SEARCHENGINES
Google Optimize To Sunset September 30, 2023
Google will be sunsetting, killing off, the Google Optimize product on September 30, 2023. “Google Optimize and Optimize 360 will no longer be available after September 30, 2023. Your experiments and personalizations can continue to run until that date,” Google wrote.
Google Optimize, formerly called Google Website Optimizer, is an analytics and testing tool created by Google. It allows you to run experiments that are aimed to help online marketers and webmasters to increase visitor conversion rates and overall visitor satisfaction.
Google added, “We launched Google Optimize over 5 years ago to enable businesses of all sizes to easily test and improve your user experiences. We remain committed to enabling businesses of all sizes to improve your user experiences and are investing in A/B testing in Google Analytics 4.”
Here is the FAQ Google posted explaining the why, what will happen, and so forth:
(1) Why is Optimize being sunset?
We remain committed to enabling businesses of all sizes to improve your user experiences and are investing in A/B testing in Google Analytics 4. We are focused on bringing the most effective solutions and integrations to our customers, especially as we look toward the future with Google Analytics 4.
Optimize, though a longstanding product, does not have many of the features and services that our customers request and need for experimentation testing. We therefore have decided to invest in solutions that will be more effective for our customers.
(2) Can I still access my data?
We encourage all users to download their historical data from within the Optimize user interface before September 30, 2023.
To download your historical data before the sunset date, see Export your Optimize report data. To access your historical raw data, use the Google Analytics Data API. You won’t be able to access your experience inference results or your historical Google Analytics 4 raw data after the sunset data.
(3) Can I renew my contract for an additional year?
Anyone who will be extending or renewing their Google Analytics 360 (Universal Analytics) contracts in the first half of 2023 will be able to renew their Optimize 360 contracts with service dates ending on or before September 30, 2023.
Those who have signed Google Analytics 4 contracts will not be able to sign Optimize 360 contracts, but will have access to Optimize via the integration in Google Analytics 4 until the September 30, 2023 sunset date.
Additionally, for anyone who has signed a Google Analytics 4 contract, but plans to continue to use Google Analytics 360 (Universal Analytics) as they transition over to Google Analytics 4, we will be providing access to Optimize 360 free of charge until the September 30, 2023 sunset date. You will need to keep your Optimize containers linked to GA360 properties to do so.
(4) What happens if I ordered Optimize 360 with an end date past the sunset date?
Any Optimize 360 orders already received with an end date past the Optimize sunset date will be revised to the product sunset date.
Now, ask you can imagine, SEOs and PPCers are not too happy:
Really sad to see that Google Optimize will be sunset in September.😢https://t.co/3L9agpwadK
This was one of Google’s biggest product wins for marketers and an invaluable tool that worked seamlessly with GA.
Analytics & tracking is still one of biggest pain points in 2023.
— Greg Finn (@gregfinn) January 23, 2023
Optimize as we know it ends Sept 30th. Hopefully they have a solution for GA4.
FTA: “We remain committed to enabling businesses of all sizes to improve your user experiences and are investing in A/B testing in Google Analytics 4.”
— Greg Finn (@gregfinn) January 23, 2023
Someone funny could make a great skit about all the great things Google has and takes away only to give you stuff you don’t want in return.
— Lawrence Chasse (@lchasse) January 23, 2023
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Currently learning how to run A/B test with GO…any alternatives?
— RogerM (@rogermarquezseo) January 21, 2023
Nnnnnnnoooooooooooooo!!!
Google Optimize is one of those amazing hidden gems! Perhaps too hidden 😔 https://t.co/By0sdhy1q3
— Jyll Saskin Gales (she/her) (@jyllsaskingales) January 21, 2023
Goodbye Google Optimize: “Optimize, though a longstanding product, does not have many of the features and services that our customers request and need for experimentation testing. We therefore have decided to invest in solutions that will be more effective for our customers.” https://t.co/hAxvFqmFih
— Aleyda Solis 🇺🇦 (@aleyda) January 21, 2023
Forum discussion at Twitter.
SEARCHENGINES
Google Won’t Change The 301 Signals For Ranking & SEO
Gary Illyes from Google said on stage at the SERP conference last week that there is no way that Google would change how the 301 redirect signal works for SEO or search rankings. Gary added that it’s a very reliable signal.
