SEO Insights: Google’s New Spam Update and Bing’s Unique CTR Metrics - Date: June 27th, 2024
Google SEO News
Google June 2024 Spam Update
Google has released the June 2024 Spam Update, targeting sites violating search spam policies. Launched on June 20, 2024, this update will take about a week to roll out globally. It does not address link spam or site reputation abuse, focusing instead on penalizing specific spam techniques. Early reactions from content creators and SEOs are negative, but Google aims to improve overall search quality. Affected sites should review Google's spam policies for recovery guidance.
SEO Recommendations by Jason
As all spam updates and roll-outs, Google focuses on building a “web” that is committed to delivering quality content and trustworthy websites. Review policies and spam updates before uploading content, purchasing backlinks or any practices that could be considered spam or abuse. My recommendation is to focus on creating genuine, authentic and value-centric content and steer aware away from gibberish, non-valuable content. Improve site structure and definitely avoid link farm spamming techniques unless you feel confident with the risks involved with such techniques.
Bing SEO News
Bing Webmaster Tools Clickthrough Rate Over 100%
In Bing Webmaster Tools, clickthrough rates (CTR) can exceed 100%, even reaching 300%, if users click on the same search result multiple times. This occurs when a user opens a link in a new tab or window and revisits the search results to click again. Unlike Google Search Console, which caps CTR at 100%, Bing allows for multiple clicks per impression. This feature enhances the understanding of user interaction with search results.
SEO Recommendations by Jason
CTR is a really critical factor in SEO as it triggers relevancy to the search engines. Sites with metrics such as high CTR and increased time on site signal to engines like Bing and Google, the content is highly relevant to the search term, and the UX was positive. This can contribute to better positions, and content visibility and overall ranking.
Although Google doesn’t report multiple clicks from the same user in the same way as Bing, this feature is interesting as it will allow it to differentiate CTR per user group and content type.
General Search Marketing News
Can the summer season impact your organic search traffic?
Seasonal changes can significantly affect website traffic patterns. For instance, summer weather and holidays can reduce some sites' traffic while increasing organic traffic for travel and recreational industries. During Summer, it’s normal to see volatility in search rankings and traffic changes. At the start of the year, fitness, education, SaaS, and self-help sites might see a traffic up-turn, whereas e-commerce sites may experience a decline after the expenditure of "festive dates like Christmas and New Years". Spring often shows a gradual traffic increase as financial pressures ease and outdoor activities rise. Autumn and winter are peak times for online retailers due to early Christmas shopping and promotions like Black Friday. Utilizing tools like Google Trends, Search Console, and predictive analytics can help anticipate and plan for these seasonal fluctuations to optimize your overall marketing channels.
SEO Recommendations by Jason
As we move into the summer months (well at least in the northern hemisphere) we see a lot of volatility in both b2b and b2c websites. Some traffic has increased where others has dropped, especially during the second week of June.
These fluctuations are both present in b2b and b2c, although we see bigger volatility in search volume in b2b in these seasonal organic search traffic movements.
I recommend that businesses look back at previous historical search data, draw informed conclusions about the search trends during those months, and adapt their organic visibility to the seasonality of their business and industry. You may find some content that does better in one season vs. other seasons. It's very sensitive to your industry, ICP (ideal customer profile), and buyer journey.
It is critical to not despair or get anxious during these periods, to simply focus on the execution of your strategy, and to consider evaluating historical trends to gather insights to predict how these seasonal search trends can and could affect the volatility of your traffic.
