At Google I/O, Google announced that they’re testing a new Speed Report powered off CrUX data within Google Search Console. Basically what this new report will accomplish is to give you an aggregated view of your website filed metrics. This is incredibly useful considering that you’ll be able to drill down into specific issues, even allowing you to see examples of the issues in both mobile--first, along with desktop (emphasis on mobile).

The new speed report is currently in beta so if you use Google Search Console it’ll be available to you based on a sampling from Google Chrome's User Experience report. Google states: "Data for the Speed report comes from the Chrome User Experience Report. This reflects actual usage data on your site from users around the world." More here.

How does site speed affect SEO?

If you know about SEO then I’m sure you already realize just how important the length of time for a page loading is. Everything is important to ensure that the user experience is nothing but perfect for SEO, even when it comes to page loading.

For every minute that your consumers are sitting there, waiting for the page to load, noticing the delay and overall seeing the speed of the page loading, is ultimately losing you money.

How many times have you tried to load a page, only to leave when it takes too long? When you have consumers leaving your site because your page is taking too long to load then you’ll lose money.

The attention span of humans isn’t long to start with, let alone on a busy day when they have things to get done and instead have to sit and watch a page load. The frustration grows, and this often results in leaving a bad mark on a brand.

Believe us when we say that site speed is crucial when it comes to SEO.

How we can help.

We have a free SEO checker that can make all the difference for you. Key Medium/Running SEO keeps up with all the new and current changes and you want to too.

We have helped businesses set up with Google Search Console and are always happy to consult about site speed and other SEO issues that may arise. Trust us when we tell you that with our help you’ll have all the SEO help you need. Get in touch for a free website optimization quote here.

References:

https://yoast.com/search-console-report-checks-site-speed/
https://yoast.com/how-site-speed-influences-seo/

It’s no secret that many of us relying on reviews found online to make a decision about a company. Something so simple as a quick Google search can pull up a multitude of information, including reviews, about a business.

Now, as much as reviews can be helpful, they can also be manipulated; businesses can post their own positive reviews about their companies to encourage a potential buyer to make a sale.

Google has recently announced some changes that are being made to review rich results that will intentionally block (or not display) pages that are “flagged” for containing reviews written by themselves.

How are “fake” reviews being monitored?

They are doing this by focusing on schema type (codes). Schema markup is code that you embed on your website to help the search engines turn up better results for your users. Google is limiting the schema types that may draw up review rich results when searched.

According to Google, “Reviews that can be perceived as “self-serving” aren't in the best interest of users. We call reviews “self-serving” when a review about entity A is placed on the website of entity A - either directly in their markup or via an embedded 3rd party widget. That’s why, with this change, we’re not going to display review rich results anymore for the schema types LocalBusiness and Organization (and their subtypes) in cases when the entity being reviewed controls the reviews themselves.”

To simplify this, if a review is flagged on a business’s site that they have either left by themselves or embedded on their website by the use of a third-party widget, then it is considered self-serving, and therefore doesn't contain helpful information for reviewers.

So, Google will not be showing the results for the LocalBusiness and Organization schema types, that are flagged as embedded on the business's own site.

Now, while this is removing many “fake” reviews, it is also helping remove “skewed” results. While they may have a great product, if a company themselves is reviewing it, or promoting the review, then it means that the review is sure to be in their favor, and therefore not considered accurate or reliable.

What does this mean?

This update causes no inconvenience to website owners, but will significantly improve the review experience for users. Allowing them to trust reviews with confidence.

If you plan on continuing to use Google search as an organic method to boost your website traffic than we would recommend that you carefully review Google’s new policy and make any necessary changes not to have your content blocked from search results. 

SOURCES:

https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2019/09/making-review-rich-results-more-helpful.html

When re-designing a website, it's a common pitfall to underestimate the importance of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Many companies finish re-designing their websites and slap SEO on like a bandaid once they're done with the site. It is a common pitfall, but no less disastrous for your business.

In fact, it is absolutely crucial to factor in SEO before you go ahead with any kind of design work on your site. Sure, I get it: design is much more interesting than sitting down and figuring out things like ranking, SEO, or on-page content strategies that will keep your site's SEO ranking for a long time to come.

But as easy as it is to jump into the re-design, it's not the way to do it if you want to keep your website where it will benefit you: high up in the search engines' listings.

SEO needs to be part of the web design process, not an afterthought. Below we've outlined a few of the ways SEO can be an integral part of re-designing your website.

Structuring Your Site

When structuring your site, keep user experience high on your priority list. User experience is an important Google ranking factor, so anything that has to do with site navigation and site structure, like navigation bars and internal links needs to be kept in mind as being as user-friendly as possible. Use tools like XML sitemaps, your primary navigation, and internal links to help search engines discover more pages on your site.

And while you're at it, don't forget the URL structure when updating your page. Google ranking prefers the sites requiring as few steps as possible, so simplified URLs will definitely help. Having URLs with words that search engines and people can understand, instead of using numbers or abbreviations goes a long way towards keeping your site towards the top.

Use Strategic Keywords

It's also important for SEO to be as intentional as you can about the keywords you use on your site as you are re-designing. Look for keywords that will fit core aspects or services your company offers, and look over the keywords you have already been using to see if they are giving good results, or if they can be improved upon. Decide on the main keywords that will accomplish what your company wants to achieve.

Don't Lose Your Old Ranking

In order to keep your old page's ranking, you will have to be smart about re-directing. Always, make sure you upload re-directs from your old pages to your new pages. If you don't, you risk losing the Google ranking you've spent months, or years, attaining when you easily could have kept it.

When you automatically re-direct all traffic from an old URL to a new one, you improve the user experience since users will be able to find your new page through the old links, and avoid hitting dead ends and 404 errors.

The other thing that happens when you re-direct traffic from your old page is that Google lets you keep the ranking from your old page, which is clearly very important.

Don't Forget Your Content

When you decide on the most important keywords for your company, make sure these words have their own well-written pages, including Latent Semantic Indexing keywords to boost relevancy for your chosen keywords.

Indexation

Keep in mind that for your site to be properly indexed by a search engine, it needs to be mainly text-based. Search engines have trouble indexing sites that are mainly flash or video-based. Because of this, it is essential that you write out clearly what your company is offering, and that your website is text-based so that the search engines will have no trouble indexing your page, and you can show up in those search results.

Search Engine Optimization is a topic much too big to cover in just one blog post. But the most important thing to take away from this post is that while SEO is many things, it can't just be slapped on at a later date. Do yourself a favor and integrate SEO from the moment you start re-designing your website. You will be happy you did!

Don't know where to start? Consult the experts

Key Medium can help with a free website consultation and affordable expert SEO services.

Connect with us today to learn more and take your website to the next level.

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