SEO
How to Use Yoast SEO to Improve SEO
In today’s age of digital marketing, SEO is crucial for any business or individual with an online presence. But with so many factors to consider, it can be overwhelming.
Fortunately, there are tools available that can help simplify the process and improve your results. One such tool is Yoast SEO, a WordPress SEO plugin.
In this article, we will explore how to use Yoast SEO to improve your SEO efforts. We will cover the basics of using the plugin, the key features to take advantage of, and how to analyze your content for optimal results.
Yoast SEO is one of the most popular WordPress plugins available. Its main feature is helping you optimize your blog posts for SEO.
With the Yoast SEO plugin, you can easily do things like add meta descriptions, do a basic on-page SEO analysis, and create an XML sitemap to help search engines better index your website.
Yoast SEO is free, but there is also a premium upgrade that offers additional features, such as advanced content analysis, internal linking suggestions, and a redirections manager.
Now we know what Yoast SEO is, let’s take a look at how to get started with the plugin.
Installing the plugin
Installing the plugin is pretty straightforward. In your WordPress dashboard, head over to Plugins > Add new. Then search for “Yoast.”
Simply click “Install” and then “Activate.” Once your plugin is active, you can get started with the first-time setup.
The first-time setup wizard will ask you for some basic information. You can fill these in and, once finished, your installation is complete.
Once you’ve completed the initial setup, even if you choose to do nothing else, Yoast will have already made some changes automatically to your website, including:
Basic settings in Yoast SEO
Once you’ve completed the setup, it’s a good idea to head over to the settings menu. Let’s take a look at some of the noteworthy options.
General settings
The first item under general settings is the “Site features” menu. Here, you will find several different pre-set features that Yoast offers. All are automatically enabled other than “Inclusive language analysis,” so you may want to take a look and enable or disable these as you need.
The “Site basics” and “Site representation” menus will most likely already be completed from your initial setup. This is simply where you decide how you want your site branding to be displayed in search results—for example, your website name, tagline, and logo.
The last item in the general settings menu is “Site connections” (formally webmaster tools). This is where you can verify your site with different tools, including Bing and Google. This allows Yoast to add a verification meta tag to your homepage automatically.
Content types, categories, and tags
The next two sections of the settings menu—“Content types” and “Categories and tags”—all do pretty much the same things. They allow you to control how (and if) entire sections of your site appear in search results.
You can set different content types (pages, posts, categories, etc.) to index or noindex automatically and decide how your title tags are structured for each content type.
You can also set the schema type (article, FAQ, about, etc.) for different content types.
You have to be very careful with these settings, as you can automatically deindex entire sections of your site. Also, having the wrong schema markup can negatively impact your rankings on the search engine results pages (SERPs).
I would advise you to leave these settings as they are. If you do want to prevent search engines from indexing certain pages/posts or use a specific type of schema, make those changes in the individual page settings.
Advanced options
For the most part, it is best to leave the advanced options alone unless you’re a seasoned SEO. You certainly don’t want to adjust elements like “Crawl optimizations” if you don’t know what you are doing.
One thing I would recommend is ensuring that breadcrumbs are enabled for your theme. Breadcrumbs are a navigational element and help to make your website more accessible for both users and search engines.
Note that if you use a page builder like Elementor on your website, you may still need to use a shortcode for breadcrumbs to be visible on your pages.
OK, so now that we have covered the basics of getting started, I’m going to walk you through the key features to take advantage of when using Yoast SEO with the WordPress editor.
You can access the Yoast settings by either clicking the symbol in the top right of your WordPress editor to expand the sidebar menu or by using the “Yoast SEO” meta box at the bottom of the page.
This is where you will interact with Yoast most often and can optimize and adjust the standard settings for each individual page. Let’s look at the key features and how to use them.
Focus keyphrase
The first section you need to complete is the “keyphrase” (i.e., your primary keyword). This is where you enter the keyword or phrase you want to rank for in the search results.
You can determine which keywords you want to rank for by using a tool like Ahrefs’ Keywords Explorer to do keyword research.
By completing this, Yoast can analyze your content to see how well optimized it is.
SEO analysis
The SEO analysis section of Yoast aims to advise you on what elements you need to include in your content to have the best chance at ranking for your chosen keyphrase.
