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Why Google Doesn’t Like Some SEO Metrics

Published

1 year ago

June 11, 2022

Why Google Doesn't Like Some SEO Metrics

We see Googlers over the years downplay, nullify and even mock some SEO metrics. They’ve done this with third-party tools and their own tools – heck, that is why they did away with the toolbar PageRank metric. But why do Googlers dislike these SEO metrics?

John Mueller of Google explained on Twitter that his issue with them is that many SEOs treat these SEO metrics as the ultimate SEO goal. So when you hit a certain DA number or you reduce your toxic links by Y, or your keyword density hits Z-percent, your SEO goals have been met and you are done.

John said “The part I struggle with (with our tools too) is the desire to treat them as a goal of their own, or as a checklist.” He said he has “nothing against third party metrics like these – and I’m sure they’re made by smart, honest, & well-meaning folks.” But he added “Simplifying them to a checklist (“fix toxic links”) is misdirected work, selling them as such (which imo you don’t do) is unfair towards everyone involved.”

He said every time he sees a metric thread, he cringes a bit. “Everytime I see a “how to improve $METRIC” thread, I cringe a bit: so much wasted energy. Do I post to tell them that the metric is irrelevant to Google? (I don’t) Creating metrics is hard, money matters, and it’s not your fault they’re used like this, but it’s lost time…”

Here is the context of this:

I do sympathise with @JohnMu‘s repeatedly being asked about 3rd party metrics, as if they are Google’s metrics.

But there’s sometimes a tendency among SEOs to take this as an argument against 3rd party metrics existing at all, which I don’t think would serve the industry well.

— Tom Capper (@THCapper) June 7, 2022

… you’d know how they work, what they show, and how that’s relevant to your real goals (money! eyeballs! whatever). Simplifying them to a checklist (“fix toxic links”) is misdirected work, selling them as such (which imo you don’t do) is unfair towards everyone involved.

— 🐝 johnmu.xml (personal) 🐝 (@JohnMu) June 7, 2022

Everytime I see a “how to improve $METRIC” thread, I cringe a bit: so much wasted energy. Do I post to tell them that the metric is irrelevant to Google? (I don’t)
Creating metrics is hard, money matters, and it’s not your fault they’re used like this, but it’s lost time…

— 🐝 johnmu.xml (personal) 🐝 (@JohnMu) June 7, 2022

Personally, I don’t look at SEO metrics but it is funny to hear Google say this when they publish core web vital metrics. I guess those are different because they measure real page speed but they should really be more downplayed in terms of an SEO metric.

Forum discussion at Twitter.

Source: www.seroundtable.com

Related Topics:Doesnt Google Metrics seo

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SEARCHENGINES

Google Hanukkah Decorations Are Live For 2023

Published

5 days ago

December 3, 2023

Entireweb News Bot

Hanukkah (aka Chanukah) starts this coming Thursday night, December 7th. Google has added its Hanukkah decorations to the Google Search results interface to celebrate. Google does this every year and I expect to see the same rollout in the coming weeks for Christmas and Kawanzaa but for now, since Chanukah is in the coming days, we have the Hanukkah decorations live at Google Search.

Here is a screenshot of the Chanukah decorations as they look like on the mobile search results.

You can see it yourself by searching on Google for [chanukah], [hanukkah], but not yet [חֲנוּכָּה‎] or other spelling variations yet but it should soon. It looks better on mobile than it does on desktop results.

To see the past, the 2023 decorations, 2021 decorations, 2020 Chanukah decorations, 2019 Google holiday decorations, the 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010 and so on.

Happy Chanukah, everyone!

Forum discussion at X.

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SEARCHENGINES

Google Pay Accepted Icons In Google Search Results

Published

6 days ago

December 3, 2023

Entireweb News Bot

Google seems to be testing a Google Pay Accepted label or icon in the Google search results. This label has the super G logo followed by the words “Pay accepted” words next to search result snippets that support Google Pay and notate such in their structured data.

This was first spotted by Khushal Bherwani who shared some screenshots of this on X – here is one:

Here are some more screenshots:

Here is test and without test window for same query. pic.twitter.com/n9cYWBOsro

— Khushal Bherwani (@b4k_khushal) October 20, 2023

Brodie Clark also posted some screenshots after on X:

In continuation from the test from October, Google is now testing out a new Google Pay label associated with organic results. Last month, Google was testing Pay Accepted text, with this month changing it to Pay encrypted checkout. More details: https://t.co/MvFNoPmMDR pic.twitter.com/WDVVc4RbTO

— SERPs Up 🌊 (@SERPalerts) November 30, 2023

I tried to replicate this but I came up short.

This is not the first time Google had similar icons like this in its search results.

Forum discussion at X.

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Google Discover Showing Older Content Since Follow Feature Arrived

Published

7 days ago

December 2, 2023

Entireweb News Bot

Typically, Google Discover shows content that is less than a day old, but it can show content that is weeks, months, or even years old. However, typically, Google will show more recent content in the Discover feed. Well, that may have changed with the new Google follow feature.

Glenn Gabe, who is a very active Google Discover user, noticed that since the Follow feature rolled out, he has been seeing content that is weeks and months old way more often than before the follow feature rolled out. Glenn wrote on X that “this could also be playing a role. i.e. Google isn’t providing as much recent content, but instead, focusing on providing targeted content based on the topics you are following.”

It makes sense that if you follow a specific topic and if Google Discover only shows the most authoritative types of content, it might be hard for Google to find new content on that topic. So it does make sense that Google may show older content more often for that specific topic you follow.

Here are screenshots Glenn shared:

Google Discover Old Stories Follow