SEO UPdate #20 | 06/04/2022

Welcome to yet another twentieth SEO update. Written by an SEO specialist. Let’s get right down to business, we have a lot to discuss.

MUM and BERT are going fast with the updates

Google has further expanded the use of MUM and BERT in the SERP. Through AI technology, it reduced irrelevant results by more than 50%. So bizarre results.

With more than 5,000 modifications and 800,000 experiments, they have not been idle with these new forms of technology. What is further interesting is that Google has removed more than 100 million fraudulent reviews/posts.

The fast news for SEO

This is the fast news that can really be used by SEO specialist for the purpose of organic findability.

• Google indicates to a new website owner that the level of content has increased over the years. Just having “unique” content is not enough (anymore).
• In the past, it was a slow process: removing SafeSearch labels from Web sites. John Mueller now indicates that this process has become a lot faster with the latest update.
• The metrics of the Google page experience update may differ for each part of the website (they are not always the same for the entire website).
• In a podcast by Google, Martin Splitt, Gary Illyes and Lizzi Sassman indicate that there really is such a thing as over optimizing a website (in my experience, I don’t think this happens overnight, but I know SEO experts who fall into this category).
• Google shows visual stories on competitive keywords. Previously, Google didn’t just do this; why Google is changing this now, I don’t know (are they testing?).
• Google again points out that a Nofollow attribute really does not impart linkjuice to the link.
• John Mueller indicates that if a page has a 404 status for even 2 years, that (when it receives strong links), it can still pass linkjuice when it gets a 301. I find this interesting, especially for redirecting dropcatch domains to other domains.
• Google confirmed on March 21, 2022, that product price is not a ranking factor.

This was enough quick news in my opinion. Let’s go into depth with one topic, so we don’t make it too long.

Too many countries incorporated into the website

Here’s a funny one. Someone asked John Mueller why his pages were not being indexed. The website has 78 different countries indicated in the URLs, without changing the content (all pages are in English).

Every URL contains the same language, which is English. How this adds value to the user I don’t know either.

John Mueller had the answer below.

Clear story. So this is meant by over-optimizing….

That was the SEO update of April 6, 2022. Hopefully you’ve picked up some things again that you can use for your clients. Good luck!