DIGITAL MARKETING INSIDER SECRETS | GOOGLE LINK SPAM UPDATE ROLLED OUT + GOOGLE’S JULY 2021 CORE UPDATE + 98 QUICK SEO TIPS & TRICKS!

Digital_Marketing_Insider_Secrets_Google_Link_Spam_Update_Rolled_Out

eBizUniverse

Google_Link_Spam_Update_Rolled_Out

Googles_July_2021_Core_Update

98_Quick_SEO_Tips_and_Tricks

Google_Link_Spam_Update_Rolled_Out

 

Google recently said that the new algorithm update for Google search “is even more effective at identifying and nullifying link spam more broadly, across multiple languages.” Named the link spam update, it started from July 26th.

Also, Google posted this lengthy blog post named “A reminder on qualifying links and our link spam update.” The blog post is a reminder of the type of links that work against Google’s webmaster guidelines.

The Google blog post concluded by announcing the link spam update:

“In our continued efforts to improve the quality of the search results, we’re launching a new link spam-fighting change today — which we call the “link spam update.” This algorithm update, which will roll out across the next two weeks, is even more effective at identifying and nullifying link spam more broadly, across multiple languages. Sites taking part in link spam will see changes in Search as those links are re-assessed by our algorithms.”

Key Takeaways From The Link Spam Update

  • The name of the update is Link Spam Update and not Link Spam Update July 2021.
  • Google used the word “nullifying,” which does not necessarily mean “penalize,” but to ignore or not count spammy links.
  • It is a global and multilingual update.
  • Google did not post anything about how much this will impact the search results.

So if you notice a drop in your rankings over the coming weeks, it could be due to this update.

We did a deep analysis of our client’s websites to check if this update affected our rankings and we’re happy to say that there has been no major ranking drop as far as our clients are concerned. Our campaigns continue to enjoy stable rankings that we’ve achieved through ethical SEO methods. However, we will continue to keep an eye on the rankings as it is a global update and will inform you of any major changes in results.

Analyze your site?

Googles_July_2021_Core_Update

Do you wish to know about the latest core update from Google? If yes, then this article is a must-read for you. Here, we will brief you about this update so you can make well-informed decisions about your website.

 

Quick facts about this update:

  1. On July 12th Google announced that the core update rollout was complete. Below is the official post:Google_Search_Liaison
  2. This update is not specific to any language, region, or website category.
  3. The main aim of any update is to provide better or improved search results. If you are a site owner, read this article related to Google’s core updates.
  4. Due to the pandemic, there is a significant shift in users’ search behavior. Google is striving hard to understand this behavior to show relevant results.
  5. A lot of websites are experiencing huge changes in their organic ranking positions.
  6. Various industries, such as Beauty & Fitness, Real Estate, Shopping, Health, Pets & Animals, & Travel & Tourism, saw the steepest increase in rank volatility.
  7. Industries such as Arts & Entertainment, Finance, Games, Sports, Jobs & Education, Food & Drink, and News industries saw the least dramatic increase in rank volatility.What you can do:
    1. Try fixing your site according to Google’s guidelines.
    2. Focus on quality content & include content that is helpful to users.
    3. Write your content with search engines and users in mind.
    4. Fix or avoid any SEO mistakes.

    Read the guidelines and follow the above steps to tackle any changes that this update has brought to your site. If you need help, we’re just a call away!

    See How You Can Improve Your SEO! 

    98_Quick_SEO_Tips_and_TricksYou must have received a ton of SEO advice from all kinds of sources. While some of them sound cool and trendy, they do absolutely nothing for your business. On the other hand, some SEO tactics actually do work, but they take a long time to deliver expected results. Hence, we bring to you 101 proven, actionable SEO tips that will get you results in real-time.

    Basic SEO

    1. Videos are highly effective! Do not shy away from using and optimizing them.
    2. Make sure you pay close attention to user intent search queries when you are conducting keyword research.
    3. Work on building authority & trust. Start creating original content that clearly signifies your expertise and business goals.
    4. Create user-friendly content. Learn about the latest user trends and human behaviour before creating content.
    5. Get those customer reviews! Build a strategy wherein your customers can provide their reviews or feedback easily.
    6. It is best to bring in an SEO professional right from the beginning, so that the web design, especially the mobile version, is SEO-friendly.
    7. Strive to meet client expectations. Not being able to meet their expectations may cost your business its credibility.
    8. Using ‘exact match’ keywords isn’t necessary as Google is quite capable of associating topical keyword search terms.
    9. You may want to try personalizing your call to actions based on a referral, location, or keyword search query.
    10. Keep the domain name short. Make sure the one you choose contains less than 15 characters so that it’s easy to remember for the users.
    11. Remember to look for all variations of your site in the search engine. For example:
    • http://xyz.com
    • http://www.xyz.com
    • https://xyz.com
    • https://www.xyz.com

