We are now leaving the month of giving thanks and turning into the season of giving, which means that this November 2022 SEO news recap is the last one for 2022. When we meet next, it will be 2023! Where has the time gone? From AI content gaining ground to other surprising announcements from the Google Search Team during SMX, there were still a number of updates this month.
So sit back and grab that cup of coffee (or two) for our November 2022 SEO news recap.
Google Changes Webmaster Guidelines to Search Essentials
In a move that nobody saw coming, Google revamped and updated their Webmaster guidelines significantly.
As a result, there are fewer references to things like PageRank, and more references to things like E-A-T (expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness).
I just noticed that Google removed all references of PageRank in Google’s “Search Essentials” (formerly Webmaster Guidelines).https://t.co/PyXRXzVOcG
— Dr. Marie Haynes🐼 (@Marie_Haynes) October 31, 2022
There were other additional changes, including changes to the Sitemaps documentations, such as the following:
Previously, Google wrote the following about Sitemaps:
Don’t include session IDs from URLs in your sitemap. This reduces duplicate crawling of those URLs.
They ended up changing it to:
Don’t include session IDs and other user-dependent identifiers from URLs in your sitemap. This reduces duplicate crawling of those URLs.
They basically clarified it and said that other user-dependent identifiers as well as session IDs should not be used in your sitemaps.
John Mueller responded to Joost De Valk over on Twitter with the following when asked about it:
The Internet pic.twitter.com/sfXDESKqfv
— John Mueller is mostly not here 🐀 (@JohnMu) November 1, 2022
Be sure to go read the new Google Search Essentials guides when you can. There is new information and additional insights to be gained.
Google Says 200,000 Words of Content Not Required to Be Authoritative
Over on Twitter, John Mueller continued debunking SEO misinformation at what seems to be just about every opportunity to do so. One SEO professional was spreading information about 200,000 words of content, and needing that to be authoritative in Google’s eyes.
John Mueller responded that this number was definitely not from Google, explaining that Google does not have this particular requirement.
1⃣ Check what your competitors are doing (their organic and popular keywords)
2⃣ Review the main Wikipedia article for the topic
3⃣ Use ahrefs and semrush to find “related” keywords and questions
4⃣ Use the related searches on Google (screenshot below) pic.twitter.com/kLKyXpnJkE— Nat Miletic | natmiletic.eth (@natmiletic) October 28, 2022
I don’t know who made up that 200’000 word number, it’s definitely not from Google.
— John Mueller is mostly not here 🐀 (@JohnMu) October 28, 2022
Possible Algorithm Update October 28th?
Barry Schwartz reported on yet another potential algorithm update on October 28th, 2022. It was a situation where quite a number of SEO professionals were noticing potential ranking update behavior.
More specifically, it was speculated that sites that were hit by an unconfirmed October 13th-ish update – along with the spam update in October – including others, were noticing swings in the opposite direction when it came to sites owned by SEO professionals.
A number of charts and graphs were shared by Glenn Gabe, who explained that there were some large publishers in the UK (and other countries) which were showing some massive swings in performance on October 28th after being hit by other updates.
Remember the UK news publishers that dropped with the September broad core update? Several of them are surging back starting on 10/28. This is also when some sites that surged/dropped on 10/14 are reversing. So, did Google decouple an algo (or several) from broad core updates?? pic.twitter.com/rkqXK8qGtE
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) October 31, 2022
And here are two examples of reversals from the 10/14 update. This is what led me to dig in further to 10/28, and then I saw a number of sites reversing course based on the September broad core update. I’ll keep digging in. Stay tuned. pic.twitter.com/yAfi2nj2dK
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) October 31, 2022
More news about news publishers & the 10/28 update (where some sites are surging back from the dead from the Sep broad core update). CNN, which saw a pretty significant visibility drop then, is also seeing a surge. Super-interesting to see this across a number of news publishers. pic.twitter.com/zx2tmpqrPI
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) October 31, 2022
No Additional Crawling Benefit for Google Verified Websites
Over on Twitter, one SEO professional asked John Mueller about whether crawl frequency would be influenced with a Google Search Console account attached.
