SEO-2

BySkylar

Notes from Tastemaker SEO

  • Multiple approaches: some people are search engine first, some are social first
  • Mobile first indexing since 2017, mobile optimization affects mobile ranking (80% of pageviews) while desktop affects desktop ranking (20%)
  • Mobile indexing is about entity/objects, not keywords specifically
  • "People also ask" is about the entity, not related keywords
  • Initial helpful content update was in 2022
  • Basics of SEO is still the same -
    1. crawl
    2. index
    3. render (process) the content
  • Once processed, the content can be ranked and compared vs. others
  • Over 5,000 algorithm changes in 2021 alone, most minor
  • Some updates address specific issues, industries or intents
  • Google constantly tests changes, sometimes they're reverted if the changes isn't productive
  • All search results are custom - device, location, browser history, user preferences - all affect every individual's results page
  • There's 200+ known ranking factors, and they're weighted different by industry, so the best practices from one industry won't necessarily translate to another
  • Top ranking signals:
    • quality content
    • keyword optimization + relevance
    • links + trust signals
    • domain authority (not the same as Moz/SemRush/Ahrefs scores)
    • mobile friendliness (optimization!)
    • website structure
  • Google does use click signals from search results (eg. return to SERPs as signal of intent not fulfilled)
  • Rendering involves: javascript -> style -> layout -> paint -> composite
    • note: Google doesn't interact with pages so anything loaded/hidden behind a click isn't counted
  • There's 16,000 quality raters worldwide that feed information back to the algorithms (but don't directly impact the sites ranking)
  • E-E-A-T is a set of guidelines on how quality raters should evaluate a site
    • first hand experience
    • demonstrated expertise and references around the web
    • authority (links)
    • trust and accuracy of information and sourcing
  • YMYL (your money / your life) queries have a higher threshold - especially around health claims in the recipe industry
  • Schema can help you rank for specific types of SERPs, such as the recipe carousel for recipes, and article markup for posts (star ratings)
    • Yoast + recipe cards handles this for you if you used properly
  • you need links, citations, references, engagement, as well as appropriate schema (organization, recipe, local(?)), high quality images with alt tags, annotated videos, good reviews and star ratings
  • Individual keywords are no longer the end-all-be-all of content - Google is focused on the journey before, and the journey after, that specific keyword

Potential to reach more audiences with auto-translation of video using AI.

Entity understanding

  • If impressions go up and clicks go down, it's typically due to "People also ask" and "Featured Snippets" that provide a good user experience in search but doesn't require users to visit the site

Intent

  • Google tries to understand the intent behind all queries and categorizes them as:
    • informational
    • local
    • how to
    • commercial (purchase)
  • Note that information (recipes) are totally separate from commercial which is why ecommerce doesn't work for food blogs
  • MUM (multi-task unified models) try to map journeys to entities, creates entity-specific filters in search results
    • for example, knowing calories (information) can lead to purchasing from store for later, a pizza shop for now, and can lead to further searches (having salad available with the pizza)
    • tries to predict where the user is going to next
    • multi-media (text + images + video) that satisfy the most possibilities may have an advantage
    • this is why sometimes when you search for something, they present things not based on what's in the search query

Search Generative Experience (SGE)

  • AI Summarization of top results with chat options, follow up questions
  • Tries to further enhance the user journey by presenting answers before the user needs to think of them

Helpful content

  • Does not simply want regurgiated information found elsewhere
  • Content structure is important for user experience - good headings, not over the top ads
  • If you lost ranking in September 2023, it's a site-wide signal that other sites broadly perform better than yours
    • look at who is outranking you - images? content? writing style?
    • focus on removing or updating low performing content that lost ranking (or doesn't rank)
    • specialize in certain topics to provide broad coverage
    • consolidate multiple pages that overlap in topic
  • expect volatility in the future as they learn and adapt to new changes (AI, legal, etc) - there will be rollbacks and corrections - watch the news on the anti-trust cases

