December 2024 Core Update: This was a broad core update, impacting search results globally and across all languages. As with all core updates, the goal was to improve Google’s overall ranking system and ensure users find relevant and helpful results. This update was notable for being released shortly after the November core update.
December 2024 Spam Update: This update focused on combating spammy and manipulative SEO tactics. It aimed to penalise websites using techniques like keyword stuffing, link schemes, and cloaking. This broad spam update was applied globally and across all languages.
As with the others, December’s core algorithm update continues to prioritise content that provides value to the user. We have heard that we should be vigilant about organic ranking fluctuations since the rollout of the core and spam algorithm updates that occurred in December.
Our advice is to create high-quality content that is genuinely helpful and informative and that uses the people-first approach. This content should adhere to Google’s content guidelines and showcase your authority and expertise in your given field.
Read the Full Article Here
Recent research by GMBapi has uncovered a troubling trend in Google reviews: 73.1% of deleted reviews have 5-star ratings. This indicates that Google is intensifying its efforts to combat fake and incentivised reviews, which can severely impact businesses that engage in such practices.
While negative reviews are often expected to be the primary target for deletion, the focus on removing high-rated reviews suggests a shift in Google’s moderation strategy. Businesses that buy reviews or offer incentives for positive feedback risk losing these reviews and facing penalties like disabled review sections.
To mitigate the risk of review deletions and enhance online reputation, businesses should try and adopt the following strategies for managing their reviews:
With AI continuing to storm the SERPs with Google’s AI Overviews and Bing’s Generative Search, it’s becoming more important to not only optimise content for search engine results pages (SERPs) but also these short AI snippets that could lead to organic web traffic.
Given AI algorithms are quite different from a conventional search, a question arises: Is structured data (Schema markup) still necessary?
Here’s a breakdown of the essential points:
Here at Assisted, Schema still has a place to shine; whether you’re looking to appear for featured snippets, FAQs, or how-to’s, you can’t do any of this in traditional SERPs without well-thought-out Schema markup.
Let us know what you think!