Latest updates are moving toward on-page, technical supremacy and the visitors’ experience.

The added E in E-E-A-T stands for experience, Core Web Vitals is known as user page experience. Google is clearly telling us that they are putting the visitor, and the user in the centre of their updates.

Writing for the benefit of the Google crawler, keyword stuffing, AI generated content… we are all guilty of some of the classic SEO crimes one way or another.

So, let’s decode the recently announced E-E-A-T!

The best way to do that would be to review E-A-T first.

E-A-T in SEO stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness.

It is very important to learn that Google confirmed E-A-T is rated for every query that is searched in 2022. And that is a massive change for what is shown in top positions in SERPs and how it should optimise our pages.

E-A-T is all about quality, factual writing on a high quality, recognised and safe website:

E as Expertise stands for the expertise on the subject of the writer, aka you should seek a specialist on the subject of the page, not just a random freelancer that might get the facts wrong. Imagine buying face cream online and you are giving wrong advice, an unqualified or incompetent writer simply does not mention (for example) potential allergic reactions and you could end up with ruined skin.

A as Authoritativeness goes beyond just the voice of authority and supremacy of the individual page but speaks about the power, quality and recognition of the website as whole. Is your website seen as a good source of information on the web? Are you linking to other sources and are you being quoted as a place of useful and forceful information?

And lastly, T for Trustworthiness – once again refers to the website, not just the page quality. Is the website safe for you to use your credit card? – is a first question you should ask yourself when trying to validate if the website can be trusted by others. Do you have good Trustpilot and Google reviews? Are you using an SSL certificate? Does your website have a strong brand awareness? Are you present on social media?

E-A-T changed the SERPs and the growing importance of this quality measurement keeps changing the landscape of the SERPs.

Google always tries to serve the most relevant, best and fastest answer, but with E-A-T they are simply making sure that the results provided are keeping the users safe. Absolutely the correct approach as we all tend to shop more online for everything – travel, clothes, cosmetics… you name it.

E-A-T is not a ranking signal like speed, meta title or backlinks. But it impacts the rank of your content which is a ranking signal.

E-A-T is a Google quality guideline that is used to determine if the content is high quality and should be ranked higher or not compared to your competitors.

As Google saw a positive change in SERPs with E-A-T, they are taking it one step further to provide an even better experience to the users by creating E-E-A-T.

This is a change to Google content quality guidelines. The new E stands for Experience!

What Does that Mean and How Do SEOs Need to Work with this Latest Change?

Experience, in this context, refers to the first hand experience of the author and the website with the topic in question.

For example, if you are on a medical blog, is the article written by a doctor, or a real expert on the topic?

If it is a financial blog, is the article full of useful info written by someone from the financial sector? Is the information true? Is it understandable, even if an expert has explained it?

Is the article published on a relevant website or is it just a one time article of a completely unrelated topic to the whole website?

Also, Google is giving us more explanations on some vital concepts such as:

• Is the website harmful or safe?
• Is the content harmful or safe ?
• What is the reputation of the website and its contributors?

This is why an author’s profile is important, credentials, links to their professional profiles such as LinkedIn, or other places that can verify the true identity and qualification of the writer.

The job of SEO’s is to prove to Google that you have got the most relevant and best, trustworthy solution for the query.

To provide a good additional E to E-A-T, watch out for and provide:

Content: Original, well researched content that demonstrates a direct, ‘first hand’ experience’ with the topic.

Author: Is an expert on the topic in question, has verifiable credentials.

Publisher: Has a history and it is a recognised authority on the topic. Aka an SEO post on a website that is on marketing and SEO.

On top of all that, Google has confirmed that the most important and central piece of the E-E-A-T is trust, and it was named the most important ‘member of the trust family’.

Naturally, Google and their Quality raters will apply the principles of E-E-A-T differently to different verticals and niches. As this is a quality update for YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) websites – medical, financial, news, governmental information… naturally these will see the biggest impact of this change. Having said that, Google wants to provide the best and most relevant and correct answer to all queries, so in the end, there will be impact on most of the niches out there, maybe not as significant as on YMYL.

In conclusion, if your website was already optimised for E-A-T, this should be just a small change and adjustment for you.

If your website does not respect E-A-T guidelines, E-E-A-T will cost you places in the SERPs.

Make sure to re-optimise your website and content that Google is asking you to and make sure to work with verifiable experts in their field.

In the end, we all want to feel safe online.

The post E-E-A-T: How E-A-T Changed and What It Means for SEOs appeared first on SiteProNews.

The shifting landscape of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and its’ many ranking factors can make it hard to determine what you need to focus on to grow your website’s organic traffic. 

Fortunately, there are a few core elements of SEO that stay mostly the same. In this article, I will break down 5 key aspects of SEO so you know exactly where you need to put your effort.

1. Consistent Publication of Great Content

Content is the lifeblood of the internet and is essential for SEO. Great content is what users are looking for, and as a result, so are search engines. 

What is great content?

Defining great content isn’t that easy because what “great” is depends on the purpose of the content and its audience. But as a general rule, great content is any content that provides valuable and relevant information to the consumer.

Great content can come in a number of formats (video, blogs, graphics) as long as the content is tailored to meet consumers’ needs. 

When attempting to create great content for your website, focus on your users. If you make answering their questions your primary goal, you will be on the right track.

From there, you just need to make the content easy to engage with. Make sure your content is easy to read and formatted appropriately. Add visuals that help to explain your content and make the content easy to navigate.

2. On-page SEO

On-page SEO involves the more technical aspects of SEO optimization. Making sure your website is healthy from an SEO perspective is one of the core building blocks of SEO. 

Many site owners overlook the basics of on page SEO because it seems unimportant and tedious. But not doing the basics of SEO will negatively impact your SEO results.

A site with many “minor” SEO issues is a major red flag to search engines. Make sure you cover the basics if you want to see your site traffic and rankings grow. 

To optimize your website’s on page SEO, you should do the following:

• Optimize your title tags 
• Optimize your meta descriptions
• Optimize your URL Structure
• Optimize page load speeds
• Add image Alt text
• Add structured data markup
• Eliminate 404s 
• Ensure your website is crawlable
• Optimize your website structure

On-page SEO isn’t glamorous, but it’s necessary. 

3. Mobile Optimization

Google made mobile friendliness a ranking factor in 2015 and started using mobile first indexing in 2018. These two algorithm updates mean your website’s mobile version significantly impacts your website’s performance in search. 

Your website must be optimized for mobile to see the best returns for your SEO efforts. 

A website that is optimized for mobile:

• Uses responsive design to change appearance to fit any screen size dynamically
• Prioritizes website load speeds so pages load quickly over any connection type (cellular data, wifi etc.)
• Keeps design elements simple to retain visual clarity on a small screen
• Uses large font sizes, so the text is readable on any screen size
• Provides information in a concise and accurate manner

4. Great User Experience

Making sure your website users have an awesome experience is another essential aspect of SEO. 

If you want to build a base of users who keep coming back to your site, you need to ensure they enjoy using it. 

We have all had negative experiences with websites. When a website is poorly organized, doesn’t answer our questions, or is difficult to use, we rarely become repeat visitors. This behavior is true of almost all users.

No matter the reason, people rarely return to a website that is hard to use or doesn’t provide information in an easy-to-consume format. 

Having great content on your website will only help you grow if visitors to your site can they can easily find and engage with it. 

This is where having a great user experience comes in. 

User experience falls into various categories, from page load speeds to site navigation to content organization. But the main goal of user experience is ensuring visitors to your site can find and access the content they are looking for as quickly and painlessly as possible. 

Slow load speeds, poorly formatted content, confusing navigation bars, and intrusive pop-ups make your website harder to use and result in a bad user experience. If users routinely have a bad experience on your site, they will stop coming back, preventing you from building a loyal base of users. 

5. Backlinks from High-quality Websites

The last key element of SEO is backlinks from authoritative websites. Links act as a kind of “vote” for your website. The more of these votes you have the better for your website.

When a site has links from other websites that search engines already consider credible, it boosts the credibility of the linked site. 

If you want to build your website’s authority, backlinks are vital. 

So how do you go about building links? 

Create “great content” and then make sure people know about it. 

When you execute on tip one, “consistent publication of great content,” you will organically gain links to your site as people reference and share your content. This is Google’s preferred method of link building and is also one of the most effective.

While organic link building is the preferred method for building links to your site, it’s not a replacement for outreach. 

Make sure you post your content on other platforms. Reach out to site owners in your niche and share your content with them. A well-written email can do wonders for building links to your site. 

If you invest in these 5 core elements of SEO, you will be well on your way to building your website’s authority and traffic. 

SEO isn’t nearly as complicated as it seems. Consistently invest in the basics, and you will see results.

The post SEO Essentials: 5 Key Factors for Improving SERP Rankings appeared first on SiteProNews.

One of the most common questions asked by SEO experts and business owners who want to rank better in search engines like Google is what do you have to do to have backlinks count as one of the ranking factors? If you are asking yourself this question, then let me explain first what backlinks are and why they are considered one of the ranking factors in SEO in the first place. Then I will tell you some effective ways to outweigh backlinks in SEO.

Google Algorithm Updates

Many people believe that Google has updated its algorithm and it doesn’t weigh backlinks heavily anymore. However, that isn’t the case, there are many ways you can outreach and link build your way to some high-quality, organic backlink growth. Plus, it never hurts to take a page out of everyone’s book who is good at link building (or guest posting) and do it for yourself. Link outreach might be something you have never done before but with some research and patience, anyone can succeed.

Linking Root Domains

In an ideal world, you could trust that backlinks alone would always be enough to help your site rank. That being said, we live in the age of link building, and there are too many people trying to game the system. The best way you can have high-quality backlinks is by utilizing outreach and working on quality link building with guest posts and other forms of content marketing. This way you can have links coming from your domains which will weigh more than any outreach or guest post.

