Quick update on the drop in FAQ snippets on mobile & the drop in video snippets in the SERPs.

FAQ snippets remain down on mobile based on the change on 4/5. And video snippets have plummeted for sites where the videos are not the main content (starting on 4/13). No change there: And if you're interested in the video snippets drop, definitely check out my post about the situation. I published that last Saturday: gsqi.com/marketing-blog…

Google Webmaster Guidelines is now Search Essentials. Barry covers the change in his article. I'm checking out the changes now.

https://twitter.com/rustybrick/status/1580543921066999810

Nice that Google added "Spammy" to autogenerated content. It used to just say "autogenerated content intended to manipulate search rankings. Again, this is a tough area for Google with AI writing software on the move. :)

Quick update on the July Product Reviews Update. As others started noticing yesterday (like @vladrpt), the PRU really started to kick in. Visibility tools are just starting to show the impact, but GSC & GA show the reality already... I'll be sharing more data soon: Here are some screenshots of visibility changes *just starting* to show for sites impacted. I'm sure the tools will show much more visibility swings starting tomorrow. Again, GSC and GA show much more of the impact.

Great presentation from @JohnMu at #SMX Virtual. Here's a thread with some interesting information. :)

Some ranking changes in 2021 (like core updates) will be harder/trickier to explain. Also, some updates will be aimed at helping "less SEO savvy sites". Some recos from John for 2021: Look to reach a broader audience (diversify). Look to create repeat visitors. E.g. If people actively search for you, that's a sign you are doing things right. Also easier to rank if your brand is in the query... Build trust/awareness/authority.

Tired of basic tracking with Web Stories? Check out my latest post to exit the black hole of Web Story tracking – How To Track User Progress In Web Stories Via Event Tracking In Google Analytics gsqi.com/marketing-blog… In my post, I cover how to use triggers, variables, and event tracking to understand how far users are progressing through your Web Stories, if they reach the end, and if they view your bookend. It's a much more powerful way to track Web Stories! gsqi.com/marketing-blog…

Incredibly important section from Google's movie that was shared by @JohnMu late Friday. The segment starting at 31:22 about misinformation & YMYL queries was super-interesting. Watch the entire movie btw, but here's a thread w/more info from this section: Google's Head of Search Ranking Pandu Nayak: "We have long recognized that there's a certain class of queries like medical or finance queries... in these cases authoritative sources are incredibly important."

So @rustybrick followed up with @johnmu about negative sentiment impacting rankings based on the Decor My Eyes situation from 2010 where Google implemented something that demoted the site (& others like it). Is that still around and does that still happen? Via @johnmu: If all signals point in that direction (overwhelming negative reviews and info about a company), then John could imagine that Google's algorithms could pick that up. It's pretty rare that would happen, but it can.

Auditing a site early and was thrown into a Google test. And it's a darn interesting one. :) Tweets to follow with what I'm seeing. @rustybrick So, Google started linking featured snippets to highlighted text on a page (for AMP urls) back in December 2018. Well, I just started seeing that test for desktop! I've never seen that before. And it's using the targetText Chrome functionality that was written about in February.