Notes From The SEO Underground: July 2019

“SEO Underground” is your first and fastest stop to find out about breaking news and recent algorithm updates that affect your firm’s online visibility.

July kept us busy in the world of SEO. In this edition of the SEO Underground, we’ll explore the Google Maverick Update, the rise of Emojis in search results, and the news about NoIndex in the robots.txt file.

#1) Google Maverick Update

Although unconfirmed by Google, there has been chatter within the SEO community about an algorithm update that is believed to have taken place initially around July 11th and 12th, with more fluctuations on July 18th. Dubbed, “Google Maverick” thanks to the new Top Gun movie, this update is not massive in scale, but webmasters have taken to forums to compare findings.

Trying to play catch-up with algorithm updates is not a great strategy. That’s why it’s imperative to adhere to Google’s recommended framework. If nothing else, it’s important to know when algorithm updates take place so you can monitor your rankings and make adjustments as needed.

At Gladiator Law Marketing, we’ll be sure to keep you in loop about this update as it unfolds. In the meantime, contact us if you have any questions or would like us to investigate your rankings and provide a plan of action to improve your SEO.

#2) Emojis In The SERPS

Why Add Emojis?

There’s no guarantee that your firm’s site will ascend to spot #1 in the SERPS through the placement of an emoji, but a relevant emoji may increase visibility and click through rates — which does have a correlation to rankings.

Long Term Considerations

We already see the saturation of emojis with text messages. While the use of emojis in Google is in it’s nascent stage, expect to see more listings across all verticals employing more use of emojis. Additionally, as more companies begin to allow users to search their sites with emojis, it will become more commonplace in the digital landscape.

#3) Google to Sunset Support of “noindex” in Robots.txt

Today we’re saying goodbye to undocumented and unsupported rules in robots.txt 👋

If you were relying on these rules, learn about your options in our blog post.https://t.co/Go39kmFPLT

— Google Webmasters (@googlewmc) July 2, 2019

 

What This Means

Google announced they will be sunsetting their support of the “noindex” directive in the robots.txt file. It’s not an official directive, and while Google has supported the “noindex” feature via robots.txt in the past, this will no longer be applicable as of September 1, 2019. If your law firm needs assistance with determining what pages to index, and which pages to “noindex”, drop us a line.

What Is a Robots.txt File?

A robots.txt file is a text file that is uploaded to the root of your website that instructs search engine spiders about how to crawl pages and posts on the site. Directives can include: controlling which of your pages get crawled, and which you want to restrict from being indexed.

What Does a Robots.txt File Look Like?

It’s a .txt file with the following syntax:

Example 1 – This directive is blocking crawlers from the entire site.

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

Example 2 – This directive is allowing crawlers to access the entire site.

User-agent: *
Disallow:

Example 3 – This directive is instructing crawlers to restrict crawling anything in the “example-folder”.

User-agent: *
Disallow: /example-folder

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