Both the SEO and readability analysis tools work on a traffic light system. The more suggested elements you include in your content, the more likely you’ll get the green light.
The plugin works by calculating the frequency of keyphrase usage based on the total word count and checking if the following elements include your chosen keyphrase:
- SEO title of the page
- Introductory paragraph
- Heading(s)
- The URL
- Page content
- Meta description
- Image alt tags
Another great thing about Yoast is how helpful it is. For anyone who needs a member of staff (like a VA) to upload content into WordPress, the plugin can help ensure they remember to include certain elements like meta descriptions.
If someone is new to the role, for example, having a list of things that should be included can be a great tool for training.
Readability scores
The readability analysis in Yoast SEO aims to help you ensure your content is easy to understand and get your message across to website users.
It uses Flesch Reading Ease to measure textual difficulty combined with Yoast’s own algorithm that considers elements like sentence and paragraph length and structure, use of transition words, and passive voice.
Like the SEO analysis, the readability analysis shows which elements are good and which need improvement.
The nice thing about this section is it has a highlighter tool to clearly show where you have issues within your content.
For example, it will give you a percentage of how much of your text is affected by a particular issue. And if you click the “eye” icon on the right of that issue, it will highlight all the areas where that applies. This makes it easy for you to add changes directly in the WordPress editor.
Google preview
In the “Google preview” section, you can see how your page will appear in the search results in both mobile and desktop.
You can edit your URL slug, title tag, and meta description here, and Yoast will advise you if these elements are the right length and contain your keyphrase.
Social previews
This section allows you to see how your content will appear when shared on social platforms, including Facebook and Twitter.
Here, you can set specific feature images, titles, and descriptions for each platform. If you leave these blank, the tool will automatically use the feature image and title from WordPress.
Note that to actually preview how these elements will appear on each social platform, you will need the Yoast SEO Premium plugin.
Schema
Schema markup gives search engines a better understanding of the content on your page and can help you qualify for rich results.
You can use the schema section of the Yoast plugin to help define individual pages such as:
- An FAQ page.
- About pages.
- A checkout page.
The default schema options are set to whatever you assigned in the initial setup. If you didn’t change anything from what Yoast suggests, this would be “Web Page” and “Article.” But you can change these as you need.
Advanced settings
There are a number of different things you can do with the advanced options, including:
- Prevent the page from being indexed by search engines.
- Stop search engines from following links on the page.
- Add a canonical URL for the page.
- Use advanced meta robots parameters (noarchive, nosnippet, etc.).
- Add a breadcrumbs title.
As mentioned previously, you need to be very careful with the advanced options. For the most part, the default settings will be sufficient. If you don’t know what these settings do, then it is best not to mess with them.
By now, it’s clear the Yoast SEO plugin can improve your website’s SEO. But to get the most out of it, it’s best to combine it with some additional plugins that cover areas Yoast doesn’t.
One of the best plugins to use alongside Yoast is the Ahrefs SEO WordPress Plugin.
This plugin is a true time-saver because it gives you recommendations on how to improve the SEO performance for each of your pages based on automated content audits.
On top of that, it takes the keyphrases you already set in Yoast and combines them with data from Ahrefs and Google Search Console to show key SEO metrics right next to your pages.
Yoast also offers several paid plugins (each priced at $79 per year, per site). They work with the free version of Yoast SEO and are built for specific needs like:
- Yoast Local SEO
- Yoast WooCommerce SEO
- Yoast Video SEO
- Yoast News SEO
As mentioned previously, Yoast also offers a premium version with additional features to take control of your site’s SEO at a more advanced level. Here are some of the added benefits of Yoast SEO Premium:
- Ability to add synonyms and related keyphrases
- Internal linking suggestions
- Redirections manager
- 404 monitoring
- Orphaned content finder
- Free access to the Yoast SEO academy
Yoast SEO Premium costs $99 per year, per website. For me, the advanced features are a must. But if you are someone who works with multiple client sites or has a portfolio of your own, this could be an unnecessary cost.
It won’t be fair to discuss Yoast SEO without mentioning if and where it falls short (based on what I experienced).
