Google Announces XML Sitemap Updates
in issue 280 of the #SEOForLunch we discuss Google's XML sitemap updates as well as 6 tips they provide us on better optimizing images for search.
Hi Lunch Buddies!
I want to thank you all for the amazing support you showed me in announcing seojobs.com. Emails, Twitter, and LinkedIn notes came flying in which meant the world. Really good things are coming and I’m excited to help the SEO industry find amazing job opportunities.
While last week was largely spent on client and SEOjobs tasks, I was also able to get a new podcast live. This month I talk to Steve Toth who made $40K/Month SEO freelancing all while working a 9-5 job. You can listen to the full episode here.
Let’s jump right into this week’s #SEOForLunch
-Nick
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Official Search Engine Updates
Video
Google provides 6 tips for image optimization
What's Important:
Google’s Alan Kent, Developer advocate shares 6 tips on how to optimize images for your website. This includes eliminating Cumulative Layout Shift, sizing, file format, image compressions, caching, and sequencing downloads.
Nick’s Take:
Admittedly, I’m the worst at optimizing images for my own sites. It takes effort to do everything that Alan reminds us to do but it truly is beneficial. If you don’t have an image optimization strategy in place I highly recommend you watch this video and put one in place.
Podcast
Google announces several XML sitemap extension tags are going away
What's Important:
Google Search relations team members, Gary, Lizzi, and John discuss XML sitemaps and cover an update on several extension tags that are going away.
Nick’s Take:
This link will take you to the list of deprecated XML tags or attributes. Per Google, if you keep these tags, there will be no negative impact but will have no search impact after August 6, 2022.
The Full Agenda For MnSearch Summit Is Here!
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Job Hunting? Check These 5 New SEO Job Listings
📈 Product Marketing Manager, SEO, Growth Lab ~ Google
🐼 SEO Director ~ iPullRank ~ REMOTE
📊 Head of Technical SEO ~ Nerdwallet ~REMOTE
🕵️♀️ Senior SEO Strategist ~ 1Point21 ~ REMOTE
🐧 Lawfirm SEO Manager ~ Gladiator Law Marketing ~ REMOTE
Are you looking to get additional exposure for your open SEO position? Check out SEOjobs.com owned & operated by #SEOForLunch’s Nick LeRoy & Peter Askew
Top SEO Resources From Last Week
Why Good Content Costs Serious Money
Andrew Holland, SearchEngineLand.com
Shout out to all my content marketing friends. Andrew’s post really does a good job of setting proper expectations on what GOOD content will truly cost. As someone who historically undervalued the cost of good content - this is a great refresher. If you want good results you need a good budget!
Analysis of Google’s March 2022 Product Reviews Update (PRU)
Glenn Gabe, GSQI.com
It’s been about 5 weeks since Google released its third “PRU” update as Glenn covers, these updates can cause a lot of volatility for sites with review content. I always thought that the update targeted those who don’t link out to multiple sellers but feedback in this post suggests that this is not (yet) accounted for in the updates. If you do any review/affiliate content I highly recommend you read this article.
Tales of Robots.txt: Uncrawled URLs in Google Search
Adam Gent, GentofSearch.com
How often do you see “Valid with Warning” errors in your Google Search Console coverage report? Adam walks us through the process that he took to decrease the number of pages being surfaced in this report. Warning, it’s not a quick process!
Do 301 Internal Links Harm SEO?
Siena Sara, SearchPilot.com
My personal take on 301 redirects is that any instance you have that you can update to be a direct ‘200’ status link was worth the effort to update. It’s one of the few SEO topics that I feel strongly about so that made the results of this test that much more interesting. What do you say after reading this article? Keep or update your redirecting internal links?
3 Ways To Use PR To Win Media Attention for Your Content
Ann Gynn, ContentMarketingInstitute.com
We start and end this week’s newsletter with content marketing love. This time we review 3 examples that Ann provides on how to use PR to get more visibility for your (not cheap!) content.
You Made It To The Bottom. You’re AWESOME!
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Learn About The Guy Behind The #SEOForLunch
Nick LeRoy is a professional SEO Consultant specializing in technical SEO, content strategy, and website migrations.
Nick is also the author of two SEO-focused newsletters: #SEOForLunch and The SEO Freelancer and co-owner of SEOjobs.com
You can connect with Nick online through Twitter and LinkedIn.