The Power of Featured Snippets for Website SEO
It is impossible to overlook the fact that Google’s search engine results Page (SERP) has undergone tremendous evolution. Even the best content produced can be difficult to make the top of the list without a plan to support it. Thankfully, there are still a few ways to stand out-Featured Snippets!
Featured Snippets were first introduced in 2014 and quickly gained popularity among SEO experts hoping to dominate the ‘position zero’. In this blog, we will explore the concept of featured snippets and their types and we will talk about effective strategies to optimize your content.
What are Featured Snippets?
Featured Snippets are very popularly known as ‘answer boxes’ or ‘position zero’. Featured Snippets are the highlighted search results that appear on the top of Google’s Search Engine Results Page (SERP). The aim of these snippets is to deliver quick and direct answers to your questions without you having to click on a particular link. Featured Snippets are usually displayed in the box format and the content provided in the featured snippets is usually extracted from the web pages that the search engine considers to be the most relevant and useful information provided on the particular query or question. These snippets are most commonly displayed above the organic result results and often provide a summary of the answers along with the page’s title and URL. Sometimes they even display an image relevant to the user’s query.
Featured snippets come in various formats, like paragraphs, lists, tables, and sometimes even videos and images. Google automatically selects content that seems the most appropriate and relevant for featured snippets based on its quality, correctness, and user-friendliness.
Why are featured snippets important for Google SERP?
These little nuggets of information have become essential for SEO, let’s find out why these types of feature snippets are important for SEO.
Boosts visibility and Click-through Rates
Your content featured in position zero can significantly increase the chances of your website’s visibility. Users are more likely to click on the link associated with the featured snippet as it’s understood as a trustworthy and reliable source by Google. The increased visibility can lead to higher click-through rates, driving more organic traffic to your website. Featured Snippets are the best way to go if you want to increase your website’s visibility and click-through rates organically.
Authority and Credibility
Earning a featured snippet spot not only boosts visibility and increases your website’s click-through rates but also enhances your website’s authority and credibility. Google considers featured snippet content to be the most relevant and reliable answer to a specific query. This, in turn, gains trust and recognition for your brand in the eyes of your target audience.
Improved User Experience
Featured snippets offer a very convenient and user-friendly experience by providing direct answers to users’ questions without them having to click on a few links to get their answers. Since the information is readily and easily available at the top of the search engine results page SERP, users can quickly find what they’re looking for without having to scroll through multiple search results and invest their time. This improved user experience can enhance your website’s reputation and encourage repeat visits.
High Organic Traffic
Since featured snippets drive more clicks as they are readily available and the user does not have to go through multiple websites to search for what they are looking for, your website’s organic traffic is likely to see a positive impact. Users are more inclined to visit your site when they find relevant, valuable, and easily available information within the featured snippet. Moreover, since featured snippets occupy the top position, they attract more attention and clicks than regular search results.
Voice Search Optimization
With the rise of voice-activated assistants, voice typing, and smart speakers, optimizing your content for voice search has become a necessity. Featured snippets are valuable in voice search results, as voice assistants often read out the snippet content to users because it is easy to find. By optimizing your content for featured snippets, chances of being the top result in voice search queries increase to a vast level.
Competitive Advantage
Gaining a featured snippet spot can give you a vast competitive advantage over other websites in your niche that don’t use the power of featured snippets. It allows you to outrank your competitors and position your brand as an industry authority. By providing valuable and on-the-spot information in the featured snippet, the chances of users visiting your website increase by a lot. This helps you in building the organic potential target audience and also increases the number of repeat visits.
Conclusion
Featured snippets have become a groundbreaker in the world of SEO. They not only boost your website’s visibility but also establish your brand as an authoritative source of information. By optimizing your content for featured snippets, your website gets improved click-through rates, organic traffic, and overall enhanced user experience. Embrace this SEO strategy to stay on top of your game to create a lasting impression on your target audience.
SEO- E-A-T and SEO: How Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust Impact SEO
Most of us read blogs and other online content daily. We almost trust the majority of it, while the rest is questioned for legitimacy till we move on. We confront this dilemma every day, where we are unsure whether the stuff on the internet is real or not. This is where Google’s E-A-T technology comes into play. This notion has solved our problem and changed the way we seek information online.
In this article, we’ll look at E-A-T and discuss its merits. We will also learn how to use it effectively as marketers to improve the ranking of our blogs.
What is E.A.T.?
E-A-T stands for Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness, was launched by Google in 2014. It is a term used in Google’s search engine optimization (SEO) recommendations to explain the requirements that websites must achieve to appear higher in Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs). This idea is essential because it assists Google in determining which websites are reliable and trustworthy sources of information and should be prominently included in its search results.
Let’s look at each of these E-A-T components in more detail:
- Expertise: The level of knowledge and experience that a person possesses in a specific profession. It is frequently used to determine the authenticity of a person or website.
- Authority: The ability to influence or control people. It is typically connected with an official title or position.
- Trust: Trust is the confidence in someone or something being reliable and trustworthy. It is frequently obtained by continuous, dependable behavior and can be revoked if someone is perceived to be untrustworthy or unreliable. For example, if a customer trusts a company, they are more inclined to buy from it.