Number of Links from Different Domains

Google uses backlinks from other websites to assess how valuable your website is. They track how many links point back to your page and make an estimate of how many quality backlinks you have based on the popularity of the site that is linked to you. While you can’t manually track this, there are ways for you to get more backlinks, which Google will then take into account when ranking your site higher. One thing that is essential for achieving better rankings is building up link equity. Link equity refers to the number of quality links pointing at a site as well as factors like reputation, popularity, and relevance. Essentially it’s just a numerical estimate of how popular or important someone thinks your website might be so they link it in hopes that others will come by and see it too.

Strength of Links from Different Domains

Ideally, you want backlinks from higher domain trust networks. For example, the New York Times or Harvard University will not be of the same value as a blog post on Tumblr. Generally speaking, if you want links from authoritative domains, it is best to create high-quality content that attracts them organically. Links are also weighted by how recently they were published; there is more value for a new link on your site than an old one.

Link Volume Data

Recently, there have been some studies done on the importance of backlinks. This led us to ask: just how important are they? If you have 2 backlinks and I have 10, will your site rank higher than mine? Will I get more traffic?

Domain Age and Trust Flow

You have likely heard that backlinks are still one of the top-ranking factors. For example, Domain Age and Trust Flow are both ranked as moderately important ranking factors. These measures will help you improve your site’s trustworthiness. This is one of the main reasons that backlink building should still be included in your SEO campaign. However, you don’t want to forget about other techniques like targeting long-tail keywords or writing blog posts on topics related to your niche– they’ll also help get your website discovered by people searching for specific things online.

Page Authority

A major component of Page Authority is linked domain authority (LDA), which essentially quantifies the power that a page wields on linking websites. Linked domain authority is a measure of how powerful an individual page is, or how much weight it has on other websites. The higher the DA, the more important the content is and should be treated with higher respect by other sites and by Google. 

The final element of Page Authority considered for ranking purposes is link quantity and quality. Each time another site links to your content, their DA rating is divided among any sites linking out; this number will decrease as more links are made from it, providing a baseline for how much weight that particular backlink brings with it.

7 Surefire Ways to Get High-Quality Backlinks

As search engine algorithms continue to evolve, content marketers are tasked with staying one step ahead of the game to remain competitive and relevant in their niche market. Many of the long-standing traditional methods used to obtain backlinks are no longer guaranteed to boost your rankings, and savvy content marketers are on the lookout for new ways to get high-quality backlinks that will help their sites rank well in search engines. Here are seven effective strategies you can use to get high-quality backlinks in 2020 and beyond.

1. Focus on Quality

It’s become all too easy for sites that don’t deserve the high rankings they hold, to climb the Google ladder and gain authority. If you’re just starting, you may have seen articles about something called SEO guest posting but never thought it would be an option for your business.

Backlinks are an important part of any search engine optimization (SEO) campaign. They are links from other websites that Google considers to be votes of confidence that your site is high-quality and user-friendly.

2. Focus on Long-tail Keywords

It’s now more important than ever before to get high-quality backlinks. The way you go about doing this might be a little different now that Google has put so much weight on user experience and relevance. One of the most effective ways is to create content that provides longtail keywords with information that they can’t find elsewhere, then contact them directly with your piece as an offering. You can also offer other people’s content if it offers any value or ties in with your topic of expertise.

3. Increase Your Chances by Using Influencers

Utilizing influencers is one of the easiest ways to get high-quality backlinks. An influencer can provide a new angle for your blog post and make it much more interesting or applicable to their audience. However, it’s important not just for you but also for them as well. If you want people on social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter to share your link then offer them a shootout in return.

4. Guest Blogging has Gotten Harder

Guest blogging was the easiest way for a business to grow backlinks when search engines were first created. Until now, most businesses use guest blogging as a way to generate links that allow their content or site more visibility on the web. However, Google has been cracking down hard on this strategy over the past couple of years and penalizing sites that have abused this strategy. That’s why if you’re looking for ways to start earning backlinks, it’s better that you focus on quality rather than quantity.

5. Link Building Doesn’t Stop 

This decade is just getting started and this means that 2022 isn’t going to be the same as 2018, either. With a new year comes new technologies, trends, and opportunities for internet marketers who are ready for change.

For external backlinks, various sources will help to gain some link juice and relevancy.

• Forum Profile Links
• Guest Posts
• Wiki Links

6. Track Your Results

• Use Medium – Create an account and publish quality content relevant to your target audience.
• Ask Influencers for a Link – Connect with influencers by sending them a quick message or Tweet, you could ask them for a link. Influencers are more likely to engage with you if you send a note of introduction and share some of your work first. 
• Guest Post on Other Sites – Reach out and submit articles as guest posts on other sites that are related or have an overlapping audience. 

7. Google Authorship is Dead, but Social Media Posts Can Do Well

Marketers all know that links are key to a good SEO strategy. To do well on Google, links need to be credible and from reputable sites. But there’s also an old technique of adding links with keyword phrases just for the sake of getting some words on the page and hoping for a backlink—and it can work in the short term. The reality is, however, that search engines are cracking down on these types of posts.

The post How to Rank Well in Search Engines Using Backlinks appeared first on SiteProNews.

Every year, Google, the most popular search engine, modifies the way its algorithms interpret data and rank websites that they find the most useful for consumers. It’s important for a business that wants to stay in the competition and make the most of its SEO investments year after year, to become acquainted with the new norms as soon as possible. Having foreknowledge regarding future updates and factors that can influence SEO and rankings is crucial for businesses to stay on top of the ranking game. If you are a proactive business looking to prepare for the future, you are at the right place.

In this article, we will discuss 8 SEO ranking factors that can influence your website’s ranking in 2023 and beyond. Read along to discover what will work in terms of SEO in the coming times and start implementing these factors in your SEO campaign to reap lucrative, long-term benefits. 

1. Mobile Optimization

While you may think mobile phone optimization is an outdated ranking factor, it isn’t. Google is still favorable to mobile-friendly websites and in fact, has introduced a mobile-first indexing factor where the algorithms will first crawl the mobile version of your website to index and rank it on SERPs. It’s important to keep optimizing your website for mobile devices to ensure all the pages are ideally loading for the users. Since most users are going to access your website from their mobile devices, if it appears unorganized and cluttered, they may immediately leave it for your competitor’s better-optimized one which will decrease its CTR. A high CTR contributes to a website’s ranking which is why mobile optimization becomes even more important. You can leverage mobile usability metrics to gauge your website’s usability on mobile devices. 

2. User Experience

Google’s latest update focuses on the overall experience a website provides to users. As part of this update, the algorithms will analyze numerous UX factors of the website to determine its ranking on search results. These factors include a web page’s accessibility, the number of redirects it has, the amount of high-quality pictures and videos it contains, the way dynamic content like pop-ups load on it, and the length of the page among other usability factors. If you want your website to rank in 2022 and beyond, you should ensure it provides a seamless and enjoyable browsing experience to users. Try to make it as basic as possible enabling users to easily interface with it and quickly navigate to their desired content. Make sure it isn’t plagued by advertisements or has irrelevant content that can harm your rankings. 

3. Schema Markup

You can use schema to markup the content on your website, enabling Google’s algorithms to accurately interpret it and display it more frequently and precisely for relevant search queries. Marking up your content using schema will make your website more structured, enabling web crawlers to ideally index it and portray rich snippets under its link on SERPs. By adding microdata to the HTML script of your website using the schema vocabulary, you can control how Google portrays the meta description of your website. Rich snippets under your website’s link can make it stand out in the search results, significantly increasing its click-through rate. You can generate more organic traffic to your website using schema which has always been a ranking factor and is going to be so for times to come. 

4. BERT Algorithm

Google has recently introduced a new algorithm called BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) which leverages machine learning capabilities to deduce the intent behind a user’s search input. This algorithm helps the search engine to match users with the exact results that they intend to find when they put in a search query. In the coming times, with machine learning and natural language processing technologies evolving, websites that offer content best matching the user’s intent will be promoted up the rankings. If you want to rank in 2022, 2023 and beyond, you will have to include more content that matches your ideal customer’s search intent. 

5. Keyword Research

Keywords are indispensable when it comes to SEO and they are only going to become more important as SERPs keep getting advanced. With Google’s algorithms getting smarter and showcasing content from all around the web at the top of search results in the form of business listings, contact information, profiles and featured snippets, users end up not clicking any website at all for their search queries. They get all the information they need in an organized fashion at the top of search results thanks to Google’s high-performance algorithms. That’s why to get the clicks on your website despite this advancement in the algorithms, you will have to perform meticulous keyword research to unearth keywords that will constitute most search queries. 

6. Passage Indexing

Passage indexing is another of Google’s algorithms that leverages high standards of natural language processing capability to understand and index particular passages from long-form content on websites. These passages are then directly displayed on SERPs for relevant queries thereby helping users gain easy access to the precise answers they are looking for on the web. To make the most of this algorithm, you should publish more long-form, holistic content that covers every aspect of a topic. This can help you rank higher on SERPs for relevant search queries, now and in the future.

7. Voice Search Optimization

With the rising popularity of voice search assistants like Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant, voice searches are at an all-time high. Users can conveniently speak out their search queries without taking the pains to type. According to Google, 27% of the global population uses voice search on mobile. Furthermore, ComScore has reported that more than half of all smartphone users used voice search capabilities in 2020. Since spoken queries are much more conversational, long-tail, and unconventional, you need to optimize your content accordingly for your website to rank on SERPs. Try to use conversational keywords that resemble what users might speak out on voice search. Voice search is here to stay and so, optimizing your content for it is definitely going to help you rank in 2023. 

8. Video SEO

As an online business, you must already be aware of the benefits of video marketing. Google’s algorithms prefer informative and engaging videos and rank websites with embedded videos higher on SERPs. Video key moments is a search feature on Google that shows selected key moments from full-length, embedded videos on SERPs related to the search input. If you perform video SEO, you can now get additional benefits from it by helping Google identify key moments from your videos. All you have to do is use the seek-to-action markup to provide the web crawlers the URL structure to jump to a specific portion of the video. Google’s algorithms will automatically identify key moments using artificial intelligence capability. 

