Understanding Google’s Major Ranking Signals
Understanding and leveraging visibility using Google’s Major Ranking Signal
Google ranking factors. Do you feel like you’re doing enough and not getting the SEO results you desire? Does your webpage rank poorly on Google’s SERPs? By the way, that means Search Engine Results Pages. The truth is, you’re probably not doing just enough, or maybe you’re doing too much of the wrong things. Arguably, SEO retains its top spot as the single factor that can enhance your site’s visibility on Google, but to take advantage of this, you must understand Google’s Major Ranking Signals.
There are more than 200 components that make up Google’s ranking algorithm but you might be wasting your time if you try to do everything. So let’s stick to the major ones. SEO isn’t really about ticking every single box; it is more about identifying your priorities and handling them diligently. While there are a few I would talk about, backlinks remain a top factor. You need to learn link building strategies for local SEO, as it is a major ranking signal for Google SERPs.
- Link Building (Backlinks)
This is one of Google’s Major ranking signal that you should closely consider. Whether you run a local or global business, it is important that you pay attention to link building as a major tactic for Search Engine Optimization. After all, once you’re on the web, you’ve gone global already. There are quite a number of link building strategies that can help your local SEO results. Some of them include;
- Attend Local Meetups
If you run a local business, servicing a particular state or country, local meetups can truly help you build the links you get to your pages. You can visit meetup.com to check for local meetups and get involved. Most of these local meetups lack permanent locations for their meetings. You can offer them your business as a meeting location. This will help you familiarize yourself with them and have them know your business well. One or two other investments in their activities can win you that local link you truly desire.
- Focus on Local Review Sites
I know we all like to focus on big review sites with enormous popularity and lots of visitors. However, if you intend to improve on your local SEO, you should focus on local review sites for their local relevance amongst your target customers. These sites and their contents are targeted at local searchers who require the services you offer and providing backlinks for your site will greatly help your business.
- Local Blogs
This is another important link building strategy for local SEO. You should target local bloggers who are actually out looking for content. The same is true about local newspapers that have an online presence. While they can do a lot with the rich information you provide, they also help you get more links to your site.
- Local Directories
The image above shows some of the best local directories with which you can share information about your business. They do not have to be huge and generic with very flamboyant names. Just ensure they’re genuine, reputable, and relevant to your business type. This can also help you with massive link building.
- Event Sponsorship
This is much like attending and sponsoring local meetups. However, it’s a little different in scope. You should throw in a little investment for these events and promote your business in return. Do not settle for just having your logo placed. You can request that they also link them back to your site.
What else you can do…
Generally, links help you drive traffic to your site directly. We all want great traffic on our sites because that is what leads to an increase in sales, and consequently, an increase in ROI. There are some other general link building strategies for local SEO that you can adopt;
- Know Your Audience: This doesn’t only refer to your present audience, but more importantly, your potential audience. You need to know who your ideal audiences are, their online behaviors, and how you can get them to your site. By knowing your audience, you’ll have a pretty good idea of what websites they’ll likely visit and perhaps try to build contents around those.
- Identify Websites that Attract Your Ideal Audience: This has to do with knowing those websites that your present and target audiences already find appealing. It’s a good thing you already know who your audiences are. This will aid you in finding out those websites that already have their attention. Building links on these websites will help direct them to your site.
- Create Beautiful Contents: You cannot attract other websites to link to your site if you do not produce amazing contents. Also, the audience you’re trying to win over must find your contents engaging and appealing. Consider the structure, truth, authenticity and authoritativeness of your content. These are what attract your audience, as well as what Google looks out for in ranking your site.
- Pair Contents with Suitable Websites: Now you already have a list of websites you identified as appealing to your target audience. You also have your amazing contents available. It is now time to match these contents with the appropriate websites. Lookout for the websites on your list that fits the theme and philosophy of your content. It is only when you’re sure that your contents are relevant to their sites that you can reach out to them.
- Contact the Selected Websites: This is naturally the next thing to do. You should reach out to these sites that you have found to suit the contents you have written. Remember these are the websites with which you want to enhance your link building capacity. A phone call, an email or even a Tweet is a good way to get in touch with them. Don’t be too formal about it, but respect courtesy.
- Take Advantage of Social Media: Social media platforms are other great ways to get links and reach new audiences. You can post about your blog or site on Facebook, leaving a link in the process. Tweets are also a good way to reach both old and new audiences and drive traffic to your site. This link building mechanism is getting very popular amongst business owners, especially due to the continued proliferation of social media.
Your link score in all of these link building efforts is one factor that Google uses as a ranking signal. Other ranking signals include;
- Content
We’re all aware of the internet marketing phrase; “content is king”. But we also need to know what specific content quality Google is looking out for. Generally, there are two types of contents; the main content and the supplementary content. While the main content is the article of focus- properly written, well positioned and with the right size- that brings a user to your page, the supplementary contents are what might keep them on your page. If you don’t believe me, here’s what the world’s richest man has to say;
They are obvious enough to be noticed, but should not take attention away from the main content. There are basically three things that Google will check to see if you did right.
- Length: The length of a page’s content is obviously important to its quality. That is according to Google’s search quality guidelines. This will also determine your site’s ranking. However, Google admits that your page’s title and purpose should determine the length of your articles, but advice that you look out for pages with similar keywords that already rank high, and have an idea of what a satisfying amount of content will be.
- Keywords: There is no way to get your page appearing at the top of SERPs without adopting the right keywords for SEO. And for keyword usage, your title is key. It remains the most important signal to Google and must be properly optimized with the right keywords. Also, using keywords in your meta descriptions and the article’s body are also very relevant, even though not as powerful as the title. The H1 tag usually carries the most SEO weight of all the headings.
- Comprehensiveness: This has to do with how relevant your content is to the subject it has treated. Can people find the right information about certain issues that your page has supposedly treated? Can people rely on your page for both qualitative and quantitative answers to their questions? Will people find good user satisfaction when they read your content? Google looks out for such metrics in likely terms and phrases that should appear in your article.
- Authoritativeness/Expertise: This is how you win Google’s trust and respect. It is what is generally called E-A-T (expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness). To ensure that users have confidence in information they get from a page, google asks that they look out for the site’s About Us,
Contact or Customer Service, and other details on who runs the site and is responsible for the contents.
- Technicality of Page
SEO is also greatly determined by the technicality and architecture of your site, and google is also curious. For technical SEO, they need to know two things;
- Mobile Friendliness: Before anyone can even determine the quality and comprehensiveness of your contents, they need to be able to access your page, even with their mobile devices. More than half of google searches come from mobile devices. If your pages are not optimized for Mobile phones, there won’t be any mobile search ranking for you, and that is a major loss for you in today’s business world.
