SEO News You Can Use: More Google Algorithm Updates for November! Or is it?

For more than a week now, speculation has mounted about another Google algorithm update for November.

No, this one isn’t BERT Jr. In fact, Google somewhat confirmed the algorithm updates, but went on to intimate that this isn’t a “core” — or major — update. In fact, Google said this was really nothing out of the norm.

Per tweets from the Google SearchLiaison Twitter account:

“We did actually [have] several updates, just as we have several updates in any given week on a regular basis.”

Many in the search community who were hit these updates reported being impacted between 30-50% either up or down in traffic and placement by Google. But tracking tools didn’t show much volatility.

What about your website(s)? Did you see any major increases or decreases? Let us know in the comments section. More about the latest updates can be found here and here.

Also, Google tweeted further updates in response to an outcry about these latest algorithm updates and the tweets downplayed these latest updates as nothing much to write home about:

“Sometimes, a particular update might be broadly noticeable. We share about those when we feel there is actionable guidance for content owners. For example, when our Speed Update happened, we gave months of advanced notice and advice.”

“Broad core updates are often broadly noticeable. That’s why we have shared about them since last year and even pre-announce them, plus provide the actionable guidance that there’s often nothing to ‘fix’ and emphasize instead of having great content.”

“Again, we have updates that happen all the time in Google Search. If we don’t share about them, there is no particular actionable guidance to follow nor changes to make other than to keep focused on great content as we’ve advised generally.”

More SEO News You Can Use

More Ways Google Uses Structured Date: Google webmaster John Mueller weighed in last week on if there are any other benefits to using structured data other than rich results and featured snippets. Mueller said Google does use structured data for ranking related purposes. He said Google uses the info to better understand the entities on a page.

Rand Fishkin Says Companies Need to Maximize ‘On-SERP’ Opportunities: SparkToro CEO and co-founder Rand Fishkin said last week in New York that companies need to find what he calls on-SERP opportunities to reach their audiences and strengthen their brands. He says users need to actively seek you out, so instead of just searching for Weather they’d search for Weather.com (a brand). What Fishkin means by on-SERP SEO is designing content with rich results to increase visibility on the SERPs to help users become more familiar with your brand. And buying ads helps with this as well.

Google Search Console Working on ‘New Email Stuff’: Another newsflash out of New York and SMX East last week was from Daniel Waisberg from the Google Search Console team. He said on stage that his team is working on “new email stuff,” but didn’t elaborate. So, it’s unclear what that means. But perhaps it’ll result in fewer of the same notifications from different clients.

More About the Google BERT Algorithm Update: What is BERT? By now, you’re probably all fairly familiar with Google’s latest core algorithm update called BERT. But can you really ever know enough about such a high-impact update? Moz.com delivers for you with a deep-dive on BERT in one of its latest Whiteboard Fridays.

A Look at Ways to Distribute Your Content: In another one of Moz.com’s Whiteboard Fridays, it takes an in-depth look at best practices and platforms for distributing your content you work so hard on every day. Should you go Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, elsewhere or all of the above when it comes to social media channels? This should help shape your next distribution plan.

Editor’s Note: “SEO News You Can Use” is a weekly blog post posted every Monday morning only on SEOblog.com, rounding up all the top SEO news from around the world. Our goal is to make SEOblog.com a one-stop shop for everyone looking for SEO news, education and for hiring an SEO expert with our comprehensive SEO agency directory.