achieve the best score possible.
Continue to monitor your keyword rankings, traffic, and organic CTR to ensure your content is providing a relevant experience.
Make sure you are still creating fast loading content and measure this using Core Web Vitals metrics.

For Conductor customers

Continue to monitor your content and keywords using keyword groups and page groups to ensure our content is performing well and our keywords are ranking.
If you enable Lighthouse Monitoring in ContentKing, you can monitor your page speed and the Core Web Vital metrics per page to identify which pages we might need to improve.

ContentKing Dashboard — ContentKing dashboard

Read more about this

https://searchengineland.com/google-page-experience-is-not-a-ranking-system-but-it-is-a-ranking-signal-399940

GoogleOther: A New Generic Google Crawler To Help Googlebot

By Andrew Coe

The what

Google has added a new crawler to their list called GoogleOther. This is being described as a “generic crawler that can be used by Google’s product teams for fetching publicly accessible information and content from sites.”

This crawler uses the same IP ranges as Googlebot and obeys robots.txt rules and user agent tokens in the same way.

The why

This additional crawler can help take the strain off Googlebot and free up some capacity of the crawler so they can continue to build up Google’s Index. There is no word right now if this will be used for Bard.

For everyone

Google does not anticipate this being a problem but acknowledges that it is within the realm of possibility. They do caution against outright blocking GoogleOther.
We can work with developers and monitor our log files to see if we are being hit by GoogleOther to determine what the next steps should be.

For Conductor customers

If you have Lighthouse Monitoring integrated in your ContentKing account you can track segments that may be crawled by GoogleOther.
If you are noticing changes in site performance, checking your log files with ContentKing can help determine whether you may need to block GoogleOther.

The what

After months of testing and having this new refinement go live on mobile search, Google has announced the +topic search bar refinements are now officially live on the desktop search results.

The why

This refinement bar allows users to quickly add or remove additional topics related to the initial search the user put in. Google will display these topics based off what other users are searching and what Google feels is relevant around the topic.

For everyone

Use the refinement search bar to identify other topics related to your main keywords that you can create content around or add to existing content.
This refinement search bar can allow you to understand longer tail keywords to target and what is related to your main topic.

For Conductor customers

If you identify a refinement search bar showing up for any of your target keywords, we can then use Explorer to identify the search demand for these keywords and see additional related keywords to these.
Monitor your keyword rankings, clicks, impressions, and CTR for these longer-tail keywords if we start incorporating them into our content.

About the authors

Andrew Coe

Andrew is a Customer Value Consultant at Conductor. He is known for his friendly demeanor and ability to piece together solutions that will have a positive impact across his customers' entire organizations. In his free time, Andrew loves to read, watch sports, and spend time with his wife and two dogs.

Rodrgio Hernandez

Rodrigo, SEO Analyst at Conductor, is on the verge of embracing a new role as a Customer Value Consultant. Armed with his proficiency in data analysis, customer-centric mindset, and knack for optimizing online presence, Rodrigo is poised to deliver unrivaled value to businesses. Through his strategic insights and unwavering commitment, he empowers organizations to flourish and accomplish their objectives with remarkable success.

Caroline Wilson

Caroline Wilson is a Customer Success Manager on the Customer Success team at Conductor and has a passion for all-things digital marketing. Located in Denver, Colorado, Caroline enjoys reading books in the park, cooking new food, and going on hikes with her two dogs, Wrigley and Pete.

Rachel Schardt

Rachel is currently a Customer Success Team Lead at Conductor, joining the team after freelancing in the SEO space for several years. She has worked with all types of business: from solopreneurs to enterprise companies spanning across multiple industries. Rachel is passionate about SEO education, and helping bridge the gap between marketers' multiple organic channel responsibilities.