Google’s Generative AI Prohibited Use Policy Gets Fresh Update

Google has updated its “Generative AI Prohibited Use Policy” document on 17th December 2024. The recent update is about the clarification of the generative AI banned usages.

Google has clarified that it prohibits the use of generative AI. Deceptive content practices, such as harmful, illicit, and explicit content, are already against Google’s policies.

Google prohibits these types of contents in the Generative AI document. The use of deception, deepfake, and explicit content is strictly prohibited.

Here is what you should learn from the Generative AI Prohibited Use Policy December 2024 update.

Google’s Generative AI Prohibited Use Policy Gets Fresh Update: eAskme

Generative AI Prohibited Use Policy:

Google prohibited harmful generative AI practices. Even if you are using Google’s own AI tools for creating or sharing content, it is still against Google’s policies.

The malware, phishing, and spammy activities are banned.

Google wants you to behave responsibly and use Google’s AI tools in a safe and legitimate manner.

Generative AI Prohibited Activities:

Here is the answer.

Any type of illegal, dangerous, and unethical content is against Google’s policies.

Illegal Content:

Illegal use of AI-generated content, such as terrorism, child exploitation, self-harm, violent extremism, and intimate images, is prohibited.

Security Violations:

Content that violates user security, such as spam, malware, and phishing, is known as security violations.

Harmful and Explicit Content:

Content that is harmful or explicit is prohibited. Abusive, explicit, harassing, and hate speech come under this category.

Misinformation and Deception:

Content created to spread misinformation with misleading claims is prohibited.

In other words, content that is harmful for society, and humans are against Google’s AI use policies.
But there are exceptions.

What are the exceptions?

The use of AI for educational purposes is not prohibited. Documentaries, journalists, scientific, and artistic content that make society aware of the threats get exceptions.

Why Is It Important?

In the era of AI, businesses are launching generative AI tools. Generative AI tools are there to help users with research, content, images, videos, and audio.

But unethical use of AI tools will negatively impact society. It is necessary to educate users about the ethical and unethical use of AI for a better future.

Conclusion:

Google added clarity to its Generative AI Prohibited Use Policy document. The document explains when AI is prohibited and what the exceptions are.

Google is not the only one asking users to be responsible when using AI. Meta, Microsoft, and OpenAI are also educating users and webmasters to use AI responsibly.

The power of generative AI is in the hands of every person. Gemini, ChatGPT, Copilot, Gork, WhatsApp AI, and Meta AI are easily accessible. More people are using these tools.

Spread awareness about the use of generative AI to protect society and businesses.
 
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SiteWide and Page-Level Signals: What Matter for Google Rankings

Google has updated its ranking system guide document to clear the impact of page-level and site-level ranking.

Google’s document explains that both site-level ranking and page-level ranking influence search position. While page-level ranking is the first signal that matters, it is the wide signal that impacts the organic traffic.

SiteWide and Page-Level Signals: What Matter for Google Rankings: eAskme

In my study, I also found that sitewide ranking signals do not guarantee that every page of the website ranks higher; at the same time, a low ranking of the website is not the metric to tell that a page cannot rank in search.

This time, rather than telling us something new, Google brings clarification to ranking signals.

Sitewide and Page-Level Signals:

Google’s ranking system guide explains that Google’ not only focuses on sitewide ranking but also individual pages.

A strong or poor sitewide ranking signal cannot influence the ranking of every page.

It is one of the very few times that Google has clarified its ranking signals.

Here is what the Google Ranking System Guide says:

Google’s ranking works on page level but also considers site-wide signals. Both contribute to the overall ranking of the content. Google considers both page-wise and site-wide ranking signals.

What Does the Google Ranking System Guide Explain?

Google made it clear that it considers both page-level and sitewide ranking signals.

Google’s ranking system document update cleared doubts about the ranking factors. It helps you improve the overall content quality of your website.

Conclusion:

Google’s updates are targeting low-quality and spammy content. It also punishes sites with site reputation abuse, expired domain abuse, and scaled content abuse.

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Google Shopping Launched In-Store AI-Powered Tools

Google empowered its "Google Shopping" with AI. Google Lens is the most powerful tool for helping online shoppers find products to buy using photos.

Google has also launched a product search feature on Google Maps to help customers find nearby stores. The company expanded its security features to make payments more secure and reliable.

Google's new shopping features are available ahead of the shopping season 2024. And here is what you must know.

Google Shopping:

Google launched AI-powered "Google Shopping" in October 2024. Now, Google is adding shopping features to Lens and Google Maps. At the same time, it is making payment processing secure for users.

Here are the notable features launched for holiday shoppers.

Google Lens and Maps:

Google Lens is not a new feature, but it is less used for shopping even though people use it to find products listed in online shops.

Google said that "Google Lens" was used for 20 billion searches, and 20% of the searches were related to shopping products. 72% of Americans use smartphones even when they are shopping in-store.

Google is now empowering "Google Lens" with shopping features.

According to Google," new feature launched because of the AI capabilities. The company has 45 billion shopping products listed in stock inventory.

Google is releasing a shopping feature on Google Maps for beauty products, electronics, and toys. Right now, the feature is available only in the United States.

How to access Google Lens Shopping Feature?

Opt for location sharing in Google Android or iOS app to access Google Lens shopping features.

Find out "Products Near me":

Google's hopping feature also displays the products near you. Check the product, and it will display the list of stores near you selling that product.

Safe Payment Processing:

Google Pay users already access features like "Buy Now, Pay Later," and Google is now introducing "After Pay."

Another feature, "Klarna," is on the way.

Customers can make payments using virtual cards such as American Express, Citi Card, and Capital One.
Google is testing fraud detection services to safeguard online payments.

Conclusion:

The holiday and shopping season is here, and Google is ready for it.

The new AI-powered Google Shopping features help customers find nearby stores selling their desired products. Google will roll out more features in the coming weeks and months to empower online shopping.

