If you want to continue your momentum in the new year, you’ve come to the right place. Our February roundup includes the tips you need to stay on top.
We will start with the case studies. First, you will learn how well PBNs work in foreign SEO. Next, you’ll learn an SEO method to achieve 600%+ growth.
Then, you’ll learn new skills from our top guides of the month. They will teach you how to recover lost keyword data, how to use better SEO formulas in Google Sheets, how to extract basic Web Vitals data, and how to keep paid content SEO compliant.
At the end, we’ll cover the month’s can’t-miss SEO news. We have Google announcements for you regarding new bot tags, mobile search features, and upcoming manual penalties.
How well do PBNs work in foreign SEO? (A 2022 study)
https://rankclub.io/how-well-do-pbns-work-in-foreign-serps/
Rank Club brings us this comprehensive look at how PBNs work in the foreign SEO market. Using the data collected in the study, the team sought to answer questions such as:
Do PBNs work?- What is the percentage chance that a ranking increase will occur?
- What are the best practices to obtain the best results?
The study covers over a dozen different countries, including English-speaking and foreign SERPs. The case study includes separate charts for each of the countries covered.
The team found that the PBNs tested obtained positive results in approximately 85% of cases. They also found that PBNs take between 6 and 14 days to take effect.
You’ll find additional information in the full article, including some conclusions about the potential of PBN links. Next, we’ll see how SEO significantly increased organic traffic through content changes.
SEO Case Study: How I Increased My Organic Traffic by 652% in 7 Days
https://backlinko.com/skyscraper-technique-2-0
Brian Dean brings us this look at how he used the skyscraper technique to massively improve your organic traffic. The Skyscraper technique is a content strategy where you find the best and most related content in your niche and create content that enhances it.
Brian applies this strategy to a single late page to determine its impact in this updated case study. He didn’t even need to create new content, just updated old content based on his research.
The result of this strategy was that the content’s organic traffic improved by 652.17% in just one week.
Along with the data, Brian walks you through the step-by-step process he used to achieve these returns. The guide sections include great advice, supported by heatmaps and other resources, on optimizing your content based on user intent.
Content optimization requires good data. Unfortunately, some data is becoming harder to find with recent updates to the Google Analytics platform. Let’s move on to the guides, starting with looking at how to recover lost data.
“Not provided” in Google Analytics: how to recover your keyword data
https://ahrefs.com/blog/not-provided/
Ahrefs’ Mateusz Makosiewicz brings us this look at finding data currently marked “not provided.”
Google has hidden some keyword data to protect consumer privacy. However, this data has not completely disappeared. You can always analyze it and get insights from it. Mateusz discusses several other ways to obtain this data.
First, it shows you how to configure Google Search Console to track and provide the data you’re missing in monthly reports. It lists all the filters you will need to make this possible so you can easily configure the solution.
Next, Mateusz presents some free downloadable tools to provide you with the missing information. The guide ends with some tips for exploiting missing data in your SEO strategies.
If you’re looking for better ways to analyze this data for SEO and content auditsthe following guide will help you. It covers some of the best formula shortcuts you can use to speed up your work.
The Best Google Sheets Formulas for SEO and Content Audits
https://shellshockuk.com/best-google-sheets-formulas-for-seo-content-audits/
Shelley Walsh offers us this compact guide to better SEO data management with Google Sheets formulas.
It covers a range of useful formulas, including ones that allow you to do all of the following on your existing data:
One of the best things about this guide is that you can implement it right now simply by copying and pasting. If you use outdated or simplified formulas to bring order to your data, you can update your entire sheet in minutes.
If you’re looking to extract a specific type of data, our next guide may have what you need. This is a detailed overview of how to get Core Web Vitals data from Google.
6 Core Web Vitals Mining Methods for CrUX with Pros and Cons
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/extracting-cwv-crux-seo/
SEJ’s Jose Hernando gives us this look at how to extract basic Web Vitals data. It begins with a brief lesson on how Google measures these signals and what kind of data will tell us whether we’re doing a good or bad job.
The guide focuses on how to recover CrUX (Chrome UX) data. Fortunately, this data is not difficult to find and interpret. Jose walks you through six sources you can use to find this data, including:
For each, it tells you what data is available and how to access it with step-by-step instructions. For each, it provides a list of pros and cons so you can tailor the source you use to your needs.
In our latest guide of the month, you’ll learn how to implement a rare SEO skill: making paid content search compliant.
(Thread) How to be SEO compliant if you have paid content
https://twitter.com/antoineripret/status/1483813748821405700
Antoine Eripret offers us this Twitter thread/guide on how to get credit for content behind a paywall.
The guide walks you through all the steps you’ll need to take to ensure the appropriate crawlers can access your content. You’ll learn how to add the right markup, how to protect paid content from unauthorized users, and some troubleshooting steps you can take.
It provides useful examples from major newspapers like the New York Times and La Monde. You will learn about some of the techniques these sites use to get the right results.
There’s a great discussion below the thread on different ways to make this work. That’s all for the guides. Next, we will look at the main news of the month.
Google gives sites more indexing control with new Robots tag
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-indexifembedded-robots-tag/434396/
Matt Southern gives us this look at the new robots tag and some new features that come with it.
As he details, this new tag will give you more control over what content is indexed in search results. The new tag will replace the noindex tag in situations where both are present.
As an example, Matt points out that you can keep an entire URL outside of results with a noindex tag, but apply the new tag to specific sections of content. This will allow the sections you choose to be indexable when other websites integrate them.
This news ends with some quick tips on how you can start testing the new tag on your own sites. Next, we’ll look at a new feature for mobile searches.
New Google Mobile Search Feature: Next People Search
Danny Goodwin gives us this preview of a new search feature available for all “nearby” mobile searches. It’s called “People Search Next” and provides searchers with quick links to popular next searches.
The feature does not replace any others, so it will appear alongside existing search features People also ask And People also search. As Danny demonstrates, this feature is already showing up for many mobile searches. In some examples it has been placed above older features.
Google said the feature would expand beyond “nearby” mobile searches, but did not provide a timeline. The company also hasn’t specified which SERPs are most likely to produce this feature.
Publishers with manual actions for Discover and Google News
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-penalties-news-publishers-manual-actions-32842.html
Barry Schwartz brings us this look at a series of manual action penalties applied to active publishers in Google Discover and Google News. The sanctions were applied throughout January and covered all of the following violations:
Violation of news and discovery rules: misleading content- Violation of rules relating to news and discoveries: medical content
- Violation of information and discovery rules: manipulated media
Barry illustrated the extent of these sanctions with the testimony of several major SEOs. Glenn Gabe and others experienced a surge of customers who needed help getting a penalty removed. Several examples of internal GSC notices are provided.
These penalties only apply to Google Discover and Google News rankings. You probably have nothing to worry about if you don’t fight in this space. If so, now would be the perfect time to consult the Google News rules.
Come back for our next roundup of SEO news to learn to anticipate new penalties. We’ll keep you posted on this and much more.
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