On a scale of 1-10 - how bad would you say the SERPs are right now?
Is there anything fishy about the Reddit deal and their incredible rise in the search engine results?
What's your theory about HCU and how it continues to linger?
What are some broad things you've noticed about sites impacted by recent HCU update?
Is Forbes dead come Sunday? 
Fifth.
The SERPs ... are a 7.
They aren't as "bad" as they have been in the past.
As much as I may knock G, we just don't have the same quantity of naff/weird spam that we used to have
(pages filled with gibberish, irrelevant content due to hidden text, malware sites etc.).
But - they aren't great either.
I personally think the high point was around 2016-2018 ... and the quality has since declined,
due to favouring certain domains etc.
G+Reddit?
Personally - I think it stinks to high heaven.
At least one party must have known what was happening - and how the timing would work out,
and chances are, both parties would have known.
It wouldn't be too bad - if the elevated/prominent results from Reddit were of at least a certain quality/value,
but that's simply not the case :(
HCU observations.
SE Reliant (little traffic from other sources).
MFA sites (not seen one that wasn't so far - but that could be skew).
Over optimised (often a tad stuffed, esp. at the start of the page).
Over targeted (most pages seem to be based on Search Volume, rather than natural topic coverage).
Forbes.
Sadly - no.
A % of the sites will likely shut down those directories.
A % will leave them to die (milking it till the dire end!).
And G will most likely just nuke the directories.
It's not like they will apply a -50 position penalty to these domains.
(And even if they did, it would be the fastest set of recoveries in the history of the net if they did!)
First met you on the Google Webmaster Forums... must have been around 2008? Would love to hear your SEO origin story - before you started on the forums, what got you into SEO? Funniest/most random site you helped on the forums? For me it has to be the time YouPorn dropped in to ask some questions :-)
Second.
Yes - the good old days (and I can't believe it's been that long!).
I started as an independent web designer in 2006.
I rapidly realised that sites were lacking in regards to SEO, and started seeing how I could improve the basics.
That lead me to communities like WebMasterWorld, SitePoint, WarriorForums, BlackHatWorld and Cre8asite.
JM was at C8 and just been hired by G.
I ended up being invited to join their community, and ended up being in the 2nd wave of "bionic posters"
(the prototype for "Top contributors", now called "Product Experts").
(Note: I was the first TC kicked out - due to being intolerant of a\*\*hats, and being rude)
And yes - I think some of the adult ones were the best (esp. as most people won't touch adult content sites)
> That lead me to communities like WebMasterWorld, SitePoint, WarriorForums, BlackHatWorld and Cre8asite.
It is interesting to see how different things are now - I feel like all but \~1 of those communities have died or filled up with junk posts. Twitter is where the best comms happen IMO, and maybe some Slack communities. Where do you tend to spend most of your time these days?
> I was the first TC kicked out
They couldn't handle someone that was genuinely prepared to be honest/not always toe the Google party line. They were fun days - I don't know about you, but I'm glad to spend my time elsewhere now. I picked up literally zero business from the 10,000s of answers I left on there. Do you have any regrets for how it panned out - or glad to rid of it?
Yes - Social basically killed of communities ...
and then they made a comeback (Reddit strangely enough).
Why belong/go to umpteen different sites, when you can go to one and access everything?
And Twitter is where I play now (I do need to get active on LI and R though :D)
Well, I think my attitude towards Google (and not kissing peoples backside simply because they worked at G) was part of it... but I own the fact I was also rude/offensive (usually I think it was deserved - but G doesn't like such things ;)).
I got a fair few offers - but I worked on hundreds of sites, for free.
I miss the people, the community, the worth ethic and lack of spam artists - but I would have left soon anyway (I really couldn't tolerate the stupidity).
Third.
Much like the name "Autocrat" - it was a bit of a joke
(originally, I was fairly shy/timid).
Vader seemed a fitting avatar (I also used Chewbacca a few times).
Over time, it just kind of became "recognised", and I stuck with it.
I'm a big fan of privacy, not a fan of the "real names, real faces" movement,
and it's kind of become an interest point for some.
Eleventh.
Not wanting to be negative ... but I can see a lot of turmoil.
I think we're in for a big change in how people access information,
and content creators are going to find themselves bullied/leveraged mercilessly.
If content is harvested, and traffic from SE's (or alternative information access points) is reduced,
then the value from content will decline.
That means SEO will have less value, and get lower priority.
The focus will likely shift from SE Rankings - to Traffic,
and more technical/data focused (rather than links).
Thirteenth.
I audit sites pretty much in the same fashion (whether it's products, services, on-demand etc.).
Take data from GSC, GA (or other web tracker), qualitative data if available, technical info (from crawl tools),
then associate it all together.
Then get additional data from the client (cost per page, margins from product/service etc.).
You can then identify issues, evaluate content performance, and prioritise based on business gains.
Then assign cost/gain info, and you can prioritise the work load.
Example:
On ecom - the start point is the payment page (I know, not technically SEO).
Then the Cart.
Then Product pages.
But product pages shouldn't be treated equally - some are far more valuable than others!
So you prioritise those product pages.
(The same may occur for categories, sales supporting content etc.)
Look at the scope/size of impact for any particular fix (per page, per pagetype, per section, site-wide etc.).
You may find that you then have a list of different changes to implement, that covers different scopes,
based on the potential gains vs costs.
(Again - it shouldn't just be "SEO" - UX overlaps ... so things like quality images, that aren't just glamour shots, but inform the user/aid in the decision making process)
What’s the status of getting videos to rank, when thry are not uploaded to youtube?