Websites that meet E-A-T criteria have expertly written content, established authority in their sector, and a high level of trustworthiness. All of these characteristics contribute to a website’s overall quality, which is a key factor in deciding its position in Google’s search results. This approach has transformed how we search for information online, guaranteeing that the stuff we are shown is of the best quality.
The Importance of E-A-T in SEO
E-A-T is one of today’s most crucial SEO success components. It is an essential component of Google’s algorithm, used to evaluate the quality of material and decide its ranking in search results.
Here are some ways that Google employs E-A-T:
Google employs E-A-T to assess the reliability and accuracy of information displayed on a website. It considers the website’s author, the authority of the sources cited, and the quality of the information. It also assesses the website’s design and usability to determine how user-friendly it is.
Google employs E-A-T to analyze whether a website is trustworthy to give accurate and dependable information. This is especially crucial for medical and health-related websites, as accuracy is critical when delivering information on health or medical issues.
E-A-T is especially significant for firms looking to rank high in search engine results. SEO success requires a well-designed, user-friendly website with high-quality content supported by authoritative sources.
Benefits of E.A.T
- Increased visibility: E-A-T makes websites more visible in organic search results since search engines prioritize sites with higher E-A-T scores. Higher E-A-T scores can result in higher results in SERPs.
- Better user experience: If a website follows E-A-T it will provide quality content leading to a great user experience
- Trust: Quality content and a great user experience can help create trust with search engines, resulting in higher ranks and visibility.
- Improved credibility: Higher E-A-T scores will lead to higher SERP ranks which would further lead to increased credibility and trust among search engine users.
- Increased traffic: Higher E-A-T scores can boost exposure and ranks, resulting in more website visitors.
Conclusion
To summarise, Google’s EAT in SEO is a strong tool that has proven to be a game changer in SEO. As Google’s algorithms get more complex, EAT will remain an essential aspect of SEO strategies. With EAT, businesses can concentrate on creating high-quality content that is both relevant to their target audience and adheres to Google’s requirements. Businesses can ensure that their content is noticed and appreciated by their target audience while also improving their site’s search engine rankings. The future of Google’s EAT in SEO seems promising, and businesses should take advantage of this powerful tool to maximize their SEO results.
Image SEO: How to Do SEO for Your Images
SEO, or search engine optimization, may appear sophisticated, but at a basic level, you may think of it this way: Everything on the internet is either content or a link (to other material).
Historically, the pieces of material with the most inbound connections from the highest-quality sites have had the best chance of ranking in search engines. That is the foundational premise upon which Google was formed.
“Off-page” SEO refers to the quality and number of a page’s inbound links. However, there are many other on-page SEO aspects to consider, such as image SEO. And it is the focus of our article today. Keep reading till the end to get a thorough understanding of what is Image SEO and other important things.
What is Image SEO?
Image SEO is the process of optimizing photos on your website so that search engines can easily “read” and find them, hence increasing your content’s visibility and rankings in Google and other search engines. Image SEO involves factors such as picture kind, size, and load time, as well as how you use and optimize alt text and keywords in image file names.
Image SEO is one of the most commonly disregarded aspects of on-page SEO, but it doesn’t mean it isn’t crucial. If you’re not careful, poor image SEO can significantly reduce your page’s capacity to collect links, rise in the index, and, eventually, deliver vital organic traffic.
The good news is that you can make a significant impact on your image SEO with just a few steps:
- Use a compressor to reduce image sizes
- Serve images in recommended, next-gen formats
- Scale your images to work with your website
- Create original, linkable image assets
- Optimize your image titles, captions, and alt text
- Make your images shareable
- Try lazy loading for images
Now, let’s go over these in further detail. Here are our top seven must-follow picture SEO recommendations to ensure that your images are adequately optimized for search.
1. Use a compressor to compress image sizes:
Site speed has the greatest influence of image SEO on a page’s overall ability to rank and generate traffic. It’s huge—site speed not only affects a user’s ability to navigate your conversion path, but it’s also an active ranking element. Google will not look favorably on slow pages. This is where image compression comes in. You may or may not be aware of PageSpeed Insights. It is quite convenient. Enter any URL from your website, and Google will provide you with a detailed assessment of the aspects that are slowing down that page’s speed. Run a couple of these tests, and you’ll discover a pattern. Improperly sized graphics are frequently the primary cause of page slowness. Because image SEO and page speed are intricately related, picture compression is an essential component of image SEO.
Simply, expand the appropriate tab in your PageSpeed Insights reports to view the images that are the most frequent offenders on your website. You will also see how much space you may save by compressing them.
2. Upload images in next-gen formats:
Another common advice that will appear in your PageSpeed Insights report is “Serve images in next-gen formats.” The formats discussed here are JPEG 2000, JPG XR, and WebP. If you’ve never heard of any of these, don’t feel left out—they’re not as common as JPG or PNG. While JPG and PNG remain the most popular picture formats, next-generation formats such as JPEG 2000 are superior. Encoding your photographs in these formats rather than older formats allows for faster load times and less data usage on mobile devices. If you wish to start offering photos in next-generation formats, there are many free web converters available.
