For Publishers with Websites: Understanding Google's Latest Algorithm Changes

[helene]

Google recently made changes to its search algorithm and what it prioritises, which directly impacts how your tours get discovered and ranked online.

Most listeners discover tours through search engines, so understanding these changes and adapting your website accordingly will help improve your tour’s visibility.

What has changed

Google has moved away from traditional keyword-focused approaches, prioritising context-based SEO instead. This means the search algorithm is looking for links that appear within relevant, contextual content with natural and varied anchor text instead of repetitive keywords. It also looks for social proof of your authority and expertise on the content your post on your site.

You only need to make a couple of small changes to how you link to your VoiceMap tours on your website to take advantage of these changes.

What you can do to adapt your website content

We’ve analysed these algorithm changes and their impact on tour discovery. Here are five key strategies you should implement on your website immediately:

1. Create rich content around tour links

Avoid adding bare links to your tours. Instead of just saying “check out my tour,” embed your links within 2-3 paragraphs of valuable content. Share the story behind why you created the tour, interesting discoveries you made while researching, or seasonal tips for visitors.

2. Vary your anchor text naturally

Your clickable link text matters more than ever. Keep it concise (2-5 words work best) and mix up your phrases. Use variations like “VoiceMap audio tour,” “self-guided walking tour,” “GPS audio adventure,” and destination-specific terms like “Rome audio guide.” Avoid repeating the exact same linking phrase - Google sees this as spammy.

3. Create educational content and user guidance

Create a “How to” section, FAQ page, or step-by-step guidance about using audio tours. When someone searches “how to use audio tours,” educational content signals to Google that your page is a valuable resource.

4. Share location-specific URLs strategically

Don’t always link to your tour’s main page! If you’re writing about a specific landmark, link directly to that stop on your tour rather than the general tour page. Or link to your publisher profile when you describe yourself in your “About” section. Remember: every location on your tour has its own URL (just add /sites to your main tour URL, then add the location slug).

5. Integrate social proof and personal expertise

Build credibility by including authentic customer testimonials, usage statistics, and your personal qualifications as a local expert. Your “About” section should establish your credentials and explain why you’re qualified to guide people through your destination.

See what other publishers are doing

For complete details and examples from other successful publishers, check out our documentation on how to optimise your tour for search engines.

[clive]

This is some great advice and people should have been moving all ready for quite a while as the switch to “no click search” is having a huge impact on many (especially travel) websites…

People ask google a question and get an AI preview with the answer they need so clicks to the actual website where the AI took the information from are way down…No need to click as they have their answer in the preview. (My 5 sites are down around 20 percent click wise over thelast 2 months.)

I have been combatting by adding FAQ´s to the bottom of my existing articles which seems to be working as my AdSense earnings are back to 2023 levels even with less clicks to my sites. My other affiliates have also produced increased revenue from the articles enhanced with the FAQ. (I have 5 sites and thousands of articles to edit and re publish.)

The FAQ’s MUST be in the correct schema though. You can’t just write a title for a question and put the answer underneath. As I use WordPress with the Yoast SEO plugin I can select the Yoast FAQ block whilst editing or writing articles. That helps Mr Google see the correct layout of the content and view it as an educational type of content.

Here’s an example of an FAQ attached to the bottom of an existing article. The VoiceMap GPS Audio Guide for Ronda - Ronda Today

The other thing to remember for site owners is to get the LLM sitemap up. Its different from a normal search sitemap and helps AI to navigate your site so in theory you get mentioned in those AI reviews and snippets. (Again, Yoast SEO has introduced this in their free version.)

@helene In the following article… The Plaza de San Juan de Dios in Cádiz - Visiting Cádiz Are you suggesting the link to VoiceMap should go to the place on the tour rather than the home page of the tour? Right now its the latter.

[helene]

Thanks so much for these insights, @clive!

It’s really valuable to hear how publishers approach this on different site builders. The FAQ example you shared is super helpful. Actually a perfect example to add to our documentation.

Yes, we’ve been making updates to the VoiceMap site and our promotional strategies based on what we’re observing with AI previews and these algorithm changes. We’re also analysing our community of publishers who have their own websites and promotional channels. For many publishers, the first step is actually getting their tours promoted through their websites, so examples from publishers, like you, who are already doing this successfully are incredibly helpful.

Good to know you’re using the Yoast plugin. It’s been a helpful tool for me when crafting our documentation pages too.

For your Plaza de San Juan de Dios article, it’s worth linking to both the tour’s main page and the specific location, since that diversifies the pages on VoiceMap that you’re linking to.

Linking to the location takes you to the script, which also provides more context for the link you’re providing.

This way you’re also giving listeners multiple relevant entry points to discover your tour.

[clive]

Thanks for the reply… So I will go through all of my articles about specific monuments, places etc across my sites and add in a link to that place on VoiceMap.

One issue… I can’t seem to find the links? I thought they were in the distribution tab?

[clive]

Oh, I just thought… Also, If I link to a specific location such as the one we are talking about, can the user listen to that audio? Or is that restricted to the first, second and third locations on the tour… The plaza de San Juan de Dios is actually the last location on the Cádiz tour.

[helene]

@clive Yes, you’ll find all the links for your tour (once it’s published) in the distribution tab. Click on “QR Codes” and “Show all tour locations”. You can copy the links directly from the list.

You’re right. Listeners can only listen to the audio for the first three locations and your featured location (which is why we encourage you to share the links and QR codes for these). You’ll see in the screenshot I shared above that they can read the script but not listen to the location audio. We explain this at the bottom of the screen with links that take them to the tour’s description page and the option to buy the tour.

I’d say if you only have one link on the specific page, link to the tour description page. Since this takes listeners directly to where they can purchase the tour. Then if you’re including additional links, link to the tour location. The focus here is to diversify the links you include on your page. And about creating a perfect alignment between what you’re writing about and where you’re sending people.