    Mobile SEO

    1. Mobile-first is the way to go. With Google switching to mobile-first indexing, it is wise to check how the search engine ranks your mobile site using the Mobile-Friendly Test Tool in Google Search Console (GSC).
    2. See if AMP & PWA work for you. If you do not have a mobile site, your Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) or Progressive Web Apps (PWA) will be served up in the mobile-first index.
    3. Get rid of those pop-ups and interstitials as they can be annoying on a mobile site unless they serve as a warning for age restrictions or data privacy.
    4. Scroll tracking on Google AMP can be very useful and implemented easily through Google Tag Manager.
    5. Add forms to your AMP to attract leads.
    6. Consider investing in PWA. As PWAs are expected to replace 50% of consumer-facing apps, investing in them is highly recommended for B2C businesses.
    7. Boost your click-through rates with breadcrumbs. Creating a clear path to follow with the help of breadcrumbs will help you increase the click-through rate on your mobile site.

    Technical SEO

    1. Migrate your site to HTTPS. While you do that, be sure not to make any additional changes, as Google may not acknowledge these changes.
    2. As search engines crawl even duplicate URLs, it is important to use canonical tags.
    3. Keep the loading speed down to 2-3 seconds. Use the Core Web Vital report along with your developer to figure out how you can improve your site loading speed.
    4. Aim for Google’s Top Stories Carousel. The best way to make it there is by creating AMP pages, publishing legitimate news, and submitting the site to Google News.
    5. Remember to Use rel=canonical tags. Any page that can be reached through different URLs should have the rel=canonical tag to avoid any confusion about duplicate content.
    6. Always remember to check whether your pages are indexed with ‘site:domain’ search and that none of them is double-indexed.
    7. Ensure that you do not use more than one H1 tag per page.
    8. Use Image Alt Attributes. As Google is now moving towards visual search, this is one important aspect you should not ignore.
    9. Creating separate sitemaps for sections like images, videos, blogs, etc. will help Google to focus its crawl.
    10. If your site has dynamic URLs, adjust the URL parameters in GSC.
    11. Remember to change all the internal links from HTTP to HTTPS before you migrate your site.
    12. In order to improve your user experience and SEO, always add breadcrumbs to your site.
    1. Avoid long redirects. By avoiding chain redirects you can help the search engines to crawl your website more quickly.
    2. Opt for Vector Format image files. Using vector files will allow you to have better image quality on different devices.
    3. Consider using a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to host your images as it helps to speed up your website considerably.
    4. Ensure that you optimize all your images for page speed and user-friendliness.
    5. When you have products with similar names and descriptions, it is better to create canonical tags instead of redirecting them.
    6. Opt for private hosting. While this will have no effect on your search rankings, sites having shared hosting get indexed less.
    7. Consider investing in visual search. Incorporating visual search in the marketing strategy can be highly effective for retailers and e-commerce businesses.
    8. Use Structured Data to improve ranking. While it isn’t easy for a site to get on the first page of the SERPs, using structured data can improve the chances significantly.

    Link Building

    1. Make sure you use the disavow tool to get rid of those spammy links.
    2. Paid links can cost you! Google webmaster guidelines clearly state that the search engine is not in favor of paid links.
    3. Stay away from bad links. If Google comes across any risky link-building tactics, it could backfire big time.
    4. Stick to high-quality directories. Building links on high-quality directories will add relevance to your business.
    5. Build a clear linking structure. Plan your internal linking strategy carefully so that Google can navigate your site easily.
    6. Make sure your link profile is healthy. A healthy link profile helps to establish the overall quality and authority of your site.
    7. Focus on quality instead of quantity. Even with link building, authenticity is what matters most.
    8. Manual outreach can work wonders. Proactive link-building efforts allow you to control the quality of links.
    9. Create nofollow outbound links. In case you end up linking to a low-quality website, you can use them for external links.
    10. See to it that your internal links are logically placed. It is best to ensure that when you link internally, the content around the link is related to the keywords.