Conclusion

These are the 8 ranking factors that you need to be aware of this year and in 2023 to be in a pole position on search rankings. If the entire SEO technicalities don’t seem like your cup of tea, or you are a small-scale SEO agency looking to scale up cost-effectively and achieve real ranking results for your clients, white label SEO services should be at the top of your consideration.

The post The Top 8 SEO Ranking Factors You Need to Know in 2023 appeared first on SiteProNews.

Google is the world leader in terms of Internet search and digital advertising revenue. Every day, more than 3 billion Google searches are conducted worldwide and over 100 billion web pages are indexed by the search engine giant. What makes Google so popular? Its algorithm that guarantees better results for any keyword entered by users has had a major role to play in the success of Google. In addition, internet users today are increasingly using mobile devices for search and Google is keeping up with that trend too.

Google’s continuous research on how to provide relevant web pages from different sites lets you see more clearly what you’re looking for. On this note, let’s look at the latest SERP feature trends:

Priority to Voice-optimized Content

The latest SERP feature trends show that content on mobile devices will be more voice-activated and conversational. Google’s voice search is growing 3 times faster than the text version and accounts for 20% of all mobile queries. Mobile web pages with 2 to 4 sentences in the description area perform better than those with a longer description or several short descriptions.

More Knowledge Graph Cards

Cards are the latest SERP feature trends in Google, which display detailed information about specific topics in separate sections within search results. This allows searchers to find answers quickly without having to click on another web page, thereby increasing user satisfaction for Google users. You can also improve your strategy by using Schema.org structured data to spread your content across multiple Google knowledge graph cards.

Integration of Local Search With Images

Google’s latest SERP feature trends show a strong push towards integrating local business information into SERPs, especially for mobile users. If you have a physical store or an office in a certain location, make sure that this information is visible to Google.

Bookmarking Service for Mobile Devices

Google’s latest SERP feature trends indicate that users are increasingly turning to their mobiles to find bookmarked content. If your content has been shared thousands of times on the web, you can consider it as a high-quality bookmark and monetize it with Adsense ads or other affiliate ads.

High-quality Featured Snippets

The latest SERP feature trends show that Google is increasingly using featured snippets to display high-quality content with extensive information in separate boxes at the top of SERP. It’s a great opportunity for you to grab traffic from users who like to get all their answers right on one page and don’t go through other sites.

The Rich Cards

Google’s latest SERP feature trends show that the search engine giant is increasingly using rich cards to display information and media together in one featured snippet or box on SERP. The results include headlines, images, and buttons with snippets of relevant content and hyperlinks for users searching for related topics. This is a great opportunity for you to direct users to your own website.

The Use of Location Modifiers

The latest SERP feature trends show that Google is increasingly using location modifiers to display local-specific results based on user search queries. This is an important tool in the SEO strategy because it helps companies improve their online presence by displaying relevant information for their target location.

Highlighting Special Offers

If you have a list of weekly or monthly deals and discounts, Google’s latest SERP feature trends indicate that highlighting these offers in the description area affects the user experience and helps increase conversions for your business. It also makes it easier to rank higher than other e-commerce sites offering similar products.

Tips for Better SEO Strategy

Fret not if you are new to SEO as we’ve got you covered with the best tips to improve your SEO strategy to gain a competitive edge:

• Analyze data trends over the past few years to understand how search engine algorithms have evolved.
• Create a regular SEO calendar with updates on your site’s security, content writing, and link-building activities.
• Use engagement signals like click-through rate, time spent on a page, bounce rate, etc. to monitor the quality of traffic coming through search engine optimization.
• Focus on the latest SERP feature trends such as featured snippets, knowledge graph cards, location modifiers, and rich cards to get ahead of competitors.
• Use Schema.org structured data to make your content easily discoverable by Google’s bots.
• Be active on social media networks like Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Facebook because these channels can help you brand your business online.

Wrapping Up!

With the latest SERP feature trends, it is time to take your SEO strategies up a notch. Now that you know what Google is looking for, make sure you include these changes in your strategy for better search engine rankings and improved conversions.

Google’s latest SERP feature trends show a strong push towards integrating local business information into SERPs, which means companies should be actively monitoring their online presence across local business listings, review sites, social media channels, blogs, etc. By following these SEO strategies, you can come up with a stronger SEO strategy that will help improve your search engine rankings.

The post SERP Feature Trends and Tips For a Better SEO Strategy appeared first on SiteProNews.

Whether you own a thriving online business, work as a digital marketing manager for someone else, or are an SEO specialist at an agency, you’ll have to manage, monetize and promote online content through Google.

Search engine optimization may look like small modifications to a website. However, the combined impact of these minor changes on your website’s performance and user experience is massive.

The secret behind creating a high-ranking website resides in your ability to satisfy the users by offering them an above-par experience on your platform. One of these users is a search engine, which helps you reach other users with your website. Let’s look at some effective ways you can improve your Google ranking.

1. Understand the Google Algorithm

Whether it’s John Mueller or Gary Illyes, every successful Google executive states that Google frequently changes its algorithm and a majority of these changes are not announced publically. According to Moz, there are about 500-600 Google algorithm changes every year.

The primary purpose behind keeping these changes is to prevent black hat SEO strategies and shortcuts to maintain the authenticity of websites.

However, some notable algorithm updates you may want to know include page experience updates, core updates (related to the content quality), and mobile-first updates.

You can keep yourself updated with these changes by regularly keeping a check on Google Webmaster Central.

2. Strategize your Work

Targeting a single keyword across different pages of your website is certainly a bad idea! Instead, you need to rank for a maximum number of keywords, with the same amount of work and effort.

This is only possible if you come up with smart strategies. Start with keyword research and carefully choose your target keywords. Your targeted keywords directly impact your probability of success.

Here are a few important things to consider while selecting keywords:

• Choose the keywords specific to your particular domain only
• Choose less competitive keywords
• Make sure that your chosen keywords offer sufficient traffic
• Make sure your chosen keywords are relevant to your business
• Target multiple keywords simultaneously

People tend to search for the same things in a billion ways. Look for a keyword seed and then search a list of keywords that represent the same theme.

3. Discover a Seed Keyword

To grow your keyword theme, try to identify your seed keyword. Seed keywords are basically the most obvious keywords relevant to your topic.

If, for instance, you sell handmade jewelry, your seed keyword can be “buy handmade jewelry.”

To come up with good keyword seeds, you need to do some research and then brainstorm different ideas based on your services, business objectives, targeted audience, and keywords you want to rank for the ads you’re planning to purchase.

4. Turn Your Keyword Seed Into a Keyword Theme

Once you finalize your seed keyword, grow it into a theme by listing out all the related keywords. This approach will help you expand your opportunities and rank for multiple keywords at the same time.

Long-tail keywords can be a major help in this regard. The number of long-tail keywords used on a website is typically directly proportional to the amount of traffic directed to it by the search engines. You can use several paid or free keyword research tools like Semrush.

However, at this stage, you need to be mindful of your business goals and hence, keyword specificity. Make sure they’re not out of context or irrelevant to your industry.

5. Create Value

Your website content gives you an edge over your competitors; make sure it’s spectacular, relevant, and well-researched. Before you share any blog piece, infographic, or any other report on your website, make sure that it offers something more to your recipients than they’re already getting from other content, raking on the same keywords you’re using.

Google provides guidelines and some clues regarding its content evaluation strategy. Try to comprehend it and create your content accordingly.

By creating the best content on the internet, you can establish your business as a trusted brand, build more links, increase user engagement and protect your website from uninformed algorithmic changes.

So, Are You Ready to Take the Plunge?

If you’re here, chances are, you’ve already started taking your Google ranking seriously, and congratulations, that was your first step towards improving your rank.

Don’t worry if all the SEO technicalities make you feel overwhelmed, you’re not alone.

If you’re looking for reliable SEO optimization services for small businesses, feel free to check out Search Berg, an established platform offering content writing, lead generation, paid marketing services, and premium SEO packages for small businesses to their clients at affordable rates.

The post A Beginner’s Guide to Ranking High on Google Using SEO appeared first on SiteProNews.

How Can My Website Increase Its Domain Authority?

You should try to get only high-quality backlinks from relevant websites. Remember that Google Search evaluates not only domain authority but also user experience when ranking web pages. So, in order to boost your traffic and increase brand awareness for people who are already reading content on your site, it’s best to work on improving its aesthetics and functionality before trying anything else.

However, if you feel that you don’t have the resources to do that, try increasing your domain authority with backlinks. The more quality links you get, the higher you’ll be in search result rankings.

How to increase domain authority score?

There are different ways you can improve your search engine ranking. People have been using backlink services to boost their domain authority, but that is not the right way to do it because Google penalizes websites that acquire links by using link services. The truth is, there are more organic ways of gaining high-quality backlinks without being detected by Google.

It’s best if you have a good plan on how to get these links so you don’t look fishy or spammy in the eyes of Google’s spider crawlers, which crawl the web looking for things they consider wrong with your website. If they think your efforts are focused on acquiring as many low-quality links as possible with no regard for quality content development, they will demote your site’s ranking.

If you’re not sure how to do it, then hire a reputable SEO agency that can help you with your website backlinking campaign. Look for an agency that has good reviews, credible testimonials, and solid experience in search engine marketing. They should be able to show you past projects they have done so you know the caliber of work they are capable of doing for your website.

Domain authority is an important component of Google Search rankings, so make sure your website gets high scores on this scale by getting only relevant backlinks from other websites online. If you find it hard to do this on your own, just let professional experts handle promoting your domain authority for you. They have the resources to get your site to the top of the first page by increasing its authority without getting detected.