- Speed: Google recently confirmed that speed has become a ranking signal. It is important that your page is able to load in less than two seconds (all other things being equal). Otherwise, you will be a victim of lower conversion rates. You should be sure to compress resources such as pictures, scripts, and CSS files if you’re going to rank high on google for speed.
- User Experience
Google believes searchers are in the best position to decide what is relevant and what is not. What this means is that if users have chosen to go with a particular search result, it is likely to be more relevant than the other pages on the SERPs. One way to measure this is to look at Click-through Rate (CTR). CTR is merely a ratio of the number of times a SERP listing was clicked to the number of times it appeared. It is a major ranking signal used by google.
- Reviews:
Reviews are the major determinant of your site’s reputation and what people (and yes, google) will think about your product or service. It is a bit outside of the original SEO factors, but, according to google, can tell a lot about the quality of a site, and therefore how well or badly it will rank. In Google’s words, “When the website says one thing about itself, but reputable external sources disagree with what the website says, trust the external sources.” Expert opinions and experiences of users often count more than what you say about your site when it comes to Google’s ranking signals.
Further Notes…
Two things that are essential for your site to do well in Google’s SERPs are Relevance and Quality. If you look closely, you’ll realize that most of the things I’ve explained here as Google’s major ranking signals all revolve around the quality of your site and its relevance. Even in link building for local SEO, the sites that you intend to place your links are interested in the quality of your page and how relevant your content is to their users, and so should you.
Google has also taken it as a point of interest to assess the quality of the websites that provide you with links. As much as you must maintain strict quality and discipline on your site, be sure that those on which you have your links have a great online reputation too.
Conclusion:
This guide has been able to expose you to link building strategies for local SEO and how they combine with other factors that make up google’s major ranking signals. You will do well to pay attention to these things so that you can adjust your site’s viability by enhancing its SEO and watch it soar high on search engine results.
12 Processes to Establish a better and Successful E-commerce SEO
12 ways to establish and implement successful SEO for an E-commerce website
Since the e-commerce revolution began some years ago, there’s been an increasing competition for online users by businesses that have online platforms. Search Engine Optimization has been identified as the major factor that can clearly lead to a successful online business. Evidently, there is a continuous effort to boost SEO for successful e-commerce and increased profits. However, many people don’t get the results they desire.
There’s a need to understand the current online business landscape and identify the processes that have pushed SEO in 2017 and will continue to do so in 2018. By detailing 12 processes to establish a better and successful e-commerce SEO, this guide provides you with the best SEO practices for 2017 and 2018. If you want to increase your website’s visibility and transform visitors into buyers, you should understand these 12 processes for successful SEO that I have explained here;
- Link Building
Link building as a major SEO activity has been with us for a while. In 2017, it became even more prominent as a major technique that can help boost ecommerce. I do not see any reason why this would stop in 2018. I expect more online businesses to take advantage of links as an effective way to build traffic in the coming months and so should you. The strategy is not to merely look for new links, but to identify quality links that will really add value to your site.
Furthermore, you should look out for authority sites and trusted blogs if you truly want to be seen and ranked high by search engines, especially Google. But to do this, you need to identify other sites that your potential customers like to visit. This is done through intensive customer research. Once identified, you can reach out to them with quality contents that are sellable.
- User Experience
Google has made it clear that it is placing more focus on users in carrying out its ranking classifications. I believe this will continue to be a major focus for SEO ranking. As a business owner, having a successful SEO would also be determined by the satisfaction users derive from your site. How fast was it? Did they get the answers they needed? Did you solve their problems? How long did they stay on your site? Did they find the site generally useful?
These are the questions bordering on user experience. If you want your site to rank high, you must build on your SEO by making your site relevant to searchers. Ensure you monitor your site’s readability, speed, and navigation structure, and then know how you can improve on these components to increase your conversions and, consequently, your ranking.
- Featured Snippets
Companies who wish to claim position 0 in search engine result pages have long embraced featured snippets as the best way to catch the attention of searchers. Because snippets appear at the very top of SERPs, businesses are continually struggling to have relevant enough results to people’s queries. Google looks out for very precise snippets that clearly answer questions that searchers have.
This has opened up the conventional SEO struggle to be at the top. Snippets are referred to as Position 0 because they are the first thing you see on a search page. A recent survey of over 1.4 million Google queries has shown that almost 30% now display featured snippets. You must determine what Google looks out for in online contents to consider them fit enough to be featured snippets.
- Reaching out to Communities
This is what some experts may call hijacking communities. Online communities continue to be a major way to establish a better and successful eCommerce SEO. You need to be able to identify those communities that cater to your line of business and play host to your target audience. It works in two ways. The community can be made up of your potential customers or people who can help you get to them.
Once a relationship is established with such communities, you can then get them to help you promote your products, services and brands in their communities, by providing links that direct them to your page. This is a great way to build links and generate traffic to your site. And because you already know that they’re target customers, it is an intentional marketing activity and can lead to great conversions.
- Existing Websites Acquisition
This is one SEO activity that a lot of businesses shy away from. While some people think it is too expensive, others don’t even see the need. Even in the real world, companies acquire competitors to expand and to reduce the competition for customers. You can look out for sites who offer similar services to yours and buy them over, especially if they have good traffic. What this translates into is more traffic for you, less competition, and more customers for your products or services.
This SEO technique truly works and will prove very profitable in the future. I have bought over sites for $1,500 before. That is not so much, considering the immense impact the move will have on my ROI. I had taken over the traffic of the previous owner, links of the website, and an influx of new contents. Everything that the website has been able to achieve over the years will now become yours through this acquisition.
- Competitor Analysis
Here, I will focus on competitive link analysis as a major SEO technique. You need to be able to monitor and analyze your competitor’s links; the pages that provide them, how related they are to their content, and so on. By looking at their websites and pages that link to them, you can work towards developing similar links. But just be sure it is working for them. This is a crucial part of the general competitor analysis and is an effective way to boost your SEO activities.
Analysing your competitors’ activities
You would require a link analysis tool though. Something like moz’s Opensiteexplorer.org could work. It will help you get the backlinks data of your competitors. Another good tool you can use is Site Explorer. Visit the websites and see what your competitor does there. If she writes for them, nothing stops you from doing the same, because you most definitely cover the same subject matters. Otherwise, you won’t be competitors.