    Content Optimization

    1. Don’t just focus on the keywords. Instead, create content based on important topics.
    2. Avoid creating thin content. As compared to thin content, long-form content can get you much better results in search rankings.
    3. It is important that you clean up all the scraped or duplicate content from your site.
    4. Revisit old content. See if any of your old content is still driving traffic and try creating new posts along similar lines with more relevant content.
    5. Add FAQ pages. Creating these pages will not only help your readers but also your site’s search rankings.
    6. Make the most of syndicated content. While you do this, ensure that the other sites place rel=canonical tags.
    7. Remember, content can be repurposed. It is recommended that you think of all the ways you can repurpose your content into videos, Slideshare, etc.
    8. Editing is a must! It is important to check all your content for errors so that nothing hampers your user experience.
    9. There are tools available for content ideas. Make the most of tools like BuzzSumo to get an idea about what kind of content ranks high.
    10. Old content may do more harm than good. Check on your old posts regularly to see if any of them is hurting your rankings.
    11. Do a cache check; see when a website’s pages were last cached. If it’s over a month, avoid the site.
    12. Try using a conversational tone when creating content. It may help your site rank for voice search queries.
    13. Instead of pasting the manufacturer’s content, take the time to write original product descriptions.
    14. Avoid keyword cannibalization. Instead of having multiple pages trying to rank for similar keywords, try combining their content to form one long-form content piece.
    15. Analyze your keywords. Conduct an analysis of your content to see if you can add to it and boost your page ranking.
    16. Try creating personalized UX. See if you can offer different pieces of content for new visitors and the returning ones.

    Local SEO

    1. Create content focused on local facts and guides. It can help your business appear higher in search rankings.
    2. Take advantage of Trip Planning. Use this feature in Knowledge Graph to create local travel guides.
    3. Make use of the Local Inventory Ads program. It will allow your customers to browse the local store through Google.
    4. Try and find new, creative ways to encourage your customers to give reviews.
    5. Optimize for user location. You can do this by using the Google Ads distance and store visit reports.
    1. Optimizing for multiple locations is also very important. Make sure the NAP details are consistent for every location across all platforms.
    2. Add Regional Pages. If your business locations cover multiple states, regional pages are a must.
    3. Put up photos on your local pages. Photos of the local office give the business more credibility and make it more appealing to the local audience.
    4. Add ‘near me’ in your content! With the steady growth of voice search queries, optimizing for these searches has becomes all the more important.

    Analytics & Tools

    1. Analyze your exit pages. Find out which pages the users are leaving most frequently and revise them.
    2. Don’t forget to add your IP address! It is important that you add your IP address to Google Analytics.
    3. Keep an eye out for a sudden drop in traffic. It may be due to an algorithm update or a manual action.
    4. Pay close attention to your competitors. Check whether their sites are ranking for the same keywords through new content.
    5. Try using Google Visits Conversions. If your business is eligible, you must definitely give Google Visit Conversions in Google Ads a try.
    6. When you first set up GSC, remember to add both the www & non-www versions of your site.
    7. Add your subdomains to GSC as new property so you can get all necessary data.
    8. Consider rewriting your meta descriptions. You may want to rewrite your meta descriptions if you see low click-through rates in your GSC Search Analytics report.
    9. Check out Google Analytics Segments. This particular feature allows you to gain more insight into your traffic data.
    10. Create custom dashboards in Google Analytics and Google Data Studio so the first thing you see when you log in is exactly what you need.
    11. Insights is as important as data. Before you try optimizing, gain insights into the latest trends and behaviour by using the content analytics tools.
    12. Answer those questions! See what questions are most commonly asked related to your keyword terms and provide the answers to them in your content.
    13. Add Bing Webmaster Tools to your toolkit. You will find that there are some useful tools that are not available in GSC.

    Social Media SEO

    1. Go for Twitter Cards instead of Twitter URLs. Using Twitter Cards will allow you to make your URLs appear more clickable.
    2. Add Open Graph Markup. Using Facebook Open Graph Tags is one of the best ways to optimize your posts on the platform.
    3. Ensure your company profile on LinkedIn is complete. Complete company profiles get more views.
    4. Get active on Instagram. It’s high time that e-commerce businesses start taking Instagram seriously, especially now that it will allow you to buy directly from the app.
    5. Offer Customer Service on Facebook. This can prove to be one very powerful tool for your customer support staff.
    6. Try getting more conversions with LinkedIn Ads. Test and experiment to figure out what kind of sponsored content and ads can lead to more conversions.
    7. Try out Facebook Playlists. The addition of new features has made using Facebook Playlists easier.
    8. Shop the Look Ads can lead to more conversions. Give Pinterest’s Shop the Look Ads a go-to to convert more mobile searches.
    9. Realize the power of Reddit. Take all possible measures to ensure your brand appears on the 7th most visited website in the United States.
    10. Geotarget your Facebook Live Posts. This will help your local business target customers in specific locations.
    11. Never forget to sign a contract with the influencers. It is important to make it clear from the get-go what the business and the influencer will get from each other.
    12. Engage on social bookmarking platforms. Just as you engage on social media, engage on these platforms to earn links.

    Final Takeaway

    It is best to use the above tips and tricks to get your business in a good position before you launch your audit.

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