Yoast is a great plugin for anyone who just wants help to optimize their blog. But if you want more advanced control, for me, Yoast starts to fall flat compared to other SEO plugins.
Many of the more advanced features that you can find in the free version of competing plugins like Rank Math or All In One SEO are either only available with Yoast’s premium features or are non-existent.
For example, Rank Math’s free plugin allows you to:
- Add redirections (available with Yoast Premium).
- Monitor 404 pages (available with Yoast Premium).
- Automate image SEO (automatically add alt text and image titles).
- Integrate with Google Analytics.
- Instant index.
- Use advanced webmaster tools.
- Do local SEO (only available as an additional paid plugin with Yoast SEO).
- Work on WooCommerce SEO (only available as an additional paid plugin with Yoast SEO).
If you only need some basic SEO help on your personal blog or business site, then Yoast works great. But if you need an SEO plugin for multiple sites and you want advanced features, this can start to get costly. If so, it may be time to consider a different option.
Final thoughts
Yoast SEO is an excellent tool for improving your website’s SEO. It can help you analyze your content and make sure your blog posts are optimized for search engines.
The premium upgrade has some excellent features to take your SEO efforts to the next level. However, it is important to note that Yoast is not a one-stop shop for all of your SEO needs. There are still other plugins and techniques that should be used to get the most out of your website’s SEO performance.
Got questions? Ping me on Twitter.
Understanding the Impact of Google’s November 2024 Core Update on Global Search Rankings
Introduction
In November 2024, Google launched its latest core algorithm update, a broad refinement designed to enhance the quality of its search engine results. Rolling out over approximately two weeks, the update continues Google’s ongoing commitment to delivering more relevant, useful, and high-quality search experiences for users worldwide. This article explores the nature of the November 2024 Core Update, its potential impact on websites, and strategies for site owners to adapt and thrive in its aftermath.
1. What Is a Google Core Update?
Core updates are large-scale changes to Google’s search algorithms. Unlike targeted updates aimed at specific sectors or issues, core updates broadly impact all regions and languages. They reflect Google’s effort to re-evaluate how content is assessed and ranked based on relevance, usefulness, and reliability. Previous updates include significant releases like the March and August 2024 updates, illustrating the frequency and scope of these changes.
2. Goals of the November 2024 Core Update
The November update focuses on refining the quality of search results. According to Google’s official statements, it seeks to amplify genuinely useful content while reducing the visibility of content primarily designed to manipulate rankings without meeting user needs. This effort emphasizes Google’s consistent push for “people-first” content—engaging and useful information that serves users, not search engines.
3. Key Features and Characteristics of the Update
- Global Impact: The update affects search rankings on a global scale and is not confined to any particular industry or niche.
- Rollout Duration: Spanning about two weeks, the rollout’s timing allows Google to fully implement algorithmic changes and assess their effects.
- Broad Adjustments: The update doesn’t target specific sites but involves systemic reassessment across Google’s ranking systems.
- Dynamic Search Environment: This core update follows in the footsteps of the August and March 2024 updates, representing a year of significant search result refinement.
4. What This Means for Site Owners
- Traffic Fluctuations: Websites may observe shifts in rankings and traffic during the update’s rollout and subsequent completion. These changes highlight the dynamic nature of Google search and require continuous monitoring and adaptation.
- Recommended Actions:
- Wait and Analyze: Site owners experiencing changes should wait until the rollout’s completion before making significant adjustments.
- Utilize Google Search Console: Compare traffic and ranking data from before and after the update to identify potential areas of improvement.
- Focus on High-Impact Pages: Pages with notable drops in ranking should undergo thorough content evaluation using Google’s guidelines
5. Recovery and Adaptation Strategies
Recovering from a negative impact due to a core update may take weeks or months as Google’s systems adjust and validate content changes. Site owners should prioritize delivering high-quality, reliable, and user-focused content. Specific steps include:
- Content Evaluation: Assess content against Google’s guidelines, focusing on readability, user satisfaction, and factual accuracy.
- No Quick Fixes: Avoid superficial changes aimed solely at improving rankings. Sustainable improvements are more valuable and impactful(November 2024 core upda…).