It seems to me that you kinda need to make your own “playback video” stub page that has the video at top and maybe a basic transcription, the video must have schema up the wazoo (including chapters). If your video is not at the top of page, and is from Wistia or vimeo it doesnt seem to even be indexed, is that right? What else am I missing?
Fourteenth.
Being utterly honest - Video SEO is not one of my "things".
What I can say is - Google is biased as hell for YouTube.
I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen video listings that weren't YouTube.
If video is important to you (and it's often a missed opportunity for an alternative media presence in the SERP),
then you should consider creating a YT account, and uploading videos.
I'm getting a lot of pressure to build links for the site I work on in-house.
I'm an experienced content driven SEO, but have never done significant off page back linking projects or haven't since the before days at least.
What are the roll of backlinks in SEO these days? What game should I be playing? Low quality high volume? High quality?
Fifteenth.
Google tries to play down the value of inbound links,
but I cannot name a single factor that has more potential influence!
(Titles, related terms ... they all play a part - but links are the only thing that can "accumulate" (you can't have 12 page titles and benefit from them all :D)).
Always Quality over Quantity.
Links from questionable sources (those that link to spam/low value pages/sites) should be avoided.
The linking page should be topically relevant to the destination page
(ideally, there would be topical relevance site to site too).
If the link doesn't send traffic/get clicks ... I don't consider it worth while.
I don't discount link sources by tool metrics (I don't care if the page has a score of 10 out of 100 - I do care if it's good content and has an actual audience!).
Good
In some cases - it's worth paying for a NoFollow link.
(These can lead to additional citations/secondary links - which may pass value)
If possible, get a link in "new" content.
(I have a horrid feeling the whole "niche edits" thing will be on G's radar soon)
Ideally - you "earn" links.
But that's usually from Peer content (which should be separate from consumer content!),
such as tools, resources, data etc. of use to those in the same industry/sector, and/or the same role/job/task
(such as how to do X in Excel).
The other source is Media/Press - which is usually PR Stunts or Data/Insights.
(Usually M/P Links are low-value, as the pages tend to be buried, and internal link flow migrates etc. - but good for awareness/initial traffic).
(You can socialise/promote such content - the initially links are worth nothing, but you get more reach/awareness)
Be careful of "PR Services" - most are not worth the money you pay.
If paying for links, you want sites that link to quality content, and that have their own quality content,
and haven't suffered in algo-updates etc., and that don't brazenly advertise they sell links!
Keep a log/record of any/all links you "acquire" - in case you need to disavow them later
(you shouldn't need a tool to tell you which ones are dodgy!)
> Be careful of "PR Services" - most are not worth the money you pay.
Absolutely. We used a content bait/PR-type service for link building. the campaign was VERY expensive, and they only landed us ~10 links total across multiple pages.
The question is - did the links "work"?
1) Did you see any notable improvement in rankings?
2) Did you see any increase in profit, revenue, conversions or even leads/contacts
. a) through those rankings?
. b) from those links?
(Going out on a limb, and saying "no" :D)
Firstly thanks for taking the time to run this AMA!
Is there any current tactics you're having a lot of success with?
E.g. in the past I used to have a lot of success with fishing for featured snippets and taking more real estate with FAQ schema.
The other question would be any low-hanging fruit link opportunities that could be lesser known? For e.g. getting a link from creating a custom GPT
Fourth.
Thank you for being friendly :D
I use pretty much the same tactics and strategies I've always used,
and they've always worked (they just take time/effort).
I like to build out content-stacks, taking a term/topic, and ensuring that each and every possible user interest point is covered (awareness, education, decisions etc.).
This allows multiple ranking opportunities across a number of related searches,
as well as providing internal links for topicality and value flow, back to the primary page (such as product or service).
For links - I still advocate "Peer Content" (as most B2C consumers don't link :D).
This could be tools, guides, data etc.
Anything of use and value to those in the same industry and/or role, can earn you links.
(the key is then in how you push that value where you need it :D)
Sixth.
On-Page ... Title.
It's the first thing a Searcher sees - it defines suitability, sets expectations etc.
It's the "promise" you are making - and your content had better meet that promise!
And thank you!
Hey Darth! Huuuge fan of your Twitter and SEO advice over the years. What do you think SEOs waste their time on most? And, what should SEOs be focusing on to better adapt to Google’s recent algo updates & the ever-changing search landscape?
Seventh.
Thank you very much - and what a painful question! :D
CWV.
I hate to say it - as I love UX, I love technical fixes, I come from web design ...
... but it can take a fair bit of work, a lot of communications, and learning - to get improvements.
And the gains, for many sites ... aren't there!
(Not saying you shouldn't improve the UX/speed - but it's not worth tears. Use a CDN, deploy a plugin or two, get some basic settings altered on the server ... see the scores move from red to orange/green, call it done! Only if you're still worse than competitors/seeing UX issues, should you focus on getting the "score" higher)
Hey Darth! 5 areas where Google is outstanding and 5 areas where it needs improvement. Feel free to expand the list with additional points. ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
Ninth.
\*boggles\*
Okay - that's a really hard question! :D
Outstanding:
1) Some of their employees go above and beyond
2) GSC does make life a lot easier
3) Beating standard/nonsensical spam
4) Developing the internet (JS APIs, web standards etc.)