Here’s how you can increase domain authority score in two ways:

1. On-page SEO

On-page SEO is another method of optimization. This deals with factors that revolve around the website content and design. It’s best to leave this to experts who know what they’re doing when it comes to SEO. However, you should make sure you understand the basics in order not to break Google’s rules and get your website penalized. Here’s how you can do it:

1) Get links from relevant websites that are also considered authoritative in their respective niches. Make sure the topic of the site is closely related to your own industry offerings, like technology for a site about cooking, or music for a news blog dedicated to graphic arts. If the topics don’t match, avoid these sites as they will cause more harm than good.

2) You can also employ guest blogging on other high-quality sites so you can establish authority in your industry for other web pages to reference. Publishers are always looking for strong contributors, especially those who write about topics related to their own niches. When you get published on other websites, make sure you link back to your site so people can see where the articles came from. Also, use high-quality images in your blog posts because these will be used by publishers when they post your articles online.

3) Optimize website conversions. Try A/B testing or multivariate testing to find out what elements of page design encourage more audience engagement with the site’s content. This way, you can discover what works best for boosting conversion rates and increasing brand awareness due to increased traffic flow through your website.

4) Get links from social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. These sites get mentioned a lot in articles about increasing social signals which Google considers as authoritative ranking factors. If you’re not using these social media platforms, then register for new accounts and start sharing your content. You can also join popular conversations on certain topics and offer insightful comments that will boost authority and attract attention from high-traffic areas online.

5) Submit an XML sitemap to search engines like Google. You need to do this so Google can index the site faster for any user who wants to find information on it through their search engine’s search bar or directory pages. Google has an advanced algorithm called Caffeine which is responsible for crawling web pages at lightning speeds compared to its predecessor, dubbed PageRank (PR). It takes only 2 months for Google to process an average of two million pages. PR, meanwhile, could take over a year to index the same number.

Crawl errors need to be fixed in order for search engines to find your content when they crawl your site’s links. Search engine bots usually look at different areas of a website like sitemaps, templates, code repositories, and social media presence. All these elements are optimized for fast loading times, or else it can lead to patchy rankings due to slow crawling speeds even if you have great content on the site.

Bounce rates are one way of gauging how many people are leaving your website without finding what they want after visiting only one page. If there is something wrong with your website’s design and navigation, then fix it by adding a new site map or redesigning your site content to focus on the most relevant information.

You should also check out where your traffic is coming from by looking at various analytics tools like Alexa and Google Analytics. This way, you know what keywords people are searching for in order to find your website, as well as how they’re finding it through social media platforms or referrals from other websites with high authority.

2. Social signals

The way to increase domain authority is through sharing social signals through posts and official channels. You should also engage in social media conversations to demonstrate your site’s authority in the field. Providing useful information through these channels can make other relevant websites link back to your site. This is how you build strong relationships with other publishers in terms of web ranking and organic search engine optimization, or SEO.

You should also create quality content on your site regularly over time to keep readers interested in what you’re writing about. This can boost traffic flow to your websites and increase the number of linking root domains pointing back at your website. Link building is not just about quantity; it’s also about quality, so getting links from sites with high authority is important for SEO.

High-quality content is the best way to improve search engine rankings because this will make Google see your website as an authority on certain topics, which means people will trust what you say (even if they don’t know who you are) and visit often for more information.

If they find posts that are full of inaccuracies or factual errors, then their opinion of how reliable your site is will drop. So make sure to use relevant keywords but still write with an engaging style that keeps people entertained or educated about certain things without overselling your product or service.

Linking with the right people in related industries, guest blogging on other sites to expand your own fame, and getting proper backlinks through article directories are some of the best ways to increase your website’s authority score through links, which is also one of Google’s ranking factors.

You can also do private blog network (PBN) link building by creating new sites that pass off as legitimate publisher websites so you can get high-quality content for these networks without having to worry about getting banned from search engines like Google. Be creative when it comes to link building.

How to increase the DA of a website in 2021

DA can be increased by using 3 tactics: increase dwell time, use external linking, and remove toxic backlinks.

1. Increase dwell time

Dwell time is the average length of stay on a site. If your site has longer page loading times, then people will not be able to spend as much time on your website as they would with other sites that have faster loading speeds. Make sure to keep up with Google’s recommended speed guidelines at Search Engine Land. In addition, make it easy for your readers to navigate your website by making good use of natural linking. Read up on the topic of natural link building at Search Engine Journal.

2. Use external linking

You should try to get backlinks from high-authority websites because these links can increase your rank quicker than links from lower-ranking domains. You can also build relationships with influential bloggers and business owners in your target industry so you’ll have an easier time getting higher quality link-building strategies for free or at a reduced price compared to hiring an SEO agency. Don’t forget that blogging about topics related to the services or products you offer is one of the best ways to establish yourself as an authority, which can help you expand your business faster than before.

3. Remove toxic backlinks

When someone leaves a link pointing to your site on their personal blog or website, it could lead to potential customers visiting your pages and checking out what you’re selling. If the person just left random links without purpose then these are known as toxic backlinks. These types of links can actually hurt your site because they might be linking to spammy sites that contain malware or plagiarized content that Google sees as manipulative. You should avoid paying for anchor text-rich backlinks from link farms because these are low-quality links that can make search engines like Google lower your site’s page rank.

How important is domain authority for SEO?

Monitoring Domain Authority is important for SEO success. If your domain authority is high, then you have a better chance of getting more organic traffic. Having a high Domain Authority can help increase the number of backlinks pointing to your site because other people are more likely to link to trusted sources. For example, if you were looking for information on how to lose weight, then you would want to go to Pinterest or Shape because they are usually considered reliable sources for health-related topics.

So how important is it?

Domain Authority is one of many ranking factors that search engines like Google use in their algorithm when determining which websites should come up first for certain keywords that people type into the search box. It has been used by search engines since 2012 and it’s NOT the only factor that matters when determining page rank.

Thus, DA is important for SEO success because it can influence the amount of traffic that you get from search engines. If you have higher domain authority, then people are more likely to link to your site without being paid to do so. The factors that determine how much authority your website has is based on the age of your domain name, backlinks pointing to your website, and information pages with high keyword density for specific keywords.

How is Domain Authority Calculated?

You need to know how Domain Authority is calculated. Since 2012, the age of a domain name has been used to determine how much authority it has. It was initially used as a way for Google to look at how legitimate a website is. Sites that have been around longer might have more credibility than newer sites because they have had time to build up trust with their visitors and clients.

This is why you might notice that some websites that offer fake “miracle” diets or bogus beauty products often use a .tk extension instead of a .com extension – because those types of websites are not seen as being as trustworthy as an established brand like Amazon or Shape.

When calculating domain authority, search engines like Google also look at the number of backlinks pointing to a site. In order for someone’s website to be considered an authority, they need to have other websites linking to them through their content.

Links from trusted or well-known sources are known as do-follow links while paid links that include anchor text might be called no-follow links because search engines won’t use those types of links when calculating domain authority.

Even though more recently added pages might not rank as highly as older pages, they still help build up your site’s overall page rank. This is why you often see web pages with thousands of keywords increasing in ranking over time because older articles with less targeted keywords might start getting less traffic after newer articles get published and indexed by a search engine.

When it comes to calculating domain authority, Google also uses metrics like keyword density in information pages. One of the best ways to increase the amount of traffic that you get from search engines is through targeted keywords because then people are more likely to find your site when they are searching for related terms.

If someone types in “how to lose weight” for example, they are probably looking for articles on Pinterest rather than an article at Shape about how many calories are found in cheese. This is why sites with high Domain Authority often have content covering popular topics that include lots of relevant keywords when describing what their article will discuss.

Conclusion

If you want your website to be considered as an authority, then you need it to have high domain authority. Domain Authority is one of many ranking factors that search engines like Google use when determining which websites should come up first for certain keywords that people type into the search box. It has been used by search engines since 2012 and it’s NOT the only factor that matters when determining page rank.

With that, it’s important to have a lot of backlinks pointing to your site along with targeted keywords for each page on your website.

The post How to Increase Your Website’s Domain Authority appeared first on SiteProNews.

When it happens, the only thing you need to worry about is finding out why and taking counteractive measures.  In this article, we will share why rankings fall and how they can be recovered. 

Reasons Why Websites Lose Ranking on Google

Website rankings are ruled by Google algorithms which change constantly. No one can pinpoint the exact reason for a drop in rankings every time. However, there are some ranking factors that SEO experts know will impact your rankings. Some common causes include the following:

Hacked website 

Your website being hacked can lower your rankings. However, it is one of the rarer causes. You can quickly identify whether your website has been hacked by going to your Google Search Console, expanding the Security and Manual Actions option, and clicking on security issues. A dialogue box will open:

• If it shows ‘no issues detected,’ then your rankings have not dropped due to hacking
• If it shows an issue, you need to fix the problem immediately.

Google Penalty 

Google penalties are another rare occurrence. However, they may happen if Google notices that your website violates webmaster quality guidelines, such as having duplicate content on your site. You can quickly identify whether you have been issued a penalty from the Google Search Console, just like you can identify security issues.

Change in content

Another primary reason for a drop in rankings can be the recent changes you made to your content. If your content changes are not optimized enough to meet search ranking requirements, your rankings fall.

Lost backlinks

Backlinks play a vital role in your search engine rankings because they help determine your site’s domain authority.  If you lose some of your high-authority backlinks, your rankings can drop significantly.

Deteriorating user experience

All search engines emphasize providing exceptional user experience and include page load speed and mobile-friendliness as ranking metrics. If your website’s user experience is diminished due to shortcomings in these areas, your rankings will drop.

Someone published better content

Every day thousands of articles are posted on the internet for a set of keywords. If an article is published with better content than yours, it will likely take your place, and your SERP standing will fall.

Pages tagged as Noindex

If your developers unintentionally leave Noindex tags on your web pages during the transition from the development to the production stage, search engine crawlers will read the tags and fail to index those pages.  Such pages can lower your rankings.