Are you ready for this?

Let me know via comments.

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• Google Site Reputation Abuse Policy: Update and How to Protect Your Website
  
• How Google Makes Online Shopping Safe? 3 Ways for You!
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Google Site Reputation Abuse Policy: Update and How to Protect Your Website

Google's spam policy is against the site reputation abuse. Most sites under site reputation abuse are publishing third-party content without proper involvement. And this part of content is getting published on the sites to get rank juice from established sites.

Google made it clear that even first-party involvement in the content cannot prevent the site from reputation abuse. In most cases, clients are trying to exploit the ranking signals of the host website.

Google's Site Reputation Abuse Policy:

According to Google's Site Reputation Abuse Policy document, site reputation abuse is part of parasite SEO. It is a manipulative practice of stealing or influencing ranking from the host site.

Google's search quality member, Chris Nelson, posted on X (formerly Twitter) that site reputation abuse is damaging user experience. Google is cracking down on those websites.

Google first enforced its site reputation abuse policy in May 2024.

Sites like LATimes, CNN, USA Today, and major news agencies face manual penalties.

Glenn Glabe, SEO Consultant at G-Squared, posted

Here's my tweet with an example. USA Today, CNN and LA Times are missing from the top 10... when they were there yesterday for the query. Stay tuned. https://t.co/MxcxPF0Ksw

— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) May 6, 2024

Google's Clarification:

In a recent update, Google clarified that third-party content published on a host website to influence ranking signals is against the search engine's guidelines. Even if the content is published by the webmaster, it still has no value for the user.

Google has reviewed thousands of websites and their structure before making this clarification.

What is the Site Reputation Abuse Violation?

Site reputation abuse policy violence examples are:

• News websites are publishing discount coupons.
• Sports websites are publishing medical content.
• Health websites are publishing casino content.
• Educational websites are publishing financial content.
• Movie websites publishing social media news.

What is not a Site Reputation Abuse Violation?

According to Google, legitimate practices are not against Google policies.

• Syndicated content
• UGC content on forums
• Editorial content
• Advertisement disclosure
• Affiliate Disclosure

Conclusion:

Google is making site reputation abuse policy part of its algorithm updates. This way, the Google algorithm will automatically detect violations of the site's reputation policy and penalize such websites.

Check your search console to find out any violation notification.

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Google AIO Is Ranking Topic-Specific Sites

Google's AI Overviews ranks niche-specific websites in its results. In other words, micro niche sites have better chances to rank in Google AIOs than multiniche sites from brands.

BrightEdge has published a study analyzing the changes in Google AI overviews. New results show that topic-specific blogs or websites are getting more space than branded websites.

And all this has changed with Google's Core Update.

Google Core Update and AI Overviews:

SEO experts have already speculated that AIO results will display content from top-ranking sites. The real story is not so different. Google AI Overviews are mirroring organic results.

After the August 2024 Core update, AIOs started displaying niche-specific websites in the results.

BrightEdge's AI Overviews Study:

Here is what the BrightEdge Study shows:

• Since the August 2024 core update, AI Overviews have been displaying 41% of results from top-ranking pages.
• AIOs focus on topic-specific websites.
• AI overviews will focus on organic results rather than extracting content from non-ranking sites.
• AIO is ranking low-ranking websites for topic-specific results.
• Google's August 15th Core Update has changed how sites rank in organic results and AIOs.
• AIO results match the ranking of the top 100 websites for the search query.
• New and topic-specific websites are getting more exposure.
• AIO results are all about the topic.

BrightEdge used its dataset for this study.

BrightEdge Dataset includes Data Cube X, content analytics, and SEO platforms.

Data Cube X focus on:

• Organic Keyword Research
• Competition analysis
• AI-powered keyword and topic research
• Organic traffic

Google AI Overviews Expansion:

Google has expanded AIO to non-registered users. This means that regardless of whether you have a Google account, you will still see AIO results for any query.

This way, Google is ensuring that more users develop the habit of using AIO results over other organic pages.

AIO results are not industry-specific. Google delivers AIO results for every query.

Non-registered or non-login users will not see AIO results in the following scenarios:

• Education
• Healthcare
• B2B Tech

Non-logged-in eCommerce users will see 90% less AIO results as compared to logged-in users.

At the same time, Google displays product grids to non-signed-in users.

Google AIO and Product Comparisons:

The holiday season is coming, and Google AIO is ready for it. It displays product comparisons to help buyers decide.

• 172% growth in apparel-related queries in August 2024.
• 42% increase in the use of unordered lists.

AI overviews provide user-friendly product comparisons. It will undoubtedly impact the buyer's decision.
The user can compare products with visuals and statistics. AIO is using high-quality images, which is an indication for marketers to use HD images in eCommerce product listings.

Another thing that marketers should learn from AIO results is that it feeds on data. The more and accurate data your listing has, the better your influence on buyers' decisions.

When it comes to comparing eCommerce products, context becomes essential. Comparison is the best way to do it. Compare products and let users know which is the best.

Google AI Overviews Getting Better:

Google is ranking topic-specific content in AIO results. In most results, you will find the content from the top 100 pages used to answer searchers' queries.

For example, to learn blogging, you will go to an online course on learning blogging rather than visit HuffingtonPost.

Conclusion:

Google is increasing the top-ranking pages in the AIO results. Product comparisons are helping customers and will become more precise throughout the holiday season.

Google's organic results and AI Overviews are displayed side by side. The focus is on highlighting topic-specific results for the user's query.

BrightEdge has published the timeline of changes in AI Overviews.

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Google Gemini Launched in Chrome Address Bar: How to Use it?

Google made Gemini the part of the Google Chrome address bar. Now Gemini is accessible to users without opening the Gemini app.

It is a new feature for Chrome users. All you need is to type “@Gemini” in the address bar to access Gemini in chrome.