John replied that crawling is entirely independent of Google Search Console. This confirms the fact that just because your site is Google verified does not mean that it has a benefit from faster crawling or whatever else in Search Console.
Crawling is independent of Search Console.
— John Mueller is mostly not here 🐀 (@JohnMu) October 28, 2022
Google: Having Duplicate Content URLs in Your Sitemap Will Not Cause Ranking Problems
Over on Twitter, one SEO professional asked John Mueller about whether having duplicate content in their sitemap URLs would cause ranking problems.
They asked how quickly a sitemap that accidentally allows for duplicate content across an entire site cause issues in rankings?
John explained that he wouldn’t think it would cause ranking problems.
The SEO professional then said “thanks.” That they were trying to figure something out for a friend. They had consistent ranking improvement, pushed some changes out on the sitemap and then 3 days of sharp decline happened without any other changes. They said they were just trying to rule that out as coincidence.
John explained that they would primarily see confused crawling as an early effect. John, however, does not see how this would cause immediate ranking changes for the whole site.
I don’t think it would cause ranking problems.
— John Mueller is mostly not here 🐀 (@JohnMu) October 29, 2022
I think you’d primarily see confused crawling as an early effect, i don’t see how this would cause immediate ranking changes for the whole site.
— John Mueller is mostly not here 🐀 (@JohnMu) October 29, 2022
Using Search Volume Lists to Write Your Content Only Results in Mediocre Content
One best practice that SEO professionals tend to use a lot is creating lists of keywords with their search volume as a target to go after in an SEO campaign.
An SEO pro over on Twitter asked John whether it was possible to write on similar topics separately without dealing with keyword cannibalization. Keyword cannibalization happens when you write multiple articles on the same topics and they “cannibalize” traffic from each other because of that dilution of topical focus.
John answered that if you base your content writing on a list of keywords, he’s worried that there wouldn’t be much quality there. And, that the work done by the SEO professional would be more superficial.
He also explained that he would look for topics that match your passion and expertise. He also recommends asking yourself: “Where can you contribute that isn’t already covered by lots of others, and do so in ways that provides something new and useful?”
Focusing on keyword search volume lists is an exercise in mediocrity and that’s all that doing this is likely to get you.
@JohnMu Please can you write on these topics separately without dealing with Keyword Cannibalization? pic.twitter.com/GNnMaPvZ8g
— KINGSLEY KUMI🇬🇭🇺🇸 (@chatwithking) October 26, 2022
I’d look for topics that match your expertise & passion. Where can you contribute that isn’t already covered by lots of others, and do so in ways that provide something new & useful? Don’t focus on keywords & “search volume” lists like this, they’ll lead you into mediocracy.
— John Mueller is mostly not here 🐀 (@JohnMu) October 26, 2022
Links Are And Will Continue to Decline as a Ranking Factor
When it comes to links, historically, they have been a significant part of how Google crawls and discovers new content.
But that is changing.
John Mueller explained on an episode of the Search Off The Record podcast from BrightonSEO that it’s his belief that links as a ranking factor will not be quite as important and not like the ranking factor that it is today.
He also said that links likely won’t be weighted in the future as much as it is today. In addition, he explained: “Well, it’s something where I imagine, over time, the weight on the links. At some point, will drop off a little bit as we can’t figure out a little bit better how the content fits in within the context of the whole web. And to some extent, links will always be something that we care about because we have to find pages somehow. It’s like how do you find a page on the web without some reference to it?”
Then, he also added the following: “But my guess is over time, it won’t be such a big factor as sometimes it is today. I think already, that’s something that’s been changing quite a bit.”
More from @johnmu: Links will always be something Google cares about (it’s how Google discovers content), but over time it probably won’t be as big of a factor as it is today. Actually, that’s *already* been changing quite a bit… https://t.co/eUGsF1nMBqpic.twitter.com/Za284MQbWb
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) November 3, 2022
Google Explains That AI Content is More About What’s Helpful
Over on Twitter, Michael King talked about the overall SEO echo chamber and disagreed with many who are saying that all new updates are going after AI content.
Michael says he is skeptical about that and needs to see a lot more evidence before believing this to be true.