- People-First Content: Ensure content serves real user needs, as opposed to purely SEO-driven objectives. This aligns with Google’s long-term priorities for search quality
6. Comparative Analysis with Previous Updates
The November 2024 Core Update continues trends observed in previous updates like March and August 2024. While each update has its nuances, their collective goal remains consistent: bettering search quality and delivering relevant results. Comparing data from these updates can reveal patterns and offer insights into Google’s evolving criteria
7. Broader Implications for the SEO Industry
Google’s ongoing core updates underscore the critical importance of a user-centric approach to SEO. For digital marketers and SEO specialists, adapting strategies to these updates involves staying informed, using reliable analytics tools, and keeping content fresh and engaging. The need for adaptability is paramount, as Google continually shifts the parameters of what defines quality content
Conclusion
The November 2024 Core Update serves as a reminder that Google’s algorithmic changes are not designed to punish but to reward helpful, authentic, and user-focused content. Site owners and marketers who embrace this philosophy are better positioned to weather core updates and even benefit from improved rankings and traffic over time. By maintaining a focus on user experience, transparency, and relevance, creators can align with Google’s evolving standards and thrive in the ever-changing digital landscape
SEO
How to Revive an Old Blog Article for SEO
Quick question: What do you typically do with your old blog posts? Most likely, the answer is: Not much.
If that’s the case, you’re not alone. Many of us in SEO and content marketing tend to focus on continuously creating new content, rather than leveraging our existing blog posts.
However, here’s the reality—Google is becoming increasingly sophisticated in evaluating content quality, and we need to adapt accordingly. Just as it’s easier to encourage existing customers to make repeat purchases, updating old content on your website is a more efficient and sustainable strategy in the long run.
Ways to Optimize Older Content
Some of your old content might not be optimized for SEO very well, rank for irrelevant keywords, or drive no traffic at all. If the quality is still decent, however, you should be able to optimize it properly with little effort.
Refresh Content
If your blog post contains a specific year or mentions current events, it may become outdated over time. If the rest of the content is still relevant (like if it’s targeting an evergreen topic), simply updating the date might be all you need to do.
Rewrite Old Blog Posts
When the content quality is low (you might have greatly improved your writing skills since you’ve written the post) but the potential is still there, there’s not much you can do apart from rewriting an old blog post completely.
This is not a waste—you’re saving time on brainstorming since the basic structure is already in place. Now, focus on improving the quality.
Delete Old Blog Posts
You might find a blog post that just seems unusable. Should you delete your old content? It depends. If it’s completely outdated, of low quality, and irrelevant to any valuable keywords for your website, it’s better to remove it.
Once you decide to delete the post, don’t forget to set up a 301 redirect to a related post or page, or to your homepage.
Promote Old Blog Posts
Sometimes all your content needs is a bit of promotion to start ranking and getting traffic again. Share it on your social media, link to it from a new post – do something to get it discoverable again to your audience. This can give it the boost it needs to attract organic links too.
Which Blog Posts Should You Update?
Deciding when to update or rewrite blog posts is a decision that relies on one important thing: a content audit.
Use your Google Analytics to find out which blog posts used to drive tons of traffic, but no longer have the same reach. You can also use Google Search Console to find out which of your blog posts have lost visibility in comparison to previous months. I have a guide on website analysis using Google Analytics and Google Search Console you can follow.
If you use keyword tracking tools like SE Ranking, you can also use the data it provides to come up with a list of blog posts that have dropped in the rankings.
Make data-driven decisions to identify which blog posts would benefit from these updates – i.e., which ones still have the chance to recover their keyword rankings and organic traffic.
With Google’s helpful content update, which emphasizes better user experiences, it’s crucial to ensure your content remains relevant, valuable, and up-to-date.
How To Update Old Blog Posts for SEO
Updating articles can be an involved process. Here are some tips and tactics to help you get it right.
Author’s Note: I have a Comprehensive On-Page SEO Checklist you might also be interested in following while you’re doing your content audit.
Conduct New Keyword Research
Updating your post without any guide won’t get you far. Always do your keyword research to understand how users are searching for your given topic.
Proper research can also show you relevant questions and sections that can be added to the blog post you’re updating or rewriting. Make sure to take a look at the People Also Ask (PAA) section that shows up when you search for your target keyword. Check out other websites like Answer The Public, Reddit, and Quora to see what users are looking for too.
