June Spam Update, Local SEO Exploit & 4 Surprising SEO A/B Tests
SEO TL;DR #28 - 24/06/2024
General SEO
Google June 2024 Spam Update Released
Google announced the June 2024 Spam Update on June 20th, 2024. This update aims to refine search quality by tackling spam, though no specific changes have been highlighted. Google stated,
Today we released the June 2024 spam update. It may take up to 1 week to complete, and we'll post on the Google Search Status Dashboard when the rollout is done.
This is a routine spam adjustment, not targeting reputation abuse or links, so keep an eye on Search Console to see if you’ve been affected.
AI
Google Release AI Overview FAQs
Google released 10 AI Overview FAQs last week. Within these, Google confirmed that they can make mistakes (as we all know from #GoogEnough) and that there’s no way of disabling them (unless you use a third-party app).
They also addressed that you can remove them using the web-only filter, which hides other features such as videos and images.
Technical SEO
Google Warns Against Using JavaScript for Structured Data
As reported over at Search Engine Roundtable, Google advises adding structured data directly to the HTML source rather than generating it with JavaScript after the page loads. This isn't because Google can't process JavaScript-generated structured data but because it makes the process more difficult and error-prone.
Google Merchant Center's crawlers can process JavaScript-generated structured data but often encounter quality and consistency issues. For instance, if the HTML source shows one price and JavaScript updates it to another, it can confuse Google.
Levering emphasised that if your current implementation works, there's no need to change it. The recommendation is to avoid using JavaScript for structured data, if possible, as it ensures more consistent processing across Google's systems.
Local SEO
This Exploit Could be Costing your Local Traffic
Something else brought to my attention by Search Engine Roundtable was a recent exploit in Google Maps that has led to local ranking drops.
This exploit allows spammers to hijack business locations by moving their map pins, resulting in decreased visibility and profile suspensions when affected businesses attempt to correct the changes.
Business owners attempting to drag the pin back have been facing suspension. So be vigilant, and make sure your pin location is accurate to avoid losing out on local traffic.
SEO Tests
4 Surprising SEO Test Results
Another interesting Whiteboard Friday by Jandira Neto from SearchPilot - an A/B testing platform - which tested four different theories:
Taking content out of an accordion
While Google says they can read anything behind a ‘read more’ link or behind a tab, this test saw a 12% uplift when taking it out of the accordion and having it on the page.Capitalising title tags
Simply capitalising meta titles saw an 8.5% increase in traffic due to the SERPs standing out more. I remember the same being true for Google Ad titles when I used to run PPC tests many moons ago.Removing brand names from title tags
Most brands are guilty of adding this to the end of meta titles for better recognition. But this test saw a 16% increase in traffic when removing the brand name!Adding article Schema
This test showed that adding article schema made no difference to traffic. While it’s true that adding Structured Data markup such as video, recipes, or anything else that makes you eligible for Rich Results can help improve CTR, generic schema didn’t make a different
Watch the whole Whiteboard Friday here.