October 2023 SEO Industry Updates

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

Google releases October 2023 Broad Core Update

By Melissa Nicolich

The what:

Google’s October 2023 core update started rolling out on October 5, 2023 and was completed October 19th, 2023

This is the third broad core algorithm update of 2023. The first was the March 2023 core update, which started rolling out on March 15 and was completed on March 28. The second core was the August 2023 core update, which started rolling out on August 22 and was completed on September 7.

🚨🚨 Right when we thought we were in the clear, Google announced they have launched their November Core Algorithm Update - be on the lookout for any additional volatility to your website.

The why:

Whenever Google updates its search ranking algorithms, your site can do better or worse in the search results.

Knowing when Google makes these updates gives us something to point to understand if it was something you changed on your website or something Google changed with its ranking algorithm.

Core Updates have an impact on low quality content and rewards high quality content. By monitoring your content, you can make sure you take action right away if you were impacted by the update. Keep an eye on your analytics and rankings over the next couple of weeks.

Although with the spam update rolling out at the same time, it might be hard to isolate which update or updates impacted your site.

For everyone:

• If you were impacted by the Google Algorithm Update, read more around Conductor’s guide on how to navigate this.
• To improve your search performance after an update, Google recommends the following:
• Look closely at pages that aren’t performing well.
• Check what search terms led people to those pages.
• Compare your content to the questions Google provides on its help page.
• Monitor this within Google Search Console, your analytics provider, or whatever SEO platform you are using.

For Conductor customers:

• Create a performance report workspace in the platform to quickly analyze pages that are decreasing in traffic or keyword rankings that are volatile.
• Go to Pages or Page Groups to monitor website traffic to assess performance over time. Track metrics like page visitors to spot trends. Check in every Monday morning when new data is published.
• Monitor Keyword Groups to ensure one part of your site isn't being impacted more than others.
• If there's a keyword ranking decrease post-update, use Content Guidance to see the types of pages that are currently ranking and use Content Briefs to optimize your content in accordance with what Google is currently rewarding.
• Also, request a Page Optimization Brief in the Marketplace to have our Conductor experts give you optimization recommendations.
  

Google Rolls Out 2023 Spam Update

By Diego Bredariol

The what:

The October 2023 Spam Update by Google is aimed at addressing cloaking, hacked, auto-generated, and scraped spam content across multiple languages.

Google's criteria for identifying spammy or misleading content include hidden text or links visible to search engines but not users, auto-generated content with minimal user value, unauthorized large-scale article scraping, pages laden with disruptive ads, and thin affiliate content overly focused on monetization.

Google has also stated that any practices such as cloaking or “doorway" pages that trick search engines will cause issues and they advise against aggressive commercial tactics that make false claims or misrepresent specific products/services.

The why:

This update was prompted from feedback within the community that people were seeing increased spam results in their own native languages.

Google hopes this update will provide more valuable and relevant search results and encourages searchers to continue to send feedback to help improve their anti-spam efforts.

Website owners concerned about their site's impact by this update are advised to review Google's spam policies for compliance. Violations may lead to lower search rankings or complete removal from search results. Making necessary changes aligned with these policies may result in improvements as Google's automated systems assess compliance over time.

For everyone:

• Monitor your pages and keywords to see if there are any significant decreases.
• Create content that is valuable to the user and that is not automatically generated or from scraping other content.
• Ensure you have a good experience on your page for users and that the experience is the same for search engines.
• If you were impacted by the Google Algorithm Update, read more around Conductor’s guide on how to navigate this.
• To improve your search performance after an update, Google recommends the following:
• Look closely at pages that aren’t performing well.
• Check what search terms led people to those pages.
• Compare your content to the questions Google provides on its help page.
• Monitor this within Google Search Console, your analytics provider, or whatever SEO platform you are using.

For Conductor customers:

• Create a workspace to analyze performance of traffic and keyword rankings, reporting from the date of release of the update compared to the most recent time frame, in order to identify any fluctuation in traffic or rankings.
• Recommended features to add:
  • Page Groups (to identify traffic decreases by group of pages - not all pages may be affected)
  • Keyword Groups (to identify if there was any decrease in rankings for a specific topic you are tracking)
  • Pages (to identify decreases in traffic)
  • Keywords (to identify decreases in keyword rankings)

Read more about this:

Google Search officially stops indented results

By Zack Kadish

The what:

Google has stopped showing the indented results in their search listings.

Indented results were appearing when Google felt the website had multiple pages that might be addressing the user's query as they wanted to ensure the user received the answer they were looking for.

Below is an image of what indented results looks like:

The why:

Google announced this is no longer helpful with continuous scroll; however, Google may still show your domain twice for a specific query if it’s relevant. The main difference now is that they will not be indenting the results.

This is what the results will look like if your domain shows up twice for a single query:

For everyone:

• Continue to monitor your CTR in Google Search Console to see if there is a positive or negative impact.
• When creating content, make sure you are avoiding cannibalization to ensure Google knows the best page for a user to land on when they search something.

For Conductor customers:

• Within Keywords , identify if you still have multiple results showing up for your keywords.
• Continue to monitor your CTR of specific keywords using Page Details or Search Console Analytics.
• When creating content, make sure to use Content Guidance to ensure you do not have a page targeting this keyword already.

Avoiding SEO mistakes that sacrifice quality and quantity

By Shiz Sajid

The what:

A walkthrough of some of the most common mistakes such as having a lack of processes and not having the right people in place.

It’s important to focus on the right mix of quantity and quality when creating content for SEO success.

The why:

Understanding what operationally may not be working and how the team is using the data at their disposal are key controllable factors that define how successful an organization will be in ranking well on Google

For everyone:

• Continue to monitor your keywords and pages to identify if they are doing well.
• Work to break down silos internally to guarantee everyone is on the same page.
• Learn the internal systems and identify ways to improve them for content creation and SEO processes.

For Conductor customers:

• Work with your Account Team to help fill in the gaps from a practitioner knowledge perspective as well as executive level understanding of the impact of SEO and how to get to a place of operational excellence
• Use the Conductor Platform to monitor your pages and keywords to ensure they are set up for success.
• Take advantage of Explorer , Content Guidance , & Writing Assistant so our internal processes are improved and our content is in good shape before we launch it.