Tips Tuesday – WP 7.0 Release Date, Target Audience Age, Turn Off Gemini Intelligence

Tips this week include:

• WordPress 7.0 release date announced
• Accordions keep your content out of AI Search
• Target audience age matters to Google
• How to turn off the new Gemini Intelligence AI in Workspace

WordPress Tips

WP 7.0 Release Date Announced

WordPress 7.0 is now scheduled for release on May 20th.

We will not be the first to update.

I’m still quite concerned about how the plugins we use will be impacted by the core changes I’ve been mentioning for the last few weeks.

I’ll have a “What’s New” post for you after I determine that it is safe for most of us to update. Don’t expect it before mid June, at the earliest.

SEO Tips

Accordions Keep You Out of AI Search

Content that is hidden in a collapsable or accordion type drop down could most definitely keep it out of Search, especially AI Search.

Google has changed their Snippet documentation, which also covers all “Read More” links, including those in AI Search Results.

They say all content must be available to the human eye without the need for a click to see it.

And they want folks to use H2 and H3 to help search crawl bots and humans understand the different sections.

In my opinion, this change addresses collapsable FAQs pages more than those accordion-style ToC (Table of Content) sections, as the ToCs generate their table off your H2s. 

But with FAQs, you generally have a paragraph for the question and another paragraph for the answer. And Google wants both for their Snippets.

Accordions require a click to see the answer, and that means executing JavaScript, and that means Google and other Searchbots have to spend more time and energy to get the content. That blows their crawl budget.

So, if you want your content to show up in AI Search Results, don’t hide it in an accordion drop-down menu thingy.

Target Audience Age Matters to Google

I recently sent a survey to my DIY SEO course members. And one of the questions was where they get most of their traffic now.

The top answer was Google – whether that be in the form of written content or video.

But, Google has an age problem – and that means you do too.

And that means Google needs to change – and that means you do too.

See this post on Search Engine Journal for Why Google Has to Change.

It’s mainly about where folks get their news and product info from, which is not us. But the big focus I want you to pay attention to is what age group uses Google as an information source and why.

Older folks like to read. Younger folks want to skim and see visuals.

Video is going to win this battle for eyeballs, y’all.

And video in social media is what is going to help you make the most connections and get more followers as time goes on.

Go look at the graphics in that article.

See where your target audience falls in their preferences.

Just keep in mind that if they are older, and want to read, then they are going to have to scroll past a LOT of snippets and video in Google Search to see links to your content, as Google will be pushing more “sticky” content at the top to resolve their age issue and stay relevant with younger viewers.

Workspace AI Tips

Turn Off New Gemini Intelligence AI

Last week, Google rolled out Gemini Intelligence for all Workspace plans.

It is ON by default in:

• Gmail
• Docs
• Calendar
• Chat

To turn it off:

• Go to https://admin.google.com/
• In the left sidebar, click Generative AI > Gemini for Workspace
• You will see at least 3 sections for where Gemini is turned on. Most of the ones that matter are under the first section for Workspace Intelligence Sources.
  • Click on any of them to access the edit features.
  • Click on each one to turn it off.
  • Be sure to click Save in the lower right.

I can’t tell you how much I don’t appreciate paying for something I’m not using. And I REALLY don’t appreciate them turning it on by default.