Google Gemini at Chrome Address Bar: eAskme

Google Gemini in Chrome:

If you are searching for something, then type your query following @gemini.

Gemini is accessible on Chrome app and Chrome desktop browser.

How to use Gemini in Google Chrome:

• Open Chrome.
• Type @ and choose “Chat with Gemini.”
• Enter your query, question, or prompt.
• Gemini will generate relevant responses to your input.

Why Gemini Launched in Google Chrome?

Google Chrome has a massive user base with a 65.18% market share.

Releasing Gemini in Google Chrome makes it easy for Google to target a massive user base. With Gemini’s Chrome integration, it is becoming accessible to existing audiences without making any significant changes.

What are the Gemini’s Capabilities and Limitations?

Gemini is a generative AI tool from Google. It has capabilities and limitations like many other Generative AI tools.

It can produce quick results. But at the same time some results can be biased.

With Browser integration, it is becoming one of the very few AI assistants that let users use AI without leaving the browser.

Popular Browser-integration Generative AI tools are:

• Opera AI
• Mozilla Open Source AI
• Microsoft Co-pilot
• Bing AI
• Gemini

Other Gemini features:

Gemini Gems:

• Gemini Gems was launched to help AI experts deal with complex tasks.
• Create custom instructions for coding, career planning, and content creation.
• Do SEO work such as crawling, analyzing, and content suggestions.

Gemini AI Image Generation:

Google lost $96 billion when AI image generator made mistakes. Google’s AI Image generation helps you generate images and test image ideas.

• Support English language only.
• Enhance picture quality.
• Prevent wrong results.
• Restrictions to make AI responsible.Accessible with Gemini Advances, Enterprise, and Business plans.

Conclusion:

Gemini is accessible easily in Chrome browser. Now existing Chrome users can access Gemini without any app.

It is best to test and learn how Gemini works, as AI is the next big thing in your career. Not only from the user’s point of view but from the business view, it is necessary to learn the latest technologies.

While AI is helping users to complete tasks quickly, it also raises concerns about data usage, privacy and online security.

Google is trying hard to make AI responsible for users.

Stay tuned to know what more is coming.

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Google Search Console Recommendations: How to Use Them?

Google launched the "Recommendations" feature in the search console. Now, your Search Console dashboard also displays recommendations for SEO. These recommendations include rich results, videos, performance data, and queries.

Google Search Console is a helpful platform for understanding website issues. Finding those issues helps you take the next step and fix them.

But there was nothing that Google clearly recommended you do.

Google Search Console Recommendations: eAskme

But, with Google Search Console Recommendations, you are getting issues in front of your eyes. It also provides suggestions to fix those issues.

Here is everything you must know about Google Search Console Recommendations.

Google Search Console Recommendations:

Google’s Search Console Recommendations feature is available for a few users and is still in “experimental” mode. Sites that receive “Recommendations” in the Search Console can fix issues and improve their website’s performance.

It is far from Google's responsibility to tell you how to improve your website’s crawlability, indexing, and search presence.

The information was already in the Search Console, but Google is making it clear with recommendations.
With the help of Google’s recommendations, SEOs can fix issues to improve indexing and ranking.

Accessibility of Recommendations:

• Google Search Console Recommendations feature is not available for every user.
• It is an experimental feature.
• The recommendations feature will roll out to other sites in the coming weeks or months.
• Not every site will get recommendations all the time.
• Recommendations will be displayed in your dashboard when Google finds them relevant.
• Google can even set the expiration date for these recommendations.

How Google Search Console Recommendations Can Help You?

If you are interested in improving your website SEO, these “Recommendations” will be very helpful.
As Google itself sends recommendations, it becomes more effective.

Search Console Recommendations will help you to:

• Save time as you get issues in front of your eyes with the solution.
• It is a simplified version of Search Console reports.
• Recommendations have great value as it displays what Google wants you to do before anything else.
• Recommendations also display trending queries on your website. You can use them to improve your content.
• With recommendations, you can find out the ways to fix the issues.

Conclusion:

Google Search Console Recommendations is an excellent feature. It will help web admins who are struggling with Search Console reports. With these recommendations, you can quickly identify issues and rectify them to improve your Google search rankings.

Note: Google Search Console Recommendations are in experimental mode and may not display in your Search Console until Google rolls out this feature worldwide.

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Google Support AVIF Images: Why It Matters for SEO?

Google will display AVIF images in Google Image Search and Google Search. Not only that, but it will also display AVIF image format on multiple platforms. The advantage to SEO is that AVIF images can dramatically improve Core Web Vitals score due to their low size.

Google Support AVIF Images: Why It Matters for SEO?: eAskme

What is AVIF?

AVIF is a next-gen image file format which can reduce the image size by up to 50%. It combines the best features of PNG, GIF, and JPEG file formats.

If you want to use transparent images or HD photos, you can still use AVIF to display images with better compression without losing the quality.

How can AVIF Help SEO?

AVIF (AV1 Image File Format) images a lower in size as compared to JPEG. Low images are easy to render and thus quickly get indexed in Google Search or Image Search. Fast rendering helps in fast crawling and indexing.

Image optimization is the part of SEO.

Google Craw Budget documents also teach you to increase page load time to avoid Host-load warnings.
The faster your website is, the better Googlebot can crawl it.

Google Automatically Index AVIF Images:

Google is now supporting AVIF images in its search results. All AVIF images will automatically get indexed. There is nothing that you should do.

AVIF vs WebP:

Similar to AVIF, WebP is also a next-gen image file format that lowers the file size. WebP is best when you want to display the quality of an image with a compressed size. But AVIF is better when you are uploading more than one image.

Which Browser Supports AVIF?

• Chrome
• Safari
• Firefox
• Edge
• Opera

Does every blogging platform support AVIF images?

• WordPress
• Joomla
• Cloudflare supports AVIF images

Blogger/Blogspot does not support AVIF image format.