3. Scale images to work with your website:
Proper picture size (and we’re talking dimensions, not file size) will vary based on your CMS and the format of the page where you’re uploading the image. Before submitting your images, look out for dimension best practices for your CMS. For example, Shopify suggests 2048 x 2048 pixels for square product photos. An image that seems to blend well with your text might have been automatically resized by your CMS to fit. This resize corrects the dimensions for display; it does not lower file size. In general, photos with more pixels will have larger file sizes. That implies that the best approach to ensure that you’re using the proper image sizes is to determine your site’s optimal image size and then crop photographs before uploading them. If that sounds like a time-consuming process, it may be if you’re sourcing photographs from many websites. However, whether you’re downloading stock photographs or outsourcing product images to a designer, you’ll want to discover a standard size that’s appropriate for your website.
4. Create original image content:
Stock photographs are simple to resize—the majority of the images you get from Adobe Stock, Shutterstock, or other sellers will come in sizes that are suitable for most websites. However, stock photographs aren’t always as effective as original, branded content. On the other hand, curated graphs based on in-house data or high-quality photographs of your product in action are the types of images that are shared on social media and found through reverse image searches.
Most essential, unique, captivating photos are required to make your page distinctive and valuable to the user. When Google experts are asked for a prescription for good SEO or a response to a specific tweak in Google’s algorithm that has resulted in a decline in ranks, they consistently answer the same thing: create pages that are above all beneficial to your audience. That includes selecting photos to provide users with the best experience possible on your pages.
5. Use titles, captions, and alt text liberally:
When deciding which image to return for an image query, Google has little information. At the very least, it has less information available than when indexing entire pages. For image SEO, you must provide Google with as much information about your image as possible within the space allowed to you. There are three main areas to do this:
Alt text:
Alt text improves the user experience for screen readers or if your server fails to load the image. However, alt text is the primary mechanism by which Google recognizes what your image is, therefore it is important in terms of ranking. As a best practice, include the page’s goal keyword and any ancillary keywords that may relate to a single image, and omit anything that is not descriptive (articles, etc.).
Titles:
There has been significant controversy about whether picture titles are required in addition to alt text. However, they are ranking factors in the sense that Google uses them to determine the order in which photographs appear in image searches.
Captions:
This is what Google says about captions. “Google extracts information about the subject matter of the image from the content of the page, including captions and image titles.” So, essentially, putting your image near relevant text will help Google figure out what it is. Using captions is a foolproof approach to ensure that your image is presented appropriately and in context.
6. Ensure Seamless Social Sharing:
Let’s discuss Open Graph tags and/or Twitter Cards. These are HTML tags that ensure that when a page is shared on Facebook or Twitter, photos and description snippets are correctly displayed. Naturally, this is extremely important if you want your photographs to get traction on social media and drive traffic and strong social signals back to your website. If you are unsure whether certain elements exist in your source code, you can search for them. You may also try fake posting your page on Twitter or Facebook to ensure that the post displays correctly. Again, your CMS will determine how you implement Open Graph tags. If you use BigCommerce, for example, you’ll see open graph fields in all of your product listings on the back end (but not on your home page). If you use WordPress, you can locate these fields in Yoast (a fantastic SEO plugin for WordPress). It’s a good idea to look through your most trafficked and business-critical pages and ensure they’re all equally shareable on social.
7. Lazy Loading:
Aside from having a catchy name, lazy loading can help improve page speed by avoiding loading images below the fold until the user scrolls down to them. Take it from Google. Lazy loading can substantially speed up loading on large pages with many images below the fold by loading them only when needed or after the major content has finished loading and rendering. That’s about as positive an endorsement as you can get.
Google also supports lazy loading in its own PageSpeed Insights. You may come across this advice while performing page speed analysis on your website.
That is Google advising you that, in this case, sluggish loading can be beneficial. If you use WordPress, there are a few lazy-loading plugins worth looking at.
Final Words:
We’ve given you seven simple picture SEO action items to implement on your website. Keep in mind that you do not have to use all of these, but you should try to employ as many of them as possible given the time and experience you have. For example, you may be uncomfortable with hard-coding Open Graph tags, but anyone can add search-friendly alt text or utilize a free application to compress photos efficiently. Decide what is most critical and possible for your approach, and proceed from there!
11 Strategies for International SEO
Assume you’ve built an outstanding website. However, while it is successful in your local market, it has received little to no attention on a global basis.
Acquiring international fame is critical in today’s interconnected globe. It aids in reaching a wide number of potential audiences and broadening the boundaries of your brand.
What is International SEO?
Website and its content plays a crucial role in the optimization of search engines like Google, Yahoo through a technique known as Search Engine Optimization.
The goal of International Search Engine Optimization is to increase the website’s traffic from a variety of geographic locations.
International SEO allows people from different countries to quickly find your website hence enhancing your audience base.
Why is it significant?
There are various languages and ways to search throughout the world. What is popular in one location may not be so in another.
What is the major task?
Beating other international websites. Everyone aspires to be the best.
Wonderful news! This post will show you how to be the greatest no matter where you are looking.
Below are the effective International SEO strategies for Global Success
- Know your Market: Many of you will already know which markets you want to target. Non-SEO considerations, such as the capacity to operate in specific markets, are frequently used to determine this. Regardless, it is important to identify which markets have the greatest potential for your company.
- Understand technical requirements: Before you get too involved in deep keyword research, you should lay out your technological approach. Having the proper technological underpinnings is critical for any foreign SEO campaign.
