| Weekly SEO news: 23 January 2018 |
Here are the latest website promotion and Internet marketing tips for you.
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Google has announced a major update to its mobile ranking algorithm. Starting in July 2018, page speed will be a ranking factor for mobile searches.
How does this affect your rankings, and what should you do to make sure that your web pages get high rankings?
What has Google announced?
Google has announced that, starting in July 2018, page speed will be a ranking signal for mobile searches. Page speed has been a ranking signal for some time, but only for desktop searches.
"People want to be able to find answers to their questions as fast as possible — studies show that people really care about the speed of a page. Although speed has been used in ranking for some time, that signal was focused on desktop searches. Today we’re announcing that starting in July 2018, page speed will be a ranking factor for mobile searches.
The 'Speed Update,' as we’re calling it, will only affect pages that deliver the slowest experience to users and will only affect a small percentage of queries. It applies the same standard to all pages, regardless of the technology used to build the page. The intent of the search query is still a very strong signal, so a slow page may still rank highly if it has great, relevant content."
In short: you should make sure that you have web pages that load quickly on mobile devices if you want to get high rankings in Google's mobile search results.
Will this affect your web page rankings?
According to Google's announcement, the new ranking signal 'will only affect pages that deliver the slowest experience to users and will only affect a small percentage of queries'.
Google processes billions of searches per day. A 'small percentage' of queries can amount can amount to thousands or millions of keywords and websites.
Check the speed of your website with Google's Page Speed Insights tool. It's likely that your website has 'average' speed. If the Page Speed Tool shows that your website is 'slow', you should act.
How to optimize your web pages for mobile
Follow the tips of Google's Page Speed Insight tool to improve your web pages. In addition, check your web pages with the Top 10 Optimizer tool and the website audit tool in SEOproflier. Both tools offer options for mobile SEO.
Google's announcement indicates the the overall mobile user experience is also a factor. Mobile optimization is more than just optimizing the load time of web pages.
It's more important than ever to optimize your web pages for mobile search. The tools in SEOprofiler can help you to do that. You can create your free SEOprofiler account here:
Study: 80% of Google Home results
come from snippetsCan Google Assistant & voice search really help those who need it the most ?
People are using voice search for local search especially when people are on the go. It is therefore important to optimise for local listings if you have shop/restaurant/bricks and mortar business. Set up your Google My Business Listing. Optimising your site for local listings would help all customers find your business."
Google's John Mueller: be yourself & not your keywords
if you go with a domain name such as www.we-sell-big-yellow-pineapple-chairs.com and then all of a sudden you start to sell big blue pineapple chairs - then you got an issue."
If Google wants to encourage us all to play by its rules, then it should clarify why this case is or is not against its guidelines."
+++ SEARCH +++ ENGINE +++ NEWS +++ TICKER +++
- You can now add, edit or remove keywords on the go using the AdWords app.
- Google is testing light-blue links on desktop.
- From last click to position-based: an attribution test.
- Google faces England’s first ‘right to be forgotten’ trial.
- Better alternatives to old school SEO methods – part 4
- New Year's resolution: try SEOprofiler instead of your current SEO tool
- Better alternatives to old school SEO methods - part 3
- 2017 year in review
- Better alternatives to old school SEO methods - part 2
- Outdated SEO techniques and what you should do instead - part 1
- All you need to know about Google's web crawler Googlebot
- 5 things you can do to improve your content for visitors AND search engines
- View all past issues...
Do you need better rankings for your website?
SEOprofiler is a web-based search marketing tool that helps you to get better Google rankings. You can create a free SEOprofiler account here. The step-by-step manual will help you to get started as quickly as possible.