Google Announces September 2022 Core Update; Focus Remains on Quality of Content

What’s a ‘core update’ and why should I be concerned?

When Google announces a core update, it’s normally because the changes to their page ranking algorithm process are significant enough to impact website publishers who depend on search traffic — and help those responsible for organic page rank respond to the situation.

How will the September 2022 update affect me?

If you notice a drop in page rank, it is likely that Google has begun to enforce their efforts to reward sites that focus hard on unique, original and informative content that directly addresses the intent of the search query. Here are a few questions from Google themselves:

• Does the content provide original information, reporting, research or analysis?
• If the content draws on other sources, does it avoid simply copying or rewriting those sources and instead provide substantial additional value and originality?
• Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend?

Here are more things to consider about the “expertise” factor of your content?

• If you researched the site producing the content, would you come away with an impression that it is well-trusted or widely-recognized as an authority on its topic?
• Is this content written by an expert or enthusiast who demonstrably knows the topic well?
• Would you feel comfortable trusting this content for issues relating to your money or your life?

One further handful of questions to ask:

• Was the content produced well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced?
• Does the content have an excessive amount of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content?
• Does content display well for mobile devices when viewed on them?

This is minute sampling the elements of a web page that Google takes into consideration when determining where to rank it. Those who focus on creating great content that educates, entertains and compels the reader to action will be rewarded.

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What is a Zero-Day Attack?

And why are some legal and some illegal?

If you’ve stumbled across the term Zero-Day attacks or vulnerabilities and weren’t sure what it is, here’s the Cliff Notes. A zero-day exploit is where a hacker identifies a vulnerability in the software of a product launch before anyone else realizes it — and writes some malicious scripting (malware) to exploit it. It’s named ‘zero-day’ to troll the software developer(s) about how long they have been aware of the issue. The intention could be to just break into the controls, do some harmless mischief or bring the system crashing down. And like any other malware attack, the hacker can plant a dastardly script deep in the platform’s architecture, timed to release days, weeks or months later. According to reports to date for 2022, the most popular targets for zero-day exploit efforts were Windows, macOS, iOS, Chrome and Firefox. Other targets included Android and the Microsoft Exchange Server.

Are WordPress Plugins Susceptible?

Absolutely. Everything is susceptible. It was recently reported by WordPress security firm WordFence that two very popular WordPress plugins were exploited with zero-day flaws — WPGateway, a premium plugin which offers one click WordPress installations, backups and cloning through a central control dashboard, and BackupBuddy, a versatile website backup plugin with the tagline “Saving your bacon since 2010”. GLOSSARY : In The Wild | This term refers to malware and viruses that are actively spreading to users devices within normal, everyday operation of their smartphones, tablets and desktop computers — as opposed to viruses in controlled testing environments. Apple just released security updates for a number of issues in both iOS and macOS, each of which was exploited by zero-day flaws. If you’re an Apple user, check out this support document with instructions on updating your devices (iPhone, iPad, iPod and desktop).

The Zero-Day Attack After Market!

When a successful break-in to a software release happens, a chain of events is sparked. Depending on who is doing the exploiting and who is purchasing data or information from said exploit. According to a well-done piece by writer Jake Frankenfield (@jakefranken) for Investopedia, there is a black market (where bad actors trade details about vulnerable software systems) — and a gray market where certain firms exploit systems and in turn sell the data to government agencies, law enforcement and military clients. In a white market arena, software development companies will hire (non-criminal) hackers to try to break into their software and identify vulnerabilities and fix things before the bad guys get their hands on it.

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Yep.com : The Search Engine Thats Pays Content Creators

Competitors to Google have come and gone. Will Yep sustain?

Launched in July 2022, Yep is in its Beta stage and available for search queries. Created by the standout SEO tool firm Ahrefs, Yep is positioning itself as a direct competitor to Google — no small task taking on the 800 pound gorilla in the search engine marketplace. First announced back in 2019, the search engine will not collect any personal info, track you or store your search history anywhere. Certain data will be collected, but for overall performance use such as spelling corrections and suggested search queries.

Yep Could Be a Game Changer

From Yep itself:

“Let’s say that the biggest search engine in the world makes $100B a year. Now, imagine if they gave $90B to content creators and publishers. Wikipedia would probably earn a few billion dollars a year from its content. They’d be able to stop asking for donations and start paying the people who polish their articles a decent salary. There would be no more need for paywalls and affiliate links, so publishers who’ve had to resort to chasing traffic with clickbait articles and filling their pages with ads would be able to get back to doing investigative pieces and quality analysis. A citizen journalist uncovering corruption on the side of a full-time job could get compensated without having to spend time trying to monetize content.”

Stay tuned to this column as we’ll be keeping an eye on Yep’s progress. The thought that the tech industry is overdue for some exciting and positive news is the understatement of the year. Here’s hoping the times are a changing for good!

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WordPress Roundup

• The WordPress Security Team will cease providing security updates for version 3.7 through 4.0 on December 1, 2022. At this writing WordPress version 6.0.2 is available for download and its highly recommended to do so if you’re running a version that dated. Version 3.7 debuted on October 24, 2013, so its pretty long in the tooth. Trivia Question: If you can name the jazz legend that version 3.7 was named for, you are indeed a WordPress aficionado! See the bottom of this list for the answer.
• Stop The Presses on WebP | The addition of WebP images into the WordPress core was put on hold as a result of objections by WP developers. Slated to appear in the WP 6.1 release in late July, a major concern was the dedication of real-time resources this feature would require at time when the platform is rededicating itself to a lighter footprint and increased speed. If you’re interested in the WordPress core development team’s ticket, please see “Create WebP sub-sizes and use for output“.
• Trivia Question answer: Count Basie.

WooCommerce Roundup

• WooCommerce 6.9.2 is available for download. Simply login to your WordPress Dashboard > Updates. The release of v6.9 featured the inclusion of Cart and Checkout Blocks as part of the WoocCommerce core.