- Pay Attention to Video Content
The visual world is fast becoming the searcher’s choice in modern times. Demand for video content production is currently over the roof. In fact, Facebook alone recently released a report that its users now watch more than 100 million hours of video every day. By the time you consider other social networks and then webpages, you may have a clue of this revolution. However, search engines only have a little problem understanding the video content yet, except for those uploaded via YouTube.
What this means is that the audio does not yet count for keywords. It is for this reason that it is not just enough to have captions for your videos but to also have a full transcription. It is this written words that will reveal the keywords in the video and make it more visible to searchers. You can even go ahead to add some extra details not mentioned in the video, add relevant links and make it very engaging too.
- Mobile-First Index
I am very sure you must’ve seen this somewhere else already, but it is becoming clearer that mobile devices are becoming the future of the Internet. Already, about 60% of all online searches are done on mobile devices. My projection is that the number will rise by another 10% before the end of 2018. Searchers are ordinary people like you and I who probably do not also have the time to just sit in front of the computer. They search on the move.
Mobile phones give them the freedom to do so. If you want to build a better and successful ecommerce SEO, this is one area you should prioritize. Yes, that’s the word. It is no longer enough to simply make your site mobile friendly. It should now be mobile first. It should no longer be something extra you do after you must’ve set up the website. It should be a major part of the initial plan. It is something you should think about first. Accelerated mobile pages are also a good thing to consider.
- Keyword Research
The relevance of keywords to SEO isn’t fazing out yet. For a long time to come, keywords will remain a major way to make your website rank high. But most of the time, we neglect research, probably due to laziness or a mere oversight. We assume that we know what searchers type when they need answers. You may come close if you think about what you will be searching for if you needed your product or service. However, coming close isn’t enough.
Many experts believe your SEO should begin here. How do you boost traffic and sales if you don’t even know what your niche searchers are actually searching for? This is why research is important. Keyword research will help you target and optimize for the right keywords. The mistake many people make is that they try to focus on too many keywords at the same time. Try and focus one keyword on one article. Apart from seeking a friend’s opinion, you should Google the keyword you have chosen to compare the results with what you have written. This illustration by Ahrefs should explain it better.
- Taking Advantage of Q&As
If you’ve ever heard of Quora, you’ll have a good idea what I’m talking about here. It is a site where people go to ask questions they need answers to. Take advantage of such sites by providing answers to their questions, especially questions that appear to have been asked repeatedly with no relevant answers. Within your answers, you can provide links that direct them to your site. Also, at the top of your answer, you should clearly state your name and your website, with some details of what you do.
If people come to trust your answers over time, they will begin to visit your sites when they need answers in the future. Searchers like to derive satisfaction, and they know they can get this from websites that provide useful and relevant information to their queries. Quora, for instance, ranks for a number of relevant keywords. You can also find them by using Ahrefs. Just enter Quora.com on the site explorer, then search for keywords under positions 3 and below related to your niche. It is that simple.
- Content Building
One question I get a lot is whether; content is still king. One website owner asked; “Can’t I just throw in the right keywords and get it up there on SERPs?” The truth is, no matter how appropriate your keyword placement is, you need to fix them in a well-written, relevant and useful content. Google still looks out for this. Remember I have already discussed User experience. Take a look at the best-ranked sites (the first 3 on SERPs) and you’ll see what I mean.
You cannot simply produce a haphazard content and think you’ll be ranked high. A successful SEO requires that your contents pass the plagiarism test, the grammatical test, and should provide answers to the most troubling questions about a subject. It begins with a great idea, followed by greater research. I always advise that you use real-life case studies and make your contents as engaging as possible. If you do this correctly, you’ll begin to understand why content building is one of my 12 processes to establish a better and successful eCommerce SEO.
- Link Reclamation
Let me explain this SEO practice in the simplest way possible. There are times when a site or blog mentions you or your product on their pages without providing a link. If you do stumble on such, it is important that you ask them to link your page. This can help drive traffic to your site in the thousands. In fact, this doesn’t require so much effort on your part. It only shows that you’ve been doing the right thing and that’s why you’re getting the mentions. But you do deserve credit, and you should ask for it.
Conclusion
This is a guide on 12 Processes to Establish a better and Successful E-commerce SEO. It contains some of the best SEO practices you can carry out in 2017/2018. If you really want to rank high in SERPs and turn visits into conversions, SEO is the way. These techniques will help you do that effectively and in good time too.
What is AMP
How important are accelerated mobile pages “AMP” for SEO and UX
Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) refer to an initiative by Google, created to compete with Facebook’s instant Articles. Its main role is to design fast mobile pages. This online publishing format is optimized to for use on the mobile web. This project aims at enhancing the performance of the internet. It eases the creation of ads and websites that perform well across all distribution platforms at high speeds.
Technically, AMP refers to an HTML page designed to be light and load at fast speeds. It is a form of HTML that is stripped down to enhance super fast loading of pages on different platforms. HTML of this kind comes with some restrictions to enhance reliability. Google launched AMP-HTML officially in February 2016.
In most cases, the HTML pages are customized to make common patterns that ease their performance. There are three options of AMPS for you to choose. These include non-AMP version, a simple AMP version of an AMP version of your page.
Components of the Accelerated Mobile Pages
AMP has several elements that enable the system to perform better. The AMP JS (Java Script) library speeds up the rendering of MP HTML pages. It actualizes all of AMP’s excellent performance, manages the loading of resources and provides custom tags to enhance quick rendering of the client’s page. It asynchronies everything coming from external sources thereby ensuring smooth page rendering. This feature blocks all barriers that limit effective page rendering. It also sandboxes all iframes and pre-calculates the layout of all page elements before loading the resources. This technique also disables the slow CSS selectors that might hinder the overall page performance.
AMP Cache
AMP cache made by Google is used to serve the cached HTML pages. The Google AMP cache refers to a network that uses a proxy to deliver all valid AMP documents. It selects AMP pages, stores them and enhances their performance automatically. With Google AMP cache, all JS files, the document and the images load from one origin that uses HTTP 2.0 for enhanced efficiency. The cache has a validation system that confirms that validity of the page. The validation system proves that the page is made to work without depending on external resources. This system confirms this by running several assertions that confirm the page’s markup qualifies as per the AMP HTML specifications.
There is also another type of validation that comes with every AMP page. This validation system logs errors directly to the console of the browser during the rendering of the page. This feature allows you to understand the effect of complex code changes to the page performance and experience of the user.