W3Techs reported that only 0.2% of websites are using AVIF images. After Google’s latest announcement, it is expected that more websites will adopt AVIF as their image format.

Which Social Media Platforms Support AVIF?

• Facebook
• Threads
• Pinterest
• WhatsApp

Which Social Media Platforms Do Not Support AVIF?

• LinkedIn
• X (Formerly Twitter)
• Slack
• Mastodon

Conclusion:

AVIF is a new way to index images in Google Search. They are fast, smaller in size, and manageable to render. But before you make a significant change in your image format. Please ensure that you do not mess with user experience.

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Google Search Result Integrates Internet Archive Links

Google’s new collaboration with the Internet Archive allows it to use and rank Internet archive links in search results. This will help users who want to access older pages or earlier versions of the latest pages.

Google is integrating the Internet Archive in its “About this result” feature. Soon, global Google users will have access to the Internet Archive in search results.

There are 866 billion webpages on the internet. Internet Archive Wayback machine has stored snapshots of those pages.

How to Access About Internet Archive Pages with Google Search Results?

Internet Archive Pages will be displayed as part of the “About this result.”

• Go to “About this result.”
• Click on “More about this page.”
• Now, you will see the archived page.

Why Older Pages in Search Results?

Researchers and analysts are looking for older versions of the latest pages. Adding them to the search results is the easiest way to make these pages available for users. “About this page” is the best place to display Internet Archive links.

Internet Archive and Benefit:

The Internet Archive has been collecting screenshots of webpages for the past 25 years. Mark Graham has explained that thousands of websites left the Internet, and millions of content pages vanished from search results.

This collaboration will bring those pages to life, which can add more value to the user experience.

What You Should Know?

• Websites that opt out of the Internet Archive database will not display in search results.
• Google is bringing historical web content to life with this collaboration.
• These results will help you to find out how information has changed over the years.
• Google Search is already displaying Internet Archive pages in search results.

How will Internet Archive Integration in Google Search impact SEOs and Organic Traffic?

It is best to see how Internet Archive results in Google searches will impact SEO and organic traffic. Will users click older pages to find more information? Will these pages send traffic to the website?

Websites will not get additional traffic as the web archive adds its URL structure in the snapshot and its links.

Conclusion:

Google’s collaboration with the Internet Archive will bring back the older pages in search results. However, these will not replace the new pages but serve as additional sources of information. You can access them under the “About this result” section.

Stay tuned to know what more is coming.

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Google Launched CloudVertexBot AI Crawler for Commerical Users

On August 20, 2024, Google launched the Vertex AI Crawler for commercial users. With the help of this new AI crawler, webmasters can identify website crawler traffic. Vertex AI uses the Google-CloudVertexBot and Googlebot user agents but will only work when site admins make a request.

If you don't know what Vertex AI is, now is your chance to learn everything about it.

Google-CloudVertexBot Vertex AI Crawler: eAskme

Google Vertex AI Crawler:

Vertex AI is a full-fledged platform for building and testing generative AIs. It uses AI Studio, foundation models, Gemini Pro, and Gemini Flash. Google is offering $300 worth of free credits to new customers.

Google has also launched a new crawler named Google-CloudVertexBot.

What Does It Do?

Google-CloudVertexBot crawls websites for AI clients. In other words, it operates differently from traditional crawlers.

While other Googlebot crawlers automatically crawl websites, Google-CloudVertexBot only works when an AI user makes a request. It has multiple data stores, but each data store can save only one type of data.

There are two major types of website crawling and indexing:

• Basic
• Advanced

According to Google’s documentation, Vertex AI data stores access data from indexed websites. Commercial users can set up domains and search for crawlers.

Basic Website Crawling and Indexing:

Vertex AI uses a fraction of indexed content to crawl.

Advanced Website Crawling and Indexing:

Google-CloudVertexBot uses advanced crawling and indexing techniques. It is necessary to verify domain ownership before making a crawl request. There is also a crawl and indexing budget. The AI crawler will only crawl the webmasters’ websites on request and will not access other websites that are not verified by the user.

Conclusion:

The Vertex AI crawler is different from the Googlebot crawler that automatically crawls and indexes websites. It is available only for commercial users and will only crawl websites verified by the account holder.

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Google AI Overviews Launched in 6 Countries

Google search results now display AI Overviews results in 6 countries. It is also improving AI Overviews' language capabilities with in-text links. A new save function was also introduced.

Google AI Overviews was first launched in the USA in May 2024. Now, it is expanding to countries outside the USA.

Google AI Overviews Launched in 6 Countries: eAskme

Google AI Overviews Launched is 6 Countries:

Users from the United Kingdom, Brazil, Mexico, India, Indonesia, and Japan will also get AI Overviews in search results.

While SEOs are complaining about the drop in referral traffic due to AI overviews, Google is determined to roll out this feature to more countries in the coming months.

According to Google, AI Overviews will deliver more website traffic and become a long-term tool to increase search presence.

New Features of Google AI Overviews:

Google has also launched new features in AI Overviews, such as:

• Users will see a new resource link of relevant websites or blogs.
• Testing in-text links.
• New save function to save AI Overviews.
• Ease of language for some queries.

Google claimed that people are more engaged with AI overviews than general search results. They ask more extended questions and engage in human-like conversations.

Impact on Publishers:

Google AI results deliver high-quality traffic. This also means that AI overviews will display top-ranking results as links. However, there is no clear indication of how it will impact a publisher.

In-text links can lead users to websites, but it is unclear how many users will follow those links.

The SEO community is worried about the fact that AI-generated results will give summarized solutions to the users, and they will never click the link to learn more.

Google’s AI Overviews and User’s Reaction:

Google is taking a positive stand about AI overviews. The company is clearly going to roll out AI overviews in more countries and for more queries. Users also interact with AI Overviews, which makes the search engine believe that the results are beneficial.

