SEO From The Front Lines

By: Glenn Gabe
  • Summary

  • Glenn Gabe covers the latest Google algorithm updates, the latest changes in Search, and other disturbances in the SEO force. And he'll do this in less than 15 minutes per episode.
    Glenn Gabe
    Show more Show less
Episodes
  • How To Properly Block Content Violating Google's Site Reputation Abuse Spam Policy
    Feb 22 2025

    Google recently rolled out two additional waves of manual actions for site reputation abuse targeting the EU (including Germany in the second wave). As I’ve been analyzing those drops, I noticed that sites are handling content violating the spam policy in several ways (and some are not the correct ways). For example, disallowing via robots.txt and canonicalizing are NOT valid approaches. Instead, noindexing or removing the content completely are the correct methods for dealing with a manual action for site reputation abuse.


    In this video, I cover four methods that are being employed now by site owners and why only two are valid. I provide specific examples of sites using each approach and how that worked, or didn’t work, for the site at hand.


    Companion blog post covering the topic: https://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/how-to-block-content-site-reputation-abuse/


    Chapters:

    00:00 New manual actions for site reputation abuse and how sites are trying to block content

    00:49 Disallowing via robots.txt (NOT VALID)

    03:39 Canonicalizing site reputation abuse content (NOT VALID)

    04:35 Noindexing content (VALID)

    05:44 User-agent blocking

    06:15 Removing content completely (VALID)

    06:50 Summary: Two valid choices for blocking content for site reputation abuse


    Follow me on X: https://x.com/glenngabe

    Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/glenngabe/

    I’m on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/glenngabe.bsky.social


    Show more Show less
    8 mins
  • The Twiddler That Didn’t Twiddle - How To Track Clicks and Click-Through Rate For Google’s AI Overviews (But You Need A Manual Action!)
    Jan 30 2025

    GSC data for AI overviews, including clicks and click-through rate, has been nearly impossible to view... UNTIL NOW. But there's a catch. You need a manual action! My latest episode covers my blog post titled The Twiddler That Didn’t Twiddle – How To Track Clicks and Click Through Rate For Google’s AI Overviews (but only if you have a manual action.)


    In this video I explain the loophole in Google right now where sites with manual actions can still rank well in AIOs even when they are heavily demoted (or removed) from ranking in the core search results (10-blue links). But I also explain that you better move fast. I don't know how long it take before Google closes that loophole.


    This may be one of the few times (or only time) a manual action will benefit a site owner.


    Chapters:

    00:00 Introduction - When the Twiddler Doesn't Twiddle

    00:50 Murky and Confusing AIO Performance Data

    01:29 Google's loophole where sites with a manual action can rank in AI overviews

    02:42 Lily Ray's tweet and my retweet about sites ranking in AIOs with manual actions

    03:07 Twiddler Down! When Twiddlers don't Twiddle

    03:54 How deindexing with manual actions works

    04:40 The maddening adventure of tracking AIOs

    05:39 You couldn't see pure AIO performance data... until now!

    06:20 Steps for tracking pure AIO data in Google Search Console

    08:10 Examples of AIO clicks and CTR in Google Search Console

    09:20 Click-through rate with #1 AIO rankings.

    10:20 A note about using regex in GSC to combine queries.

    11:17 Summary - The only time a manual action can benefit a site owner.


    Blog post: https://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/how-to-track-aio-performance-gsc-manual-action/


    Follow me on X: https://x.com/glenngabe

    Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/glenngabe/

    I'm on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/glenngabe.bsky.social

    Show more Show less
    12 mins
  • Google Algorithm Updates, ML Classifiers, Precision, and the Impact To Collateral Damage
    Jan 23 2025

    Interested in the amount of collateral damage that can occur when major Google algorithm updates roll out? Well, a recent appearance by Mark Zuckerberg on the Joe Rogan podcast provides a great explanation of how classifiers, confidence levels, and precision work with machine learning algorithms. He also covered how adjusting confidence can impact the amount of collateral damage occurring when updates roll out. And if you swap “Social” for “Search”, Zuckerberg could be talking about any major Google algorithm update.


    In this video, I cover Mark's comments about classifiers and collateral damage, I cover how classifiers are used by Google with major algorithm updates (and part of its core rankings systems), I cover yo-yo trending and why that can happen with certain sites, and I end by covering the future of broad core updates (from my perspective).


    Blog post: https://www.gsqi.com/marketing-blog/classifiers-confidence-and-google-algorithm-updates/


    00:00 Introduction

    00:39 Mark Zuckerberg about classifiers, confidence levels, and collateral damage.

    01:58 The connection to SEO and Google algorithm updates.

    03:18 The September 2023 Helpful Content Update (HCUX)

    04:23 Classifiers and Google's guide to search ranking systems

    05:18 Yo-yo trending with Google updates

    06:25 The 'Kitchen Sink' approach to remediation is the path forward.

    07:17 The future of Google's broad core updates.

    09:02 Wrapping up.


    Follow me on X: https://x.com/glenngabe

    Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/glenngabe/

    I'm on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/glenngabe.bsky.social



    Show more Show less
    10 mins

What listeners say about SEO From The Front Lines

Average customer ratings

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.