A disallow protocol in your Robots.txt File

Like the Noindex tag, the disallow protocol also tells search engines not to crawl specific pages on your website. Some disallow protocols, however, are added explicitly to some backend files. You should consult your developers to identify whether any of them were added incorrectly. If yes, then you need to remove them. 

Changes in algorithms 

Google algorithms are constantly changing, although most changes are not disclosed. However, once in a while, Google makes some massive changes, creating a tremendous shift in rankings. You can, however, get back on track quickly enough if you simply follow the new guidelines. 

Tips for recovering your lost rankings and enhancing them

Now that you know the most common reasons for a shift in rankings, you can fix any issues to get back into the top spot. Here are a few things you can do to improve your ranking:

Start with checking your Google Search Console

The Google Search Console is your ultimate tool to check what’s going on with your website. You can track your website traffic and performance there and see if there are any security issues or penalties. 

Fix security issues 

If your Google Search Console shows a security issue, you need to fix it. A hacker may have installed malicious software or malware on your site, and you need to remove it as quickly as possible.

Remove the Noindex tags and disallow protocols

If one of your developers inadvertently added the Noindex tag to your webpages, a quick fix is to remove those tags. 

The first step is to identify all noindex tags. You can use tools to identify non-indexed pages.  Or, you can simply go to the View Page Source option on your browser and search for noindex to find the pages that are not indexed.

Similarly, you need to check for any disallow protocols in the robot.txt file. Consult with your team and identify the disallow protocols your developers have left intentionally and leave those alone. 

Perform a site redirect

Often, you need to make a lot of changes to your website. It can be a simple migration to a new domain, a change in your site’s URL, or other structural changes. Whatever the reason, when these changes happen, search engine crawlers re-index your site, and you lose your old rankings.

To prevent that from happening, you need to perform a redirect every time you make such changes.  You can implement redirects on your site through various plugins available on your CMS. 

Here is how redirection works:

Generate more links

Another common reason for a drop in rankings is losing high-authority backlinks. In such cases, you need to generate more backlinks, internal links for multiple keywords to make up for the lost links. It is a time-consuming exercise, but the results are worth it. 

Create better content

One sure-shot way of increasing your rankings is to create valuable content for your website. Value-adding user content plays a vital role in enhancing the user experience. By reading relevant keywords, metatags, headings, descriptions, and backlinks to your content, you can make it easier for search engines to crawl and index your website.

Fix technical glitches

Any technical SEO factors such as page loading time, crawl anomalies, mobile-friendliness, and URL issues must also be taken care of to enhance your rankings.

Keep an eye on Google algorithm changes

Algorithm changes are constantly happening. Still, you need to be aware of the changes to stay ahead of the game. Some changes are too minor to make a difference, but some can turn the tables on you. To maintain your rankings, you need to regularly update your website to be in compliance with algorithm updates.

Don’t forget about SERP updates

It’s not just algorithms that are updated; Google updates SERP layouts as well. For example, snippets, ad positioning, etc., keep changing to enhance the user experience. Update your website to keep up with these SERP changes.

Summing up

In the end, the most important thing is not to panic when you see your rankings fall. There is always a solution. You just need to analyze the situation, find out what’s causing it and then fix it. Studying your website regularly and keeping track of ranking metrics and algorithms is the key to staying on top.

The post How to Recover from Lost Rankings on Google appeared first on SiteProNews.

However, optimizing your site for SEO will not always guarantee digital marketing success. In line with this, it is crucial that you have ways to assess if your SEO efforts are working or if it needs some tweaking.

Search engine optimization is not always as straightforward as it seems. Add to that the many fluctuations beyond your control, such as user behavior changes, website changes, competition changes, and Google changes.

If you are using search engine optimization in your online marketing efforts but are unsure if it’s working, below are telltale signs that will indicate you are on the right track:

Your site ranks high in the search engine results pages (SERPs)

One of the primary search engine optimization goals is ensuring you rank high on the search engine results pages or SERPs. If Google’s algorithm considers your pages highly relevant to a user’s intent and search query, your site has a massive chance of landing on the first page of the search results.

The higher your pages rank in the SERPs, the higher the chances of more people finding your site and generating more organic traffic. Consistent organic traffic will often translate to more leads for your business. If your site lands on the coveted first page, it’s a clear indication you are doing search engine optimization right.

People are spending more time on your website

Creating high-quality and helpful content is considered an integral component of any search engine optimization strategy. When you regularly post valuable and relevant content that answers your visitors’ questions, they are more likely to explore your site more. As a result, they will also stay on your site longer.

Using Google Analytics can give you an insight into the length of time the average visitor spends on your site. Compare current figures with the numbers the months before to gauge if there is an increase since you started optimizing your website. If people are spending more time on your site, that’s another sure sign your SEO strategy is working.

Your bounce rate is good

When people visit your site but leave immediately without exploring any of its pages, they will be added to your bounce rate. Many online marketers have the impression that a high bounce rate is bad news. However, that is not always the case.

If visitors see that your site has quality content, among other things, they are more likely to stay longer and check out the other pages. This can reduce your bounce rate. However, according to Google, a high bounce rate is expected in single-page sites like blogs.

If a site with more than one page has a high bounce rate, it should be a cause for concern. If anything, it indicates that your site is not providing the information online users are looking for. If Google Analytics shows your multi-page site has a low bounce rate, it’s another indication your SEO efforts are working.

Your conversion rate is higher

One of the primary goals of any SEO strategy is seeing an increase in conversions. Increased conversions can come in the form of increased signups for your service, more subscriptions to your newsletter, completed web forms, or more sales for the products or services you are offering.

It is important to remember that while high rankings are great, they won’t mean much if your conversion is low. Simply put, conversions are the percentage of visitors to your site that complete a desired action. You can have millions of visitors on your site, but it’s useless if they are not taking any action.

To optimize your site for conversion, start by creating headlines that highlight your value proposition and take it from there. Having a strong call-to-action (CTA) is also considered ideal. If you notice a significant increase in conversions, you can rest easy knowing your SEO efforts are paying off.

Final Thoughts

Pat yourself on the back if you notice many signs pointing to a working SEO strategy. However, even if your SEO efforts are on track, it pays to not rest on your laurels. It is important to remember that search engine optimization is a work in progress, and your competitors are constantly working on getting results that are better than yours.

That said, it would work to your advantage if you constantly assess if your SEO efforts are on the right track. Also, if you need help with your SEO strategy, don’t hesitate to invest in the services of experts. They can help guarantee you get the results you are looking for, and for you to stay ahead of the pack.

The post Telltale Signs Your SEO Is Actually Working appeared first on SiteProNews.

What is Google Analytics?

Google has provided its users with a vast array of tools to help them maintain their pages. One of them is Google Analytics – you can use it to monitor your website activity and check stats regarding session duration, source of traffic, bounce rate, etc. This tool is free – to some extent. Small businesses can use this tool free of charge. However, the more professional features come with a fee. To start using Google Analytics, make sure you enable it in your Google Admin console. 

How to diagnose traffic drops – take a deep breath and start

There are several steps you can take to get to the bottom of your problem. It’s essential to be realistic and objective and start this process slowly and in detail. Let’s see what things you can do to diagnose traffic drops. 

Drops can happen; just be sure to diagnose them fast and react accordingly. 

PPC traffic or Google organic traffic?

First, don’t jump to the conclusion that you have a problem with organic traffic. That is often not the case – sometimes, drops come from paid traffic. That’s why you should start this diagnostic process by checking– organic traffic or PPC traffic.  Also, don’t forget other traffic sources – direct visits, email, social, etc. Checking them all out may lead to the solution to your problem.

Locate the problematic pages 

If there are one or more pages that have experienced a drop in traffic, the first thing you should do is to find out which one it is. You can easily do that by using Google Analytics. 

Check out the ‘All Traffic’ section and click ‘Channels’. Under the ‘Organic’ section, select the period you want to check and compare it to the previous period. You should be able to see your landing pages and the way they have performed in the last week or month. Commonly, the drop is related to the most popular pages on your website. They should be at the top of the list. However, if the drop has affected all your website pages, it’s a sign of a bigger problem. Perhaps you received a Google Penalty, or you were unaware of a recent update. 

Make sure it’s not a seasonal thing 

Sometimes, some businesses are less popular at certain times of the year. For example, companies that sell Christmas lights or decorations will not get the same amount of traffic during summer. You can determine this based on your previous experience and industry knowledge, but also by using Google Analytics. Just be sure to compare the traffic of the exact weeks/months in two or more years. It will show you if you’re dealing with a seasonal drop or there’s another problem to look for. 

The way your website performs may be affected by trends and seasons. 

Check the users responsible for the drop

Another way to diagnose traffic drops is to take a look at users responsible for the traffic drop. There are two types of people visiting your website – new users and returning users. Let’s look at both: 

New users 

 If fewer new users are coming to the website, the problem is in the way they find it in search results. This is the time to check:

• your keywords –  these are an essential factor in ranking your pages on Google. Sometimes, it is necessary to pick a fresh set of keywords as the market and people visiting the pages change;
• updates – very often, Google comes up with an update that can affect your rankings because the old optimization methods don’t comply with the new update;
• penalties – if a penalty is applied to your website by Google, it will affect the way Google ranks your pages. 

Returning users 

If you notice returning users are not returning anymore, you need to take a closer look at your website user experience.  The most common problems are broken pages and slow loading speed. These may disappoint returning users, forcing them to leave the website and find an alternative destination. Be sure to check all of the factors that help improve the user experience and do your best to bring it to perfection.

Don’t disappoint old and new users – make your website flawless. 