What AMP Provides
Accelerated Mobile Pages make the loading speeds faster because they only include CSS and basic HTML. They, therefore, promote the higher performance of search pages and engagement. All web pages published in the AMP format load very fast thus affording the users an engaging and smooth online experience both on the desktop and mobile. It also provides advertisers and publishers with a choice of presenting their content online while enhancing key performance indicators.
Reasons for Using AMP
There are many reasons for using AMP for your website. Using AMP makes your site to be displayed differently on Google. You can notice the AMP level in your Google search results easily by looking at the carousel. The benefits of using AMP include;
Increased Speed:
AMP enabled pages load faster as compared to normal pages. This factor reduces the bounce rates when people try to access your website. A page that loads faster is most likely to increase conversions.
Improved S.E Ranking:
Google has developed a mobile-friendly ranking boost. Despite the fact that AMP works independently, the pages that load fast and are user-friendly thus very good for SEO, UX and as well as an opportunity to increase their ranking.
Increases Click through Rate:
The Content displayed in the AMP enabled pages has higher visibility as compared to that of normal pages. This factor encourages visitors to clock on your website thereby increasing the click-through rate.
Supports on-site Ads:
Pages that are AMP enabled support many types of ads including info-links, Ad-Sense, Media-Net and much more. This feature provides a sure way of monetizing your pages.
Assured Quality:
Many big companies such as LinkedIn, Pinterest, Chartbeat, WordPress among others use AMP. Major media companies including Times Inc, CNN, The Washington, ABC and Fox news use AMP. This factor is a clear assurance of AMP’s role and value.
It is worth-noting that the entry of AMP into the market defines the order of things with Search engines. It promotes faster web experience thereby promoting online business. Most companies and individuals are yet to understand the role of AMPs. However, the few who have adopted them are smiling all the way. AMP is one of Google’s latest open-source developments that has revolutionized life on the net and Internet marketing.
How To Identify And Solve Google Penalty
How To Identify Google Penalty And Find Solutions
Website owners dread Google penalties since this is the worst thing that can ever happen to their operations. However, there are ways you can identify this problem and also rectify it to put your website back on track and improve rankings. Here is how to know if your website was penalized.
Google Webmaster Tools (GWT)
You can easily tell if your site has been penalized with GWT. This will help you know whether you have a manual Google penalty. You only need to login to your GWT account then click “Search Traffic”. Click on the “Manual Actions” option. A window will then display that will state if you have any Google penalty or not. In most cases, websites will be penalized because their backlink’s profile doesn’t look natural.
Google Analytics
After you have reviewed your site’s organic traffic chart, it should be easy to detect a change in your website’s ranking. So you should proceed to identify the date on which the change took place. Try and look on industry leading, SEO websites to confirm if there is anything that was rolled out on the day the changes occurred.
Moz Algorithm Update
Normally, Moz automatically provides an updated list of official and unofficial updates to Google’s algorithm. If you don’t have Google Analytics or GWT implemented with your website, then this could be a resourceful tool to use. Since this list dates all the way back to 2000, it is efficient to provide you with a starting point and give you an insight of what happened during the time of your impact.
There are two major updates Google has recently done. They include:
- Panda— This targets sites that have duplicate content and are of low quality.
- Penguin—This targets websites that have over optimized anchor texts.
How To Recover From Panda
Panda is a site-wide quality algorithm that will detect low-quality content. But over the years, it has graduated from just looking for low-quality content to also ranking high-quality content. It is thus important to have high-quality content.
To recover from this, you should first identify the most common quality issues page by page. Evaluate if that page is the best on the internet for the topic. After you have identified the quality issues, correct them. Make sure you correct the content length, copied content and missing critical site-wide information. It is important to understand that although a single element can trigger Panda penalty, a combination of all elements can also determine your quality score and influence the penalty.
Panda will in most cases require drastic changes to the header, footer, navigation and content of the website. In some instances, webmasters will be required to update hundreds of pages while others will do so to a few. So to speed up your recovery, know exactly what to update.
After you have fixed your site, give Googlebot enough time to recrawl your site and redo a quality check. So if you have successfully removed the Panda penalty, you will see traffic increase within 48 hours after you have received a new score.
How To Recover From Penguin
Penguin looks at attempts to manipulate search engine rankings. It will thus detect unnatural links that point to your website. So to recover from this, you will need to remove the links that harm your page. First, you have to locate the page and keyword being penalized. However, a good SEO company should be able to help if you subscribe to a monthly SEO package or payment plan.
You should then download your entire link and identify which link Google considers bad for the website. You should then get rid of the link then wait for Googlebot to re-crawl the changes. This process will take from 3 hours to 3 months. The speed depends on the crawl frequency and the number of links you had to remove. If you also have a manual action attached to your website, you will require a reconsideration request.
Conclusion
With that in mind, you should always check your Google Webmaster tools for warnings when you notice fallen rankings and traffic. If there is no message, then the loss of traffic is due to algorithm update from Google. Check for updates and if the penalization is as a result of previous updates. To be on the safe side, always write content that’s long and useful, mix your anchor tests, avoid building too many links and make sure you verify for duplicate content.
9 SEO strategies for 2017-2018
9 SEO strategies that deliver results in 2017-2018
Now that Hummingbird, Penguin and Panda have arrived to weed out the low-quality websites from Google’s SERP’s, it’s more important than ever for online businesses to find superlative SEO strategies. Here are eight of the very best of them in an order that leads to a final summation of a well-defined SEO campaign. From defining target audiences through keyword research, finding the gaps and opportunities, surpassing the competition and on to thought leadership, these SEO Strategies should be helpful and informative.
Define Target Audiences.
A website must provide content that is useful and relevant to visitors to the site. The first step in this process is to clearly define the target audience and their specific interests and needs. You may need to use several research methods in defining the needs of the target audience. Research methods such as those below may prove very useful in defining the terms and phrases used by the customers you want to attract to your website.
• Market Research Studies can be valuable. It may be necessary to pay for high-quality research studies, although websites that offer free market studies do exist.
• You can discover more about the preferences and needs of your target audience by placing a survey on your site, or by directing customers to a site that generates marketing data through surveys.
• Focus groups can generate top-quality information about products. You may be able to organize a focus group yourself, but if not, many companies run paid focus groups.
• Find out if a topic or product is producing excitement, or buzz, by researching on sites that track brand-metrics.
Keyword Research.
Now that you have gathered as much information as possible about the Target Audience, the next step is to refine the keywords. Keyword Research can begin with a deeper look at either the product, the service, a topic, or the customer persona if you have created one.
