Round-Up: SEO (March 2023)

It’s been a busy few weeks in the world of SEO (in fact, when isn’t it a busy week?) and in an industry where it is so important to keep up to date with the latest happenings, finding a place that collates all the news that matters to you can be tricky, until now! Each month, right here at embryo.com, we’ll have an easy-to-read breakdown of the most important stories of the last few weeks. In just a handful of bullet points, you’ll be kept up-to-date.

Obviously, SEO is just one of many marketing channels, and certainly not the only one that is constantly shifting and updating which is why we do round-ups for PPC and social media too! Be sure to check them out. But in the meantime, let’s get stuck into some important SEO news.

Latest SEO news

• In a recent podcast episode, Google’s search relations team cautioned webmasters about making several large changes to a website in a short period of time. They said that breaking website moves into smaller chunks can help mitigate any impacts on traffic or rankings. The next time you’re thinking of making massive changes to a site, keep this in mind.
• You may have noticed on Google desktop that there have been a few changes – the search engine has now rolled out site names, favicons, and sponsored labels which it had done so previously on mobile.
• Google is yet again emphasising the importance of helpful content by updating its guidance on Discover pages. They’ve replaced their content around E-E-A-T and replaced it with more actionable insights about content. This does not mean that E-E-A-T is redundant, it has just been replaced by more helpful content (no pun intended).
• Big changes over at Microsoft, their global head of advertising, Rob Wilk, has stepped down and has been replaced by Kya Sainsbury-Carter.
• Google’s February 2023 product review update has finished rolling out, 14 days after they announced its stat. The update was rolled out to reward ‘insightful analysis and original research.’
• TikTok, it seems, is bored of shaping the social media landscape and has entered the search ad market, squaring itself up against Google and Microsoft. TikTok is reportedly interested in launching a platform where advertisers can bid on certain keywords related to products and services.
• Not content with updates, Google has also revamped its Trends homepage which offers real-time data on trends and updates hourly.
• Got-a-lot-of-hyphens-in-your-domain? Don’t worry, contrary so what some SEOs think, it doesn’t affect your quality score in Google’s eyes. This is according to John Mueller who responded to this question on Twitter, answering ‘I’m tempted to answer something sarcastic, but no.’
• Is Bing kicking back against Google? It appears so. In the month since Microsoft’s search engine released the new AI update, they have crossed 100 million daily active users for the first time in a very long time! Are we seeing a search engine shake-up?