Post of the Week
Google's YMYL + Quora Problem
I don't usually put a tweet as the Post Of The Week, but people don't usually write such killer longform tweets...
In this tweet, though, Glen Allsopp knocked it out of the park.
I analysed the top-ranking sites for 1,000 health symptom keywords — many covering serious concerns.
The most prominent domain Google ranks is Mayoclinic.
The second most prominent is Quora, where it's easy to find spammed, copied or AI-generated medical advice.
Yikes. The Medic Update wiped out so many sites that were much more egregious than this, but in this new era of "outsourced moderation" the SERPs--particularly around medical-related queries--are worse than ever.
Sponsored Link
Are Aged Domains Still Valuable In SEO?
After the March algorithm update, a lot of people are wondering if aged domains are still valuable—do they still work?
IMO, the game has changed. Using them as a quick link injection on a shit site for an easy win—those days are behind us.
But if you’ve got a REAL business doing REAL BUSINESS things (like selling products or offering a service)?
Aged domains can help big time. Check this screenshot of what I’m talking about — where at least three redirects from relevant, aged domains gradually added continuously contributed to growth for the client.
Want to get in on this yourself/for your clients? Check out this great service from Odys where they completely manage your 301 redirects for you.
(This service is NOT for everyone, and Odys reserves the right to refuse working with content sites).
News
Google May Cut Off News Access to California
Google says it will start removing links to California news websites in a “short term test for a small percentage of California users.” The move is in response to the pending California Journalism Preservation Act (CJPA), which would require Google to pay a fee for linking Californians to news articles.
😬
If there's one thing Google has proven over and over again by their actions:
They absolutely do not want to pay for things (except to be the default search engine on the iPhone). They will sink every content/informational site in favor of their own zero-click search (sourced from the sites they just annihilated from the SERPs). So it goes with this as well.
media companies argue that linking out to news content benefits the platform more broadly. A 2023 study estimates that Google would owe US publishers around $10 to 12 billion annually should the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act — a national bill — come into effect.
Where do you fall on this debate--think Google needs to pay up? Or do you think news orgs should be grateful for the traffic they get from big G?
Outreach
SEOs Behaving Badly, Sending Fake Threats
In this case, though, the email didn’t demand that the photo be taken down or specifically threaten a lawsuit. Instead, it demanded that Smith place a “visible and clickable link” beneath the photo in question to a website called “tech4gods” or the law firm would “take action.” Smith began looking into the law firm. And he found that Commonwealth Legal is not real, and that the images of its “lawyers” are AI generated.
This is like, peak AI bullshit. I'm in favor of creative link building, but going in a direction that scares people into linking to you is 0/10.
Do better.
HARO Alternatives
Another tweet!
This one from Cyrus Shepard.
If you've been mourning the loss of the HARO you knew and love, check this thread for five tools you can run to for some of that glorious outreach.
Processes & Frameworks
An Ultimate Guide to Internal Link Audits
Using everybody's favorite noisy amphibian tool (Screaming Frog), this super in-depth post walks you through WHY these are important for SEO (if you don't already know), and step by step how to conduct them.
This article will discuss internal link audits, why they're essential for SEO, and the different types of internal links. We will also walk you through the step-by-step process of completing an internal link audit and show you vital screenshots.
Pretty straightforward, and a very valuable addition to your processes.
My Products 💡
If you like SEO newsletters...
You'll REALLY like my weekly Rank Theory newsletter. It's a deep dive into one specific topic, very entertaining to read, very well received by subscribers.
It's free to sign up, so click over and give it a look.
~
Thanks for subscribing and reading!
It'd really mean a lot if you forwarded this to one person you think would enjoy this and ask them to subscribe.
See you next week!
Hello!
Welcome to Issue #216 of The Weekly SEO newsletter.
This is an interesting issue, as a few of the stories (including the Post of the Week!) were posts from Twitter. People really publishing some quality work there, I guess!
Thanks for subscribing and I hope you enjoy this edition of the newsletter :)
The Weekly SEO