Each market requires dedicated URLs. To properly target several markets, each landing page requires a different version of information hosted on dedicated URLs for each language. For a more concentrated approach, country-specific versions of the page are also advised. Each landing page requires a different version of information hosted on dedicated URLs for each language in order to adequately target numerous markets. Country-specific versions of the page are also recommended for a more focused approach. - Localize copy and optimization of each landing page: At this level, it is critical to involve a native expert. You might be able to save some money by conducting your own keyword research. There are no tricks to keep up your sleeve when it comes to developing content. This is crucial not only for the user experience, but also for Google. It is Google’s responsibility to serve users with pages that provide the best experience possible. As a result, Google will prefer to serve information that is relevant to both the user’s country and language.
- Get your internal linking correct: Internally linking to the wrong version is one of the most typical blunders made while distributing information worldwide. This may not only result in your users landing on the incorrect version, but it may also send contradicting signals to Google.
- Geo-Targeting and Localized Content Creation:
Geo-targeting and localized content creation entail focusing on specific geographic locations and adapting your material to those locations’ culture, language, and habits. It is a critical strategy for companies seeking international success. - Multilingual keyword research and optimization:
The goal of multilingual keyword research and optimisation is to tap into the distinct language and rhythm of various audiences.
It’s like cracking a hidden code, allowing you to speak directly to individuals from all over the world in their own search words.
To achieve worldwide success, your website must speak the same “search language” as your target audience.
- Cultural sensitivity and user experience enhancement:
Cultural sensitivity in SEO is like a friendly handshake in a foreign country. It shows that you respect and understand the unique characteristics of each location and its inhabitants.
By combining this knowledge with user experience optimization, you’re not simply reaching out—you’re welcoming audiences in with open arms, making them feel at ease while exploring your digital world.
- International link building and outreach:
In the digital age, international connection construction and outreach are analogous to building bridges across continents.
It is the skill of making connections, building relationships, and gaining trust from websites and audiences all over the world.
When done correctly, it increases your global footprint and strengthens your image in foreign markets.
- Managing hreflang tags and country specific domains:
Consider erecting signposts in a gigantic digital metropolis to direct people from all over the world to the appropriate locations in their native language.
This is the essence of hreflang tags and country-specific domain management. It ensures that Spanish users are not lost on an English page, and vice versa.
It’s all about creating a welcoming environment for all visitors.
- Mobile optimization for global audience:
Mobile optimisation entails ensuring that your website runs flawlessly on mobile devices for users worldwide. With more people browsing on mobile devices, particularly in emerging nations, this tactic has become critical for worldwide SEO. - Region specific technical SEO adjustments:
Technical SEO modifications for different geographical regions entail altering various technical features of your website to adapt specifically to distinct geographical locations.
You can increase your website’s performance, relevance, and search exposure in specific locations by concentrating on the distinct needs and preferences of those consumers.
Conclusion:
As we approach 2024, the digital landscape continues to evolve, with International SEO becoming a pivotal focus. Businesses with global aspirations must now more than ever, prioritize adapting their online presence to cater to diverse audiences.
Understanding cultural nuances, selecting the right tools, and addressing the frequent challenges of international search optimization are all critical elements. This blend of technical precision and content localization is key to effectively engaging with audiences across varied regions.
In today’s busy life, if you think catching up on all the latest trends in international SEO is too much of a hassle for you, sit back and relax.
Let eCliqs take the front wheel while you sip your coffee in silence and see your brand recognized internationally!
Book a consultation with us today!
References:
- https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/navigating-international-seo-2024-strategies-trends-global-ekechukwu-segsf/
- https://botpresso.com/international-seo-guide/
- https://thatware.co/seo-trends-2024/
- https://www.jeffbullas.com/seo-strategies/
- https://www.techasoft.com/post/the-top-seo-trends-in-2024-a-comprehensive-guide
- https://moz.com/learn/seo/international-seo
The Role of Content in SEO: How to Create High-Quality Content that Rank
There is no doubt that your company requires a strong internet presence to thrive these days. This is where your SEO efforts come in
Search engine optimization is crucial for increasing a website’s visibility and boosting organic traffic. Let’s look at why content is vital for SEO and how it may assist organizations reach their online objectives.
Key Elements of High-Quality Content
- Relevance is Key: Content should be tailored to meet the needs and interests of your target audience. Understanding your audience’s search intent allows you to produce content that directly addresses their queries and concerns.
- Comprehensive and Informative: High-quality content goes beyond surface-level information. Aim to create comprehensive and informative pieces that provide value to your audience. This not only establishes your expertise but also keeps visitors on your page longer, signaling to search engines that your content is valuable.
- Keyword Optimization: While keyword stuffing is outdated and frowned upon, strategic keyword optimization remains crucial. Identify relevant keywords and integrate them naturally into your content. This helps search engines understand the context of your content and improves its visibility for specific queries.
- Engaging and Readable: User experience matters. An engaging and readable format not only keeps visitors on your page but also signals to search engines that your content is user-friendly.
- Authority and Credibility: Establishing yourself as an authority in your field is vital. Back-up your content with credible sources, cite references, and showcase your expertise. Search engines reward content that demonstrates authority, reliability, and trustworthiness.