Conclusion:

Google is trying everything to help users. It is running a business to bring quality searches in front of the searchers. AI Overviews is Google’s effort to improve the search market with quality results that its algorithm believes are better than other sites.

Now, it all depends on the user’s response. If users are satisfied with AI overviews, then they will be the most effective part of Google search.

What do you think?

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Google Webmaster Guidelines: Everything that You Must Know

Google webmaster guidelines help you and SEO professionals create a website according to Google's expectations.

With the help of the latest Google Webmaster Guidelines, a webmaster can improve SEO techniques to meet Google's guidelines.

You cannot ignore these guidelines. Ignoring webmaster guidelines will make you invite a manual penalty or algorithm penalty.

Google Webmaster Guidelines: Everything that You Must Know: eAskme

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If the issue is significant, then Google can ban your website from showing in SERP.

Understand Google Webmaster Guidelines to avoid potential damage to your website or blog.

According to Google's guidelines, there are multiple ways you can optimize your blog, content, or website.

Garry lllyes and John Muller has answered a lot of questions on Twitter also.

Most of the time, these guidelines are talking straight to the point.

Google keep on updating webmaster guidelines.

It is necessary to keep an eye on these guidelines and stay updated. It will help you know about any changes.

For example, Google guidelines say that your website must be HTML/CSS and code must validate with W3C.

It is not a direct sign to get a better ranking. But it will surely improve user experience as cross-browser compatibility is essential for user experience.

Google Webmaster Guidelines is to guide you about solving specific issues to better your blog or website.

What are the Google Webmaster Guidelines?

I can divide Google webmaster guidelines into four parts such as;

• Content Specific-guidelines
• General guidelines
• Quality Guidelines
• Webmaster Guidelines

Webmaster Guidelines:

Webmaster guidelines is the set of best practices that you must follow to improve your blog or website.

This strategy will help to improve your overall Google search ranking.

The other three guidelines help you save your site from penalties.

General Guidelines:

In general guidelines, you will find best practices to help your blog or website look better in SERP.

Content-specific guidelines:

As the name suggests, content specific guidelines are the best practices to improve how you should use the image, videos, text, and any other type of content on your blog or website.

Quality Guidelines:

Ignoring quality guidelines can get your website banned. It is a must that you should follow Google webmaster quality guidelines.

The reason behind the availability of these guidelines is to help you save your site from Google penalties. These guidelines also tell that you should not write spammy content and focus more on users than search engines.

It is easy to say.

It is a challenge to create a website or blog, according to Google's Webmaster Guidelines.

But by understanding Google Webmaster Guidelines, you will be aware of what to do and what you must avoid.

After understanding Google Webmaster Guidelines, the ne3xt thing is to implement them on your website.

Use Relevant Keywords:

Make your blog/website discoverable.

The best way is to find relevant keywords is by following the top-ranking webpage and seeing what keywords they are using in the title and description.

For this, you should run the competitor analysis of the top-ranking website or blogs in your niche.

Many tools will help you run competitor analysis and find out how these sites are using keywords.

Issues:

You can have a website with no keyword at all.

You may have a list of keywords that all are branded, but no one has thought about optimizing the content or website.

Fix:

You need to do a lot of work. Run competitor analysis and find out the opportunities to optimize the keywords.

Remember: You can even optimize the terrible websites.

Internal-Linking:

You must link pages or posts so that they can reach by links from other discoverable posts or pages.

This makes internal linking important. Internal linking also helps to avoid dead pages issue.

Links are part of websites. You must optimize contextual links, navigation menu and breadcrumbs.

Make all the links crawlable by Google. It is essential for a great user experience. Do not repeat the same anchor text again and again.

Combine keywords with different but relevant phrases.

A strong website structure is when the webmaster hierarchically links the pages or posts.

This makes it easy for Google to understand the structure.

Issue:

Some sites have a lot of orphan pages.

Fix:

The easiest way to fix orphan pages is by linking to them from other relevant pages on your website. Else delete them.

Reasonable Linking:

Do not make your blog post or Website page look like your sitemap.

Google has made it clear that you should not use 100+ links on a page. But it does not mean that you must add 100 links to every page.

Linking become fruitful when relevant.

Add links according to the need and relevance. Take the user's point of view.

Too many links will make your content look like spam.

Issue:

Some sites may have hundreds or thousands of links on many pages. This becomes a problem when Google crawl such pages.

Fix:

Reduce the number of links.

Robots.txt and Crawling:

Robots.txt can help you optimize your crawl budget so that Google can easily crawl your blog or websites.

There are two ways to optimize your crawl budget;

• Optimize links on the blog or website
• Optimize robots.txt

Google has published this guide, to help you understand how to optimize robots.txt for better crawling.

Issue:

You may find sites that use robots.txt to block search engines from crawling the content or complete the website.

You may have a site that does not have sitemap.xml in robots.txt.

Fix:

Remove Disallow: /

Add directive to display sitemap location.

Create content-rich pages with a clear voice:

Google Webmaster Guidelines talks about information-rich pages. It may not be easy to find information-rich relevant competitors.

Information-rich term changes according to niche or industry.

With the help of competitor analysis, you will learn:

• What your competitors are writing about
• How top-ranking sites are writing about different topics.

Structure of your competitor's website.

Answers to these questions will help you understand how to follow webmaster guidelines.

Issues:

Sites with thin content.

Word count is undoubtedly not the end-all factor to improve your content ranking. Yet, it is essential for creating information-rich content.

Fix:

Get rid of thin content. Work on your content strategy.

Keywords and Queries:

What are people searching to find your posts or pages?

Keyword research will answer.

With the help of keyword research, you will learn how people are searching to visit your website.

An effective keyword research strategy is what you need.

You will focus on the target audience according to the site's niche or nature during useful keyword research.

It is essential to understand the buyer's persona.

Once you discover the target keywords, then you can easily do on-page optimization.

