Google Clarifies "Googlebot and the 15MB thing"
In episode 287 of the #SEOForLunch we discuss Google's update announcing its limit of 15MB of content to crawl/index a page.
Hi Lunch Buddies!
I flew out to Philly last week to check out the Search Love conference and network with a bunch of awesome digital marketing folks. If you aren’t taking advantage of the networking after the conferences then you truly are missing out on the best part of SEO conferencing.
Shout out to the ranked.legal and Deepcrawl teams who were kind enough to invite me out to dinner both nights I was in town.
The photo below was with the Ranked Legal team and friends at Osteria Philly Such a fun time.
Let’s jump into this week’s newsletter
-Nick
Introducing the Wix SEO Learning Hub
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This new platform sets out to be the go-to learning resource for SEOs.
The hub is uncompromisingly dedicated to providing insightful and detailed content written by industry experts to help SEOs expand their knowledge and build their skills. These comprehensive resources are continuously updated and they’re available in a range of formats:
In-depth guides
Educational videos
Expert-led webinars
Latest product updates
Official Search Engine Updates
Video
Google Search News (June ‘22) edition
What's Important:
Google employee, John Mueller covers recent updates in Google such as a new video series called “Ecommerce essentials”, GDS + bubbles, events (unconference + I/O), May Core update, Bill Slawski’s passing, URL param, and select sitemap extension depreciation, and finally Google’s annual web spam report.
Nick’s Take:
For those who regularly read the #SEOForLunch, none of these updates will be new as I cover them on a week-to-week basis. However, if you missed a few episodes then this 5-minute video is a great “catch me up” for what you missed during the month of June.
Podcast
Search Off The Record: Let’s talk about UX and SEO
What's Important:
Google search relations team members, Martin Splitt, Gary Illyes, and Lizzi Sassman cover user experience and how it impacts SEO. They specifically tackle Core Web Vitals, readability, alt text and other accessibility components.
Nick’s Take:
How important is the user experience when it comes to SEO? In a world where most haven’t seen a negative impact from UX “SEO updates” many continue to put it on the backburner. Despite the SEO benefit (or lack thereof), you may be interested in some of the team’s additional recommendations such as content and reading grade level.
Video (Short)
Specify image dimensions for better SEO
What's Important:
Google introduces new video “shorts” with the sole purpose of providing tips to users quickly. This short calls out the opportunity to specify image dimensions avoiding the possibility of page content shifting which is bad for search.
Nick’s Take:
The tip isn’t super sexy but the fact that Google is playing around with “shorts” really open up the opportunity for more public information which is always a win to the search industry.
Article (help document)
Googlebot crawls and indexes the first 15MB of content per page
What's Important:
Google recently updated their Googlebot document by adding an additional paragraph within the “how Googlebot access your site” section. Specifically, it calls out that Google crawls and indexes based on the first 15MB of content per page.
Nick’s Take:
This update caused quite a few SEO practitioners to get nervous. The reality is that 15MB of content is A LOT of content. It’s very unlikely that you will ever run into this 15MB limit however, this documentation serves as a very helpful source in the instant you do deal with this issue (now) or in the future.
Article
Google to pay Wikipedia for content in knowledge panel and search
What's Important:
Barry Schwartz covered the news that Google has publically partnered with Wikipedia in their new Wikimedia Enterprise service. This partnership will allow Google to continue to utilize Wikimedia data within their search results.
Nick’s Take:
Most people know that Wikipedia plays a crucial role in building out Google’s search results. This is especially true when it comes to the knowledge panel results. No action from this news but it further confirms how reliant Google is on Wiki data for anyone who wasn’t 100% sold on the idea.
How to Check if Web Pages are Indexed in Google
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Sitebulb’s recent integration with the Search Console URL Inspection API allows you to easily extract indexing data for 2,000 URLs per day.
This allows you to see high level data about whether a URL is indexed or not, along with 'reasons' why URLs are not indexed, which allows you to explore further.
Sitebulb also calculates unique data point such as ‘Days Since Last Crawl’, which helps you understand which of your web pages are being crawled frequently (and perhaps more importantly - which are not!)
If you'd like to give Sitebulb a try for free, you can get a special, extended, 60 day trial license with #SEOForLunch. Just go to: Sitebulb.com/SEOForLunch/
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🐧 Sr Analyst, SEO ~ Snagajob ~ $90K-$111K ~ 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
Almost Half of GSC Clicks Go to Hidden Terms
Patrick Stox, Ahrefs.com
When Google Search Console started offering query data I thought we were going back to the pre (not provided) days. I quickly downloaded the data through the GSC API and quickly became disheartened. The queries (and clicks) never added up to the total clicks reported. Bam.. the dream of accurate query data and even brand vs non-brand query data evaporated. Share my heartbreak? This post by Patrick further shows how the data from GSC is directionally accurate at best. :(
The SEO Skills Maturity Matrix
Tom Critchlow, SEOMba.com
Every post that Tom writes becomes my new favorite SEOMBA post. This post does a great job of outlining earning potential in both agency and in-house roles. Taking it even further, Tom outlines how far “soft skills” vs “hard skills” will take them in an individual upward earning trajectory. Regardless if you are in-house/agency or even freelance like myself, please review, save or even print out these matrices. You won’t be disappointed.
How to Hire for and Develop a Successful SEO Department
Helen Pollitt, moz.com
In my 10+ year agency career, one of the biggest challenges was hiring and developing SEOs. When things were great, they were amazing but when things were hard they were downright brutal. This article does a good job of looking at a combination of hard skills AND soft skills (timely given Tom’s post above) and how to suss them out with applicants and growing a fantastic team.
The complete Wix SEO guide: Everything you need to know
Mordy Oberstein, Wix.com
You likely saw from the WiX sponsorship above that they launched their new SEO resource hub. This is one of the guides I want you to review. The WIX team has gotten a lot of praise for this guide and Mordy + George’s (WIX editor) blood sweat and tears were well worth it.
How to Audit Your Schema Markup
Brian Harnish, iloveseo.com
I know a lot of SEOs (mostly content-focused) that get very intimidated by schema markup and therefore ignore it. If you are one of these individuals, stop it. Guides like this one are a great introductory to what schema markup is and how you can audit the schema used (or should be used). Brian walks you through a really good process complete with tools that you’re likely to already have available to you.
You Made It To The Bottom. You’re AWESOME!
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Learn About The Guy Behind The #SEOForLunch
Nick LeRoy is a freelance SEO Consultant specializing in SEO services for enterprise-level businesses. You can read more about his approach to SEO and his services here.
Nick is the author of two SEO-focused newsletters: #SEOForLunch and The SEO Freelancer and co-owner of the boutique job board SEOjobs.com
Connect with Nick online through Twitter and LinkedIn.