He was referencing a tweet from Chris Frantz who claimed that Google is lowering the hammer on AI content with their latest updates.
Danny Sullivan himself straight out said that AI content is not bad. He said that they at Google have always had the position that content written for search engines rather than humans is the issue. He also likened somebody hiring 100 humans to write content just for ranking purposes, or they fire up a spinner, or uses an AI content generator tool, it’s the same issue.
Danny also elaborated, saying that they also talked about content “by people, for people” in that post about the helpful content system. The main nuance is that it’s unlikely that AI content will feel written by humans without at least some human review process in place.
A lot of what is happening in the SEO echo chamber is folks are saying that every new update is going after “AI Content.”
I’m skeptical and would need to see more evidence. DMs are open if you got it. 8/14https://t.co/wwprUXsflG
— Mic King (@iPullRank) November 7, 2022
We did talk about a focus on content *by people* for people in our post about improvements like the helpful content system. But the nuance is really that it’s unlikely some AI content is going to feel written by people without some degree of human review: https://t.co/uRiqh7ftDL
— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) November 7, 2022
No, Google Rewriting Your Page Titles is Not a Quality Issue
One SEO professional asked John on Twitter about whether Google rewriting their page titles could be perceived as a site-wide quality issue.
John explained that no, overwriting page titles is not considered a quality signal. He went on to say that good sites have bad title elements, and bad sites have good title elements.
Either way, it would be a mistake to think that Google’s rewriting of any page titles is considered a quality signal.
Looking at https://t.co/H3qKn8c4uK while some of the items seem kinda quality-related (keyword stuffing), independently of Google, I wouldn’t consider most of those to be quality signals. Good sites have bad title elements, bad sites have good title elements.
— John Mueller is mostly not here 🐀 (@JohnMu) November 2, 2022
Category Pages and Internal Search Results
It is a recommended best practice to set your internal site search result pages to be noindexed. Google should never be able to physically index those particular pages.
One SEO professional asked John Mueller on Twitter if it was considered a best practice to noindex site search results pages due to potential thin content, or for other reasons.
John explained that if you have good category pages, you shouldn’t ever also need the site search pages indexed. If you don’t take care of these pages ahead of time, it’s possible that you might end up with confusing search results.
If you have good category pages, there’s usually no need to also have search pages indexed. Also, it’s possible to accidentlly end up with “buy cheap pharmaceuticals at 1-800-PILLS4YOU” search pages indexed, if you don’t take care of them ahead of time.
— John Mueller is mostly not here 🐀 (@JohnMu) November 8, 2022
HREFLANG Tags Do Not Need to be Hierarchical, Says Google
Over on Twitter, one SEO professional asked John Mueller about HREFLANG tags and whether they need to be hierarchical.
Their main question was, essentially “Do HREFLANG tag links need to be hierarchical”?
John responded that doing this did not matter.
Doesn’t matter.
— John Mueller is mostly not here 🐀 (@JohnMu) November 9, 2022
The Coati Algorithm Update: A New Name for an Old Face
Barry Schwartz reported on the new Coati algorithm update during SMX in November. But, this is not new (sorry Barry).
During the SMX conference in November, the Vice President of Google Search, Hyung-Jin Kim, who leads core ranking at Google Search, talked about the new Coati algorithm update. Apparently Panda has been evolving behind the scenes, unbeknownst to us SEO pros, and has been renamed to the Coati algorithm.
He explained that Panda had evolved into Coati, which is a successor to the Panda algorithm. For those who don’t know, Panda is Google’s algorithm that deals with content issues.
He also explained that although Panda and Coati are a part of the core ranking algorithm, they are not actually a core update algorithm.
November Was a Lighter Month on Changes
Compared to the usual reporting that we do, such as October 2022 in SEO, November was a lighter month of SEO changes.
Still, there are changes happening every day in the world of search that we don’t even know about or that are never announced. And usually, these changes are not consequential when it comes to making changes on your website.
Just be aware of them. Just don’t become a prisoner to algorithm updates. So long as you continue to do things that don’t stray too far from Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, you should not have to worry about these algorithms (much).
See you next year in 2023!