Combine GA with Search Console for complete results 

When you need to diagnose traffic drops and take a closer look at your website, Google Analytics is a great option. However, you should complete this investigation by using some other great tools – one of them being Search Console. Only then can you be sure you have examined all the aspects of your problem to find a fast solution. Google Analytics will help you explore the user-oriented aspects of the traffic. On the other hand, Search Console is more focused on search-engine related issues. It can tell you more about your website’s visibility, SERP presence, keyword problems, etc. Combining two or more tools will give you an in-depth report on your website’s performance and lead you to the most effective solutions to get back on track and welcome many new visitors.

The post Using Google Analytics to diagnose Traffic Drops appeared first on SiteProNews.

Appear on the first page of Google, and you can claim a majority of all internet traffic. Get stuck on Page 2, and the odds are considerably stacked against you.

In your quest to gain visibility, you’ve likely heard of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). This is the process of setting up your website or web page to help it rank within the Search Engine Results Pages.

International SEO focuses on reaching a global audience while local SEO centres on amplifying your community presence. Which one should you prioritize and is one more important than the other? Read on to learn the right strategy to take as you direct your business forward.

What is International SEO?

Also known as global SEO, international SEO is the practice of expanding your digital reach as far as you possibly can. It means targeting traffic from all over the world, using keywords and phrases designed to put eyes on your content from a wide geographical range of internet users.

This strategy can be successful if you operate an e-commerce store that isn’t tied directly to your local community. 

However, it comes with a ton of behind-the-scenes work that can often negate any momentum you earn.

The main challenge is the incredible competition you’re up against daily. While it might be easy to outrank your local competition, it can be nearly impossible to best some of the global giants in your industry niche. Moreover, there’s the added work of translating your content into multiple languages to help it climb the SERP ranks.

Even then, you’re up against some fierce competition. Every website in the world is also targeting those same key-phrases. Unless you can offer content that’s heads above the rest in terms of quality and relevancy, restricting your efforts to international SEO alone can be a costly and challenging endeavour.

Why Go International?

Understanding the risks and work involved, why should anyone pursue an international SEO strategy?

The most logical reason is if you know for sure that a large portion of your web visitors come from a country outside of where you’re physically located. Or, your traffic data might show that most of your visitors speak different languages.

In either case, you can optimize your website to be as user-friendly as possible for your international audience. It helps to think of this process as geo-targeting, but with a twist.

Instead of designing your site to attract local traffic, you’re optimizing it to appeal to different countries and languages. As such, a wholly internationalized site is one that accommodates both a country and language that’s different from your own. To set one up, there are few strategies to employ.

• Create a URL structure that targets a particular country or region
• Use hreflang or language meta tags to indicate the language(s) of your content
• Create and tailor content for your target audience’s language and culture

The quickest and most effective URL structure to employ is a ccTLD. You’ll recognize these as the letters after the period in a given domain name. They’re a simple way to show web visitors and search engines alike in which country, state or territory your website is registered. 

For instance, a site targeting traffic from France would end in “.fr” as in “http://www.example.fr.”

The only drawback to ccTLDs? While they’re excellent at targeting countries and regions, they don’t target languages. This is where the other elements, including hreflang, language meta tags, subfolders, and subdomains, come into play.

What is Local SEO?

If international SEO is ultra-broad, consider local SEO as hyper-concentrated.

With this approach, you’re primarily interested in using your website to attract both virtual and foot traffic to your local store.

The main tactic you’ll employ with local SEO is to include a specific region in your targeted search phrase. This means instead of optimizing simply for “shoe repair,” you’ll try to rank for “shoe repair in Charleston, SC.” As expected, this method is best reserved for companies that operate physical stores in specific locations and aren’t as interested in attracting the attention of a global audience.

While the process can be reasonably straightforward for small businesses with a centralized footprint, it can become more complicated for enterprises that operate multiple satellite offices or regional franchises. For local SEO to be effective in these cases, web developers have to create separate web pages or content hubs for each location.

Why Optimize Locally?

To understand the benefit of pursuing local SEO, it helps to know the difference between a standard, international search and one with local intent.

Research shows that a majority of consumers shop at businesses located within 20 minutes or 20 miles of their home. While reports vary, most experts agree that between nearly half of all web searches are likewise local.

The reality is that any website in the world with a high enough Domain Authority (DA) and solid SEO practices can rank for a given search query such as “How to fix a broken HVAC.” However, a search query with real purchase intent often includes some element of localization. It might become “HVAC repair near me” or “best HVAC repair in (location).”

When users enter these types of keywords or key-phrases, search engines automatically understand that they’re looking for nearby businesses. Conversely, queries without local intent often deliver how-to instructions rather than links to targeted local providers.

The main goal, then, of local search is to appear as high as possible on local SERPs. Specifically, developers are striving to earn a spot in what’s known as the “Three Pack” or “Local Pack.” In short, these are the top three listings that appear right below the map in a Google search with local intent.

In addition to links to the sites themselves, Google will pull data from the top three companies’ online business profiles. Without clicking on the websites, users can see pertinent details, including user ratings, operating hours, addresses, phone numbers and more.

For this reason, any business owner hoping to climb the ranks in local SERPs must claim and consistently update their Google My Business (GMB) profile. It’s also wise to perform regular checks on your company’s NAPW (Name, Address, Phone Number, Website) citations floating around on the internet. Check all relevant online directories or business listings to ensure the information included is correct and make updates as required.

Ranking Well in Local Search

Understanding the logistics behind local SEO, how can you make sure you see the fruits of your labour? Below are a few ways to help your site rank as high as possible in local search results.

Localized Content

Localized content is material that naturally includes your city, county or region. This might consist of your web pages, blog, or landing pages.

When your website is localized, users can immediately tell which area you serve and how to reach you. As mentioned, companies with multiple locations will often create separate pages to distinguish between their different local presences.

Business Profile Optimization

Keeping your GMB profile, along with your NAPW citations, up-to-date is another critical element of SEO. Imagine the initial success if a user searches for “Best seafood restaurant in Cape Cod” and finds your restaurant.

Then, consider the subsequent confusion if your GMB (and “Three Pack” listing) displays one phone number while your website or another online citation gives an outdated number that you haven’t used for years. If the user decides to call the wrong number, it’s unlikely that they’ll keep trying.

Monitoring and Managing Reviews

Reviews also factor in local SEO. Not only are they displayed on your GMB profile, but Google bots also crawl them to check the credibility and trustworthiness of your company.

That means they can have a direct impact on how high you appear in local SERPs.

The following factors are all critical to your local search ranking:

• The number of reviews you receive
• The quality of those reviews
• The authority of the review sites

Keeping a close eye on what others are saying about you can help you take proactive action if any issues occur. It only takes one negative testimonial to derail your reputation, so this step cannot be overlooked.

Local, Quality Backlinks

Any time a local online newspaper, blogger or business association recognizes your company with a backlink to your site, you’re one step closer to optimizing Google’s local search algorithm.

The only caveats? 

These must be natural backlinks that you obtained organically. Moreover, the sites linking to your content should be high-authority to give you the boost you need.

International SEO vs Local SEO: Which One is Best?

As detailed, the differences between international SEO and local SEO can be vast. If you’re unsure where to focus your efforts, start by asking yourself one crucial question: Can your business feasibly deliver products and services outside of your operating area?

If the answer is “yes,” then an international SEO strategy can be beneficial. Yet, to stand out in such a global space, you’ll need the budget to compete with every other website out there.

If you can’t access those resources, it’s usually best to stick to a local SEO approach and focus on growing your regional presence before expanding outward. With a localized plan, your level of competition drops significantly. 

From there, you’re able to better capture the attention of your target audience, delivering the uptick in traffic you’re expecting and deserve.

The post Differences Between International SEO and Local SEO appeared first on SiteProNews.

While most people prefer Google for being rich in information, Google has been facing criticism and allegations recently. Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google even testified before the US Parliamentary Committee over these allegations. The concerns that were raised in this meeting were regarding data protection policies. While Pichai dodged these questions with well-worded answers, there is still some fogginess concerning the matter. 

Oddly enough, the European continent is not a big fan of Google, despite people still preferring to use the search engine. Constant cases of Google being penalized and having to follow strict European Union regulations is proof of this. However, people still haven’t given up using the search engine. 

Rand Fishkin, the founder of Moz, conducted a little study to find out if Google is the most preferred search engine in not only the US but Europe and the UK as well. The European Union claimed they have been putting constant effort into finding an alternative to Google. Fishkin’s data, however, contradicts these claims. 

To make all of this clearer, Jumpshot, which is an advanced marketing analytics platform, provided Rand Fishkin with some statistics. These stats suggest that people from the European Union and the UK make use of Google Search a lot more than those in the US. The stats claim that while only 68.30% of people in the US use Google as their primary search engine, 69.27% of people use it as their go-to search engine in Europe as well as the UK.

The data taken and analyzed from January to September, 2018, , shows that Bing, Yahoo, and other search engines have constantly failed to erode Google’s popularity. 

Jumpshot analyzed around 252 million searches in 26 European countries, except for Malta. The research agency also retrieved 73 billion search records from the UK, which was the largest sample. 

Based on the individual analysis made for European countries along with that of the US, the highest search market share for Google was in Germany at 71.8%. The lowest was in Spain at 67%. And, as mentioned earlier, Google’s search market in the United States was 68.30%. 

If we consider Google Images, YouTube and Google Maps as separate entities, Google’s parent company, Alphabet, has an average, overall market share of 90% in both the US and the EU. 

Additionally, when you look at the graph, the data clearly suggests how Facebook, Twitter, Amazon, DuckDuckGo, and Pinterest only have 9% of the market share, even after combining all of their market shares. 

If you look at the data, it clearly indicates that Google is taking over the search engine landscape and outsmarting the other search engines. While Facebook and Twitter would like to claim they are becoming more popular in the search market, these stats make those claims questionable. However, the searches on these platforms do not qualify for a parallel analysis with Google. This is because the searches that take place on these e-commerce and social media platforms are either for products or for individuals. 

Jumpshot also provides insight into data for website owners, which is more from the user’s point of view. Data based on 100 billion searches made in Europe, the UK, and the US shows that the average click-through rate for websites on smartphones and desktops has been constantly ebbing.  

