How keep your SEO strategy up to date with the latest mobile index changes
We all are living in a mobile world. Most of us pick our phones at the moment we wake up in the morning. Mobile phones have become a part of our daily routine, from reading the daily news to reviewing emails. Now, everyone knows the role that mobile-first and responsive design plays in achieving website rankings and improving traffic. Instagram is one of the best examples of mobile-first design.
Google's desktop indexing has been around since the beginning of Google Search. But, as this Smart Insights post announcing and discussing Google's Mobile First index launch shows, it is now 'abandoned' and pushed to backup status. It's no secret that Google has rolled out its new mobile-first index. Mobile-first search indexing will focus on the mobile version of your web page than that of the desktop version. So in this…
Chart of the day: Marketers are finding the difficulty of external/internal linking and web page load speed outstrips the effectiveness
In the November 2016 Search Engine Optimization Survey from Ascend2, they found that 57% of the 256 respondents understood that relevant content creation was the most effective tactics to boost their SEO traffic but at the same time it was also the most difficult. I'd suggest that this is mostly due it being time-consuming for marketers to create great content but also the competition to make it unique is high when it seems like everyone is doing inbound marketing.
Interestingly, the two tactics that were marked are more difficult than effective were external linking and web page load speed. Generating links to your site is hard and requires dedication from everyone in the marketing team to create high-quality engaging content that other site/bloggers will want…
Time changes all things - Especially SEO!
You need not cast your mind back far to reminisce about a time when the principles of SEO were little more than a rhythmic check list, putting everything in its place to best support the client at hand.
Now, times are changing, not only has the landscape been forever altered by Penguin 4.0, but we now have a new concept on the rise in interest and popularity: Semantic SEO.
Saying Semantic SEO is going to change everything is inaccurate, yes, it is a different approach to SEO but not entirely unrecognizable. The most common current SEO tactic is to filter out a target phrase, use it throughout the URL and, with fortunes’ grace, rank for the phrase chosen. With semantic SEO, you target a topic, not just a phrase. This is due to Google being much more competent at understanding the intentions of the user and…
Just because Penguin constantly updates, doesn't mean you can throw out the disavow file
When taking to the familiar waters of the social media swimming pool this morning, instead of enjoying my relaxed, smooth, exercise regime, I was met by the sound of shrieking and splashing from the children’s pool of Twitter. Upon investigating, I see there is a lively debate about the implications of disavow in the fallout of Penguin 4.0.
The main topic for the heated discussion? With the new incarnation of Penguin and its constantly refreshing live scrutiny when it is evaluating domains and URLs, is the presence of a disavow file even necessary for your business going forward? There are arguments both for and against this, there are those who are of the inclination that complete and utter removal of the disavow file is in their best interests as Google Penguin 4.0 algorithm is only doing minor devaluing…
Don't mess with Google
The competition for a top spot in the Google search results is as competitive as ever. Companies spend millions of dollars annually to try and rank at the top spot for competitive keywords. There is good reason for that type of spending. Ranking first in Google results in 33% of all traffic from that keyword. Many high profile companies have taken a rank-at-all-cost mentality to clawing their way up to the top of the Google search rankings. These companies have tried, and failed, to gain an unfair advantage and have paid the price with a Google Penalty on their website.
Major companies like The Washington Post, WordPress, BBC, BMW, Mozilla, Genius, eBay, The Home Depot and even Google itself have been penalized by Google for violations of their guidelines. Digital Third Coast, a digital marketing agency located in Chicago, has compiled a list of high profile companies have…
Tools to Monitor Search Engine Positions For Startups
Organic search is a cost-effective channel in marketing departments for most established companies who sell their products online.
For startups, a comprehensive organic acquisition strategy would usually not be the first area to concentrate on, as focussing on paid search and paid social to drive traffic would be a quicker way to test conversion of new products in the market.
With the data and learnings from paid search, it usually can then make dipping the toe into organic search that much easier, as you’ll at least know which search terms are worth the time and investment for both content creation and which pages are the most important for your business.
To monitor current and future positions of keywords, there are a great many SEO tools out there. But which ones out there are reasonably priced for a startup? And what do you get for your money?…
Proper use of well planned long tail keywords is key to SEO success
Long tail keywords are about more than squeezing that last bit of traffic from an overused search engine. They are the closest thing to reading minds outside of a comic book. A long tail keywords is any search of 4 words or more. Since they make up about 70% of all searches, it pays to learn how to use Google to read minds.
Other People’s Problems
Understanding the long tail keywords related to your business is the first step to getting a higher ranking on Google. Search engines are so popular because people want information for solving a problem. It doesn’t matter if it’s curing an illness, buying the right camera or learning to dance the polka. The stronger the need, the more specific the search. The more specific the search, the more likely action gets taken. We use search engines…
Allo, Allo, Allo, what marketing implications do we have here then?
Importance: [rating=4]
Recommended Source: Allo.Google.com
Google announcement this week of the launch of its new messenger app has got marketers excited. And no, it's not because of the new emojis. It's because it follows the industry-wide trend for integrating AI-powered digital assistants into messaging apps. The announcement comes hot of the heels of Facebook's announcement earlier this month which hailed the introduction of 'Messanger version 1.2', which would include facilities to let chatbots handle payments within the app.
The chat app has lots of nifty little features to tempt users, which aren't all that important to marketers. These are things like being able to enlarge or shrink text, send auto-generated responses, doodle on images or send an impressive range of stupid emojis.
The key feature from a marketing perspective is the fact the app contains a personal assistant that utilises 'Google Now', which uses a natural language interface…
Our interview with Rob Hammond, Head of SEO for publisher Trinity Mirror group
We asked the head of SEO for Trinty Mirror Group (the publisher behind major UK daily newspapers, such as The Mirror) about key SEO trends and how he see SEO changing in future.
What do you regard as the most significant SEO trends (and updates) that have impacted your current SEO strategy?
As a publisher, the growth of mobile is by far the most significant trend in search today. It has disrupted both the way that people search and the way that we produce content.
Google talks about the importance of "micro moments" on mobile - reaching people precisely at the short moment they have an information need. I think it's a really helpful way to think of how search has evolved, and will continue to evolve as we grow accustomed…
Just what is structured data? And how will it help your business appear more creative and memorable in search results?
Rich snippets have been around for some time now, as has Google’s knowledge graph, which was added to search engine result pages (SERPs) in 2012. Over the last year, we’ve also now started to see structured data, which is used to implement these different displays of information, become an even greater influence on SERPs, especially Google’s.
On May 17th 2016, Google rolled out a number of changes to how their search engine handles structured data, with the most important changes being the introduction of rich cards. These are a complete restructure of Google’s documentation about structured data, alongside a new report function in Google Search Console for data relating to rich cards.
Before we delve into the technical stuff,…