Start by creating a template, such as an Excel spreadsheet. It may help to create clearer keyword categories if you use a separate tab for each keyword. Be creative and explore as many keywords as you can, as some keywords can be deleted if they do not produce the search traffic volume that qualifies them for inclusion. For the easiest keyword research, a Google AdWords template includes a column in which you can fill in the Google estimated monthly search volume for each keyword.
Start Keyword Research on the Google AdWords template, by typing in a keyword from one of your categories and then, from the Match Type Categories it is essential that you choose Exact. By going through this step, you may find further high-volume keywords that you wish to add to your categories and perhaps even your website. Export this data to your Excel spreadsheet, so that you have two columns: the terms for the keyword category and the results from the Google AdWords search. Finding the
Gaps and the Opportunities.
When we refer to Gaps we are saying that page analytics have revealed that referral volume, or visitors directed by links from other websites, is low.
When we speak about Opportunities we mean that page analytics have revealed that there is noticeable search volume for certain content that has not been included on your web page.
To define Gaps and Opportunities find the referral numbers derived by your analytics system and add them, in an extra column, to the Excel spreadsheet you have been working on. You need not obtain the referral numbers for every keyword category, but by choosing a sample set based on either high-volume or low-volume search terms, you will be able to come to some understanding about areas where you are going well as opposed to areas where you are not going so well. It is possible to pull referral data for the whole list, but remember that your time is valuable. Pull the referral numbers for the keyword categories that you know are going to give you the most insight.
Enter the correct data into two new columns, the first entitled Referrals and the second entitled CTR. Use the Excel page capabilities to calculate the CTR numbers from the Referral numbers.
Once these four columns have data in them, the Excel spreadsheet is able to reorganize the data so that the keyword categories are now sorted from highest CTR to lowest CTR. If you have scored a CTR rating of 35% or more for a keyword, that’s very good news, as even the head keywords rarely score 100%. The keywords which have scored 2% CTR or fewer reveal Gaps. Once you have assessed the reasons why this Gap has appeared in your CTR’s, note it down. Opportunities are revealed where the high-volume search terms are not matched by high referral rates and CTR. You may be able to find ways to incorporate new material into your website, the opportunity to do this having been revealed by the data generated via the Excel spreadsheet.
Defining Competitors.
Competitors could be defined directly as the companies that sell the same product or service as your own website, but competition can also be defined under the headings of the keyword categories for your site. By searching for the sites that top the listings under a series of related keywords, you may be able to discover more about what your strongest competitors are doing. For instance, a site that sells furniture is in direct competition with other sites that sell furniture, but by typing related terms into a search engine, such as cane furniture, patio furniture or dining room tables, more insight about competitors can be derived.
Record the results of such a keyword search in a new Excel spreadsheet, or go to the Keyword Difficulty Tool on Semrush.com, Alexa.com, or Moz.com.
Learning from Your Competitors.
This is the portion of the eight-step SEO Strategy in which you try to define what makes your competitors so popular by examining certain features and comparing them to similar features on your own website. The major purpose of this comparison is to find out what brings people to your competitors’ sites, what encourages people to go back there, what makes people want to tell their friends about them, basically, what makes people love this site?
An Excel page can be used to list these features, which may be the content, landing pages, social media presence, widgets and tools that appear on your competitors’ web pages. Features such as Likes and Dislikes, In-links, On-Page and Traffic are headings which could be used, but you may also analyze competitors’ web pages in whatever way you see fit to do so. Just remember that the idea is not just to beat the competition but to actually offer a better product than theirs which will grow its own natural popularity.
Site Speed.
Google has indicated that site speed and the resultant page speed are signals that affect page rankings. Both the user experience and the conversion rate are also negatively affected by a site that loads slowly. In order to reduce page speed, you must compress files that are larger than 150 bytes; there are software tools which allow you to perform this task easily. You may also decide to enhance your code by removing commas, spaces and other irrelevant symbols. On the subject of compression, it is important to ensure that all the images on your site are loaded as either PNG or JPEG files are that they are not too large.
Help your site to load efficiently by subscribing to a Content Delivery Network, in which copies of your site will be stored at data centers across the globe. By doing this, you offer users more consistent site access.
A Mobile First Approach
The Google algorithms have altered; they now reflect the user experience more than previously. Now that mobile devices outnumber desktop devices and most searches are made from mobile devices, it is crucial to develop websites that are responsive on tablets and smartphones.
The smaller screen space on mobile devices demands a simpler page design, but CSS and JavaScript should still be included. By this means, Google Smartphone bots can perceive content that is identical to that which users perceive.
For special effects on the screens of mobile devices, webmasters should use HTML5, rather than plug-ins. Rich snippets in search results and concisely worded content will stand out on smaller screens. Building an app is another method of adapting the mobile experience for users, although Google crawlers prefer the responsive web design.
Thought Leadership.
Though leadership may be an even better marketing and SEO tool than straight out advertising. Although the results may take a little longer to become evident, the brand perception of your company will be enhanced, and you may eventually find that your brand dominates its niche.
Demonstrate that your company has insight and authority by regularly publishing long-form articles that are based on highly-quality study, exploration and research, in-depth case studies, thoughtful, incisive blogs, informative infographics and finally by adding high-quality research links to your site. Due to the perception that your brand is a thought-leader, you may be able to request that higher prices be paid for your product.
Off-Site SEO
Just as important as On-page SEO, Off-page SEO may be carried out by several methods, all of which contribute to the positive branding of a website or company. One way to look at Off-Site SEO may be to consider that creating an excellent product or service is the best way to foster interest in that product or service. Word-of-mouth, guest blogs, and reviews on other sites than your own are all part of this cycle of positive publicity. Customer service, another type of Off-Line SEO, should ideally be a form of referral for your product. The key concept that applies to customer service is Positive Interaction. A smile is a form of free publicity when it is perceived from an SEO angle.
The role of social media in on-page SEO has been debated. It could be said that social media plays a changeable role in SEO, as changeable as the Google search algorithm itself. A social media account may become useful in attracting visitors to your site, even if Google page ranking spiders do not rate social media likes or dislikes. A well-managed Facebook or Twitter account may stir interest in your product and drive traffic to your site.
Some additional Off-Line SEO strategies revolve around catching the attention of thought-influencers. You may come into contact with these people at public events or seminars. With regard to Off-site SEO, put yourself out there and get an understanding of what other SEO experts are doing.
Final Thoughts and Summarising Your SEO Campaign.