Google has also been causing a sharp decline in the click-through rate for websites that hold the top 3 ranks in the organic SERP results. Jumpshot suggests that ever since Google introduced the Instant Answers box and Google ads, it has become difficult for the top 3 ranking websites to get the expected Click-Throughs. Since click-through rates govern the survival of a website, we can say that Google is causing a threat to these websites. 

If you take a look at the graph below, you will notice a drop of 3.3% and 2.3% in organic traffic when compared to the desktop search result trends in 2016 and 2018 in Europe and the US.

Moreover, when we talk about data for mobile devices, sadly, it isn’t good news for website owners either. The graph below shows a drop of 4.8% and 5% when you compare the data of 2016 and 2018 in Europe and the US.

The country with the lowest desktop average click-through rates was the US at 60.4% with the Netherlands coming in  second at 61.3%.

The stats for mobile click-through rates were even more alarming. Finland had the highest click-through rate for mobiles at 43.7% and the US had the lowest at 29.7%.

It’s apparent that Google features like Instant Answers, Google ads, and Knowledge panels are trying to dominate websites for clicks on both mobile phones and desktops. Furthermore, the data for 2018 makes it clear that there is a rise in the number of people who click on paid ads while using their mobile phones or desktops. 

It’s obvious that Google wants to prioritize its features over websites that are displayed in the organic search results. 

Click-through rate is an important factor but Google is making websites strive harder to optimize their content to rank #0 in Google Search. Websites may secure the position with Instant Answers, but rarely does this result in traffic to the website. This is because whatever users are looking for appears right in front of their eyes without them having to visit the website. Consequently, websites are facing a serious threat from these 0 click-through results. 

Since Google is the master of search, it’s important to find new ways to reward websites that rank at #0 position for Instant Answers. We saw this happen when website owners witnessed benefits even as the page would load in Google’s server with AMP. Furthermore, Google allowed webmasters to put ads on their AMP pages, and this benefited the websites more.

When we look at all the graphs, it points to Google having quite a monopoly on the search engine landscape, putting other platforms to shame and pushing its SERP features to the top positions.

The post Analyzing How Google’s SERP Features Impact the CTR’s of Websites appeared first on SiteProNews.

This is especially true when Google sifts through billions of search results in less than a second. Hence, the world of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is important to make sure that your website doesn’t get buried. To properly optimize your website and improve your rank on Google’s search engine, there are a number of tools to help. 

One of the most important tools is a website grader. Just like it says, a website grader breaks down specific SEO aspects of your websites and shows you what’s working, what’s not, where you stand, and where you can improve. How a website grader goes about doing this can be variable because there isn’t only one out there. However, there are certain SEO gold standards that website graders take into consideration. Let’s break down some of the whats and whys of website graders. 

Why Should I Use A Website Grader?

It seems obvious, but enough people — even those with their own websites, businesses, etc. — don’t understand the dynamic nature of search engine ranking. Google dominates the search engine market and they write the algorithmic law as far as search rankings are concerned. In a given year, they change their search algorithm between 500 and 600 times. Most of these updates you can neither see nor really tell exist, but some of them are major changes that, if not closely heeded, could be damaging to your search ranking. 

Website graders stay up to date with what Google wants to see, as well as other tried-and-true SEO methods to consider. Without using a website grader, it’s akin to taking tests in school and never knowing what answers you’re getting right, what you’re getting wrong, or if there have been changes to the subject you’re studying. Basically, you’d never know if you were passing, failing, or somewhere in between, which isn’t good for academic performance. From classroom to search engine rank, the concept remains the same. 

What Does A Website Grader Grade? 

There’s a long list of things website graders can look at to grade the viability of your SEO, but there are certain aspects that float to the top of the list if you want your site to really make the grade. These broad questions break down more specific aspects of your site, weighing their importance in SEO. 

• How does it look, how does it feel?
  • Falling under the umbrella of user experience (UX), the look and feel of your website can bring traffic in or drive it away. How it does that depends on a few aspects. 

• • Site loading time is one of the leading reasons for bounce rate. People will leave your website if the webpage takes too long to load. Having a website is only as good as the number of people who visit and stay on it and a slow site loading time will drive users away. 

• • Mobile first design considers the fact that the majority of people are accessing websites from their mobile devices. If your website is designed only considering desktop users, you’re missing the mark and that clunky page won’t load well on mobile devices, causing people to bounce. Proper design should pander to mobile users first, then to desktop users. Responsive website design is the preferred method of website building that can switch seamlessly from mobile to desktop platforms.

• • Your site visitors should also not be confused or lost by your site’s layout. They should know where to go, what to do, and what your product is within seconds of reaching your homepage. Confused users leave overly complex sites quickly to find easier ones, so remember that less is more and simple, easily maneuverable design is paramount.

• Are people going to your site?
  • You can’t have people leaving your site if they’re not visiting in the first place. The most important thing your site needs to have to be successful is people visiting. Otherwise known as website traffic, the amount of people who visit your site, turn into leads, convert into sales, subscriptions, etc. is what drives your website and gives your business the exposure it needs. Of course, if they can’t find your site when searching for a product or service you provide, you’re not getting the traffic you need. It’s a simple game of numbers. User traffic is what SEO revolves around and is the main function of the website grader. By analyzing your site’s SEO and grading it therefrom, you’re better able to make informed decisions on what needs to be changed, tweaked, added, and deleted in order to boost your search rank.

• Do you have good backlinks?
  • Backlinks are one of the most important parts of SEO. Simply put, it’s when a site has a link in their content that takes their users to your site; their content links back to yours. The more sites that link back to yours, the more legitimate you look in the eyes of Google.

• • However, this has been taken advantage of over time. People would simply get as many backlinks to their site as possible and completely disregard whether or not those sites were relevant, legitimate, or even remotely viable. A link was a link. Google caught on to that and now analyzes backlink legitimacy with an algorithm update called Penguin. 

• • If you have sites linking to yours and they’re less than reputable, aren’t well designed, inactive, inaccurate, or otherwise questionable, Google will penalize you. It’s important to keep up with your backlink profile, making sure that you’re checking on the legitimacy of your backlinks and disavowing links from sites that aren’t legit. 

• Does your site have good content? 
  • A site can’t have backlinks without content and other sites won’t want to link back to yours if it doesn’t have good content. You might think good content is a relative term, but it has specific values to separate the proverbial wheat from the chaff. 

• • Keyword research is important to make sure your content targets whatever keywords are applicable to the service/product your website offers. Good content is also free of grammatical errors, poor word usage, and general typos. 

• • As a general rule, the longer, more in-depth, and accurate your onsite content is, the more likely it is to render better search results. This includes who you link to. Backlinks aren’t the only factor in website grading, it’s the links you point to as well. Are they accurate? Relevant? Well-designed? Not spammy? Anything you link your readers to should be well thought out before you make references in your content.

Website Graders Are Your Ally

The world of SEO can be a tough, ever-changing landscape to navigate, but the learning process isn’t without well-formed tools that show measurable results. Website graders are wonderful ways to get an SEO snapshot and use that information to bring your site from SEOh no! to SEOmg yes!

The post The What and Why of Website Graders and How They Apply To Search Rankings appeared first on SiteProNews.

The peculiarity of local SEO is that when Google detects some local indicators like: geographic keywords, location data provided by your phone, or the “near me” phrase, it uses a separate algorithm to supply you with three most relevant location- wise results. The whole point is that all links are relevant until they are local (come from the same geographical area as you). What is more, according to the latest interview with Greg Gifford, the Director of Search and Social at DealerOn, it doesn’t really matter if the source of a link is unrelated to your business. However, if a link is local, relevant to your business industry, drives relevant traffic to your site, and builds your brand’s reputation, it’s also a great addition to your local SEO. 

So, now that we know that geographical factor is the core one, let me introduce you to some powerful local link building strategies that I personally find essential for growing local business.

1. Competition research

Spying on competitors is a good idea mostly for two things: you can get an instant overview of their backlink profiles and also borrow some ideas for new backlink opportunities. By the way, SEO SpyGlass can offer you a helping hand with that. Just enter your competitor’s URL and then you’ll be supplied with everything you need to know about your competitor’s backlink profile (the percentage of dofollow backlinks, the total number of links, the backlinks’ IP diversity, and the number of linking domains).

2. Guest posting for local websites

Guest posting can be a very powerful and mutually beneficial strategy if implemented right. The thing with guest posting is that you can not only gain links and visibility, but also attract a new audience accompanied with website traffic. Since we are talking about local link building, it’s only right to find some local blogs or newspapers and offer them your content. The fastest way to find some guest blogging opportunities is by using a correspondent search method in LinkAssistant.

After picking Guest Posting as a research method, specify the keywords, and in a couple of moments the whole list of guest blogging opportunities accompanied with contact emails will be there for you.

What I want to drive your attention to specifically is choosing the right topic for your guest post. It’s crucial, because this is basically what your success depends on. I would highly suggest keeping in mind these 4 things while picking the topic:

1. Try to pick a more or less relevant and trending topic to your host site’s content.
2. It’s only good when the topic adds some value to the host site.
3. Have a look at what your competitors are writing about.
4. Make sure there were no similar posts lately. 

Now that you’ve decided on potential host sites and chose the topic, it’s time for pitching your guest post. Put yourself in the shoes of your potential publisher and write a personalized and standing out from the crowd e-mail. 

3. Find unlinked mentions

Sadly enough, the majority of mentions a brand gets are unlinked. The good news is that the situation might be improved, because Awario is there for you to save your mentions. There you can comfortably keep track of all your mentions be it your business name, a site, a certain competitor, or even a hashtag. After you have entered the keywords you want to get mentions of, and the tool has supplied you with the full list of mentions, the only thing left to do is go through them to spot those that are without a link. Then get in touch with the website owners and ask them nicely to add one.

