Web directories can be useful for your online presence. They’re also pretty useful for local SEO (more on that later). But when it comes to SEO overall, web directories are not as useful as they once were. Read more
Keyword In Your Domain Name? Unnecessary Says Google’s John Mueller
In the latest Ask Google Webmasters video, a question was featured about keyword-based top-level domains (TLDs). John Mueller said in the video there aren’t any benefits from featuring a keyword in domain names when someone posed this question:
Does a .jobs domain improve ranking in Google for jobs?
What’s The Difference Between Local SEO And Normal SEO?
To put it simply, the difference between local SEO and normal SEO is this – normal SEO allows you to increase the visibility of your website on a national and even global scale, whereas local SEO allows you to target search users in your area. Read more
Innovative Ways To Use Content Marketing Techniques To Earn Quality Organic Backlinks
Content marketing helps brands to get their message out there, while at the same time improving SEO and growing its digital presence. When considering SEO and how their content marketing efforts can benefit their website’s rankings, many content marketers focus on backlinks and link building. Read more
Will Guest Posts Damage Your Rankings?
We all know that links will help your rankings, and in-content links will help your rankings even more, and that’s why guest posts became a thing. But the question has to be asked is has it been overdone and will guests posts do more harm than good? Read more
Should You Choose A Content Marketing Agency Or An SEO Agency?
So, you’ve decided that your website needs traction and you need to be engaging with the right type of potential customers. You don’t have the resources in-house to take care of it and know you need to outsource these skills.
The next biggest question is what sort of agency you should work with? Should you choose a content marketing agency or an SEO agency? Is there any difference between the two and is one better?
Google Is Introducing Page Experience As A Ranking Factor
In a blog post today (28th May 2020), Google has announced they will be rolling out the use of page experience as a ranking factor.
Google cites internal studies and industry research that demonstrates users prefer websites that have ‘great page experience.’
Page experience isn’t anything new in the realms of SEO. I remember when working at UKFast in 2008/2009 we ran a campaign called “Google Love” that talked about how hosting a website on a really fast server would help you rank better in Google. And for years SEO consultants have been using the PageSpeed Tool from Google to work out whether Google is going to mark a site down or not based on page speed.
As smartphones became more and more important for web traffic, Google slowly began to move towards a mobile-first index and introduced mobile-friendliness as a ranking factor.
Google has therefore given us a bit of a sneak peek into the soon-to-be changes to search rankings and how page metrics will be part of that mix.
An important announcement was also made earlier this month in which Google said the Core Web Vitals helps site owners to measure user experience.
The update will include page experience metrics as ranking factors. Interestingly that whilst they are still supporting AMP they are removing AMP requirements for Top Stories eligibility.
This announcement is about giving website owners enough time to get their heads around using these kinds of metrics for SEO purposes. Google says they’ll only be rolling it out in 2021.
Google went on to say:
“The page experience signal measures aspects of how users perceive the experience of interacting with a web page. Optimizing for these factors makes the web more delightful for users across all web browsers and surfaces, and helps sites evolve towards user expectations on mobile. We believe this will contribute to business success on the web as users grow more engaged and can transact with less friction.
“Core Web Vitals are a set of real-world, user-centered metrics that quantify key aspects of the user experience. They measure dimensions of web usability such as load time, interactivity, and the stability of content as it loads (so you don’t accidentally tap that button when it shifts under your finger – how annoying!).”
“We’re combining the signals derived from Core Web Vitals with our existing Search signals for page experience, including mobile-friendliness, safe-browsing, HTTPS-security, and intrusive interstitial guidelines, to provide a holistic picture of page experience.”
But whilst AMP is no longer going to be first and foremost for Top Stories, pages must meet the Google News content policies to be eligible.
The first three ranking factors they’re likely to be covering are:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) measures how quickly the page’s “main content” loads — the bulk of the text or image the page is serving up
- First Input Delay (FID) measures how quickly the page reacts when you first click on something on the page
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) measures when stuff jumps around on the page — for instance, if ads rearrange the text you’re trying to read
Overall, this has to be a great addition to Google’s ranking factors. This is another great step forward in helping make sure the internet is cleaned up, removing all that old broken content and we can’t wait to get stuck into seeing how this impacts our clients’ rankings.
How To Stop Wasting Money On Content Marketing
How’s your content marketing going? It’s rubbish when you feel like you’re wasting money on content marketing, isn’t it? So many people out there waste so much time and money on content marketing and there’s only one thing in the world that’s going to help you out: strategy. Read more
Should You Spend Your Small Business Grant Funding On Content Marketing?
Let’s face it, the Coronavirus Crisis of 2020 has been rubbish, with business being difficult for most businesses and many businesses calling it a day. However, in the UK a number of businesses have received Small Business Grants Fund (SBGF) and Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund (RHLGF) and we’re increasingly seeing business owners and marketers asking us if they should be spending that funding on content marketing. Read more
Why You Shouldn’t Carry Out Content Marketing And Why You Definitely Shouldn’t Work With A Content Marketing Agency
Exploring the reasons why you shouldn’t carry outy content marketing and why you shouldn’t hire a content marketing agency may seem strange coming from an SEO and content marketing agency. And it is. But, not every business should engage with content marketing and not every business should engage a content marketing agency. It’s important that we’re prepared to say that. Read more