{"id":2540,"date":"2024-04-12T15:37:16","date_gmt":"2024-04-12T15:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/the-best-of-ahrefs-digest-march-2024\/"},"modified":"2024-04-12T15:37:16","modified_gmt":"2024-04-12T15:37:16","slug":"the-best-of-ahrefs-digest-march-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/the-best-of-ahrefs-digest-march-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"The Best of Ahrefs\u2019 Digest: March 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<div class=\"intro-txt\">Every week, we share hot SEO news, interesting reads, and new posts in our newsletter, <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/newsletter\">Ahrefs\u2019 Digest<\/a>.<\/div>\n<p>If you\u2019re not one of our 280,000 subscribers, you\u2019ve missed out on some great\u00a0reads!<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a quick summary of my personal favorites from the last\u00a0month:<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a id=\"post-174222-_ejqdrzht561\"\/>Best of March\u00a02024<\/h2>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a id=\"post-174222-_s9xn7fhx90v2\"\/><a href=\"https:\/\/detailed.com\/google-control\/\">How 16 Companies are Dominating the World\u2019s Google Search Results<\/a><\/h3>\n<p><strong>Author<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ViperChill\">Glen Allsopp<\/a><\/p>\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a id=\"post-174222-_qsr7g0yqd282\"\/>tl;dr<\/h4>\n<p>Glen\u2019s research reveals that just 16 companies representing 588 brands get 3.5 billion (yes, billion!) monthly clicks from Google.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1400\" height=\"1050\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/the-16-companies-getting-3-5-billion-monthly-click.jpg\" alt=\"The 16 companies getting 3.5 billion monthly clicks from Google across 588 brands\" class=\"wp-image-174223\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/the-16-companies-getting-3-5-billion-monthly-click.jpg 1400w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/the-16-companies-getting-3-5-billion-monthly-click-567x425.jpg 567w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/the-16-companies-getting-3-5-billion-monthly-click-768x576.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px\"\/><\/figure>\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a id=\"post-174222-_4ptkizcn1wuj\"\/>My takeaway<\/h4>\n<p>Glen pointed out some really actionable ideas in this report, such as the fact that many of the brands dominating search are adding mini-author bios.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-resized\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1179\" height=\"1978\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/example-of-mini-author-bios-on-the-verge.jpeg\" alt=\"Example of mini-author bios on The Verge\" class=\"wp-image-174224\" style=\"width:466px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/example-of-mini-author-bios-on-the-verge.jpeg 1179w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/example-of-mini-author-bios-on-the-verge-253x425.jpeg 253w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/example-of-mini-author-bios-on-the-verge-768x1288.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/example-of-mini-author-bios-on-the-verge-916x1536.jpeg 916w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1179px) 100vw, 1179px\"\/><\/noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1179\" height=\"1978\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/example-of-mini-author-bios-on-the-verge.jpeg\" alt=\"Example of mini-author bios on The Verge\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-174224\" style=\"width:466px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/example-of-mini-author-bios-on-the-verge.jpeg 1179w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/example-of-mini-author-bios-on-the-verge-253x425.jpeg 253w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/example-of-mini-author-bios-on-the-verge-768x1288.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/example-of-mini-author-bios-on-the-verge-916x1536.jpeg 916w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 1179px) 100vw, 1179px\"\/><\/figure>\n<p>This idea makes so much sense in terms of both UX and <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/eeat-seo\/\">E-E-A-T<\/a>. I\u2019ve already pitched it to the team and we\u2019re going to implement it on our\u00a0blog.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a id=\"post-174222-_6pqic4y0cmpk\"\/><a href=\"https:\/\/housefresh.com\/david-vs-digital-goliaths\/\">How Google is Killing Independent Sites Like\u00a0Ours<\/a><\/h3>\n<p><strong>Authors<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ichbinGisele\">Gisele Navarro<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/dannyashton\">Danny Ashton<\/a><\/p>\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a id=\"post-174222-_1y4jgdp1ac9j\"\/>tl;dr<\/h4>\n<p>Big publications have gotten into the affiliate game, publishing \u201cbest of\u201d lists about everything under the sun. And despite often not testing products thoroughly, they\u2019re dominating Google rankings. The result, Gisele and Danny argue, is that genuine review sites suffer and Google is fast losing content diversity.