Strategies for SEO-Friendly Content Creation
- Conduct Thorough Keyword Research: Start by identifying relevant keywords for your industry and audience. Tools like Google Keyword Planner and SEMrush can help you uncover valuable insights into search volumes and competition.
- Create a Content Calendar: Plan your content strategy in advance by creating a content calendar. This not only ensures consistency but also allows you to align your content with seasonal trends, industry events, or product launches.
- Optimize On-Page Elements: Pay attention to on-page SEO elements such as meta titles, meta descriptions, and header tags. These elements provide search engines with essential information about the content and contribute to better visibility.
- Prioritize User Experience: A seamless user experience is crucial for SEO. Ensure that your website is mobile-friendly, optimize page loading times, and create a clear and intuitive navigation structure.
Conclusion
It is obvious that improving your content can significantly raise your visibility and chances of reaching your target audience. If your material is not visible, it may go undetected and fail to generate interaction or leads.
However, by adopting the SEO tactics outlined above, such as writing unique meta descriptions and adding keywords, you can enhance your content’s visibility in search engine results and attract more visitors.
Increasing visibility and exposure with optimized content takes time and work, but the benefits are well worth it. Businesses can increase their online presence and reach their target audience by committing to providing high-quality, optimized content.
The Impact of Animated Videos on SEO and Website Traffic
In this fast paced world, staying ahead of the curve is very crucial these days.
Animated videos have evolved to be engaging the audience and get them hooked to your content and also improve the SEO ranking of your website.
Through this blog, we will explain to you the impact animated videos create on the website ranking.
1. Engaging content for high viewing time:
Animated videos are engaging and convey information in the most creative way. In the world where the audience demands everything instant, animated videos play a great role in coping up with the instant world. As a result, search engines are highly likely to reward websites that have animated videos with higher rankings. The longer the viewers stay on your website, the higher ranking on the search engines.
2. Reduction in bounce rate:
High bounce rates appear when visitors visit your website and leave quickly. This is where the animation videos come into play. Many brands make welcoming videos which address the audience’s interest and keep the audience hooked to your website in the first glance hence reducing the bounce rate.
3. Enhancing backlink opportunities:
Visually appealing animated videos have a higher rate of being shared on different platforms and social media channels. When different websites link back to your videos or embed it on their pages, you will gain invaluable backlinks. Backlinks from authoritative sources play a significant factor in boosting your SEO rank. Animated videos therefore serve as a linkable asset for boosting your SEO as well as website traffic.
4. Boosting social engagement:
Social media platforms thrive on engaging content and animated videos are a great way of getting your audience hooked to your content. The more your videos are shared and engaged with on social media, the more the traction and more the visibility. This increased exposure leads to mass traffic on the website since curious audiences are more likely to visit your website to learn more about your brand and services/products.
5. Enhanced Mobile Experience:
Animated videos are best suitable for mobile consumption since they convey information effectively in a visually appealing manner. Since mobile friendly websites are favored by search engines, having animated videos that can be consumed quickly and offer an enjoyable experience can positively impact the SEO results.
Conclusion:
Having animated content into the digital marketing strategy can have a positive impact on SEO since animated videos are funny, engaging and bring a lot of traction. By keeping the visitors engaged, reducing bounce rate, enhancing backlinks, boosting the social media engagement and having an enhanced mobile friendly experience, your website’s authority and visibility increases.
The Importance of Core Web Vitals for SEO and User Experience
Google’s new page experience measurements, known as Core Web Vitals, have been incorporated into the Google Search core algorithm as part of Google’s page experience update in 2021, which might have serious ramifications for underperforming websites.
Google invented and popularized the notion of Core Web Vitals (CWV) after discovering that visitors prefer-and are more likely to convert on-websites that provide an excellent user experience. Websites can become better, higher quality search results for Google by using technical SEO that boosts CWV scores–meaning sites with “Good” Core Web Vital scores can earn higher search rankings than sites with “Poor” Core Web Vitals.
What are Core Vitals?
Core Web Vitals, which evolved from Google’s Web Vitals initiative, are a quantitative way of assessing the overall user experience of your website pages. They are a collection of specific criteria that Google considers essential to the core user experience of a webpage.
Core Web Vitals consist of three specific measurements of page speed, stability, and user interactivity:
- First Input Delay (“FID”): Response time is measured by FID. It gauges how long a user must spend interacting with your website. A FID score of less than 100 milliseconds is advised.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (“CLS”): Your website’s visual stability is measured by CLS. Less than 0.1 seconds is ideal. CLS determines the movement of the items on your website and how stable it is. Any element on your website that moves as the page loads degrades the user experience.
- Largest Contentful Paint (“LCP”): LCP determines how quickly a webpage loads overall. It takes up the most visible space when loading. LCP, then, is the amount of time it takes a page to load from the perspective of a real user. Text or a picture that is the largest can load before the rest of the page’s content.
Why are Core Web Vitals Important?
Each Core Web Vital represents a unique aspect of the user experience, is field quantifiable, and reflects the real-world experience of a vital user-centric outcome. As a result, they have become essential components of Google’s “page experience” search ranking signal.
Ultimately, the most important takeaways are:
- Core Web Vitals will be coupled with other ranking signals in Google’s “page experience” change, affecting your website’s SEO directly.
- Core Web Vitals are the most important component of Google’s page experience signals.
