Thread by @willcritchlow

I know a lot of folks who started out in SEO, and are now in marketing leadership positions.

One challenge is that it’s hard to stay plugged in to SEO news, but you still have oversight of the SEO channel.

Does this sound like you? Here’s what you need to know:

As ever, there is a lot of bad information and rumour, so this is all based on the large number of tests we get to run @SearchPilot. Here's what Google is *really* doing:

1. JavaScript. Probably the biggest change of recent years.

Google *can* execute and index an awful lot of JavaScript (searchpilot.com/resources/case… )

BUT ...

Google's JavaScript execution is not perfect, it can cause organic search problems and underperformance through outright failing or through the fact that it takes a lot of resource so only top pages are prioritised:
searchpilot.com/resources/blog…

It does appear, though, that (in keeping with all the official line) a *lot* of it is to do with user experience. Where you upgrade the UX by using JS, search performance can IMPROVE:
searchpilot.com/resources/case…

2. The focus on user experience is no joke. Google really is serious about rewarding the best possible UX. In particular, they aren't kidding about interstitials harming organic search performance:
searchpilot.com/resources/case…

3. While we're talking about UX. You'll remember the "hidden content" shenanigans of yesteryear. The modern equivalent is text hidden in tabs etc. We've seen uplifts from bringing it out of tabs and making it visible: searchpilot.com/resources/case…

This is an especially big deal because of mobile-first indexing and the prevalence of tabs and accordions in mobile design.

4. Search result page (SERP) appearance makes a huge difference to actual clicks and traffic. This is one of the areas of most innovation from Google.

In light of recent changes where Google is choosing to rewrite more title tags in the SERP, we will be doing more testing in this area, because that title is one of the most influential elements on clickthrough rate.

Brand matters: searchpilot.com/resources/case…

And it's an area where experienced SEOs are most liable to screw up. It's *really* easy to make a strongly negative title tag change:
Exhibit A: searchpilot.com/resources/case…
Exhibit B:
searchpilot.com/resources/case…

It's quite possible that Google will get better at writing display titles than you are. They may already be better than you at writing meta descriptions because they can be query-specific: searchpilot.com/resources/case…

5. Structured data can move the needle, but a lot of the benefit is in having it when your competitors don't, so it's a bit of an arms race (or prisoner's dilemma, given it gives Google additional data):
searchpilot.com/resources/case…

and

searchpilot.com/resources/case…

6. Internal links are still really powerful and important, but misunderstood (context: searchpilot.com/resources/blog… )

some examples of things that have worked:

searchpilot.com/resources/case…

searchpilot.com/resources/case…

searchpilot.com/resources/case…

7. Content. Ahhhh. Content. Quality matters sometimes:

When it did: searchpilot.com/resources/case…

And when it seemed to be more about keywords on the page of any quality:
searchpilot.com/resources/case…

One thing that might not have been as true in times gone by: localising/localizing can make a major difference
searchpilot.com/resources/case…

And timeliness matters: searchpilot.com/resources/case…

8. And I'll end with some assorted and perhaps surprising results:

E-A-T might be real: searchpilot.com/resources/case…

That's one for the grizzled veterans to pull a sceptical face at.

Whether you believe it or not, our full funnel testing (CRO & SEO testing together) tends to show that it's a good idea to improve this kind of thing when measured across both channels. I don't think _that_ should be a surprise.

searchpilot.com/features/full-…

And who'd have predicted that HTML ordering would still be a thing in the third decade of the 21st century?

searchpilot.com/resources/case…

I don't know about you, but digging into surprising results and learning new things are what keep me interested in SEO after nearly 20 years.

Equally, if your job doesn't allow / require you to spend as much time in the weeds as you used to and you want to get the kinds of insights I've shared here, based on statistically-controlled tests, we have a low-volume email list for you:

marketing.searchpilot.com/seo-abtesting-…