Daniel Eno

  • Content quality = relevance, intent and coverage
  • Use keyword variations in headings (h2s)
  • avoid content unrelated to the topic (eg. personal) or keep it minimal, after the content
  • Your document outline (headings) should match the query intent
  • Pay special attention to nuance - "chicken dinner recipes" is for a list of recipes, whereas "oven roasted chicken breast recipe" is for a specific, single recipe
    • If every ranking page has a certain format, consider matching that (eg. "Top 10 ___")
  • When writing a post, immediately provide the main intent (recipe)
  • Follow up the main intent with secondary questions (related, serve with, storing, etc)
  • Word count is not a ranking factor for SEO (but can lead to higher RPMs due to long time on page)
  • Edit the Yoast meta title on each post (further guidelines needed for this)
  • Edit the Yoast meta description on each post to entice users to click through (further guidelines needed for this) - this is not a ranking factor
  • Note: Google will choose to rewrite the meta tags however they want, so don't obsess over this
  • Beware of including cooking methods unrelated to the main intent of the post (eg. should an oven roasted recipe have a totally separate recipe for grilling?)
  • Some variation in h1, meta title and recipe card title can be beneficial, but make sure it's worthwhile (check the search results)
  • Heading self-assessment: can you tell what the page is about just by looking at the headings?
  • You can use the primary keyword in the main heading/h2, eg. "how to make baked salmon" instead of just "how to make" - keep it to 1 heading
  • Use auto-complete in Google for content suggestions - start typing your query / keyword without searching and see what gets suggested

Internal linking

  • The best links are in-content, relevant to the post, and have contextual text content around them
  • Links should match the post title, but varied across the site
  • A list of links with direct match anchor text is a low quality experience, but better than nothing
  • Menu: link to your structure pages ("Recipe Index") and seasonal category
  • Sidebar: link to trending recipes and seasonal recipes
  • Footer: link to "administrative" pages

Anne Smarty

  • Links are no longer a top 3 ranking factor
  • Ranking is multi-faceted, and missing links may still prevent you from ranking even though it's not "top 3"
  • Context around the link is important

  • Topic clusters - interlink recipes and organize them, optimize site architecture around categories, establish authority around the topic
  • Use topically.io to get graphs around recipe entities
  • Google trends - check what terms and searches are getting popular
  • Time your content updates - see what was popular 10 months ago so that you know what will get popular again in 2 months

Aleda

  • To rank for competitive queries, you need to be the bet in class across all SEO areas
    • E-E-A-T
    • appropriately formatted
    • maximize engagement
    • crawlable and indexability
  • Tools like screaming frog surface tons of potential issues, but requires guidance on how to actually solve them correctly
  • As a website grows, technical issues become more important, and content and backlinks make less of a difference
  • Start off with best practices from Feast, and start messing with technical changes once you get large enough for it to make a meaningful difference
  • All sites can focus on:
    • ensure crawlability
    • surface top pages throughout site
    • maximize SERP opportunity with schema
    • ensure pagespeed and CWV are compliant
  • Use the Admin > Feast Plugin > Setup page to properly configure WordPress and supported plugins
  • Key categories should be linked from the navigation across your site

Arsen

  • Avoid topic dilution brought on by appending ingredients
  • Use keyword + recipe for the most accurate estimates
  • Need to provide something unique and valuable without losing focus
  • Google doesn't want to show the same recipe 10 times
  • Answer your questions from the comments on competitor pages, directly in your content
  • Use site:yoururl.com [topic] to find pages Google think is relevant to your topic

Helpful content

  • Helpful content has a site-wide component: too much content that doesn't add enough value compared to other posts
    • this means deleting, noindexing or updating low quality posts
    • it might be best to focus on updating content instead of posting new content
  • Prune old web stories that have dropped off
  • For posts with an english and non english recipe name, don't put english and non english words in title, just english