- Websites that do not match Google’s Core Web Vitals standards will face lower search rankings after the page experience change is completed in the summer of 2021.
Conclusion:
According to Google, crawl rate, indexation rate, and load speed are significant for SEO ranking because slower sites may take longer to load. Google may take longer to crawl, index, and rank pages on slower sites. The quicker a website loads, the more likely it will be indexed and ranked higher.
Web Vitals allows businesses to assess performance, detect concerns, measure progress, and make data-driven decisions. It also assists businesses in developing and implementing digital marketing strategy.
How important is website loading speed for SEO and how can it be improved?
Considering how many potential clients, consumers, and audiences are always online these days, it’s essential for every company to have its own website. Customer patience is often low among digital users. It is becoming increasingly important for both user experience and SEO that websites load quickly.
A poor page load time has negative effects on user experience, bounce rate, search performance, and revenue as websites become more complicated and content-heavy. While there are many variables that contribute to how long it takes a page to load, there are also some simple changes that can make a big difference.
Google now uses page speed as a major signal for where a site will show up in the search engine giant’s unpaid, organic results. In this post, we’ll discuss why it’s crucial for search engine optimization to have a fast-loading website, as well as some strategies for doing so.
What is Website Loading Speed?
When someone visits a website, how long it takes for the page to load is an indicator of how quickly the content will be shown. Google has stated that the speed of a website (and individual pages) is an indicator utilised in its algorithm. Google can accomplish more in less time by crawling websites that load quickly.
The time it takes for a web page to load is a major factor in the site’s overall usability. The loading of web pages occurs incrementally rather than all at once. In addition, the properties of each page, the user’s browser and device, and the user’s Internet connection all affect how quickly a website loads. Fast-loading websites do better in several areas of marketing and search engine optimization.
There are a few distinct types of website loading times:
- After landing on a website, the amount of time it takes for you to view the first piece of content on that page is referred to as the First Contentful Paint (FCP) time. In most cases, web pages load each component one at a time, as opposed to all of them simultaneously.
- The time it takes for all of the code at the top and bottom of a webpage to load is referred to as the DOMContent Loaded (DCL) time. This is because the different components of a webpage do not load all at the same time.
- The moment in the timeline for loading a page that is indicated by the acronym LCP, or largest contentful paint, is when the page’s primary content has most likely finished loading.
Google will penalise websites that load extremely slowly (taking more than four to seven seconds for the page to become functional). This is due to the fact that after approximately three seconds, visitors begin returning to the SERPs to hunt for anything else. The Page Speed Insights (PSI) tool developed by Google divides the overall quality of the user experience into three distinct categories: Good, Needs Improvement, or Poor.
How to Improve Your Page Load Time
A slow website is annoying to everyone. As an indication for ranking, Google considers how quickly your page loads. In order for your website to show up in the search results provided by Google, you will need to optimise your page load time by adhering to the tips that are provided below:
- It is important to optimise graphics and video because they both slow down the loading time of a webpage and account for a considerable amount of the page’s total size.
- You can lower the size of your larger CSS, HTML, and JavaScript files by enabling compression.
- Utilize browser caching so that when a visitor returns to your site, the browser does not have to reload the entire page. This will save the visitor time.
- Utilize a Content Distribution Network, or CDN, to have several copies of your website stored at a variety of data centres that are located in different parts of the world.
- Reduce the number of redirects on your site because they force your visitors to spend more time waiting for the HTTP request-response cycle to finish.
How eCliqs Consulting helps?
Your website’s search engine rankings, client satisfaction, and conversion rate can all be negatively affected by a slow page load time. If your site is sluggish and unresponsive, it may be time to start fresh.
As one of the simplest methods to make a significant improvement to your site, page speed is often one of the first things we check while providing SEO services.
If you’re worried that your site’s performance is subpar or if you want advice on how to increase your page speed, don’t hesitate to get in contact with us.
Conclusion
Even though it could seem like a lot of additional work, the return on your time investment will be more than sufficient to justify the hassle. When customers know they can depend on your website to load quickly on any device, they are more likely to make a repeat visit, and an increase in loyal customers equals an increase in return visits. A quick loading website often leaves a good impression about your brand and customers also enjoy browsing through it.
References
Youtube Seo – A complete Guide
With 500 hours of live-action and animated video published to the platform every minute, you may believe viewers won’t locate your videos. How will you attract clicks and deter others?
The answer to that is: With an effective SEO approach, just like on other search engines! That’s why we’re here.
We’ll show you how to optimise your YouTube videos for top rankings. You’ll understand YouTube keywords and content optimization after reading.
Research Your Potential Keywords
By conducting keyword research, you may find out what people are actually looking for. Fortunately, there are a few low-cost strategies you may employ on YouTube:
- Looking at the Search Suggestions
Yes, it’s literally that easy. It’s a good idea to base your SEO off of the most popularly used terms, which you can see by looking at the keywords YouTube suggests as you type. You may find out what people are interested in seeing more of on YouTube by selecting a wide keyword connected to your video.
- Visiting Related Channels
It’s always beneficial to examine the successes and failures of others. Our advice is that you investigate a channel that appeals to an audience not dissimilar to your own. Focus on the keywords and subjects that are generating interest from your target audience and avoid those that aren’t.