Look for New Ranking Opportunities
When trying to revive an old blog post for SEO, keep an eye out for new SEO opportunities (e.g., AI Overview, featured snippets, and related search terms) that didn’t exist when you first wrote your blog post. Some of these features can be targeted by the new content you will add to your post, if you write with the aim to be eligible for it.
Rewrite Headlines and Meta Tags
If you want to attract new readers, consider updating your headlines and meta tags.
Your headlines and meta tags should fulfill these three things:
- Reflect the rewritten and new content you’ve added to the blog post.
- Be optimized for the new keywords it’s targeting (if any).
- Appeal to your target audience – who may have changed tastes from when the blog post was originally made.
Remember that your meta tags in particular act like a brief advertisement for your blog post, since this is what the user first sees when your blog post is shown in the search results page.
Take a look at your blog post’s click-through rate on Google Search Console – if it falls below 2%, it’s definitely time for new meta tags.
Replace Outdated Information and Statistics
Updating blog content with current studies and statistics enhances the relevance and credibility of your post. By providing up-to-date information, you help your audience make better, well-informed decisions, while also showing that your content is trustworthy.
Tighten or Expand Ideas
Your old content might be too short to provide real value to users – or you might have rambled on and on in your post. It’s important to evaluate whether you need to make your content more concise, or if you need to elaborate more.
Keep the following tips in mind as you refine your blog post’s ideas:
- Evaluate Helpfulness: Measure how well your content addresses your readers’ pain points. Aim to follow the E-E-A-T model (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness).
- Identify Missing Context: Consider whether your content needs more detail or clarification. View it from your audience’s perspective and ask if the information is complete, or if more information is needed.
- Interview Experts: Speak with industry experts or thought leaders to get fresh insights. This will help support your writing, and provide unique points that enhance the value of your content.
- Use Better Examples: Examples help simplify complex concepts. Add new examples or improve existing ones to strengthen your points.
- Add New Sections if Needed: If your content lacks depth or misses a key point, add new sections to cover these areas more thoroughly.
- Remove Fluff: Every sentence should contribute to the overall narrative. Eliminate unnecessary content to make your post more concise.
- Revise Listicles: Update listicle items based on SEO recommendations and content quality. Add or remove headings to stay competitive with higher-ranking posts.
Improve Visuals and Other Media
No doubt that there are tons of old graphics and photos in your blog posts that can be improved with the tools we have today. Make sure all of the visuals used in your content are appealing and high quality.
Update Internal and External Links
Are your internal and external links up to date? They need to be for your SEO and user experience. Outdated links can lead to broken pages or irrelevant content, frustrating readers and hurting your site’s performance.
You need to check for any broken links on your old blog posts, and update them ASAP. Updating your old blog posts can also lead to new opportunities to link internally to other blog posts and pages, which may not have been available when the post was originally published.
Optimize for Conversions
When updating content, the ultimate goal is often to increase conversions. However, your conversion goals may have changed over the years.
So here’s what you need to check in your updated blog post. First, does the call-to-action (CTA) still link to the products or services you want to promote? If not, update it to direct readers to the current solution or offer.
Second, consider where you can use different conversion strategies. Don’t just add a CTA at the end of the post.
Last, make sure that the blog post leverages product-led content. It’s going to help you mention your products and services in a way that feels natural, without being too pushy. Being subtle can be a high ROI tactic for updated posts.
Key Takeaway
Reviving old blog articles for SEO is a powerful strategy that can breathe new life into your content and boost your website’s visibility. Instead of solely focusing on creating new posts, taking the time to refresh existing content can yield impressive results, both in terms of traffic and conversions.
By implementing these strategies, you can transform old blog posts into valuable resources that attract new readers and retain existing ones. So, roll up your sleeves, dive into your archives, and start updating your content today—your audience and search rankings will thank you!
SEO
How Compression Can Be Used To Detect Low Quality Pages
The concept of Compressibility as a quality signal is not widely known, but SEOs should be aware of it. Search engines can use web page compressibility to identify duplicate pages, doorway pages with similar content, and pages with repetitive keywords, making it useful knowledge for SEO.
