It’s not you, it’s Google!

Written by

Orly Gilad

May 2, 2023

Did Your Search Engine Rankings Drop Suddenly? It’s Not You, it’s Google!

When you’ve worked hard to get your website ranking high in Google’s results, it can be disturbing when they experience a sudden drop. We’d tell you not to panic, but it doesn’t really work. Actually, if you see other webmasters panicking, chances are you should be too.

Otherwise, take a deep breath and let’s dig into how you can deal with fluctuating search results.

 

Ranking fluctuations are normal

It’s a good idea to keep an eye on your rankings on a daily, or at least weekly basis, so you’re able to gauge if this is a minor fluctuation or a major drop.

 

Ranking fluctuations happens to most search results and can be expected on the bottom half of the first page as well as the pages in the second, third, or fourth page of the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).

 

If you’re seeing a drop in rankings, one common strategy is to check out what’s happening in your space. Are your competitors also experiencing fluctuations? If it’s not just you, you can relax (for now). If it is just you, you’ll need to dig deeper.

Google-positions

A good place to start is the Google Search Console. You’ll find that it’s a valuable tool for tracking and optimizing your website’s rankings in Google search results. Take a look at your analytics and check your manual action report.

 

Making major changes to your site may have an impact on your rankings. Take a look at your website traffic to see if there are any noticeable changes or trends. Reviewing your site statistics may provide some useful data and actionable insights.

 

By leveraging the information provided by the console, you can make informed decisions and implement effective strategies to improve your website’s performance and rankings.

 

It’s not you? It could be Google

Google makes updates every single day, a couple of times a day. A Google update in February caused a lot of volatility.

Here’s the bad news: experts say Google’s volatility will continue to intensify. Tools such as Semrush Sensor can help with assessing SERP volatility.

Remember, SEO is an ongoing process, so ranking fluctuations are inevitable. By monitoring, analyzing, and optimizing your website’s performance regularly, you can improve your rankings and drive more targeted organic traffic to your website over time.

To stay informed of the up and downs, follow Google Search Status updates, or SEO news sites and blogs.

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Will AI be the death of SEO?

By 
Orly Gilad
, 14/06/2023

As ChatGPT gains momentum, concerns are growing regarding its impact on everything from coding to SEO.  It depends on who you ask, but the current consensus is that AI is not likely to kill Search Engine Optimization. In fact, it may actually prove quite useful in enhancing and optimizing SEO efforts. AI-powered technologies can provide insights, automate tasks, and improve the efficiency of SEO strategies.

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As ChatGPT gains momentum, concerns are growing regarding its impact on everything from coding to SEO.  It depends on who you ask, but the current consensus is that AI is not likely to kill Search Engine Optimization. In fact, it may actually prove quite useful in enhancing and optimizing SEO efforts. AI-powered technologies can provide insights, automate tasks, and improve the efficiency of SEO strategies.

If it’s repetitive and time-consuming, AI has got you covered

Why spend time on keyword research, competitor analysis, and content optimization, when you can be focusing on strategic planning and higher-level tasks? Here are three key ways AI can help:

  1. Data Analysis 

AI can process and analyze large amounts of data quickly and accurately, which can help identify patterns, trends, and opportunities for SEO optimization. This can include analyzing search data, website analytics, and user behavior data to inform SEO strategies and tactics.

  1. Content Optimization

AI-powered content generation tools can assist in creating high-volume and optimized content. These tools can provide insights on keyword usage, content structure, readability, and relevance to improve the overall quality of content for SEO purposes.

  1. Personalization

    AI can analyze user data and behavior to deliver personalized search results and content recommendations. This can help improve user engagement and satisfaction, which can indirectly impact SEO rankings.
AI is your assistant, not your replacement

AI is your assistant, not your replacement

AI can’t replace human expertise in SEO. SEO professionals will still play a crucial role in interpreting and implementing the insights provided by AI, as well as adapting SEO strategies to changing algorithms, user behaviors, and business goals. AI tools can be powerful to support and enhance SEO efforts, but human creativity and strategic thinking will remain crucial in the SEO landscape.

How can you utilize ChatGPT for SEO purposes?

