Ivana Flynn says: “My Additional Insight for everyone in 2023 is that Google went a little bit crazy with the updates on-page, and I think this is a reaction to the growth of AI. ChatGPT came last year and massively changed the game and Google started to react to it and started to understand if the results that they are showing generated by AI are good or not. At the beginning of the year, they said not to use any AI content, and it was okay because it's content for humans by humans. But now it's content for humans, full stop, not by humans. So I think Google was going through a learning period and trying to understand if this is a human content for humans, and it's good, this is by humans, and it's not good, and this is by AI, and it's great. So we saw a lot of volatility, we're still seeing it, and I think we'll keep seeing it, because Google, just like us, is learning. Google is usually the one throwing waves, and then we trying to catch up. And now AI has come in through something, and Google is catching up. And it's good because the game is to try to find the best result and answer and if AI is AI or if it's not AI.”

So Google is going crazy Google and offering lots of different updates. Is it important for SEOs to stay on top of every update and react to it?

“Yes, and no. Sometimes Google tells us, and they say this is an official update on helpful content and will be rolling out for two weeks. And sometimes there is lots of volatility that Google is testing something, and they don't officially tell you, so we need to keep an eye on that. You want to ensure you understand what's going on when there is volatility. When your rankings are going between 5 and 55, you need to know if it's just you or if it's to all markets.

However, when Google is rolling something, sit on your hands because you don't know what's going on. Without doing anything you might end up in the same position, in a better position or a worse position. But once it's rolling, keep an eye on it. What's going on? What's the market is doing? But sit on your hands because if you start to change right through the middle of an update, it ends up bad for you because you don't know if it's the update or your work. So wait, learn from what Google tells you or what you see on the market. So first I would evaluate what you see, and then I would react. It is important to know that volatility happens, and it is important to know what Google is telling us. Still, it is not necessary every time because sometimes adjusting your favour.”

So you said it's important to establish whether or not it's just you or your home markets? What's your favourite way of establishing that?

“First, I have several tools when I check my rankings, and then I go to other tools. I love to read seroundtable by Barry Schwartz to see what they say, like ‘we're seeing volatility’. And then I would look check search volatility. Is it global? Is it just on mobile? Is it just the USA? Because if it's just you, you know that you either picked up a penalty or your clever developer switched off crawling or something. You want to make sure that if it's you, you start to react right away because you have a problem with the whole market you observe and react after.”

So if it's you, react straight away. If it's the whole market, wait, breathe. And then, how long do you wait for after everything seems to have established new levels? Do you have to wait a few days, a few weeks, or even after that to see the new normal?

“So, if Google stopped rolling, I'm like, ‘Okay, we are still alive’. We stopped rolling. We are still in the top 10. It is good. And then I still start to look, even if we are better, why are we better? So, every time you look into it after, it stops rolling, but I saw this pattern. If it stops rolling, there is still maybe a week after a little bit of volatility. So I think they're still adjusting people. Like maybe they don't like this result. Or maybe they want to make sure that this is cleared up. So keep an eye on it and react. Even if it's good, understand what went well for you because you need to learn as an SEO.

I always say SEO is not a job. SEO is a passion. You keep learning, and I find it fantastic. I want to learn, which is the point of SEO. Keep learning and keep serving the best result. So, start after it stops rolling, and keep an eye on some continuing volatility. Because the afterward volatility can hit you, start right away to analyse, not to react, start to analyse, and if there is something to react to, then start to fix it because maybe your content is just extremely thin, irrelevant, or repetitive. Or maybe Google just figured out that AI writes your content, and it's a product review. And it doesn't like it because the product review shouldn't be written by humans that tested the product. So then react to that.”

So, if you've established that your rankings have gone down, and they've stayed down consistently, is content the first place to check?

“This year, for sure. Because the last big thing we had on links was a massive purge in December when Google cleaned up links. I mean, that was a bloodbath for a lot of us. I've seen that on many pages, and ever since, Google has been heavy on content and consistently says it all year and we keep seeing it all here. So it's a fair bet that whatever you've seen, it's your content, and then start to establish like, ‘Am I doing too much keyword stuffing?’ because people, even though in 2023, still make the mistake of keyword stuffing. It's not good for Google an it's not good for humans. So Google became cleverer. You need to make sure that you play by the rules. Google is very clear. They gave us a rulebook, which is helpful content. Please read, please follow. So if you follow that, you should be fine.”

What are the challenges with traffic and/or rankings going up and down and articulating the reasons behind that to stakeholders within a business. Ideally, you want to share with people beforehand that this is likely to happen, maybe because Google is going through many changes. So, how do you articulate those kinds of changes to stakeholders?