Although the following research paper demonstrates a successful use of on-page features for detecting spam, the deliberate lack of transparency by search engines makes it difficult to say with certainty if search engines are applying this or similar techniques.
What Is Compressibility?
In computing, compressibility refers to how much a file (data) can be reduced in size while retaining essential information, typically to maximize storage space or to allow more data to be transmitted over the Internet.
TL/DR Of Compression
Compression replaces repeated words and phrases with shorter references, reducing the file size by significant margins. Search engines typically compress indexed web pages to maximize storage space, reduce bandwidth, and improve retrieval speed, among other reasons.
This is a simplified explanation of how compression works:
- Identify Patterns:
A compression algorithm scans the text to find repeated words, patterns and phrases - Shorter Codes Take Up Less Space:
The codes and symbols use less storage space then the original words and phrases, which results in a smaller file size. - Shorter References Use Less Bits:
The “code” that essentially symbolizes the replaced words and phrases uses less data than the originals.
A bonus effect of using compression is that it can also be used to identify duplicate pages, doorway pages with similar content, and pages with repetitive keywords.
Research Paper About Detecting Spam
This research paper is significant because it was authored by distinguished computer scientists known for breakthroughs in AI, distributed computing, information retrieval, and other fields.
Marc Najork
One of the co-authors of the research paper is Marc Najork, a prominent research scientist who currently holds the title of Distinguished Research Scientist at Google DeepMind. He’s a co-author of the papers for TW-BERT, has contributed research for increasing the accuracy of using implicit user feedback like clicks, and worked on creating improved AI-based information retrieval (DSI++: Updating Transformer Memory with New Documents), among many other major breakthroughs in information retrieval.
Dennis Fetterly
Another of the co-authors is Dennis Fetterly, currently a software engineer at Google. He is listed as a co-inventor in a patent for a ranking algorithm that uses links, and is known for his research in distributed computing and information retrieval.
Those are just two of the distinguished researchers listed as co-authors of the 2006 Microsoft research paper about identifying spam through on-page content features. Among the several on-page content features the research paper analyzes is compressibility, which they discovered can be used as a classifier for indicating that a web page is spammy.
Detecting Spam Web Pages Through Content Analysis
Although the research paper was authored in 2006, its findings remain relevant to today.
Then, as now, people attempted to rank hundreds or thousands of location-based web pages that were essentially duplicate content aside from city, region, or state names. Then, as now, SEOs often created web pages for search engines by excessively repeating keywords within titles, meta descriptions, headings, internal anchor text, and within the content to improve rankings.
Section 4.6 of the research paper explains:
“Some search engines give higher weight to pages containing the query keywords several times. For example, for a given query term, a page that contains it ten times may be higher ranked than a page that contains it only once. To take advantage of such engines, some spam pages replicate their content several times in an attempt to rank higher.”
The research paper explains that search engines compress web pages and use the compressed version to reference the original web page. They note that excessive amounts of redundant words results in a higher level of compressibility. So they set about testing if there’s a correlation between a high level of compressibility and spam.
They write:
“Our approach in this section to locating redundant content within a page is to compress the page; to save space and disk time, search engines often compress web pages after indexing them, but before adding them to a page cache.
…We measure the redundancy of web pages by the compression ratio, the size of the uncompressed page divided by the size of the compressed page. We used GZIP …to compress pages, a fast and effective compression algorithm.”
High Compressibility Correlates To Spam
The results of the research showed that web pages with at least a compression ratio of 4.0 tended to be low quality web pages, spam. However, the highest rates of compressibility became less consistent because there were fewer data points, making it harder to interpret.
Figure 9: Prevalence of spam relative to compressibility of page.
The researchers concluded:
“70% of all sampled pages with a compression ratio of at least 4.0 were judged to be spam.”
But they also discovered that using the compression ratio by itself still resulted in false positives, where non-spam pages were incorrectly identified as spam:
“The compression ratio heuristic described in Section 4.6 fared best, correctly identifying 660 (27.9%) of the spam pages in our collection, while misidentifying 2, 068 (12.0%) of all judged pages.
Using all of the aforementioned features, the classification accuracy after the ten-fold cross validation process is encouraging:
95.4% of our judged pages were classified correctly, while 4.6% were classified incorrectly.