Once you have completed the steps above, you may find it rewarding to place all the insights you have gained into a single document. This final step is a way of creating a new vision for your SEO Strategy. You have probably been able to derive some specific insights which you would like to go to work on straight away.
It is not wise to implement an overall SEO Strategy in a random way. By creating an overview which places the strategies in a logical order you will be more likely to re-create your website by making it different in the ways that matter most.
Best SEO Techniques 2017
Which SEO Techniques and Tactics in 2017?
Wе аrе іn 2017 and almost going half-way. It іѕ thе bеѕt tіmе tо gеt uрdаtеd wіth SEO, dіgіtаl mаrkеtіng tесhnіԛuеѕ and best practices. Thе сurrеnt рrevious techniques tо bооѕt уоur SEO position іѕ оutdаtеd аnd іt іѕ currently аbоut tо сhаngе. Webmasters will continue to ріtсhеѕ tо соntrіbutе соntеnt оn еxtеrnаl wеb ѕіtеѕ, but there are other better techniques to take into consideration.
SEO іѕ оnе оf thе mоѕt рорulаrlу uѕеd marketing tесhnіԛuеѕ tо аttrасt ѕіzеаblе trаffіс аnd оbtаіn hіgh rаnkіngs іn thе ѕеаrсh rеѕultѕ (SERP). Wеbmаѕtеrѕ оftеn ѕеgrеgаtе SEO tесhnіԛuеѕ іntо three ѕеgmеntѕ, namely; technical, On Pаgе SEO аnd Off Pаgе SEO.
How important is technical SEO
Technical SEO relates to the technical portion of your website and very important. This technical approach takes into account the time it takes your website to load, how clean your code is, the external plugins you use, the size of your images, visuals on the website, UX, broken links, Schema, Amp, the responsiveness of the website and more. It is important to make sure there are no errors with all of these mentionings and that they all work properly. Technical has become of the algorithm used by google when classifying positions and rankings in the SERPS
How significant is on-page?
On Pаgе SEO is as important as off page and technical and саn bе rеfеrrеd tо аѕ аll thе асtіvіtіеѕ соnduсtеd wіthіn a wеbѕіtе lіkе dеѕсrірtіоn, tіtlе, kеуwоrdѕ, соntеnt, lіnkіng, еtс. On Page SEO mеаnѕ dеѕіgnіng аnd buіldіng a wеbѕіtе thаt іt іѕ ѕеаrсh еngіnе frіеndlу and as well as user-friendly
Do you know what Off page SEO means?
Off Pаgе SEO саn mаkе аnу wеbѕіtе lаrgеlу vіѕіblе аnd рорulаr оvеr thе іntеrnеt. This refers to externals links from other website pointing back to your website. It gіvеѕ thе wеbѕіtе hіgh vіѕіbіlіtу аnd іmрrоvіѕеѕ іtѕ роѕіtіоn іn thе SERPѕ provided the links are not from link farms and only from reputable websites with authority. Authority refers to domain authority (DA) and the quality of content it publishes.
Whіlе орtіmіѕіng уоur роrtаl оr wеbѕіtе, thеrе аrе numеrоuѕ fасtоrѕ tо bе соnѕіdеrеd towards gаіnіng optimum wеbѕіtе реrfоrmаnсе and visibility. Aссоrdіng tо ѕеаrсh еngіnе орtіmіѕаtіоn аgеnсу еxреrtѕ, bоth On Pаgе аnd Off Pаgе tесhnіԛuеѕ аrе еԛuаllу іmроrtаnt аnd саn dо wоndеrѕ tо ѕtrеngthеn уоur оnlіnе mаrkеtіng ѕtrаtеgу. Thе соmbіnаtіоn оf bоth оff раgе аѕ well аѕ оn раgе tесhnіԛuеѕ саn gіvе уоu еxсеllеnt роѕіtіvе rеѕultѕ especially when you have performed a robust technical audit and implemented the findings.
I аm gоіng tо ѕhаrе ѕоmе uрdаtеd rаnkіng fасtоrѕ аnd uрdаtеѕ fоr SEO 2017.
Gооglе Pеnguіn іѕ rеаl-tіmе аnd a раrt оf соrе аlgоrіthm
Lаunсhеd bу Gооglе іn 2012, nоw, Pеnguіn іѕ a раrt оf 200 ѕіgnаlѕ uѕеd іn Gооglе’ѕ соrе ranking аlgоrіthm tо judgе a wеbѕіtе’ѕ quality for rаnkіng purposes. Bесаuѕе Pеnguіn 4.0 іѕ rеаl tіmе, wе nо lоngеr hаvе tо wоrrу аbоut аnу dаuntіng dеlауѕ оr wаіt fоr уеаrѕ tо ѕее thе rеѕultѕ оf оur wоrk thаt wе hаvе dоnе оn оur wеbѕіtе.
Earning natural links
Whеn Gоgglе lаunсhеd іtѕ Pеnguіn аlgоrіthm, thе whоlе wоrld оf SEO simply ѕhіvеred. Mоѕt реорlе оr еxреrtѕ аrе ѕtіll соnfuѕеd about hоw tо implement best practice and еаrn ԛuаlіtу bасklіnkѕ. SEO has become earned media and there is no turning back. Some pеорlе and еvеn соmраnіеѕ аrе ѕtіll ѕtісkіng wіth thеіr аррrоасh оf mаkіng ѕраmmу bасklіnkѕ аnd соntіnuе рауіng fоr thеіr ѕuѕрісіоuѕ асtіvіtіеѕ with penalties from Google. The most interesting part is that individuals engaged in spammy activities are not even aware their activities are outlawed. I will be sharing some wауѕ thаt can hеlр уоu tо buіld nаturаl bасklіnkѕ fоr уоur ѕіtе as we go along.
- Fоr lосаl brаndѕ, mаkе рrоfіlеѕ оn buѕіnеѕѕ lіѕtіng ѕіtеѕ, nісhе dіrесtоrіеѕ. It іѕ a gооd wау tо еаrn ѕоmе nаturаl lіnkѕ.
- Dо nоt undеrеѕtіmаtе thе hіddеn роwеr оf blоggіng оr guеѕt роѕtіng, blоggіng іѕ оnе оf thе оld but еvеrgrееn tесhnіԛuе tо gеt hіgh-ԛuаlіtу bасklіnkѕ оr nаturаl lіnkѕ.
- Pаrtісіраtеd іn thе fоrumѕ, dіѕсuѕѕіоnѕ аnd аlѕо соmmunіtіеѕ tо еаrn ѕоmе ԛuаlіtу bасklіnkѕ.