On-page optimization is also about how many pages on your website are mention the target keyword or query.

For the success of SEO, it is necessary to perform useful keyword research based on targeting.

Issue:

You may have a site with all the branded keywords. The chances are that the site content is not updated with relevant keywords, phrases, and queries.

Fix:

The best way to fix it is by optimizing keywords in your content. Use LSI keywords, queries, and targeted keywords rather than only using branded keywords.

Only use the keyword that your users are typing to find your pages.

This way, you make the visitors understand your blog posts or pages.

Hierarchy:

Have you organized your website by topical relevance?

Conceptual page hierarchy is essential for SEO.

Keep main topics on the top and subtopics under the main. This strategy is known as SEO silos.
Use the deeper conceptual page hierarchy.

You may consider creating a hierarchy that the main page should not go far away from 3 clicks or create in-depth content with hierarchy.

Must create a site that gives in-depth information.

Issue:

Your blog or site has unorganized posts or pages just there to fill your blog with content.

Fix:

Create a siloed architecture. Display your topical focus. It will help to improve ranking.

Crawl and index:

Make your whole blog and website crawlable and indexable.

Don't block Javascript or CSS.

Giving Google access to a complete website makes it easy for the search engine to understand your website thoroughly.

Issue:

You may have a site that blocks javascript and CSS using robots.txt.

Fix:

Use robots.txt to unblock CSS and javascript.

Important Content:

Ensure that the essential content of your blog or website is crawlable and visible by default. You should not hide important information behind tabs, buttons, etc.

Display important information in default page view.

Tabbed content is usually less accessible to visitors.

Issue:

You may have a site with tabbed content.

Fix:

Create fully visible content.

Google Webmaster Guidelines are Must to Follow:

Google webmaster guidelines are trustworthy guidelines.

These are not the rules, yet if you ignore them, then you will only make your website fall behind everyone else.

Always stay on Google's right side and prevent manual actions.

If your website hit manual actions, start working on fixing the issues.

Remember: Google has Introduced 12 new manual action penalties.

In case you have a terrible website, redesign it and its content.

p>Use Google Webmaster Guidelines knowledge to identify issues and fix them before it is too late. It is worth following Google's Webmaster Guidelines.

For stable online performance, you must follow these guidelines.

You have questions? Share via comments.

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Is Content a Google Search Ranking Factor or Not?

Is Content a Google search ranking factor? Do you optimize Content for Google search ranking? Can Content influence rankings?

Content is the king, is the oldest saying in the SEO and marketing industry. Without content, there can be no search, no marketing, and nothing else. You cannot do anything without content.

Is Content a Google Search Ranking Factor or Not?: eAskme

But how much Google cares about it? Let's find out today.

Let's understand everything about content and its impact on search results.

Content:

Content is information that you share to display your expertise, knowledge, products, and services to others.

Content is everything that you can find on a website like eAskme.

But does Content impact your Google search position? Let's find out.

Claim: Content is a Google Ranking Factor

Content is the basis of every website or app. Engaging with readers, ranking in Google searches, and boosting organic traffic is necessary.

Almost every person in the business understands the potential of high-quality content and its impact on search results.

Search engines like Google rely on content. Without content, Google cannot display anything.

It is a part of search engines, algorithms, marketing campaigns, etc.

Evidence: Content is a Ranking Factor

Google's "How Search Works" explains how content automatically generates results. When ranking a website or webpage, Google focuses on meaning, relevance, quality, usability, and content.

And everything comes from the content.

Google explains that its system analyzes content relevance to rank it in SERP.

It also means that the Google system understands the queries and the intent behind those queries.

Ten years ago, it was easy to create a website that ranked with a clean design, audience targeting, valuable content, site structure, etc.

Even after a decade, Google has preferred valuable content when ranking your website or page.

Google's "Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Starter Guide" explains image optimization, video optimization, website performance, SEO, and site in search console.

How to Create Valuable Content?

To create a valuable content experience, it is a must to create content that has the following ingredients:

• Create content to satisfy user intent.
• Use easy-to-read language.
• Optimize images, videos, and other types of content.
• Create scalable, unique, and fresh content.
• Use evergreen content.
• Display authority and expertise using data and research.
• Add enough information to satisfy users' needs.
• Optimize links.
• Avoid ad manipulation.

Google is interested in content that is trustworthy, expert, and authoritative.

Google's John Muller also said that Google looks at the whole content instead of just H1 tags.

Evidence: Content is not a Google Search Ranking Factor

There is no single piece of evidence to support this theory. The reason is simple: content is only possible with it.

Content search is only possible with content search.

Conclusion: Content is a Google Search Ranking Factor

Content is the soul of every business. Search engines rely entirely on content and quality.

Content quality is among the top 3 ranking signals in Google search results.

Create evergreen, exceptional, trustworthy content to rank better and improve organic position.

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Is Canonicalization a Google Search Ranking Factor or Not?

Is canonicalization a Google search ranking factor? Do you want to optimize the canonicalization strategy for Google search ranking? Can canonicalization influence rankings?

Search engines want you to use canonical tags or canonicalization. But does it impact organic search ranking?

Rel=Canonical tag you will direct Google to the preferred version of your website URL. Still, there is no guarantee that Google will follow your path.

Is Canonicalization a Google Search Ranking Factor or Not?: eAskme

To answer this question, first understand the canonicalization and then dig deep to find facts.

There are very few people who are asking this question, yet it is worth answering.

But does Canonicalization impact your Google search position? Let's find out.

Let's understand everything about canonicalization (rel="canonical") and its impact on search.

Canonicalization:

Canonicalization is the process of telling a search engine which URL is the best representative of your website. It also helps Google to choose the best page and avoid duplicate pages or versions of the same page.

The easiest way to use canonicalization is to add a rel=canonical tag to declare the representative URL.

Google wants to use to use rel="canonical".