4. Local influencers

It doesn’t matter where you are located in the world, there are most likely to be some local influencers like: government websites, local news media, or influential bloggers in your area. I would highly suggest going niche-specific in that case. If you are a local bakery, it would be only right and logical to find some sites that overview local restaurants, for instance. Things become a tiny bit easier when it comes to bloggers, because you can offer them collaboration. If you are a local book store, you can offer a couple of your books to a book blogger for linking to you in the next review. But you can also go another way. Once you’ve formed the list of influencers you are willing to collaborate with, search for some events or conferences they are hosting in the near future. Attend the event, exchange contact information, and share your thoughts of how you can help each other. Who knows, maybe you’ll end up becoming friends with a member of the local media.

5. Local business directories

Citation building is another great way to win local links. In a nutshell, citation occurs when your business name, address, and telephone number are listed together. So, the easiest way to carry out citation building is through local business directories, which, as a rule, vary according to location or industry. Almost every city has its small directories, so it’s not going to be difficult for you to spot them and get your business listed. The easiest way to find business directories that would suit your location and business is by typing into Google the search queries below:

Location “recommended links”

Location “add your site”

Location “add your business”

Location * directory

6. Creating a local resource page

This is another win-win strategy that has proved its effectiveness for lots of local website owners. I’m sure that you’ve come across some sites with a couple of pages devoted to so-called “additional resources”. As a rule, those pages are stuffed with some useful information and links to other related sites. This is what SEOs call a resource page. Basically, it can touch upon any topic of your liking from “the best coffee spots” to “where to repair a car”. Just think of what suits your niche the best and make it useful for the people in your area. For instance, if you are a local children’s clothing store, you can consider creating a list of the best restaurants for children in your area. Once a resource page is created, make sure you didn’t forget to inform everyone you’ve included in a list and ask them politely for mentioning you on their resource pages as well.

7. Local press mentions

Beyond any shadow of a doubt, getting local press mentions is always pleasant. However, if you are a small business owner, there’s not much chance of local newspaper representatives queuing up at your door. So, the initiative should come from you. 

Naturally, the first step to being mentioned by local press is to find local newspapers that you find worth cooperating with. If you live in the US, I highly suggest using the US Newspaper List (USNPL), which sorts newspapers by states and cities. Depending on the nature and the size of your business, you may also want to get in touch with some local college or small neighborhood papers. Of course, this can take more time, but could be of great help if the audience or the newspaper matches your targeted area. 

Now that you have a list of newspapers to contact, it’s time to pick the exact person that could be potentially interested in covering your story. Instead of mass emailing to a bunch of journalists, I would suggest a personalized approach. Reach out to a person who typically covers stories somehow related to your business or location. By doing that, you are significantly increasing the chance of getting your desired local press mention.

8. Visiting your prospect’s location

Although the process of local link building is far from easy, quite often a high quality link can be earned through human relationships and interaction. What I mean here is that the better relationships you have within your community, the greater your chances are to earn backlinks. Contacting people not via email but in person will give you more points with those that can potentially link to you. So, come out of the shell and tell them about your business.

Here is a list of places where you can acquire some profitable connections:

• Local meetups
• Conferences and tradeshows
• Suppliers
• Manufacturers
• Networking events
• Associations
• Chamber of commerce / Rotary clubs

9. Hosting a community event

If there’s ever a sure-fire way to earn offline visibility, tons of new links, mentions, and citations, that would definitely be community event hosting. The only condition is that it needs to be done right. First of all, you should decide on the nature of your event. For instance, if you are a local flower shop, you can make a workshop on floristry. Even if you run a plumbing business, you can consider organizing an Easter egg hunt for children in your neighborhood. What is more, I would highly suggest organizing an event at your location. This will help you to promote your business name, location and telephone number to many outside sources and is a ready-made citation. Another thing to consider is an event #hashtag. Add it to all marketing promotions for your event so that people can use it to share photos and tag you. This is how you can get social media mentions. Make sure to create a details page on your website and contact your town’s websites for placing your contact info.

10. Providing a scholarship 

If you have a school or a university in your neighborhood, offering a scholarship would be another link building strategy to go for. Providing even a two hundred dollar scholarship to local students can be extremely rewarding both for your organization’s reputation and SEO. The point is that the majority of schools and universities have separate scholarship pages on their websites that link to external websites offering scholarships. 

What is more, scholarship opportunities are extremely easy to find. You can either contact schools or universities directly or type “school name” + scholarship into Google.

I decided to leave this strategy to the end because obviously it may not suit everyone. But still, if you have some budget to spend on providing a scholarship, the strategy is worth implementing.

Conclusion

Although quality link building takes time and effort, the outcome is worth it. What is more, local link building has a lot of pluses which you can wisely use for your own advantage. By implementing at least some of the above listed link building strategies for local SEO, you can grow your business immensely as well as earn lots of useful connections and authority in your area. 

Please feel free to share your favorite link building tips and experience with local SEO.

The post Top 10 Link Building Strategies for Local SEO appeared first on SiteProNews.

“Lots of companies don’t succeed over time. What do they fundamentally do wrong? They usually miss the future. I try to focus on that: What is the future really going to be?” – Larry Page, Co-Founder of Google and CEO of Alphabet, Inc.

There is no company in the world more obsessed with innovation than Google.

This is evident in the myriad of changes coming to the lifeblood of their business, the illustrious SERPs.

Outside of major transitions like mobile-first indexing, the company is altering a variety of functions and features related to desktop and mobile search pages. In recent months, the search giant has announced or begun testing a variety of SERP alterations that seek to expand, enhance, and otherwise reshape search results.

Let’s look at what’s transpiring within Google’s search engine results pages.

1. Search Snippet Shifts

Search snippets (the bit of text that lives below the links for various results) have recently been confirmed to be increasing in length and will soon be more dynamic.

As a Google spokesperson told Search Engine Land:

“We recently made a change to provide more descriptive and useful snippets, to help people better understand how pages are relevant to their searches. This resulted in snippets becoming slightly longer, on average.”

The user-friendly blocks of text that describe how a page relates to a given query are currently restricted to 160 characters. Under the altered state, however, these snippets have grown to roughly 230 characters, on average.

In most cases, the snippets will dynamically change, depending on the nature of the query; these are designed to answer the user’s question without forcing them to click on the linked page. If the answer is too complex to flesh out and will ultimately require a click to address, the snippet is likely to remain at 160 characters.

2. Featured Snippet and Knowledge Panel Additions

Alongside amplifying the search snippets, Google has also opted to expand select Featured Snippets, with more likely on the horizon.

Featured Snippets, for those who are unfamiliar, is the block at the top of the SERPs that provides an extracted answer from a given webpage.

Originally announced in Google’s Keyword blog, the company stated:

“Today, we’ve added more images and related searches inside select Featured Snippets to help you learn even more about your topic, or to discover new things related to your interest.”

In addition to expanding certain Featured Snippets, Google will also be augmenting its Knowledge Panel to incorporate related content or searches:

“For example, while looking at the Knowledge Panel about skiing, you’ll see related searches for sports such as snowboarding directly inside the result.”

While these are newsworthy changes on their own, Google still has a lot more up its proverbial sleeve.

3. Announcing the Answer Carousel

While currently in beta testing, rumors are swirling as Google has been spotted testing out a new feature that employs a carousel structure for various answer snippets to a given query.

This content seems to be picked from forum threads or similar answer pages where multiple answers are likely to be given. In addition to this new feature, Google is also stamping specific results with a “Best Answer” badge, which is likely the answer that receives the most positive votes within the thread it was pulled from.

While this feature is still in beta, it is easy to foresee potential problems relating to offensive and dangerously incorrect information infiltrating the SERPs once again.

4. Celebrities in the SERPs

In early December, Google started spicing up the mobile SERPs in a fun, new way: Celebrities answering commonly searched questions about themselves via video content.

These selfie videos will show up at the top of mobile search pages for questions like, “Can Will Ferrell really play the drums?” or “How many languages does Priyanka Chopra speak?”

Googling these terms on a mobile device will bring up pre-recorded videos of the celebs within a dedicated application.

As of now, Google is working with a small group of stars such as Nick Jonas, Kenan Thompson, and the aforementioned celebs with plans to expand outside of the traditional celebrity realm in the near future.

Now comes the real question: How do these changes impact SMBs?

How Recent Changes to the SERPs Can Impact SMBs

You’ve likely already postulated this for yourself, but these search alterations hold the potential to have a sizable impact on the organic search traffic earned by a myriad of brands across an assortment of verticals; and not necessarily in a positive way.

Google, however, has opted to remain largely silent in face of these concerns from webmasters, only echoing that, “. . . Search is not just about answering your questions — it’s also about discovery.”

While these transitions are clearly aimed at enhancing the consumer experience of Google search, it is equally as crystalline that the search engine is seeking to boost the time that users spend interacting with the SERPs, with little to no regard for how this impacts the traffic businesses receive.

More than just providing additional information in-engine, many of these changes also consume more real estate onscreen, driving organic results further down the page.

Over time, this means that what may become more important than ranking highly in the SERPs is to develop and deliver informative content that gets used in Google’s featured snippets or Knowledge Panel. Doing this will not only give your page prominent placement within the SERPs, but the organic traffic you stand to gain from this positioning is likely to be a significant driver of site rankings.

The lesson to take from this is to craft the absolute best, most user-friendly, and deeply informative content that you can possibly muster. Keep your answers within these long-form pieces succinct so that Google can feature your answer as a snippet.

As Google continues its very clear evolution, website owners and marketers will need to bend and unfold right alongside the search engine if they wish to survive. Take these changes into account when formulating your content and SEO strategies as they can be useful guides in your site’s maturation process.

How do you think these changes will impact high-rankings sites? What other mobile-focused changes do you foresee coming down Google’s pipeline?

The post 4 Ways Google is Changing Search Engine Results appeared first on SiteProNews.