<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a id=\"post-174222-_2djrc4akjurr\"\/>My takeaway<\/h4>\n<p>I have a lot of sympathy for independent sites. Some of them are trying their best, but unfortunately, they\u2019re lumped in with thousands of others who are more than happy to\u00a0spam.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1626\" height=\"704\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/estimated-search-traffic-to-danny-and-giseles-sit.png\" alt=\"Estimated search traffic to Danny and Gisele's site fell off a cliff after Google's March updates\" class=\"wp-image-174225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/estimated-search-traffic-to-danny-and-giseles-sit.png 1626w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/estimated-search-traffic-to-danny-and-giseles-sit-680x294.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/estimated-search-traffic-to-danny-and-giseles-sit-768x333.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/estimated-search-traffic-to-danny-and-giseles-sit-1536x665.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1626px) 100vw, 1626px\"\/><\/noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1626\" height=\"704\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/estimated-search-traffic-to-danny-and-giseles-sit.png\" alt=\"Estimated search traffic to Danny and Gisele's site fell off a cliff after Google's March updates\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-174225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/estimated-search-traffic-to-danny-and-giseles-sit.png 1626w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/estimated-search-traffic-to-danny-and-giseles-sit-680x294.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/estimated-search-traffic-to-danny-and-giseles-sit-768x333.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/estimated-search-traffic-to-danny-and-giseles-sit-1536x665.png 1536w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 1626px) 100vw, 1626px\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Estimated search traffic to Danny and Gisele\u2019s site fell off a cliff after Google\u2019s March updates\u00a0\ud83d\ude41\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I know it\u2019s hard to hear, but the truth is Google benefits more from having big sites in the SERPs than from having diversity. That\u2019s because results from big brands are likely what users actually want. By and large, people would rather shop at Walmart or ALDI than at a local store or farmer\u2019s market.<\/p>\n<p>That said, I agree with most people that Forbes (with its dubious contributor model <a href=\"https:\/\/www.niemanlab.org\/2022\/02\/an-incomplete-history-of-forbes-com-as-a-platform-for-scams-grift-and-bad-journalism\/\">contributing to scams and poor journalism<\/a>) should not be rewarded so handsomely.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a id=\"post-174222-_rxvhxkcc3uhb\"\/><a href=\"https:\/\/detailed.com\/forum-serps\/\">The Discussion Forums Dominating 10,000 Product Review Search Results<\/a><\/h3>\n<p><strong>Author<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ViperChill\">Glen Allsopp<\/a><\/p>\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a id=\"post-174222-_c4dnrkdfgq7i\"\/>Tl;dr<\/h4>\n<p>Glen analyzed 10,000 \u201cproduct review\u201d keywords and found\u00a0that:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The \u2018Discussions and forums\u2019 SERP feature was present in 7,702 of them (77%).<\/li>\n<li>Reddit was present in 97.5% of\u00a0those.<\/li>\n<li>51% of Reddit\u2019s top-ranking threads currently have spam as a top comment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a id=\"post-174222-_pvxni6nhiu1b\"\/>My takeaway<\/h4>\n<p>After Google\u2019s heavy promotion of Reddit from last year\u2019s Core Update, to no one\u2019s surprise, unscrupulous SEOs and marketers have already started spamming Reddit. And as you may know, Reddit\u2019s moderation is done by volunteers, and obviously, they can\u2019t keep\u00a0up.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m not sure how this second-order effect completely escaped the smart minds at Google, but from the outside, it feels like Google has capitulated to some extent.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"865\" height=\"161\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/john-mueller-seemingly-having-too-much-faith-in-re.jpeg\" alt=\"John Mueller seemingly having too much faith in Reddit...