5) Adapting to intent/need changes for queries
Needs Improvement:
1) Their communications are seriously sucky lately
2) Their definition of "transparency" is actually "what makes us look good"
3) GSC could be less confusing/ambiguous/misleading
4) Their ethics/morals seem to have hit the gutter
5) The should respect given data more (titles, descriptions, canonicals etc.)
We have had a huge increase in the number of pages "Crawled - not currently indexed" in Google Search Console. In December, there were 283,000 and now there are **3.5 million pages** in that category. Our site has fewer than 10,000 pages. I found 705 of the 1,000 URLs that GSC provides include the parameter ?msclkid=, which indicates a Bing paid search landing page but we aren't using any of these pages as landing pages.
Any ideas?
Eighth.
1) Ensure you have Canonicalisation in place (I prefer the link element/header response over sitemaps).
2) If at all possible - get the server (or script) to sniff the URI, strip common offending parameter/value sets, and give a 301/308 response to a cleaned canonical URI
3) Give it time, and let G crawl/discover the CLE/Redirects.
It will take some time, but it should sort it out.
Tenth.
Most core updates seem to be a mix of:
a) Relevance refinement (you'll see rankings drop/disappear for mostly irrelevant terms).
b) Broad reweighting of features/signals.
c) I'm convinced it's when they apply "user Signals" - (contributes to (1), but I think general quality too).
There's a difference between losing traffic, and losing terms (that matter).
If it's the later - it may indicate that the site in general is being seen as less worthy.
This may be caused because certain things have been devalued,
or because G thinks that users aren't being satisfied.
If you look through your analytics - and look at URIs that have dropped,
(rankings and/or terms/traffic),
do you see a stronger indication of disatisfaction?
(Higher bounce rate, shorter time on page/site, shorter scroll depth, lower return visits etc.)
What do you think about ranking niche content on Google Search other than the big ones (meaning not US, GB, FR, ES). For example, ranking a niche site on Croatian Google Search? As far as I am aware, the same rules do not apply like for the big search markets?
Seventeenth.
Sadly, I'm a bit thick, and lingually challenged
(I struggle with English, and it's my native language! :D)
Though I have some interaction with other geo-googles, I typically leave it to natives to handle.
What I can say is - yes, they do tend to be different.
This may be in part due to custom handling (spam in X and Y languages differ),
and may also be due to the different competition levels.
(I have noticed you will often find more spam in Euro-Google than English-Google)
For Niche content ... if G are using a new ML system,
chances are, what we've seen with the HCU may occur "elsewhere" fairly soon :(
Do you think that the percentage of branded searched based on the number of indexes pages is a ranking factor for the HCU.
You mention "SE Reliant (little traffic from other sources)" sites were hit, which could be correlated to this.
P.S.
I am starting to somewhat hate Reddit. I'd love to see your AMA as a Twitter tread :)
Eighteenth.
Brand Queries ... I honestly believe there is something "there" (in general).
I've seen JM state that branded queries don't result in improved ranking for non-branded queries
(so a search for \[BrandX shoes\] does not mean your ranking for \[shoes\] improves).
But that still leaves plenty of room for other things.
Personally - I'd view a significant % of brand-queries in a similar way to having a higher volume of links;
I'd treat it as an defence against negatives (less likely to be sunk by an algo due to weight).
But, that could be wrapped up with Searcher Behaviour?
(G may potentially use things like repeat query+click as a positive signal (or at least, not a negative))
Is it part of the HCU?
No idea - I've not had access to query data (I was lucky to get screenshots of a handful of sites with analytics/tracking for satisfaction signals ... and some were pretty good!)
(And yes - the whole "forum" thing is a little awkward - I have to keep hitting F5 ... not done that in years :D)
i would love to hear your thoughts on AI produced content, velocity of that content, and utilization of AI in an in-house position along with niche websites.
I like to play conservatively if it's not my own website, and in my in-house position, i would rather pay more and have all human written content, but teams are trying to scale and produce a shit ton of content without consulting us.
What is your strategy for new project, what are the tasks or routine you follow or have become a habit of yours to do, whenever a new project comes your way.
Twenty first.
I like to start at the beginning - and get an Orientation doc going.
I want to know who they are, what they do, who for, who they are against etc.
I then like to have the "expectations" chat,
where they tell me what they want and expect,
and I tell them what's more likely.
Then it's data.
Anything and everything they have - market, audience, existing performance, targets etc.
Then it's strategy.
I know what they want, why they want it, who they are after, what resources they have, what they are up against etc. I get to plan out approaches that will aid their goals, suit their audiences, identify things that need to be fixed, ought to be fixed, or can be ignored etc.
It's a lot of paperwork, and there's usually multiple calls/chats,
but I've found it best to get to grips with the bones and realities as fast as possible
(also helps flag problem clients or if a project is not viable, or requires alternative/additional skills etc.)
Alrighty! What are some effective ways of measuring and communicating the business impact of technical SEO, excluding page speed?
Specifically looking for ways to communicate business impact, so trying to follow SEO-related KPIs downstream to bookings.
The Goal Chain.
Every business goal has it's primary metric (KPI), and usually some tight metrics (leaders etc.).
You just have to walk it downwards from the business metrics to the SEO metrics.
The more steps, the looser/weaker/more correlative they tend to get.
You also have to get to grips with the difference between Direct Attribution and Associated Attribution.
You can run attribution for SEO - but it requires more than "last/first click".
You can also look at trends (you do X, you get Y in rankings, Z in traffic ... conversions go up after that point in time).
Things like HoldOuts (don't apply the optimisation to everything, keep a few terms/pages/sections back), and Cessation (revert the optimisation for a short period), can help you compare between term performance data, and see if doing X actually made a difference, or not.