Nikola Minkov quoted Gary Illyes as saying, “It is a very reliable signal, and there is no way we could change that signal,” when asked if a 301 redirect not working is a myth. Honestly, I am not sure the context of this question, as it is not clear from the post on X, but here it is:
More from @methode:
– 301 redirect not working is a myth. “It is a very reliable signal, and there is no way we could change that signal”.#SERPConf2024#SERPConf2024International— Nikola Minkov (@n_minkov) April 19, 2024
We’ve covered 301 redirects here countless times – but I never saw a myth that Google does not use 301 redirects as a signal for canonicalization or for passing signals from an old URL to the redirected URL.
Forum discussion at X.
Note: This was pre-written and scheduled to be posted today, I am currently offline for Passover.
SEARCHENGINES
Google Again Says Ignore Link Spam Especially To 404 Pages
I am not sure how many times Google has said that you do not need to disavow spammy links, that you can ignore link spam attacks and that links pointing to pages that 404/410 are links that do not count – but John Mueller from Google said it again.
In a thread on X, John Mueller from Google wrote, “if the links are going to URLs that 404 on your site, they’re already dropped.” “They do nothing,” he added, “If there’s no indexable destination URL, there’s no link.”
John then added, “I’d generally ignore link-spam, and definitely ignore link-spam to 404s.”
Asking if it would hurt to disavow, after responding with the messages above, John wrote:
It will do absolutely nothing. I would take the time to rework a holistic & forward-looking strategy for the site overall instead of working on incremental tweaks (other tweaks might do something, but you probably need real change, not tweaks).
Earlier this year we had tons of SEOs notice spammy links to 404 error pages, John said ignore them. In 2021, Google said links to 404 pages do not count, Google also said that in 2012 and many other times.
Plus, outside of links to 404 pages, Google has said to ignore spammy links, time and time again – even the toxic links – ignore them. The messaging around this changed in 2016 when Penguin 4.0 was released and Google began devaluing links over demoting them.
Here are those new posts in context:
I’d say add both. Lol
— Jeremy Rivera (@JeremyRiveraSEO) April 11, 2024
Sure. But also, save yourself the work completely :-).
— John 🧀 … 🧀 (@JohnMu) April 11, 2024
Re-reading your initial post – if the links are going to URLs that 404 on your site, they’re already dropped. They do nothing. If there’s no indexable destination URL, there’s no link. I’d generally ignore link-spam, and definitely ignore link-spam to 404s.
— John 🧀 … 🧀 (@JohnMu) April 11, 2024
… but still… is this a dumb idea?
— Rebekah Edwards (@rebekah_creates) April 11, 2024
It will do absolutely nothing. I would take the time to rework a holistic & forward-looking strategy for the site overall instead of working on incremental tweaks (other tweaks might do something, but you probably need real change, not tweaks).
— John 🧀 … 🧀 (@JohnMu) April 11, 2024
And in general, Google says it ignores spammy links, so you should too (not new) but this post from John Mueller is:
I would just ignore them, Google ignores them too. Sometimes they’re just more visible in tools, but that doesn’t mean they’re a problem.
— John 🧀 … 🧀 (@JohnMu) April 18, 2024
And then also on Mastodon wrote about a similar situation, “Google has 2 decades of practice of ignoring spammy links. There’s no need to do anything for those links.”
Forum discussion at X.
Note: This was pre-written and scheduled to be posted today, I am currently offline for Passover.
SEARCHENGINES
Google Needs Very Few Links To Rank Pages; Links Are Less Important
Gary Illyes from Google spoke at the SERP Conf on Friday and he said what he said numerous times before, that Google values links a lot less today than it did in the past. He added that Google Search “needs very few links to rank pages.”
Gary reportedly said, “We need very few links to rank pages… Over the years we’ve made links less important.”
I am quoting Patrick Stox who is quoting what he heard Gary say on stage at the event. Here is Patrick’s post where Gary did a rare reply:
I shouldn’t have said that… I definitely shouldn’t have said that
— Gary 鯨理/경리 Illyes (so official, trust me) (@methode) April 19, 2024
Gary said this a year ago, also in 2022 and other times as well. We previously covered that Google said links would likely become even less important in the future. And even Matt Cutts, the former Googler, said something similar about eight years ago and the truth is, links are weighted a lot less than it was eight years ago and that trend continues. A couple of years ago, Google said links are not the most important Google search ranking factor.
Of course, many SEOs think Google lies about this.
Judith Lewis interviewed Gary Illyes at the SERP Conf this past Friday.
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