While you’re at it, take note of how viewers respond to the channel’s material in general (for example, are they more into animated or live-action videos? Is it more effective to provide them with information or to keep them entertained? In any case, this data can help you fine-tune your YouTube approach with little wasted time and effort, regardless of your focus on search engine optimization.
- Handling Google Trends
Google Trends is a great resource to use if you have a set of keywords in mind. This useful tool provides insight into the popularity of certain YouTube search terms. What’s even better is that, after a quick signup process, you can start using it for Google as well!
Choose Your Ideal Keywords
When you’re done with your investigation, you’ll have a long list of potential key phrases to choose from. Looking at them, you can tell that broad, general keywords far outnumber their more specific counterparts. It’s natural to want to go with what everyone else is doing, but you should give it some serious thinking before making a final decision.
You have to remember that most of the time those keywords are too broad. There are millions of results when you look for them online. That means there are millions of other videos vying for the same attention as yours.
Longer and more specialised search terms, or long-tail keywords, provide fewer results and thus less competition on the search engine results page.
It’s true that fewer individuals use those search terms, but you may turn that to your advantage. Using a long-tail keyword as the basis for your video will increase the likelihood that people searching for that phrase will find and watch your content. Although your potential viewers would be smaller, they would be more engaged since they would be more likely to watch your video.
Time to Put your Keywords to Work!
Once you have settled on the perfect set of keywords, it will be time to put them into action. In order for YouTube’s crawlers to understand the context of your videos, you should include your keywords in the video’s metadata. Let’s take a look at the factors that need improvement right now:
- The Title
You can choose whichever keywords you like for your title, but don’t forget to include your focus keyword.
Your primary keyword is the term used in the industry to describe the word or phrase that best characterises your video and the results of which you hope to rank well.
The truth is, the title of the video impacts your search engine optimization in more ways than one. It’s also a major role in your CTR, another important metric that YouTube uses to rank videos. Because of this, you should think of a title that will entice people to click on it.
- The Description
You may optimise your video description for search engines by including the terms you’ve selected in the text box provided. The YouTube crawlers will be better able to understand the context of your video and index it accordingly.
It also aids the audience in deciding whether or not to click on your video. After all, the first few words preview on the YouTube SERP, thus the beginning of your description might affect your video’s Click-Through Rate and, by extension, its SEO.
- The Transcript
Your video’s conversation and narration will be captured in a text file called a transcript. When will we learn? Because YouTube spiders can only read text but cannot analyse audiovisual information at this time.
Simply put, the words you use in your video can be used as keywords if you include a transcript of the video. This transcript can be written by a human, a speech recognition software, or both. An increased and more varied use of keywords is the end outcome.
Are you looking for a helpful hint from the pros? Use your target term within the first 15 seconds of your video to maximise the SEO value of your transcript.
Optimize Your Content for SEO
You may believe that optimising your videos for search engines is the last thing to do when launching a marketing campaign. It makes perfect sense, as search engine optimization (SEO) contributes to the video’s exposure in digital spaces like YouTube. While it may come as a surprise, a great search engine optimization plan for videos starts with the script.
An initial source of video concept ideas can come from doing keyword research. After all, the popularity of certain keywords suggests that people have an inherent interest in the subject, so reaching out to them by discussing it seems like a no-brainer.
Aside from keywords, there are other aspects of your video script that can affect your position in the YouTube search results page. Then, let’s take a look at them:
- The Script’s Length
Longer videos tend to rank higher in YouTube’s search results because they encourage viewers to spend more time on the site. Moreover, many people assume, reasonably so, that a lot of time and effort went into making a lengthy video.
It’s crucial that you understand how the length of your video impacts its position in the search engine results page (SERP), but you shouldn’t artificially lengthen it for the sake of SEO. Video metrics like watch-time, likes, and shares are all at risk if they are not engaged with, suggesting that SEO is not the only thing you should be concerned about.
- The Introduction
You can add this to the list of criteria YouTube uses to determine your video’s ranking: Audience Retention measures how engaged a viewer is with your video over the course of its entirety.
Having the majority of viewers stick around until the conclusion is the best case scenario. To be sure, that’s easier said than done. You just need to learn how to keep your audience gripped from the very beginning.
To hook them, you can directly or indirectly describe the benefits they’ll reap from watching the entire clip. Remember that people have clicked on your movie assuming that this value will be what they get based on the title, description, and thumbnail.
- The CTAs
An increase in views, engagement (in the form of comments, likes, and shares), and new subscribers should lead to a rise in the video’s position in the search engine results page.
Since you have no say over how viewers interact with your video, this YouTube SEO component is by far the most difficult to master. However, you may sway their choices by encouraging people to engage with your content in various ways such as commenting, liking, subscribing, and sharing. The inclusion of calls-to-action in the screenplay of your YouTube video is, thus, crucial.
A number of CTAs The answer to this question is highly context-dependent; nonetheless, 10- to 20-minute videos typically feature three calls-to-action: one at the conclusion of the video’s introduction, another at the midpoint, and a third at the end.
Closing Words
You may think that only established YouTubers, well-known brands, or funny cat videos have a shot at the top of the YouTube search results pages (SERPs). But the truth is that anybody can achieve that coveted position by employing the proper SEO strategies.