\" class=\"wp-image-174226\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/john-mueller-seemingly-having-too-much-faith-in-re.jpeg 865w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/john-mueller-seemingly-having-too-much-faith-in-re-680x127.jpeg 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/john-mueller-seemingly-having-too-much-faith-in-re-768x143.jpeg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 865px) 100vw, 865px\"\/><\/noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"865\" height=\"161\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/john-mueller-seemingly-having-too-much-faith-in-re.jpeg\" alt=\"John Mueller seemingly having too much faith in Reddit...\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-174226\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/john-mueller-seemingly-having-too-much-faith-in-re.jpeg 865w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/john-mueller-seemingly-having-too-much-faith-in-re-680x127.jpeg 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/john-mueller-seemingly-having-too-much-faith-in-re-768x143.jpeg 768w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 865px) 100vw, 865px\"\/><\/figure>\n<p>I\u2019m not one to make predictions and I have no idea what will happen next, but I agree with Glen: Google\u2019s results are the worst I\u2019ve seen them. We can only hope Google sorts itself out.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a id=\"post-174222-_d66glmpgh346\"\/><a href=\"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/who-sends-traffic-on-the-web-and-how-much-new-research-from-datos-sparktoro\/\">Who Sends Traffic on the Web and How Much? New Research from Datos &amp; SparkToro<\/a><\/h3>\n<p><strong>Author<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/randfish\">Rand Fishkin<\/a><\/p>\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a id=\"post-174222-_lpydl16soa4k\"\/>tl;dr<\/h4>\n<p>63.41% of all U.S. web traffic referrals from the top 170 sites are initiated on Google.com.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1493\" height=\"1193\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/data-from-sparktoro.png\" alt=\"Data from Sparktoro\" class=\"wp-image-174227\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/data-from-sparktoro.png 1493w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/data-from-sparktoro-532x425.png 532w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/data-from-sparktoro-768x614.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1493px) 100vw, 1493px\"\/><\/noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1493\" height=\"1193\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/data-from-sparktoro.png\" alt=\"Data from Sparktoro\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-174227\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/data-from-sparktoro.png 1493w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/data-from-sparktoro-532x425.png 532w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/data-from-sparktoro-768x614.png 768w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 1493px) 100vw, 1493px\"\/><\/figure>\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a id=\"post-174222-_6gno33faypo2\"\/>My takeaway<\/h4>\n<p>Despite all of our complaints, Google is still the main platform to acquire traffic from. That\u2019s why we all want Google to sort itself out and do\u00a0well.<\/p>\n<p>But it would also be a mistake to look at this post and think Google is the <strong>only <\/strong>channel you should drive traffic from. As Rand\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/sparktoro.com\/blog\/where-web-users-spend-time-vs-where-traffic-referrals-originate\/\">later blog post<\/a> clarifies, \u201cbe careful not to ascribe attribution or credit to Google when other investments drove the real\u00a0value.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I think many affiliate marketers learned this lesson well from the past few Core Updates: Relying on one single channel to drive all of your traffic is not a good idea. You should be using other platforms to build brand awareness, interest, and demand.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a id=\"post-174222-_q907i9px2fvx\"\/>Want more?<\/h2>\n<p>Each week, our team handpicks the best SEO and marketing content from around the web for <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/newsletter\/\">our newsletter<\/a>. Sign up to get them directly in your\u00a0inbox.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/monthly-digest-roundup\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every week, we share hot SEO news, interesting reads, and new posts in our newsletter, Ahrefs\u2019 Digest. If you\u2019re not one of our 280,000 subscribers, you\u2019ve missed out on some great\u00a0reads! Here\u2019s a quick summary of my personal favorites from the last\u00a0month: Best of March\u00a02024 How 16 Companies are Dominating the World\u2019s Google Search Results [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2541,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-seo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}