Category: SEO

Google Updates Featured Snippets for Queries with Different Intents

A recent Google blog shone a rather interesting light on what Google uses its featured snippets section for. These little snippets are useful and go a long way to making it much easier to find the information that you need.

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Fix Long Page Titles – Google Search Console Message

According to Twitter user Casey Markee, it’s important that you pay close attention to the length of page titles. Casey noticed a large collection of e-mails from Google’ Search Console Team, with all of them aimed at ‘fix long page titles’ kind of messages.

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Search Still Beats Social for Referral Traffic in 2017

The report, prepared by Shareaholic, proved to be essential in the development of better traffic for the long-term. This was the first time that search beat share in search volume since 2014.

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Google Chrome Automatically Cleans Up Messy URLs

For any webmaster or even just user of the internet, one major no-no is messy URLs. The latest version of Google Chrome looks to help finally do something about this. If the link is deemed to be too ‘messy’ then it will be cleaned up for easier, safer and more comfortable clicking on behalf of the user.

A large, unclean URL is a major put-off for some people. With a cleaner URL, a page instantly becomes more enjoyable to visit and more likely to be clicked upon by people who are not particularly tech-friendly. The new Chrome URL Shortener is a fine choice of add-on, and will help to remove an anchor tags that stops a page loading at a specific point.

That means that a lot of the extra bulk we see in a URL can be cut off, making it far more attractive to actually click on. This is going to be much easier then to present people with a link, rather than worrying that they will be put off by the messy nature of the original. This can lead to a huge improvement in the way that you work, and how your content is received by others.

It’s also going to help reduce the appearance of referral notes and various other factors. Now, if you are sharing a link with others, you should not feel that uncertainty that they might be put off by the sheer size and length of the URL.

While it does not bother some people, others find it to be obstructive and off-putting. If you would like to help boost the numbers of people who are clicking on your links, then use Google Chrome’s URL Shortener and enjoy cleaner links that people might want to click on.

Source: Search Engine Journal

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Google: Content Order, Placement & Position Matters

At the recent PubCon event, Gary Illyes, a Google mastermind, made a little bit of a comment that certainly raised some eyebrows. He said that the placement of content matters and can have an impact on the rankings that you get in the long-term.

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Google: More Sites Moving to Mobile-First Index in Coming Weeks

Google has been making some significant moves aimed at mobile users. Given the prevalence of mobile web browsing today, their insistence to change how websites are indexed on the site has become a very popular part of the Google model.

This was made clear at the recent PubCon, a conference mostly aimed at webmasters. Google aimed to try and make more sites on their mobile-first index become visible. For those who don’t know, the mobile-first index is the new way that Google is looking at the web. This new index is their aim to try and make sure that the internet is indexed from the perspective of using it on a mobile device.

For that reason, this change is very important to note. It will not only have a major impact on the long-term use of search engines, but it will play a significant role in how Google view users today. If you have a website that is mobile-friendly, then you will find that the mobile edition of your site will now be indexed first.

As more and more people get involved with prioritizing mobile searches over desktop, this is just another step in the direction we all expected Google was going. It’s going to be a very interesting adjustment. It should go some way to helping alter and change the way that users are turning to Google. If you own a mobile-friendly website, you will get to enjoy a nice boost from mobile users.

For those who like to search on mobile devices and are sick of landing on desktop sites, this is going to be a big change. In time, it should really help to change and improve the way that your site operates. For those who are mostly mobile-oriented in their branding today, this should make it easier for you to build upon this side of your business in the years to come.

Source: Search Engine Land

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Google Maps Adds Mall Directory Searches

Google has went into overdrive when it comes to developing new and improved content. The search engine is in the process of a bit of a radical transformation, which has gone some way to ensuring that the entire search engine experience feels just right for users.

However, Google has also added a lot of extras that can help out business owners, too. One of the latest changes has come from the addition of Google Maps’ ability to show mall directory searches. Now you can easily look inside a local mall and work out if it has the store that you are looking for.

All you need to do is look for the mall, and then you should see the Directory tab appear, which is part of the newly added function. You then simply type in the name of a store and it should tell you if that mall has that store or not. This should help to get rid of some of the confusion with regards to what stores are present inside some malls. It will also improve business visibility for stores inside a mall as well.

This is the first time a feature like this has appeared on Google Maps. It is a major step in the right direction for Google. While some might notice that it’s yet another way to stop you searching away from Google, it’s another cool little feature that should help you really get the information you need about what a mall has inside.

Even if you search for a store now, it will show you that it’s “located within” a certain mall. It makes it easier for you to find out where the mall is, what’s inside the mall and what else that mall has to offer. Awesome, right?

Source: Search Engine Land

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Google Image Search Removes View Image and Search by Image Buttons

One such recent change is that Google has removed the View Image and Search by Image buttons when looking at Google Images. This comes after Google signed a new deal with Getty Images.

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70% of Google Page One Search Results are HTTPS [Report]

For one, the RankRanger report found that Google is providing preference to HTTPS URLs.

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Google to Webmasters: Reduce Similar Content Pages

Try your best to make it more varied, cut down or reduce similar content and you may find it easier to avoid falling out of the Google guidelines for higher SEO ranking.

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