Here are its suggestions:
  1. Content Generation: Use ChatGPT to generate ideas for quick content for your website, blog, or social media posts. You can input keywords, topic ideas, or specific questions related to your SEO strategy, and ChatGPT can generate content that aligns with your SEO goals.
  2. Keyword Research: Utilize ChatGPT to brainstorm and generate keyword ideas for your SEO campaigns. You can input seed keywords or topic ideas, and ChatGPT can generate a list of related keywords that can help you identify opportunities for content creation and optimization.
  3. Meta Tags Optimization: Use ChatGPT to generate optimized meta tags, including title tags and meta descriptions, that are relevant to your target keywords and audience. ChatGPT can provide suggestions and variations for meta tags that can improve your website's click-through rates (CTRs) and search engine visibility.
  4. SEO Content Optimization: Input your existing content into ChatGPT to get suggestions on how to optimize it for SEO. ChatGPT can provide recommendations on improving content structure, keyword placement, and readability to make your content more search-engine-friendly.
  5. On-Page SEO: Use ChatGPT to get suggestions on optimizing various on-page SEO elements, such as headings, image alt tags, and URL structure. ChatGPT can provide insights on how to improve these elements for better search engine visibility and user experience.
  6. SEO Strategy assistance: Utilize ChatGPT to brainstorm and generate ideas for your overall SEO strategy, including content topics, and social media integration. ChatGPT can provide wide suggestions and insights that can inform your SEO planning and execution.
  7. SEO Troubleshooting: Input specific SEO challenges or issues into ChatGPT to get insights and suggestions on how to resolve them. ChatGPT can provide troubleshooting tips and recommendations to overcome common SEO obstacles.
Will AI kill the SEO While ChatGPT can provide valuable insights and suggestions for SEO purposes, it's still essential to use human judgment and expertise in evaluating and implementing the recommendations. SEO best practices may vary depending on your specific industry, audience, and search engine algorithms, so it's crucial to conduct thorough research and consult with SEO professionals to build a comprehensive SEO strategy.

Watch Google's update on Search Generative Experience:

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You’re probably familiar with Universal Analytics, the Google Analytics (GA) tool that has been around for more than a decade, providing website owners and publishers with insights into their website’s performance. But in July 2023, it’s being replaced by GA4. Are you ready for the switch?  

Don’t say you didn’t see it coming

  In October 2020, Google announced that it would discontinue Universal Analytics and shift to Google Analytics 4 (GA4). But don’t worry, we’ve got you covered with our step-by-step guide on how to switch from Universal Analytics to GA4, discuss the differences between these two versions of GA, and highlight some of the benefits of GA4. Analytics

The clock is ticking

  From July 2023, the free version of GA will no longer gather data. That means if you want to continue using Google Analytics, you must switch to GA4.   Take note, you will be able to access your previously processed data in your Universal Analytics property for at least six months. However, you won’t be able to view your Universal Analytics reports or interact with your analytics data via the API.   This change will affect all website owners who rely on their Google Analytics account as their main data source for audience demographics, behavior, and areas of interest.  

What’s the difference between Google Analytics and GA4?

If you want to know how your users are interacting with your website or app, you need effective event tracking which allows you to track specific user interactions – such as button clicks, video plays, and form submissions. In the past, you needed to set it up manually, adding code snippets to your website or app to track specific events, which was challenging to manage. The good news is that G4 has already set it up for you and you can configure event tracking without coding. While the focus used to be on calculating site sessions and monitoring audiences, it’s now moved to what audiences are actually doing on your site. GA4 offers parameters, enhanced measurement, and in-platform event creation (replacing action, category, and label). When setting up the data stream, you can turn on enhanced measurement to automatically collect page views, downloads, outbound clicks, video engagement, and scrolls. Conditions and parameters (which provide context on the user or user actions) cover events that don’t fall under enhanced measurement. Take note that you can mark events as conversions which eliminate the need for goal setup.  

There are four types of events covered in GA4:

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GA4 automatically collects pageviews, scrolls, and outbound clicks without the need for additional coding. GA4 Enhanced measurement events

  1. Enhanced measurement events

Here’s where things get a bit more complex. These events usually track interactions such as page views, file downloads, form interactions, scrolls, outbound clicks, site search, and video engagement that can’t be easily by standard events and require extra coding before GA4 can collect these events and provide reports.
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Custom events
These are events you define yourself and go beyond the first two categories. This enables you to get very specific data on how users interact with your site, such as how many times they click a button or view a certain page — enabling you to improve their experience.

  1. Recommended events

Behind the scenes, GA4 gathers data on your site activity and makes recommendations on events you may want to consider tracking, such as frequent outbound link clicks.

  1. New G44 features

  • Link to Google Merchant Center, Google Optimize, and BigQuery natively and for free
  • Create custom reports in GA4 and add those reports right to your navigation
  • Custom dashboards combining two tools in one —taking the data from UA and Data Studio

Gee, four sounds great!

  Switching to GA4 allows you to take advantage of all the new advanced features and get the most out of your data. There isn’t much time left to make the move, so if you haven’t already started, it’s time to make the switch now.   Ready to make the switch? Our SEO team will walk you through it.
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