But is canonicalization (rel="canonical")  a Google organic ranking factor? Let's find out.

Claim: Canonicalization is a Google Ranking Factor

Canonicalization or rel="canonical" is an HTML tag that tells Google the best representative of your URL.

In most common cases, Google uses the canonical URL to avoid duplicate versions.

For example, if you set the www version as canonical, then Google will use the URL with www to crawl and index.

This helps Google save resources and time by avoiding duplicate versions of the URL.

In 2023, Google itself recommended the use of canonical tags.

But if you want to avoid duplication in syndicated content, then you should now use canonical links.
Ask syndicated sites or webmasters to use the noindex tag instead of canonical.

The sole purpose of a canonical URL is to share a preferred version of your domain URL with search engines.

As rel=canonical helps Google to find a preferred version of URL, webmasters started believing that it also impacts search engine ranking.

Evidence: Canonicalization is Not a Google Search Ranking Factor

Google has nowhere mentioned that canonicalization or rel=canonical is necessary for ranking.

Google's John Muller said that the best strategy is to use the rel="canonical" tag to avoid duplicate content issues in search results.

Difference between rel=canonical and Noindex:

Rel=canonical tells Google that the source or link is essential and should be indexed. But no index tells the search engines that that page should not be indexed.

In other words, rel=canonical pass link juice, but noindex doesn't do it.

Conclusion: Canonicalization is not a Google Search Ranking Factor

Canonicalization helps Google to identify the preferred version and avoid duplicate versions of the URL. It is necessary to index only preferred URLs. It works as a suggestion.

You should rel=canonical to help Google. However, it is not a Google ranking factor.

Still have any question, do share via comments.

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Is Code-To-Text Ratio a Google Ranking Factor or Not?

Is Code-To-Text Ratio a Google search ranking factor? Do you want to use the Code-To-Text Ratio for Google search ranking? Can the Code-To-Text Ratio influence rankings?

Code is a must for any website. Without code, there cannot be a site or app. While coding can make or break a website, it is also believed that coding can influence search ranking or ranking signals.

The code-to-text ratio impacts responsiveness, speed, indexing, and user experience. To create the best user experience, SEOs work, SEOs work hard to find the best Code-to-text ratio for clients' websites.

Is Code-To-Text Ratio a Google Ranking Factor or Not?: eAskme

It is not easy to determine the code-to-text ratio, yet SEOs try everything.

But does the Code-To-Text Ratio impact your Google search position? Let's find out.

Let's understand everything about the Code-To-Text Ratio and its impact on search.

Code-To-Text Ratio:

Code-to-text ratio is the percentage of text compared to code on the webpage or website. Code-text ratio checkers are available to calculate the exact ratio.

It is a must to have optimized code on your website or page. Anything more than that is unnecessary. Yet, it is good to find out if your code is impacting search ranking.

Claim: Code-to-text ratio is a Google Ranking Factor

The code-to-text ratio can directly influence user experience. Code-heavy sites load slowly, which negatively affects user experience.

Sites with low code or poor coding create design, crawling, and indexing issues. The code helps search engine engines understand why the page is there and its relevance to the website.

Evidence: Code-to-text ratio is a Google Search Ranking Factor

Google’s John Muller once said that HTML code does not affect website search engine rankings.

Although Google does not outrank sites based on their code, too much code is not beneficial for users. Complex or hidden codes can damage your page's SEO and rankings.

It is better to optimize code to create a fast-loading website with a clean user experience. Better user experience and Core Web Vitals score are important for better rankings.

How to Optimize Code-to-text Ratio?

The code-to-text ratio directly impacts Core Web Vitals score and user experience.

• Check code errors using the W3C validator tool.
• Check the HTML code errors and fix them.
• Improve code and get rid of any useless code to improve page load time.
• Compress images, use cache codes, and get rid of flash codes to improve website speed.

Conclusion: Code-to-text ratio is not a Google Search Ranking Factor

Your website code is not a ranking factor. Yet, it is important to optimize website code to optimize load time and responsiveness and fix coding errors. It is best to optimize the Code-To-Text Ratio within 20-75%.

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Is Contact Information A Google Ranking Factor or Not?

Is contact information a Google search ranking factor? Do you want to use contact information for Google search ranking? Can contact information influence rankings?

The reason why contact information is necessary is to give your audience a way to contact you. It can be through email, chatbot, or phone. Contact forms are the most common way to let people contact you.

Yet, only some websites publish contact information or contact pages.

Is Contact Information A Google Ranking Factor or Not?: eAskme

But does contact information impact your Google search position? Let's find out.

Let's understand everything about contact information and its impact on search.

Contact Information:

Contact information is the information that the webmaster publishes on his website to let others contact him. Contact forms, email IDs, phone numbers, and social media pages are part of the contact information.

Claim: Contact Information is a Google Ranking Factor

SEOs have two beliefs about contact information. Many believe that it is necessary to rank in search results, while others believe that it is not necessary.

Contact information is used on two most popular places:

• Contact information on Google My Business.
• Contact Information on website.

Evidence: Contact Information is a Google Search Ranking Factor

Contact information such as website name, physical address, email ID, phone numbers, and social media links are usually published on citation sites. Citations influencer search engine position as they are helpful for users to find ways to contact the website or business.

In 2009, Google launched Places to display contact information.

Since then, it is believed that contact information play a crucial role in ranking for local search terms.

According to the Google Quality Raters Guidelines document, the role of contact information changes according to the type of website. Contact information is crucial for businesses operating in the local area, such as banks, offices, etc.

While it is essential to have contact information on important pages and citations, it is not a ranking signal that can influence rank position.

The presence of contact information is necessary for a good user experience.

Contact information also helps in building a high level of trust. It is necessary to display contact information on important pages where users are most likely to contact your business.

Evidence: Contact Information is Not a Google Search Ranking Factor

John Muller answered the question by saying that Google does not look for search information as a ranking signal. It does not impact search ranking.