The first step is to aim lower and concentrate on long-tail keywords rather than broad ones. Certainly, you would be targeting a smaller subset of YouTube’s audience, but this subset would be actively seeking out your product or service. They’d be more likely to watch your video as a result.
10 Tips for Technical SEO
One of the cornerstones of SEO is the technical side of things. You could have the best article on the most-searched topic in your niche, but if your site hasn’t fixed its technical SEO faults, it won’t do well in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
Therefore, you need to prioritise investing in the website’s technical SEO.
In this article, we’ll define technical SEO and provide 10 practical suggestions for increasing your site’s visibility in search engines immediately.
What is Technical SEO?
Optimizations made to your site during the crawling, indexing, and rendering phases contribute to your overall technical SEO.
To put it simply, technical SEO is the process of enhancing your website’s technical characteristics in order to raise its position in search engine results pages. It’s a vast subject area that includes everything to do with search engine optimization, such as:
- Mobile optimization
- XML sitemaps
- Image SEO
- Site structure
- SSL certificates
- Internal and external links
- Site speed
- Canonical URLs
- Crawling and indexing
10 Tips for Technical SEO
Now that you know the fundamentals of technical SEO, here are 10 strategies you can apply to improve the technical SEO of your site and move it higher in search results.
1. Make your website mobile-friendly
Let’s get started with the most fundamental technical SEO recommendation.
In 2015, one of the most significant changes Google made to its algorithm was to prioritise mobile-friendly, responsive sites. The “Mobilegeddon” algorithm update penalised numerous popular websites for failing to switch to a mobile-friendly design.
In the present day, it is crucial to have a mobile-friendly website.
So, how do you determine if your site is suitable for mobile use? The Mobile-Friendly Test on Google is a great resource. Use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to see if your site is up to snuff in terms of mobile optimization.
2. Optimise Your XML Sitemap
Google can’t crawl and index your site’s pages without a sitemap.
An XML sitemap can be made quickly and easily. Free WordPress plugins like Yoast and Google XML Sitemaps can help you create one.
The sitemap should then be submitted to Google through the Google Search Console.
Get started by going to Sitemaps in your Google Search Console account. You can submit a new sitemap by adding one.
Take into account these XML sitemap recommendations once you’ve submitted your sitemap for review:
- You shouldn’t include a page in your XML sitemap if you’ve explicitly forbidden it in robots.txt.
- Include only high-quality content in your sitemap.
- Dynamic XML sitemaps should be used if your site has more than 50,000 URLs.
3. Speed Up Your Website
Website loading times are crucial. Don’t get me wrong. Google will penalise your site’s rankings slightly if it loads slowly and takes too long to react.
This means that your website will not rank as highly in search engine results pages (SERPs) as it would if page load speeds were improved.
You can’t afford to disregard this technical SEO factor.
4. Performing Weekly Technical SEO Site Audits To Fix Your Site Errors
If you want to improve your search engine rankings permanently, you need to do a weekly technical SEO audit to identify and rectify any problems with your site’s on-page optimization.
5. Optimise Internal Links
A link to another page within the same website is called an internal link.
Even though internal links may not have as much of an impact on search engine results as do external connections, they are nevertheless essential for building a search engine optimised site structure and making sure search engines can easily understand your website’s information hierarchy.
6. Include Your Main Keywords in Image Alt Text
Google’s image recognition can’t read what’s there in an image. Instead, it reads the image’s metadata, which includes the file name and alt text, to figure out what it is.
Alt text is used in HTML to describe an image’s appearance and purpose.
The standard advice for alt text is to be as descriptive as possible while still making use of your primary keywords. You should also avoid overusing keywords.
7. Use Canonical URLs to Avoid Duplicate Content Issues
Getting rid of any duplicates on your site should be your top focus. Use a duplicate content scanner and removal tool like Semrush to get your site back in good standing with search engines.
However, there are occasions where it will be impossible to avoid publishing content more than once on a website. Make advantage of canonical URLs in such instances.
When copying a blog post from one domain to another, a canonical URL will come in helpful. In the case of an e-commerce site with hundreds of similar pages, they become invaluable.
8. Install an SSL Certificate for Your Website
In 2014, Google officially acknowledged that SSL certificates, often known as HTTPS encryptions, constitute a ranking indication.
Websites that haven’t yet upgraded to an SSL certificate are missing out on search engine optimization and user confidence.
9. Check and Fix Crawl Errors in Google Search Console
Crawl errors are major technical issues that can hamper your website’s performance and affect your rankings, therefore it’s important to check for them once a week in Google Search Console and repair them as soon as possible.
You should also double-check your robots.txt file to ensure that it isn’t blocking any legitimate pages by mistake.
10. Find and Fix Broken Links on Your Site
In addition to hurting your search engine rankings, broken links can also make for an unpleasant user experience.
A “404 Not Found” page is the last thing you want your readers to see. That’s a certain way to drive away a potential customer who otherwise may have become a repeat visitor.
That’s why it’s important to keep an eye out for dead links and replace them as soon as you notice them.
Conclusion
In order for search engines to successfully crawl and index your website, you need to do a series of checks and tweak various settings, which is what technical SEO entails.
The good news is that aside from performing regular SEO Audits, you won’t typically need to worry about technical SEO after you’ve gotten it right.
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