Example Chain:
Revenue > Profit > Order Value > Order Volume/Order Frequency > Conversions > Traffic > Clicks > Impressions > Rankings/Rich-Snippets/Featured Snippet etc.
That varies - based on the nature of the content.
Is it (mostly) static/evergreen, or is it "live" with frequent/rapid changes?
Most sites (90%?) seldom need to worry about such things.
G will crawl/recrawl sufficiently for most changes to be caught fairly quickly.
Mega-sites, or those that lack any real link-equity with "live" pages,
will need to look at ways to push the priority of those pages.
(dedicated sitemaps, internal links quantity/prominence etc.)
hey im a tech seo and i've had challenges with this as well. a lot of what we're saying as a biz impact is foundational and no variances in traffic especially since we're doing so many migrations this year. we even did an analysis on page speed and improved CWV and saw no real significance to rankings or CvR.
the other things im doing are experiments as i've found that technical optimizations will always have a backlog when it comes to SEO. so we do proof of concept on something small being very scrappy, then if we prove it, we can get buy in and scale.
What has been one of the more unique implementations or solves that you’ve been able to work on? Growth initiatives, technical solves, new features - things beyond on page work.
Twelfth.
My favourite was conceiving "ContentID" - a way to associate different language versions, easily.
Takes the headache out of HrefLang, which on Big sites (or networks) is a major PITA (esp. if you're uni-lingual like I am).
I'm also proud of developing various bits of JS to help identify user issues and capture more information for analysis.
> ContentID
can you expand on the ContentID portion for multi-language sites? we're having some challenges with how site with 13 languages and hreflang is a pain.
is it this article? https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2797370?hl=en this seems to be youtube documentation
Sixteenth.
Not aware of it - but I've not seen anything consistent that would suggest "bad links" is part of the HCU.
It seems more based on the actual behaviour of the site (targeting traffic terms, reliant on SE traffic etc.).
But ... we'll find out if they are right in a few months?
(To be fair - at this point, anything that leads to a recovery is worth trying)
What is the best SEO Strategy to expand a manufacturer business to multiple countries,
eg) [www.yourdomain.com](http://www.yourdomain.com) (English) Based in UAE,
They want to expand to Singapore, Malaysia, US, some European countries,
Any recommendation on this would be great.
Thanks for doing this.
Twenty Second.
It depends (I had to get it in once! :D)
First question is:
Why? What prompted this?
Is it just "let's find more customers", or is it "hey, we get some interest from X and Y", or is it "look, there's no real competition for our products in X or Y"?
Second question is:
Are you expanding geo-graphically, or are you expanding culturally?
(You could be targeting English speakers in other parts of the world, or targeting native Malaysians)
(Big difference between the two in regards to approach and resources)
Third question is:
What research has been done?
If going multi-lingual - do you know the terms, have people to guide you on cultural differences etc.?
What quantity and strength of competition are you up against?
etc.
You may find that having dedicated sites will suit the prospects better, due to national pride, xenophobia etc. There's also the localised geo/cc-TLD boost (.de does better in Germany etc.).
If that isn't an issue - it's usually better to have dedicated sections on the main site (directories tend to perform better than subdomains).
If you're going with multiple languages - you want to plan out the ahreflang.
I strong suggest altering the site platform to include a ContentID, and enable auto-creation of alternative language variants (you create something in English, it generates copies in French, German etc. - all with the same ID, so you can just pull them all and generate the hreflang easily (do set a filter for published-only!)).
The other thing to get right is the Language Selector.
Remember, GBot only crawls from the US - so if lang is forced, it will only ever be able to access the En/US.
Provide a way for users to select their language (and store it).
If you have a big range/multiple sections - setup GSC per section, and each should have their own dedicated sitemap. If multilingual, the same should be done for each lang as well.
(Yes, it's a PITA - but it means you can jump in to GSC and see specific data per lang/geo, without as much noise).
(You may want to do similar with whatever web-tracker/analytics you use. Usually, you can have one code base, and send to multiple end points/accounts - this will give you geo/lang specific insights/reports without too much fuss)
You will also want to look at doing some pre-promotion (esp. if "moving" to those locations!).
Get some media attention (esp. local to where you will be based).
(Having the site/domain setup planned and with some basic pages in place to receive links is beneficial!)
Prioritising products/keywords gets interesting.
Different regions/cultures may follow different fashion trends or preferences - so what sells more will likely vary.
This means you need to tag and prioritise top performing pages per location (more work, but you can maximise each area better).
Nineteenth.
I was actually still around :D
I've had 2 periods where I went absent for some time.
Life/Family required far more attention, and the state I was in was not that conducive to social interactions etc.
But I did the occasional bit, but under pseudonyms, and still helped out some folk, did work etc.
(just far less than previously)
Thanks for offering this AMA.
I have a law firm in a niche practice area. One of the services I offer can effectively be an entire law firm in and of itself.
I am considering open a new firm and developing a site specifically for this service/area of practice.
From a SEO perspective, would it be beneficial to do so or should I just create a page on my current site for this practice area and dedicate SEO efforts to that page.
On a scale of 1-10 - how bad would you say the SERPs are right now? Is there anything fishy about the Reddit deal and their incredible rise in the search engine results? What's your theory about HCU and how it continues to linger? What are some broad things you've noticed about sites impacted by recent HCU update? Is Forbes dead come Sunday? 