Yet, it is good to display contact information from the user's point of view.

Sites with contact information are gaining points on user experience.

Conclusion: Contact Information is a Google Search Ranking Factor (Not Always)

Contact information is an integral part of the local listing. It influences local search ranking in Google organic results.

In recent years, Google has improved its algorithm to analyze the importance of contact information for the user. Contact information is necessary when a user needs to contact a business. In most cases, this happens to businesses in the local area.

Contact information on your website is more important for your clients and users than search engines.

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Google AI Overviews: How to Optimize Your Blog or Website to AI Overviews and It's Impact on Your Business.

Google I/O 2024 is all about the launch of AI Overviews. Google searches will now display AI-generated results on top of organic results and paid ads. Search engines will also use ads in AI Overviews to generate revenue.

Since the launch of Gemini AI, Google has been using it on various platforms, such as ads. Gemini is Google's most powerful AI.

Now, Google is using the power of generative AI in search results. And to do so, they have launched AI overviews.

Google AI Overviews: eAskme

 

What are AI Overviews? How it works? How to access it? How it works? How AI Overviews Source Data? How to Turn on and Off AI overviews? How to Optimize Your Blog or Website to AI Overviews?

Here is everything for you to know.

AI Overviews:

AI Overviews is the quick-answer solution in search results. All you need to do is type the question in Google search, and generative AI Overviews will generate the most suitable answer.

It says that Google will do Googling for you.

For example, if you ask Google, "Why Does My Candle Burn Unevenly?" It will generate an AI overview with a detailed answer in a paragraph.

Google has tested AI overviews more than a billion times in Search Labs.

You will also get steps or a day plan for Google.

For example, if you ask Google to give you a seven-day meal plan, AI Overview will generate a result with a meal plan for each day.

For some queries, Google AI Overviews will give you answers in 3 different formats such as:

• Original
• Simpler
• Break it down.

 

Who can Access AI Overviews?

AI Overviews have been rolled out in the USA only. Google plans to launch AI Overviews for a billion users by the end of 2024.

To access AI Overviews, you need:

• You must be 18 years or older to access AI Overviews.
• A Laptop, Desktop, Android, or iOS device with internet connection.
• Open the latest Chrome or Firefox browser app.

How to Get AI Overviews?

Go to Google.com or Open the Google search app.

How Google AI Overviews Works?

• AI Overviews for Some Searches: AI Overviews is available for limited searches or queries.
• AI Overviews for other searches: AI Overviews not available for every search.
• Listen to the Overview: You can list AI Overviews results.
• Read AI Overviews: For most results, you can read in English and Hindi.

AI Overviews will display three types of results:

• AI Overviews on the top without organic results.
• Below AI Overview of generative content, the user will use shopping ads.
• AI Overviews will display targeted ads.

Google AI Overviews are triggered when a user types a question and query in a Google search. If the Google system believes that there is no better organic result to answer the user's query, then AI overviews will generate the best solution. In doing so, AI overviews also link to other sources or articles.

Sites that Google AI Overview Link To:

Google AI Overviews is expected to display links to eCommerce sites, business websites, or question-answer sites like Quora and Reddit.

Google already made a deal with Reddit, which may give Reddit a boost in AI Overviews. Users will see links to sources and other informational content.

How AI Overviews Source Data?

Google is using Gemini and large language models to create generative results. It automatically sources data. A webmaster or SEO needs help including its site in AI Overviews.

According to the Google document, it is sourcing information like the Knowledge panel.

What will the Impact of AI Overviews on Your Business?

If your business solely depends upon organic traffic, then you may see a drop in organic traffic only if AI Overviews generates results for the same queries.

Industry experts and SEOs are already raising concerns over the drop in organic traffic due to AI-generated content on Google searches. Washington Post published an article explaining how Google AI Results bring carnage to publishers.

ZipTie's report states that AI Overview will cover 80% of queries, which is a serious concern if your website needs to be included in AI Overviews.

How to Optimize Your Blog or Website to AI Overviews?

Content creators, publishers, SEO experts, and marketers are already looking for ways to make the content and links discoverable in AI Overviews.

Here are a few things that you can do:

Structured Data:

The structure of your content is one of the significant things that impact user experience. It will also affect your presence in AI overviews. Google wants to make results more engaging, and structured content is the way to make your content engaging in the eyes of Google and its users.

Expert the Topic:

Create content that covers multiple queries without making the user the user go through multiple pages. Make the customer's journey easy.

Build Authority:

Building authority is the only way to move forward. Reddit and Quora's presence in AI Overviews is the best example of that. Create collaborative content with subject-matter experts or industry experts.

Improve SEO:

Fix technical SEO issues. Make it easy for Google crawlers to crawl your website. Optimize on-page, on-site, and content SEO.

Search Queries:

Keep an eye on search queries that trigger AI Overviews. Track those queries. Use them in your content with relevant information and the best answers.

What is coming next?

Here is what you will see in the future of AI Overviews:

• Google will launch adjustable features in AI Overviews.
• AI-generated reasoning in results.
• Planning for scheduling your day or work.
• Generate ideas.
• Get answers for visual queries like images and videos.

How to Turn on or Off AI Overviews?

You can Turn on or Turn Off AI overviews in Search Labs.

• Open your browser.
• Sign in using Gmail ID.
• Go to the "Manage" settings of your browser.
• Click on the Toggle button to turn on or off the "AI Overviews."

Important Note: There is no option to turn off AI Overviews completely. They are not part of Google search and will be there like the Knowledge Panel.

Conclusion:

Google's AI Overviews will expand to more queries in the coming days. Google is expecting to bring 1 billion users to AI overviews. Soon, it will become a habit for users to rely on AI Overviews. It is best to understand what is coming and be ready with content optimization and user-engagement strategies.
Be open and adapt new technologies to stay effective in Google search.

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