- Invіtе оr аѕk уоur nісhе rеlаtеd рrоfеѕѕіоnаlѕ tо wrіtе аbоut уоur ѕеrvісеѕ оr рrоduсtѕ оn thеіr blоgѕ.
- Enсоurаgе уоur vіѕіtоrѕ tо lеаvе rеvіеwѕ аbоut уоur wеbѕіtе оr buѕіnеѕѕ оn rеvіеw bаѕеd ѕіtеѕ.
- Create competitions
- Write excellent white papers et al
Gооglе’s implementing mobile-first indexing
Gооglе rеlеаѕеd іtѕ fіrѕt mоbіlе іndеxіng uрdаtе In Nоvеmbеr. In the раѕt, Gооglе сrаwlеd оur ѕіtе аѕ a dеѕktор uѕеr but nоw Gооglе wіll сrаwl оur ѕіtе аѕ both a mоbіlе uѕеr and desktop user. Mobile consum[tion has risen over the years and users are seen searching while on the move. Bесаuѕе mоѕt оf thе ѕеаrсh ԛuеrу mаdе оn Gооglе on mоbіlе, even though the buying process may be made while on a desktop, іt mаkеѕ ѕеnѕе tо рut mоbіlе fіrѕt іn the lіѕt оf your SEO activities.
But whу mоbіlе-friendly so important as many webmasters have been asking? Mауbе, іt іѕ bесаuѕе оf thе dіffеrеnt bеhаvіоrѕ оf uѕеrѕ whеn ѕеаrсhіng on mоbіlе and the level at which mobile usage has increased or evolved over time. Mobile users fоr еxаmрlе, have different expectations from desktop users. Mobile uѕеrѕ wаnt thе соntеnt tо bе ѕеrvеd mоrе quісklу which means your website has to load within 2-3 seconds if not they will move. Therefore we can conclude that Google has become very keen on mobile-first approach bесаuѕе оf the evolving trends аnd іnсrеаѕеs іn mоbіlе аdорtіоn rаtеs.
Alѕо, dо nоt fоrgеt, Gооglе іntrоduсе uѕ tо іtѕ nеw аlgоrіthm, Intruѕіvе Intеrѕtіtіаlѕ Mоbіlе реnаltу whісh сamе іn Jаn10, 2017. Nоw, whаt wіll hарреn wіth thе dеѕktор-орtіmіzеd ѕіtе? Juѕt ѕіt аnd rеlаx. Gооglе bоts wіll still сrаwl thе dеѕktор vеrѕіоn оf уоur ѕіtе, еvеn thоugh іt could be uѕіng a mоbіlе uѕеr аgеnt. Thаt mеаnѕ уоur ѕіtе саn ѕtіll bе іndеxеd but аlѕо орtіmіzе іt fоr mоbіlе tоо.
Crеаting meaningful and engaging content
Gооglе’ѕ ѕеаrсh аlgоrіthm wоrkѕ wеll аt fіndіng рооr ԛuаlіtу соntеnt ѕuсh аѕ іrrеlеvаnt соntеnt, kеуwоrd ѕtuffеd соntеnt, соріеd соntеnt аnd mоrе. Aѕ wе аrе іn 2017, thеrе іѕ nо dоubt thаt Gооglе wіll соntіnuе wіth uрdаtеѕ tо mаkе furthеr іmрrоvеmеntѕ іn іtѕ ѕеаrсh аlgоrіthmѕ аnd wіll keep gеtting bеttеr аt fіltеrіng оut thоѕе wеbѕіtеѕ рublіѕhing соріеd оr рооr ԛuаlіtу соntеnt. Bу implementing іntеrnаl lіnkѕ tо уоur ѕіtе, it helps your readers tо mаkе wеll-іnfоrmеd buуіng dесіѕіоnѕ by navigating to content they may never have gone to. Alѕо, іt wіll nоt оnlу hеlр rеаdеrѕ оf уоur wеbѕіtе but аlѕо enable thе ѕеаrсh еngіnе ѕріdеr bоt tо сrаwl уоur ѕіtе’ѕ еntіrе раgеѕ.
Uѕеr еxреrіеnсе іѕ еѕѕеntіаl for SEO and іt іѕ gооd tо tеѕt hоw it аffесtѕ thе trаffіс tо уоur wеbѕіtе especially when it comes to wireframing. Aссоrdіng tо Fоrrеѕtеr, 93% оf оnlіnе еxреrіеnсеѕ ѕtаrt wіth a ѕеаrсh. Tо mаkе іt ѕіmрlе, uѕеr еxреrіеnсе ѕtаrtѕ еvеn bеfоrе thе uѕеr vіѕіtѕ уоur site. Thuѕ, іt іѕ іmроrtаnt tо соntіnuе tо thе nесеѕѕаrу twеаkѕ thаt рrоvіdе a ѕmооth vіѕіt. Yоur соntеnt ѕhоuld bе сhаrmіng fоr bоth, a uѕеr аnd ѕеаrсh еngіnе аnd thuѕ, bоth rеаdаbіlіtу аnd сrаwl-аbіlіtу ѕhоuld bе tаkеn іntо соnѕіdеrаtіоn.
Tеѕt уоur ѕіtе’ѕ lіnk -fіx thе brоkеn lіnkѕ tо mіnіmіzе еrrоr раgеѕ as they provide bad user experience. Slоw раgе lоаdіng ѕрееd bесоmеѕ сrіtісаl, ѕо, keep in mind tо tеѕt your wеb раgеѕ frоm tіmе tо tіmе for speed. Remember, from bulkу іmаgеѕ tо uѕеlеѕѕ ѕсrірtѕ, thеrе іѕ аlwауѕ a саuѕе thаt уоur wеbѕіtе gеtѕ ѕlоw. Gооd loading speed and proper nаvіgаtіоn hеlрѕ thе uѕеr to brоwѕе thе wеb раgеѕ wіthоut рrоblеmѕ. Frоm thе mеnu ѕtruсturе tо thе lіnk ѕtruсturе аnd thе раgе’ѕ dеѕіgn, еvеn a mіnоr dеtаіl mау іmрасt thе uѕеr еxреrіеnсе.
AMP (Gооglе’ѕ Aссеlеrаtеd Mоbіlе Pаgеѕ) mау аlѕо bе a good tool tо help уоur webѕіtе to load fast аnd Gооglе ѕееmѕ tо appreciate websites uѕіng that uses AMP. Iѕ іt tіmе tо еxреrіmеnt wіth іt?