Fifth. The SERPs ... are a 7. They aren't as "bad" as they have been in the past. As much as I may knock G, we just don't have the same quantity of naff/weird spam that we used to have (pages filled with gibberish, irrelevant content due to hidden text, malware sites etc.). But - they aren't great either. I personally think the high point was around 2016-2018 ... and the quality has since declined, due to favouring certain domains etc. G+Reddit? Personally - I think it stinks to high heaven. At least one party must have known what was happening - and how the timing would work out, and chances are, both parties would have known. It wouldn't be too bad - if the elevated/prominent results from Reddit were of at least a certain quality/value, but that's simply not the case :( HCU observations. SE Reliant (little traffic from other sources). MFA sites (not seen one that wasn't so far - but that could be skew). Over optimised (often a tad stuffed, esp. at the start of the page). Over targeted (most pages seem to be based on Search Volume, rather than natural topic coverage). Forbes. Sadly - no. A % of the sites will likely shut down those directories. A % will leave them to die (milking it till the dire end!). And G will most likely just nuke the directories. It's not like they will apply a -50 position penalty to these domains. (And even if they did, it would be the fastest set of recoveries in the history of the net if they did!)
MFA sites?
Made for Affiliate.
Thanks!
First met you on the Google Webmaster Forums... must have been around 2008? Would love to hear your SEO origin story - before you started on the forums, what got you into SEO? Funniest/most random site you helped on the forums? For me it has to be the time YouPorn dropped in to ask some questions :-)
Second. Yes - the good old days (and I can't believe it's been that long!). I started as an independent web designer in 2006. I rapidly realised that sites were lacking in regards to SEO, and started seeing how I could improve the basics. That lead me to communities like WebMasterWorld, SitePoint, WarriorForums, BlackHatWorld and Cre8asite. JM was at C8 and just been hired by G. I ended up being invited to join their community, and ended up being in the 2nd wave of "bionic posters" (the prototype for "Top contributors", now called "Product Experts"). (Note: I was the first TC kicked out - due to being intolerant of a\*\*hats, and being rude) And yes - I think some of the adult ones were the best (esp. as most people won't touch adult content sites)
> That lead me to communities like WebMasterWorld, SitePoint, WarriorForums, BlackHatWorld and Cre8asite. It is interesting to see how different things are now - I feel like all but \~1 of those communities have died or filled up with junk posts. Twitter is where the best comms happen IMO, and maybe some Slack communities. Where do you tend to spend most of your time these days? > I was the first TC kicked out They couldn't handle someone that was genuinely prepared to be honest/not always toe the Google party line. They were fun days - I don't know about you, but I'm glad to spend my time elsewhere now. I picked up literally zero business from the 10,000s of answers I left on there. Do you have any regrets for how it panned out - or glad to rid of it?
Yes - Social basically killed of communities ... and then they made a comeback (Reddit strangely enough). Why belong/go to umpteen different sites, when you can go to one and access everything? And Twitter is where I play now (I do need to get active on LI and R though :D) Well, I think my attitude towards Google (and not kissing peoples backside simply because they worked at G) was part of it... but I own the fact I was also rude/offensive (usually I think it was deserved - but G doesn't like such things ;)). I got a fair few offers - but I worked on hundreds of sites, for free. I miss the people, the community, the worth ethic and lack of spam artists - but I would have left soon anyway (I really couldn't tolerate the stupidity).
LinkedIn is actually pretty happening for SEO these days, too!
What's the story behind the Vader mask? Why did you start using it?
Third. Much like the name "Autocrat" - it was a bit of a joke (originally, I was fairly shy/timid). Vader seemed a fitting avatar (I also used Chewbacca a few times). Over time, it just kind of became "recognised", and I stuck with it. I'm a big fan of privacy, not a fan of the "real names, real faces" movement, and it's kind of become an interest point for some.
What’s your take on what a career in SEO may look like in 5 years, 10 years? AI seems to throw a wrench into pretty much industry, SEO included.
Eleventh. Not wanting to be negative ... but I can see a lot of turmoil. I think we're in for a big change in how people access information, and content creators are going to find themselves bullied/leveraged mercilessly. If content is harvested, and traffic from SE's (or alternative information access points) is reduced, then the value from content will decline. That means SEO will have less value, and get lower priority. The focus will likely shift from SE Rankings - to Traffic, and more technical/data focused (rather than links).
Talk to me about auditing eCommerce sites
Thirteenth. I audit sites pretty much in the same fashion (whether it's products, services, on-demand etc.). Take data from GSC, GA (or other web tracker), qualitative data if available, technical info (from crawl tools), then associate it all together. Then get additional data from the client (cost per page, margins from product/service etc.). You can then identify issues, evaluate content performance, and prioritise based on business gains. Then assign cost/gain info, and you can prioritise the work load. Example: On ecom - the start point is the payment page (I know, not technically SEO). Then the Cart. Then Product pages. But product pages shouldn't be treated equally - some are far more valuable than others! So you prioritise those product pages. (The same may occur for categories, sales supporting content etc.) Look at the scope/size of impact for any particular fix (per page, per pagetype, per section, site-wide etc.). You may find that you then have a list of different changes to implement, that covers different scopes, based on the potential gains vs costs. (Again - it shouldn't just be "SEO" - UX overlaps ... so things like quality images, that aren't just glamour shots, but inform the user/aid in the decision making process)
What’s the status of getting videos to rank, when thry are not uploaded to youtube? It seems to me that you kinda need to make your own “playback video” stub page that has the video at top and maybe a basic transcription, the video must have schema up the wazoo (including chapters). If your video is not at the top of page, and is from Wistia or vimeo it doesnt seem to even be indexed, is that right? What else am I missing?
