Hi friends, welcome to another week of SEO news. Has the month of September been treating you well? Leave a comment below to let me know. Without any further ado, let’s dive into the headlines we have for today. 

• Google introduces new featured snippet callouts 
• Further update on Google’s helpful content update 
• Google upgrades review-type results to product-type results in Search

05/09 – Google introduces new featured snippet callouts

Google has recently introduced new featured snippet callouts or perspectives.

With the introduction of these new featured snippet callouts/perspectives, would this mean that webmasters would be more incentivized to create content that fits into the format of featured snippets? Does this mean the chances of webmasters appearing on featured snippet is higher?

06/09 – Further updates on Google’s helpful content update

Recently, Glenn Gabe stated on Twitter that the helpful content update might not be the initially expected big update. Previously, SEO experts have compared helpful content updates to past updates, such as Panda or Penguin. 

He stated that the recent update only affects the worst offenders, and the general impact on websites has been little to none.

In response to this, Danny Sullivan, Google’s Public Search Liaison, reiterated the importance of the helpful content update to fostering people-first content. He also pointed out that the helpful content update is a weighted signal, so only the worst sites made purely for ranking may notice a stronger effect. 

08/09 – Google upgrades review-type results to product-type results in Search

Google has announced that it will decrease review-type results and introduce more product-type results in Search. This new focus by Google would see an overall decrease in the Review snippet impression and an increase in Product result impression. 

As such, users would see a change in how these items look in Search, while webmasters would see a change in how Search Console assigns these impressions and clicks. 

The End! 

What do you think of this week’s news? Has the recent update impacted you? Is Danny Sullivan trying to downplay the initial misconception about the helpful content update? Do let me know in the comments below. See you again next week. 

Updated: 24 April 2024

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