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SEO is constantly evolving, and keeping up with these changes can be difficult. We summarise the most important things that have happened each month to ensure you are up-to-date.
There was a significant Google update in August, which is always a big deal in the world of SEOs.
Google News
- The “Helpful Content” Update rolled out. Google’s latest algorithm update, the “helpful content” update, started to roll out on August 25th. As you can tell from the name, this core update aims to remove “unhelpful” content from the search engine results pages (SERPs) – with Google classing spam and content written by AI as unhelpful. Google wants to ensure the search engine results we see are content that is authentic and written by humans who have opinions – not generic content that is unhelpful.
- A new structured data type introduced “Pros and Cons”. Google also introduced a new structured data, and rich results type in August – “pros and cons“. So, if you are selling a product on your site, you can explain the pros and cons, which will appear in the search results. This is exciting news for customers, as it means they can get a quick overview of options you may want to rule in or out. There is also talk at Schema (the company that runs structured data) about doing a similar thing for product features – so this is something to keep an eye on.
Social Media News:
- Pinterest has added a hosted checkout for sellers. If you sell products through a Shopify store, you can now link them to Pinterest, meaning customers can buy your goods from your pins. Social media is becoming increasingly important for eCommerce sites as it allows a broader range of people to find your products and either buy them then and there or drive them back to your site to find out more.
- TikTok is becoming increasingly important as a search platform for younger audiences. A recent study by Google has shown that around 40% of young people head to TikTok first when looking for something. They don’t go to Google; they go to TikTok or Instagram and look for video results instead. This is big news if your target market includes younger people – TikTok needs to be part of your marketing strategy.
Other Tech News:
- AI (artificial intelligence) is getting better. We’ve been saying that AI and machine learning will be the next big thing for a while now – and suddenly, it seems to be ramping up. For example, AI has become excellent at generating amazing images based on prompts – which is great news if you are looking for an eye-catching image to use in your blog posts. Content generated by AI is also progressing, but we started this news section by talking about how Google is working hard to remove low-quality automated content from their search results, so if you do choose to use AI-generated content, it needs to be helpful rather than spammy.
SEO News Round-Up for August 2022
Digital SEO / Sep 5, 2022
SEO is constantly evolving, and keeping up with these changes can be difficult. We summarise the most important things that have happened each month to ensure you are up-to-date.
There was a significant Google update in August, which is always a big deal in the world of SEOs.
Google News
- The “Helpful Content” Update rolled out. Google’s latest algorithm update, the “helpful content” update, started to roll out on August 25th. As you can tell from the name, this core update aims to remove “unhelpful” content from the search engine results pages (SERPs) – with Google classing spam and content written by AI as unhelpful. Google wants to ensure the search engine results we see are content that is authentic and written by humans who have opinions – not generic content that is unhelpful.
- A new structured data type introduced “Pros and Cons”. Google also introduced a new structured data, and rich results type in August – “pros and cons“. So, if you are selling a product on your site, you can explain the pros and cons, which will appear in the search results. This is exciting news for customers, as it means they can get a quick overview of options you may want to rule in or out. There is also talk at Schema (the company that runs structured data) about doing a similar thing for product features – so this is something to keep an eye on.
Social Media News:
- Pinterest has added a hosted checkout for sellers. If you sell products through a Shopify store, you can now link them to Pinterest, meaning customers can buy your goods from your pins. Social media is becoming increasingly important for eCommerce sites as it allows a broader range of people to find your products and either buy them then and there or drive them back to your site to find out more.
- TikTok is becoming increasingly important as a search platform for younger audiences. A recent study by Google has shown that around 40% of young people head to TikTok first when looking for something. They don’t go to Google; they go to TikTok or Instagram and look for video results instead. This is big news if your target market includes younger people – TikTok needs to be part of your marketing strategy.
Other Tech News:
- AI (artificial intelligence) is getting better. We’ve been saying that AI and machine learning will be the next big thing for a while now – and suddenly, it seems to be ramping up. For example, AI has become excellent at generating amazing images based on prompts – which is great news if you are looking for an eye-catching image to use in your blog posts. Content generated by AI is also progressing, but we started this news section by talking about how Google is working hard to remove low-quality automated content from their search results, so if you do choose to use AI-generated content, it needs to be helpful rather than spammy.
Written by Lou 
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