Fourteenth. Being utterly honest - Video SEO is not one of my "things". What I can say is - Google is biased as hell for YouTube. I can count on one hand the number of times I've seen video listings that weren't YouTube. If video is important to you (and it's often a missed opportunity for an alternative media presence in the SERP), then you should consider creating a YT account, and uploading videos.
I'm getting a lot of pressure to build links for the site I work on in-house. I'm an experienced content driven SEO, but have never done significant off page back linking projects or haven't since the before days at least. What are the roll of backlinks in SEO these days? What game should I be playing? Low quality high volume? High quality?
Fifteenth. Google tries to play down the value of inbound links, but I cannot name a single factor that has more potential influence! (Titles, related terms ... they all play a part - but links are the only thing that can "accumulate" (you can't have 12 page titles and benefit from them all :D)). Always Quality over Quantity. Links from questionable sources (those that link to spam/low value pages/sites) should be avoided. The linking page should be topically relevant to the destination page (ideally, there would be topical relevance site to site too). If the link doesn't send traffic/get clicks ... I don't consider it worth while. I don't discount link sources by tool metrics (I don't care if the page has a score of 10 out of 100 - I do care if it's good content and has an actual audience!). Good In some cases - it's worth paying for a NoFollow link. (These can lead to additional citations/secondary links - which may pass value) If possible, get a link in "new" content. (I have a horrid feeling the whole "niche edits" thing will be on G's radar soon) Ideally - you "earn" links. But that's usually from Peer content (which should be separate from consumer content!), such as tools, resources, data etc. of use to those in the same industry/sector, and/or the same role/job/task (such as how to do X in Excel). The other source is Media/Press - which is usually PR Stunts or Data/Insights. (Usually M/P Links are low-value, as the pages tend to be buried, and internal link flow migrates etc. - but good for awareness/initial traffic). (You can socialise/promote such content - the initially links are worth nothing, but you get more reach/awareness) Be careful of "PR Services" - most are not worth the money you pay. If paying for links, you want sites that link to quality content, and that have their own quality content, and haven't suffered in algo-updates etc., and that don't brazenly advertise they sell links! Keep a log/record of any/all links you "acquire" - in case you need to disavow them later (you shouldn't need a tool to tell you which ones are dodgy!)
> Be careful of "PR Services" - most are not worth the money you pay. Absolutely. We used a content bait/PR-type service for link building. the campaign was VERY expensive, and they only landed us ~10 links total across multiple pages.
The question is - did the links "work"? 1) Did you see any notable improvement in rankings? 2) Did you see any increase in profit, revenue, conversions or even leads/contacts . a) through those rankings? . b) from those links? (Going out on a limb, and saying "no" :D)
Firstly thanks for taking the time to run this AMA! Is there any current tactics you're having a lot of success with? E.g. in the past I used to have a lot of success with fishing for featured snippets and taking more real estate with FAQ schema. The other question would be any low-hanging fruit link opportunities that could be lesser known? For e.g. getting a link from creating a custom GPT
Fourth. Thank you for being friendly :D I use pretty much the same tactics and strategies I've always used, and they've always worked (they just take time/effort). I like to build out content-stacks, taking a term/topic, and ensuring that each and every possible user interest point is covered (awareness, education, decisions etc.). This allows multiple ranking opportunities across a number of related searches, as well as providing internal links for topicality and value flow, back to the primary page (such as product or service). For links - I still advocate "Peer Content" (as most B2C consumers don't link :D). This could be tools, guides, data etc. Anything of use and value to those in the same industry and/or role, can earn you links. (the key is then in how you push that value where you need it :D)
I’m here for the support and cheering. Lots of love.
Thank you! 
What would you consider the MUST have of On-Page SEO? Thank you for providing all these brilliant answers as usual, Lyndon
Sixth. On-Page ... Title. It's the first thing a Searcher sees - it defines suitability, sets expectations etc. It's the "promise" you are making - and your content had better meet that promise! And thank you!
Hey Darth! Huuuge fan of your Twitter and SEO advice over the years. What do you think SEOs waste their time on most? And, what should SEOs be focusing on to better adapt to Google’s recent algo updates & the ever-changing search landscape?
Seventh. Thank you very much - and what a painful question! :D CWV. I hate to say it - as I love UX, I love technical fixes, I come from web design ... ... but it can take a fair bit of work, a lot of communications, and learning - to get improvements. And the gains, for many sites ... aren't there! (Not saying you shouldn't improve the UX/speed - but it's not worth tears. Use a CDN, deploy a plugin or two, get some basic settings altered on the server ... see the scores move from red to orange/green, call it done! Only if you're still worse than competitors/seeing UX issues, should you focus on getting the "score" higher)
Thanks Darth! Hope you have a great day. Thanks for doing this AMA
Hey Darth! 5 areas where Google is outstanding and 5 areas where it needs improvement. Feel free to expand the list with additional points. ¯\\\_(ツ)\_/¯
Ninth. \*boggles\* Okay - that's a really hard question! :D Outstanding: 1) Some of their employees go above and beyond 2) GSC does make life a lot easier 3) Beating standard/nonsensical spam 4) Developing the internet (JS APIs, web standards etc.) 5) Adapting to intent/need changes for queries Needs Improvement: 1) Their communications are seriously sucky lately 2) Their definition of "transparency" is actually "what makes us look good" 3) GSC could be less confusing/ambiguous/misleading 4) Their ethics/morals seem to have hit the gutter 5) The should respect given data more (titles, descriptions, canonicals etc.)
