Hey SEO Peeps, it’s Friday again… and this means it’s time for another weekly roundup of SEO news. 

For a quick glance of what’s happening this week:

• Does disavowing links actually improve rankings? We have proof.  
• Google says it’s unlikely that Core Web Vitals will become the primary ranking factor
• Bing Webmaster tool removes geo-targeting feature
• Google My Business adds video conferencing integration
• Martin Splitt and Lily Ray Explores SEO and Content in latest episode of SEO Mythbusting

Read on to find out more about the details. 

9/9/2020 – Can disavowing links actually improve rankings? 

Marie Haynes consulting recently shared their results on disavowing backlinks. MHC says that their efforts, as quote

“…rarely see a decline. There is typically an increase or in some cases no change at all.”

Here’s some results they’ve seen 24 hours after disavowing links for a website that they suspected has an algorithmic Google penalty. 

7/9/2020 – Google: It’s Unlikely Core Web Vitals will Become the Primary Ranking Factor

Gary Illyes from Google said on Reddit that core web vitals would unlikely become the primary factor for organic traffic. 

He said that we shouldn’t ignore it but Google and other search engines rank primarily based on highest quality and most relevant for user queries, which is not necessarily what is track in core web vitals.

Here’s the tweet from Gary Illyes.

9/9/2020 – Bing WebMaster Tools Remove Geo-targeting Feature

It’s confirmed! Bing has removed the geo-targeting feature in the new version of Bing Webmaster Tools. 

Fabrice Canel from Bing confirmed it is not coming to new version and told SEOs instead to use the meta data in HTML or HTTP header to communicate geo-related information to Bing.

4/9/2020 – Bing WebMaster Tools Remove Geo-targeting Feature

Google My Business has added a new option that lets businesses set up online video service providers including Google Meet, Webex, Skype, and Zoom. 

Here’s how it looks like: 

According to Google, this “online” attribute lets users know if the business is fully remote and allow them to more easily access online offerings and facilitate the online booking process.

10/9/2020 – Martin Splitt and Lily Ray Explores SEO and Content in SEO Mythbusting

Martin Splitt recently busts myths surround content creation and SEO in its latest video series with Path Interactive SEO Director Lily Ray. 

We have summarized some of the highlights from the episode and the timestamp from the video: 

0:00 – Updating the same type of content each year or creating a new one

If a publisher routinely writes about the same evergreen topic every year, like skincare routine or how to write a blog post, should they create new articles or update old ones? 

Splitt’s answer to this is that if there’s only incremental changes every year, he recommends updating existing articles. 

The reason being Google may see similar articles from the same publisher as duplicate content, which is something we want to avoid.  

1:52 – Does having a blog/ producing new content help my performance on Google? 

Splitt says frequently publishing new content is not a sitewide ranking factor. You should not produce content for the sake of producing content.

There’s only so much to be said about certain topics, in which case “rambling on” with article after article won’t help much.

Producing lots of content on a regular basis is most recommended for industry blogs where new information is coming out all the time.

The key to producing new content is to always put your users first. 

5:36 – Underperforming content and the overall trustworthiness or authority 

Underperforming content will not necessarily bring down the authority of your site from Google’s perspective.

It all depends on why the content is underperforming.

For example, content may not be performing well because it’s spammy, which would reflect negatively on your site.

Regardless of the reason for content underperforming, it’s always a good idea to reassess whether it should be updated or taken down.

6:20 – On grouping and consolidating one’s content

Ray asks about the impact of having substantial amounts of very short articles. Such as a single Q&A with only a few sentences.

For this Splitt recommends grouping the short pieces of content together into one long article, if it make sense to do so.

Because the concern is Google may treat such pages as light/thin content, which would have a negative impact on search rankings.

Consolidating multiple pieces of relevant information in one place is something that reflects positively in Google Search

Watch the full SEO Mythbusting episode here. 

And that’s all folks for this week SEO news!

We hope you have enjoy the news and stay tune next week Friday!

Updated: 19 April 2024