“This is a great question for me. I'm a with a big company, I work with 17 websites, and I have to always report to my management. So, when I see something happening, I always tell them Google has announced this update. We're going to be seeing volatility. Please bear with us. I would still do it even if I saw volatility that wasn't announced. I'm seeing volatility, therefore Google is testing something, so bear with us, because otherwise they start to panic. They see drops in keywords, and it’s related to money, so I understand why. But it’s in Google's nature to keep testing if you are still a good result or if someone else is better. Its Google's nature, that's why we love Google and that's why we love SEO. So I will tell them upfront, and then I will keep them updated through the update and tell them what we have seen. Usually, it's good for us because ever since I joined the company, we have tried to make sure our content is good for Google and people. And then afterward, I will tell them to stop rolling if we saw the damage, which we did. So if we were impacted, then I’ll share our recovery plan, or if we didn't see any bad impact, then I will still get back to them with ‘why’ this happened and what we should do for future steps to ensure we keep scoring well for our targeted keywords. So, in communication, you don't want to be like, Oh, my goodness, something is dropping, I'm not going to tell them and hopefully they don't figure it out. But in the end, they are not stupid if they see a drop in the SERPs. They're going to call you up on it. So communicate.”

Is Google the only search engine you focus on? Because that's most of the volume? Or have you seen volatility from other search engines as well?

“Obviously, search isn't just Google. There are a lot of other search engines. But for us, our main customer is Google. It is where our customers are our players. So, we don't optimize for the other search engines. For a short brief time, we were in Japan, and we tried to do it locally there and it was a nightmare. So yeah, we are very Google-centric.”

If you optimize for Google, do you find that your rankings will happen on other search engines? Or is it simply because of the market you're in, the vast majority of your traffic is Google, so it doesn't matter for other search engines?

“We try other search engines like paid search because they seem to score it, and when I check my rankings, on Google or the other search engines, they seem to correlate. So, if I'm going up in Google, I'm going up on Yahoo, I'm going up on Bing. If you recall around a year ago, Yandex leaked their ranking signals, and while we don't know what Google's ranking signals are, we presume from what we are doing and from what we've seen that they are very similar. So, how they evaluate and rank the website is very simple across all of them. They’re all trying to serve the customer the best and the fastest result to customers' questions. So, I see very many similarities.”

In terms of recovery, you also say to be brave, try new things, test your tools, be creative and don't be afraid of AI. So, what AI opportunities are out there? What would you advise SEOs to test in terms of content creation by AI at the moment?

“First of all, as SEOs, if you think about it we’ve all used different AI tools for a long time. We use Majestic, an AI technology, to understand the quality of the link we're getting. We use tools like Screaming Frog, a certain AI technology, to crawl the website and tell us the results. So, AI is not new to SEO. It's just becoming more predominant in the search and creating content. It was recently ChatGPT that changed the game. But right now, there are several of them and lots of plugins that you can use that will tell you how the market is behaving and they can help you with search. They can help you create content, not just written content but images and videos. And all of this can help you optimize better. So AI is your friend. There are a lot of good plugins and a lot of good tools. And there are content shakers with like changing your content, you can shake it, and it gives you something else, a lot of good ones. Again, you are human in the end. Make your call because common sense wins every time. Use AI as a tool that helps you but not the dominance you're replacing.”

So, what does constant change mean for setting your SEO strategy? Because it used to be that you could put an SEO strategy for a year and stick to it? Is it still worthwhile developing a new SEO strategy for a year?

“My SEO strategy for the year is making sure you count on all the changes Google will make. In SEO, there is constant change. So, if you count on that in your strategy, you think we need great content. But what is great content changes through the year. Keep an eye on that. We want to get great links to the site. What is a great link doesn't change that much? It's content, but it changes sometimes. I remember when I started SEO 15 years ago, it was about the amount of links. And it still worked. It was fantastic. It’s the relevancy of the link that gives your website and people who visit it some value. So, when you're creating any structure, you can't do it. And it's not just coming from Google. It’s coming from your competitors. If they are cleverer, if they just adapted to the changes better, they will change the landscape of your market. So, keep an eye on the competitors, what they're doing, why they are outranking you, and why they are cleverer than you. But count with it in your strategy change one thing you can come up with every single year in SEO.”

And who is a competitor? Is a competitor just any website that ranks for the same keyword? Or is it just someone in the same business as you?

“For us, there are two different competitors. One is affiliation. We buy traffic from them because they bring very valuable players and one or other operators. And the best competitor sites because we go after the same keyword, and who gets there gets the most traffic. And then, we keep an eye on the newcomers because Google loves spotlighting new cameras. It is built into their algorithm to give a chance to smaller websites. And sometimes, the smaller websites outscore us like this because they don't have legacy code. They don't have problems with their platform. They're just there with a small website and amazing content. They are faster than us. And they are there. So we keep an eye always on the newcomers. Because they're the ones that tend to outscore us out of the blue.”

You shared what SEOs should be doing in 2023. Now, let's talk about what you shouldn't be doing. So, what's something that's seductive in terms of time but ultimately counterproductive? What's something that SEOs shouldn't be doing in 2023?

“Definitely setting a strategy in stone, following it to the letter because you created it, and then refusing to be flexible with it and adapt. Don’t create an inflexible strategy or be an SEO expert that is inflexible.

Another thing that you should not do is not follow Google's advice on how they are changing. As I mentioned, AI content at the beginning of the year was a no-no. And then they changed it and said it's okay, and they gave us guidelines on how it is. So, if you are still in SEO, believing the AI content is a no-no, you're inflexible, and that will hurt you because it can help you. So being inflexible is one thing you definitely should not do.”

Ivana Flynn is the SEO Director at ComeOn Group, and you can find her over at comeon-group.com.