As this month’s report covers December, we are not only going to look at what has happened in the last month in terms of SEO, but we are also going to look ahead at what we know is coming up in 2023. 

Google News

  • Google rolled out a “link spam” update in December using an AI-based system called “SpamBrain” to help them detect websites that are buying or passing links and prevent spam. It may affect website ranks for sites with spammy links, as these links will be neutralized, but our clients have nothing to worry about as Zool does not buy or pass links.
  • Continuous scroll is now available on Desktop Search on Google (in the US), so there is no more Page 2. When Google announced the update, they stated, “when you reach the bottom of a search results page, you’ll now be able to see up to six pages of results.” This is part of Google’s continued evolution of the Search Engine Results Pages, and it will be interesting to see if they roll it out to the UK and the rest of the world. 
  • Google have added another new feature to Google Search called “Topics”. Topics appear at the top of the Search Engine Results Pages and are aimed at allowing users to explore related topics and refine their search queries accordingly. Users can add or remove topics by zooming in or backtracking on the search. Google is trying to help people focus on exactly what they are looking for, so from an SEO point of view, it may be worthwhile looking at more long-tail content and niche content to capture this.
  •  Google has also launched a Visual Elements Gallery to help people identify the most common and impactful visual elements on the Search Engine Results Pages. It includes 22 visual elements grouped into categories but will be updated as new graphical elements become popular. It’s a good thing for everyone to adopt so that we all use the same names for things and know what each other is talking about
  • They have also launched a Search Status Dashboard“, which allows us to keep a close eye on how the Google search system is functioning, including crawling, indexing and serving. 
  • Google has added “Experience” to its E-A-T search quality guidelines. E-A-T stands for expertise, authority and trust, and it is the guidelines that Google asks its search quality team to use when assessing the quality of search results. The Experience part of these guidelines will now look at things such as the content written by someone with firsthand knowledge or experience related to the topic. 

Looking forward to 2023

The past twelve months have seen Google laying many foundations for the next stage of search. For example, they released MUM, their multi-modal search infrastructure, in 2021, allowing them to take context from multiple different formats and languages to give them a much deeper understanding of what people are searching for. For example, if you are searching for holiday shoes, Google can look at where you have travelled, what shoes you have bought before, what languages you speak, and the videos you have posted of your shoes and so on, to truly understand what you want to see in the results. 

We have also seen Google pushing for more searchers to use Google Lens  – where searchers use a camera or image to search rather than typing in words. They are also promoting a joint image and text search to help them understand the type of queries they usually struggle with – such as taking a picture of a broken bit on your bike and typing in “how to fix”. We predict that image search will ramp up over the next 12 months as more and more people try it – especially in the world of eCommerce. 

As your SEO partner, a lot of this is for us to worry about. Still, it is helpful for our clients to know this information and to think about how you can help us make your brand stand out from your competitors so that when Google is looking to solve people’s problems, it shows them your site first.

SEO News Round-Up for December 2022

  /  

As this month’s report covers December, we are not only going to look at what has happened in the last month in terms of SEO, but we are also going to look ahead at what we know is coming up in 2023. 

Google News

  • Google rolled out a “link spam” update in December using an AI-based system called “SpamBrain” to help them detect websites that are buying or passing links and prevent spam. It may affect website ranks for sites with spammy links, as these links will be neutralized, but our clients have nothing to worry about as Zool does not buy or pass links.
  • Continuous scroll is now available on Desktop Search on Google (in the US), so there is no more Page 2. When Google announced the update, they stated, “when you reach the bottom of a search results page, you’ll now be able to see up to six pages of results.” This is part of Google’s continued evolution of the Search Engine Results Pages, and it will be interesting to see if they roll it out to the UK and the rest of the world. 
  • Google have added another new feature to Google Search called “Topics”. Topics appear at the top of the Search Engine Results Pages and are aimed at allowing users to explore related topics and refine their search queries accordingly. Users can add or remove topics by zooming in or backtracking on the search. Google is trying to help people focus on exactly what they are looking for, so from an SEO point of view, it may be worthwhile looking at more long-tail content and niche content to capture this.
  •  Google has also launched a Visual Elements Gallery to help people identify the most common and impactful visual elements on the Search Engine Results Pages. It includes 22 visual elements grouped into categories but will be updated as new graphical elements become popular. It’s a good thing for everyone to adopt so that we all use the same names for things and know what each other is talking about
  • They have also launched a Search Status Dashboard“, which allows us to keep a close eye on how the Google search system is functioning, including crawling, indexing and serving. 
  • Google has added “Experience” to its E-A-T search quality guidelines. E-A-T stands for expertise, authority and trust, and it is the guidelines that Google asks its search quality team to use when assessing the quality of search results. The Experience part of these guidelines will now look at things such as the content written by someone with firsthand knowledge or experience related to the topic. 

Looking forward to 2023

The past twelve months have seen Google laying many foundations for the next stage of search. For example, they released MUM, their multi-modal search infrastructure, in 2021, allowing them to take context from multiple different formats and languages to give them a much deeper understanding of what people are searching for. For example, if you are searching for holiday shoes, Google can look at where you have travelled, what shoes you have bought before, what languages you speak, and the videos you have posted of your shoes and so on, to truly understand what you want to see in the results. 

We have also seen Google pushing for more searchers to use Google Lens  – where searchers use a camera or image to search rather than typing in words. They are also promoting a joint image and text search to help them understand the type of queries they usually struggle with – such as taking a picture of a broken bit on your bike and typing in “how to fix”. We predict that image search will ramp up over the next 12 months as more and more people try it – especially in the world of eCommerce. 

As your SEO partner, a lot of this is for us to worry about. Still, it is helpful for our clients to know this information and to think about how you can help us make your brand stand out from your competitors so that when Google is looking to solve people’s problems, it shows them your site first.