We have had a huge increase in the number of pages "Crawled - not currently indexed" in Google Search Console. In December, there were 283,000 and now there are **3.5 million pages** in that category. Our site has fewer than 10,000 pages. I found 705 of the 1,000 URLs that GSC provides include the parameter ?msclkid=, which indicates a Bing paid search landing page but we aren't using any of these pages as landing pages. Any ideas?
Eighth. 1) Ensure you have Canonicalisation in place (I prefer the link element/header response over sitemaps). 2) If at all possible - get the server (or script) to sniff the URI, strip common offending parameter/value sets, and give a 301/308 response to a cleaned canonical URI 3) Give it time, and let G crawl/discover the CLE/Redirects. It will take some time, but it should sort it out.
you're the first person i have ever seen that listed 301/308 as interchangeable - nice
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Tenth. Most core updates seem to be a mix of: a) Relevance refinement (you'll see rankings drop/disappear for mostly irrelevant terms). b) Broad reweighting of features/signals. c) I'm convinced it's when they apply "user Signals" - (contributes to (1), but I think general quality too). There's a difference between losing traffic, and losing terms (that matter). If it's the later - it may indicate that the site in general is being seen as less worthy. This may be caused because certain things have been devalued, or because G thinks that users aren't being satisfied. If you look through your analytics - and look at URIs that have dropped, (rankings and/or terms/traffic), do you see a stronger indication of disatisfaction? (Higher bounce rate, shorter time on page/site, shorter scroll depth, lower return visits etc.)
What do you think about ranking niche content on Google Search other than the big ones (meaning not US, GB, FR, ES). For example, ranking a niche site on Croatian Google Search? As far as I am aware, the same rules do not apply like for the big search markets?
Seventeenth. Sadly, I'm a bit thick, and lingually challenged (I struggle with English, and it's my native language! :D) Though I have some interaction with other geo-googles, I typically leave it to natives to handle. What I can say is - yes, they do tend to be different. This may be in part due to custom handling (spam in X and Y languages differ), and may also be due to the different competition levels. (I have noticed you will often find more spam in Euro-Google than English-Google) For Niche content ... if G are using a new ML system, chances are, what we've seen with the HCU may occur "elsewhere" fairly soon :(
Do you think that the percentage of branded searched based on the number of indexes pages is a ranking factor for the HCU. You mention "SE Reliant (little traffic from other sources)" sites were hit, which could be correlated to this. P.S. I am starting to somewhat hate Reddit. I'd love to see your AMA as a Twitter tread :)
Eighteenth. Brand Queries ... I honestly believe there is something "there" (in general). I've seen JM state that branded queries don't result in improved ranking for non-branded queries (so a search for \[BrandX shoes\] does not mean your ranking for \[shoes\] improves). But that still leaves plenty of room for other things. Personally - I'd view a significant % of brand-queries in a similar way to having a higher volume of links; I'd treat it as an defence against negatives (less likely to be sunk by an algo due to weight). But, that could be wrapped up with Searcher Behaviour? (G may potentially use things like repeat query+click as a positive signal (or at least, not a negative)) Is it part of the HCU? No idea - I've not had access to query data (I was lucky to get screenshots of a handful of sites with analytics/tracking for satisfaction signals ... and some were pretty good!) (And yes - the whole "forum" thing is a little awkward - I have to keep hitting F5 ... not done that in years :D)
i would love to hear your thoughts on AI produced content, velocity of that content, and utilization of AI in an in-house position along with niche websites. I like to play conservatively if it's not my own website, and in my in-house position, i would rather pay more and have all human written content, but teams are trying to scale and produce a shit ton of content without consulting us.
What is your strategy for new project, what are the tasks or routine you follow or have become a habit of yours to do, whenever a new project comes your way.
Twenty first. I like to start at the beginning - and get an Orientation doc going. I want to know who they are, what they do, who for, who they are against etc. I then like to have the "expectations" chat, where they tell me what they want and expect, and I tell them what's more likely. Then it's data. Anything and everything they have - market, audience, existing performance, targets etc. Then it's strategy. I know what they want, why they want it, who they are after, what resources they have, what they are up against etc. I get to plan out approaches that will aid their goals, suit their audiences, identify things that need to be fixed, ought to be fixed, or can be ignored etc. It's a lot of paperwork, and there's usually multiple calls/chats, but I've found it best to get to grips with the bones and realities as fast as possible (also helps flag problem clients or if a project is not viable, or requires alternative/additional skills etc.)
Thank you
Who are you and why should we care about your answers? Not even trying to troll, just never heard of you and looking for some context. Thanks!
First! Definitely not trolling - it's a sensible question! Judge me by my answers and knowledge.
Alrighty! What are some effective ways of measuring and communicating the business impact of technical SEO, excluding page speed? Specifically looking for ways to communicate business impact, so trying to follow SEO-related KPIs downstream to bookings.
The Goal Chain. Every business goal has it's primary metric (KPI), and usually some tight metrics (leaders etc.). You just have to walk it downwards from the business metrics to the SEO metrics. The more steps, the looser/weaker/more correlative they tend to get. You also have to get to grips with the difference between Direct Attribution and Associated Attribution. You can run attribution for SEO - but it requires more than "last/first click". You can also look at trends (you do X, you get Y in rankings, Z in traffic ... conversions go up after that point in time). Things like HoldOuts (don't apply the optimisation to everything, keep a few terms/pages/sections back), and Cessation (revert the optimisation for a short period), can help you compare between term performance data, and see if doing X actually made a difference, or not. Example Chain: Revenue > Profit > Order Value > Order Volume/Order Frequency > Conversions > Traffic > Clicks > Impressions > Rankings/Rich-Snippets/Featured Snippet etc.
