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SEO  is a fast-moving, marketing-centric industry that will always keep you on your toes.  If you’re just getting started, it can be overwhelming without a guide.  There are many facets and specializations in SEO that come later in a career –  local , technical,  content ,  digital PR , UX, ecommerce, media – the list goes on. However, that level of specialization isn’t something a junior professional needs to focus on right away.  Much like a liberal arts degree or an apprenticeship, a newcomer to SEO should first develop a broad understanding of the entire discipline before choosing a specialty. This article covers several ways to build that foundational knowledge of search engine optimization. 1. Start with the business Whether you’re  in-house  or at an  agency , resist the urge to jump straight into “solution mode” when beginning an SEO project.  Instead of immediately focusing on meta tags, keywords, backlinks, or URL structur...

Organic and paid click-through rates (CTRs) are down – and Google AI Overviews are partially to blame. However, paid CTR declined regardless of whether AI Overviews were present.☝ The new analysis of ~10,000 informational intent keywords ranking in the top 20 positions was conducted by digital marketing agency Seer Interactive. Organic CTR drop.  For queries where AI Overviews appeared, organic CTR fell sharply – from 1.41% to 0.64% – year over year. But when AI Overviews were not present, organic CTR actually increased: Paid CTR drop.  Paid CTR was down year over year regardless of whether AI Overviews were present: But.  Paid and organic CTR actually increased when a brand appeared in AI Overviews: Paid:  7.89% to 11% Organic:  0.74% to 1.02% Why we care.  Google’s AI Overviews are clearly impacting visibility, engagement, and traffic – as we knew would be the case when Google launched its precursor, Search Generative Experience (SGE). Though Google...

Google has pushed a routine update to its search quality raters guidelines PDF ( accessible here ). This is a routine update to its guidelines document, where the updates primarily focused on spam. What changed.  Google posted the following details in its change log in the document: Updated Page Quality Lowest and Low sections to better align with  Google Search Web Spam Policies ; added illustrative examples Expanded guidance on assessing minor interpretations and intents for Needs Met ratings and added illustrative examples Minor changes throughout (updated rating ranges, removed outdated examples; fixed typos; updated browser requirements; etc.) This update also refreshes some language for clarity and provides additional useful examples to help raters.👨 Previous updates.  The last update was over  10 months ago  on March 5. Before that was  Nov. 16, 2023  and then before that  Dec. 15, 2022 . Google normally refreshes these guidelines every y...

Since Search Engine Land launched, we have given SEO experts a platform to share their in-depth knowledge and timely insights – with the goal of helping you solve problems, manage challenges and understand the constantly shifting SEO landscape. What follows are links to the 10 most-read, must-read Search Engine Land SEO columns of 2024 that were contributed by our fantastic group of Subject Matter Experts. 10.  The SEO’s guide to Google Search Console Dive into Google Search Console’s features and reports, plus how to navigate the tool like a pro, from basic setup to advanced SEO analysis. (By Anna Crowe. Published July 8.) 9.  15 AI tools you should use for SEO 👆💁 Get more done in less time with these must-have AI tools to automate tasks, optimize content and improve your search engine rankings. (By Ludwig Makhyan. Published Sept. 27.) 8.  How to use Google Search Console to unlock easy SEO wins Steps for using GSC to review your traffic, analyze the search landscape a...

Google’s  November 2024 core update  is now done rolling out, a Google spokesperson told us. It started on November 11, 2024 and completed about 24 days later on December 5, 2024. This update was a typical core update where Google updates its core ranking system to make search results more relevant and helpful. What Google said.  Google said about this core update: “This update is designed to continue our work to improve the quality of our search results by showing more content that people find genuinely useful and less content that feels like it was made just to perform well on Search.” What we saw.  Based on what I’ve been tracking, this update started to be felt a couple of days after it was announced on  November 13th and 14th , and then seemed to hit a wider set of sites this past weekend, around  November 16th and 17th . Towards the end of this update, many of the tracking tools showed relatively low ranking volatility but then we saw a larg...