Sources of your in-coming links
In SEO, іt іѕ аll аbоut lосаtіоn, whеn ѕреаkіng аbоut lіnkѕ. Yоu wаnt to have websites lіnkіng tо уоu frоm аll оvеr thе wоrld, but уоu аlѕо wаnt tо mаkе ѕurе thаt they are rеlеvаnt, hіgh-ԛuаlіtу соntеnt production websites lіnkіng tо уоu іnѕtеаd оf lоw-ԛuаlіtу trаѕh.
It іѕ аlѕо еxtrеmеlу іmроrtаnt thаt you are aware of whаt webѕіtе that lіnk to yours. Fоr еxаmрlе, a lіnk frоm Entrерrеnеur іѕ fаr mоrе роwеrful thаn thоuѕаndѕ оf thе lоw-ԛuаlіtу lіnkѕ, раrtісulаrlу whеn thаt lіnk іѕ соmіng frоm a rеlеvаnt соntеnt.
Crеаtіng a hеаlthу lіnk рrоfіlе іѕ a trісkу thіng. But іf уоu fосuѕ уоur еffоrtѕ оn аn аmаzіng соntеnt strategy thеn thоѕе lіnkѕ will соmе nаturаllу tо уоu. It mіght tаkе a lоng tіmе реrіоd, but аt lаѕt, thеу wіll fіnаllу соmе.
Fосuѕ оn gооd соntеnt, but аlѕо fосuѕ оn thе quality bасklіnkѕ tоо. It іѕ nоt еаѕу nоt tо hаvе hіgh-ԛuаlіtу аuthоrіtу lіnkѕ frоm аmаzіng websites. If іt wеrе, еvеrуоnе would have іt.
Crеаtіng аn “Amаzіng Cоntеnt” type is gоіng tо bе a mаѕѕіvе hеаdасhе аnd requires a grеаt аmоunt оf wоrk, but vеrу muсh wеll wоrth the effort especially whеn you start to get frее оrgаnіс trаffіс соming dіrесtlу tо уоur wеbѕіtе оvеr tіmе as a result of such efforts and patience.
Gіvе a trу tо thеѕе tасtісѕ and techniques and witness your SEO growth thіѕ уеаr.
5 Reasons why you need technical SEO
Compelling reasons why you need technical SEO on your website
In 2006 when I started in SEO, the primary focus was on onpage and link building. Back then, SEO was not as complexed, complicated as you see at the moment. As time went by, I began hearing about technical SEO and eventually I promised myself to learn the technical part and I am glad I was damn right. Really pleased I did.
However, technical SEO has become a must-have and there are no two ways out. The good news is that; you can now find many tools around that help with tackling most of the tasks related to technical SEO but you will still definitely need to your eyes in some aspects without a doubt. There are free and paid tools alike.
Technical SEO, content, linkage and marketing strategy
As far as I am concerned, these are the most important parts and components of SEO. I am diving-in this far because with technical SEO on its own you won’t go anywhere and it’ll be a waste of your time and resources. As SEO expert or consultant with all the above skills is a force to reckon with. That is the caliber of person you want to work with. I am writing this post out of experience and as someone with more than 10 years industry experience.
I will personally start from carrying out a succinct audit. Once I have identified the issues, the next step will be to make a plan of action before I move on to something else. This is just my personal approach as an individual. There is no formal methodology to a technical SEO approach. However, you need bags of wit, tact and a great understanding of Google guidelines.
Content and marketing are completely a different ball game. These two can be split into completely two different sections, employing different individuals. As an experienced SEO expert, you definitely need both skills because even though you might not be required to implement but it is important that you are in a position to provide the best advice possible in either of the sections. Therefore you do not really have to be technical to provide mind-blowing SEO results. This is a fact. All you need to know is what is expect from a good website to deliver on their SEO goals and objectives
Site structure and wireframes
Having a website that users might have to spend time searching for where is what is what is going to kill it. Having a site with a good structure is very important for user experience. If you make users to strain before finding what they want, your bounce rate will be as high as anything. I once have a chat with an SEO Manager from the UK regarding his approach to site structure and wireframing and his thoughts were that; this particular issue could be addressed with the help of sitemap on the site. I grind. How many website users understands or knows what a sitemap is? The truth is that we all have different opinions when it comes to approaching SEO.
A good site architecture takes into consideration how link equity is distributed all throughout the website, making it easy for site users to move from one section to the other. Internal linking is never all about rankings but also about keep users on your website by introducing them to various sections and pages. Some people might think that this neither technical but I promise it is. I have seen sites with internal links and if you do not move your mouse over the page, you won’t find or notice any links. I suppose it was this way because the site owner had no technical or coding experience needed to get it right.
Redirects – 302 and 301
This is pretty much easy on WordPress when using plugins designed for that purpose but on other platforms, one will have to implement them manually. Businesses are changing websites from time to time and technology keeps evolving. Nowadays, having a responsive website has become very important.
When overhauling or revamping websites, shit can happen and it does. This is where 302s and 301s skill come in handy. It could also be that a website has got similar content which needs redirecting another one to the preferred version permanently using 301. 302s are useful for temporal redirects. Without technical know, playing around with this subject on a live website is a risk not worth anyone efforts.
Having your website indexed and crawled by search engine bots
This is another topic with a lot of complexity if you have to work with robots.txt. Make the least mistake and no one will ever visit the website because it won’t be indexed. SEOs without the technical knowledge still are unable to find their way around this topic. With robots.txt, you tell the search engines what you want them to index and what to leave out. Having your website indexed is very important this is usually achieved through submitting a site using Google Search console.
There are various site maps and you will need to decide what you want indexing. Best practice is to submit an XML or HTML sitemap;
- Images sitemap
- Pages sitemap
- Posts sitemap
- Video sitemaps.
Sitemaps tell the search engines what your site is about. However, using tools like Copyscape to determine if there are any duplicate content is of paramount importance.
Accelerated mobile pages
Without the technical know-how, you cannot implement AMP on an HTML website and some other content management systems. Accelerate mobile pages is gradually becoming an important aspect of SEO. However, it is still under continuous development and currently works with posts. It makes your page to load faster than normal by streaming some sections of the code as required. Amp comes after the surge in mobile consumption around the world which is why it targeting mobile. Because it increases the loading speed on mobile, there is no reason why I cannot class it under technical SEO. It’s an open source development sponsored by Google, Bing and Yandex. With Open source developments, there are no limitations to how you use and or expand the functionality. technical? Great.