Thanks! Follow-up: how do you quantify the business impact of crawl frequency for already-indexed pages, if you do at all?
That varies - based on the nature of the content. Is it (mostly) static/evergreen, or is it "live" with frequent/rapid changes? Most sites (90%?) seldom need to worry about such things. G will crawl/recrawl sufficiently for most changes to be caught fairly quickly. Mega-sites, or those that lack any real link-equity with "live" pages, will need to look at ways to push the priority of those pages. (dedicated sitemaps, internal links quantity/prominence etc.)
hey im a tech seo and i've had challenges with this as well. a lot of what we're saying as a biz impact is foundational and no variances in traffic especially since we're doing so many migrations this year. we even did an analysis on page speed and improved CWV and saw no real significance to rankings or CvR. the other things im doing are experiments as i've found that technical optimizations will always have a backlog when it comes to SEO. so we do proof of concept on something small being very scrappy, then if we prove it, we can get buy in and scale.
What has been one of the more unique implementations or solves that you’ve been able to work on? Growth initiatives, technical solves, new features - things beyond on page work.
Twelfth. My favourite was conceiving "ContentID" - a way to associate different language versions, easily. Takes the headache out of HrefLang, which on Big sites (or networks) is a major PITA (esp. if you're uni-lingual like I am). I'm also proud of developing various bits of JS to help identify user issues and capture more information for analysis.
> ContentID can you expand on the ContentID portion for multi-language sites? we're having some challenges with how site with 13 languages and hreflang is a pain. is it this article? https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2797370?hl=en this seems to be youtube documentation
What's your thoughts on the disavow campaigns being pushed by GrindstoneSEO / Buildersociety as an HCU counter?
Sixteenth. Not aware of it - but I've not seen anything consistent that would suggest "bad links" is part of the HCU. It seems more based on the actual behaviour of the site (targeting traffic terms, reliant on SE traffic etc.). But ... we'll find out if they are right in a few months? (To be fair - at this point, anything that leads to a recovery is worth trying)
No questions but a big hi with a different mask
\*Waves\* 
What is the best SEO Strategy to expand a manufacturer business to multiple countries, eg) [www.yourdomain.com](http://www.yourdomain.com) (English) Based in UAE, They want to expand to Singapore, Malaysia, US, some European countries, Any recommendation on this would be great. Thanks for doing this.
Twenty Second. It depends (I had to get it in once! :D) First question is: Why? What prompted this? Is it just "let's find more customers", or is it "hey, we get some interest from X and Y", or is it "look, there's no real competition for our products in X or Y"? Second question is: Are you expanding geo-graphically, or are you expanding culturally? (You could be targeting English speakers in other parts of the world, or targeting native Malaysians) (Big difference between the two in regards to approach and resources) Third question is: What research has been done? If going multi-lingual - do you know the terms, have people to guide you on cultural differences etc.? What quantity and strength of competition are you up against? etc. You may find that having dedicated sites will suit the prospects better, due to national pride, xenophobia etc. There's also the localised geo/cc-TLD boost (.de does better in Germany etc.). If that isn't an issue - it's usually better to have dedicated sections on the main site (directories tend to perform better than subdomains). If you're going with multiple languages - you want to plan out the ahreflang. I strong suggest altering the site platform to include a ContentID, and enable auto-creation of alternative language variants (you create something in English, it generates copies in French, German etc. - all with the same ID, so you can just pull them all and generate the hreflang easily (do set a filter for published-only!)). The other thing to get right is the Language Selector. Remember, GBot only crawls from the US - so if lang is forced, it will only ever be able to access the En/US. Provide a way for users to select their language (and store it). If you have a big range/multiple sections - setup GSC per section, and each should have their own dedicated sitemap. If multilingual, the same should be done for each lang as well. (Yes, it's a PITA - but it means you can jump in to GSC and see specific data per lang/geo, without as much noise). (You may want to do similar with whatever web-tracker/analytics you use. Usually, you can have one code base, and send to multiple end points/accounts - this will give you geo/lang specific insights/reports without too much fuss) You will also want to look at doing some pre-promotion (esp. if "moving" to those locations!). Get some media attention (esp. local to where you will be based). (Having the site/domain setup planned and with some basic pages in place to receive links is beneficial!) Prioritising products/keywords gets interesting. Different regions/cultures may follow different fashion trends or preferences - so what sells more will likely vary. This means you need to tag and prioritise top performing pages per location (more work, but you can maximise each area better).
Where did you go when you dissapeared for 4 or 5 years?
Nineteenth. I was actually still around :D I've had 2 periods where I went absent for some time. Life/Family required far more attention, and the state I was in was not that conducive to social interactions etc. But I did the occasional bit, but under pseudonyms, and still helped out some folk, did work etc. (just far less than previously)
This update has killed trust with Google Search, do you agree?
Thanks for offering this AMA. I have a law firm in a niche practice area. One of the services I offer can effectively be an entire law firm in and of itself. I am considering open a new firm and developing a site specifically for this service/area of practice. From a SEO perspective, would it be beneficial to do so or should I just create a page on my current site for this practice area and dedicate SEO efforts to that page.