More specifically, for the spam class 1, 940 out of the 2, 364 pages, were classified correctly. For the non-spam class, 14, 440 out of the 14,804 pages were classified correctly. Consequently, 788 pages were classified incorrectly.”
The next section describes an interesting discovery about how to increase the accuracy of using on-page signals for identifying spam.
Insight Into Quality Rankings
The research paper examined multiple on-page signals, including compressibility. They discovered that each individual signal (classifier) was able to find some spam but that relying on any one signal on its own resulted in flagging non-spam pages for spam, which are commonly referred to as false positive.
The researchers made an important discovery that everyone interested in SEO should know, which is that using multiple classifiers increased the accuracy of detecting spam and decreased the likelihood of false positives. Just as important, the compressibility signal only identifies one kind of spam but not the full range of spam.
The takeaway is that compressibility is a good way to identify one kind of spam but there are other kinds of spam that aren’t caught with this one signal. Other kinds of spam were not caught with the compressibility signal.
This is the part that every SEO and publisher should be aware of:
“In the previous section, we presented a number of heuristics for assaying spam web pages. That is, we measured several characteristics of web pages, and found ranges of those characteristics which correlated with a page being spam. Nevertheless, when used individually, no technique uncovers most of the spam in our data set without flagging many non-spam pages as spam.
For example, considering the compression ratio heuristic described in Section 4.6, one of our most promising methods, the average probability of spam for ratios of 4.2 and higher is 72%. But only about 1.5% of all pages fall in this range. This number is far below the 13.8% of spam pages that we identified in our data set.”
So, even though compressibility was one of the better signals for identifying spam, it still was unable to uncover the full range of spam within the dataset the researchers used to test the signals.
Combining Multiple Signals
The above results indicated that individual signals of low quality are less accurate. So they tested using multiple signals. What they discovered was that combining multiple on-page signals for detecting spam resulted in a better accuracy rate with less pages misclassified as spam.
The researchers explained that they tested the use of multiple signals:
“One way of combining our heuristic methods is to view the spam detection problem as a classification problem. In this case, we want to create a classification model (or classifier) which, given a web page, will use the page’s features jointly in order to (correctly, we hope) classify it in one of two classes: spam and non-spam.”
These are their conclusions about using multiple signals:
“We have studied various aspects of content-based spam on the web using a real-world data set from the MSNSearch crawler. We have presented a number of heuristic methods for detecting content based spam. Some of our spam detection methods are more effective than others, however when used in isolation our methods may not identify all of the spam pages. For this reason, we combined our spam-detection methods to create a highly accurate C4.5 classifier. Our classifier can correctly identify 86.2% of all spam pages, while flagging very few legitimate pages as spam.”
Key Insight:
Misidentifying “very few legitimate pages as spam” was a significant breakthrough. The important insight that everyone involved with SEO should take away from this is that one signal by itself can result in false positives. Using multiple signals increases the accuracy.
What this means is that SEO tests of isolated ranking or quality signals will not yield reliable results that can be trusted for making strategy or business decisions.
Takeaways
We don’t know for certain if compressibility is used at the search engines but it’s an easy to use signal that combined with others could be used to catch simple kinds of spam like thousands of city name doorway pages with similar content. Yet even if the search engines don’t use this signal, it does show how easy it is to catch that kind of search engine manipulation and that it’s something search engines are well able to handle today.
Here are the key points of this article to keep in mind:
- Doorway pages with duplicate content is easy to catch because they compress at a higher ratio than normal web pages.
- Groups of web pages with a compression ratio above 4.0 were predominantly spam.
- Negative quality signals used by themselves to catch spam can lead to false positives.
- In this particular test, they discovered that on-page negative quality signals only catch specific types of spam.
- When used alone, the compressibility signal only catches redundancy-type spam, fails to detect other forms of spam, and leads to false positives.
- Combing quality signals improves spam detection accuracy and reduces false positives.
- Search engines today have a higher accuracy of spam detection with the use of AI like Spam Brain.
Read the research paper, which is linked from the Google Scholar page of Marc Najork:
Detecting spam web pages through content analysis
Featured Image by Shutterstock/pathdoc