SEO

Using Google Search Console Tools To Clean Up Your (404) Act
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Using Google Search Console Tools To Clean Up Your (404) Act

This article is an entire rewrite from its original 2012 version. When Google launched the new Search Console (thus killing the legacy 404 report), it rendered the old version of this post useless. The bad news – the new URL inspector doesn’t work the same as the legacy report. In the previous report, you could…

The Best Keyword Research Tools You May Not Know
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The Best Keyword Research Tools You May Not Know

Note: This post reviews web-based keyword tools. It doesn’t cover desktop tools or plugins. Keyword research is extremely important when conceiving new content ideas or optimizing existing content for search engines. You likely have a favorite keyword research tool – be it Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs. These tools are great for finding high…

What Google’s Featured Snippet Deduplication Means for Your Site
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What Google’s Featured Snippet Deduplication Means for Your Site

On January 22, 2020, Google announced via Twitter that featured snippets will now be counted as one of the main organic search results, meaning that the same URL can no longer hold both the featured snippet and another organic listing on page one of Google. Google holds that this change will make page one of…

Google’s Current Desktop Design
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Google’s Current Desktop Design

Update as of January 24, 2020: After Google received negative feedback about favicons in organic search results, they have rolled back the favicon portion of this update. The other changes including updates to the Ad symbol and breadcrumb placement remain intact. On January 13, 2020, Google announced that a new site design would be rolling…

How Google’s BERT Works In SEO
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How Google’s BERT Works In SEO

Every few years, Google announces a significant update to its organic search system. From the inclusion of semantic search in Hummingbird to the announcement of machine-learning (RankBrain). Google is trying to get better at two things: understanding the intent behind a query and understanding the language of webpages. The better Google gets at these two…

SEO Reporting: How to Build Meaningful Analytics Reports
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SEO Reporting: How to Build Meaningful Analytics Reports

The SEO report. It’s a calling card for some agencies. These reports can be ornate or no-frills (everyone has their own style). Smart companies use APIs to compile reports without spending manual hours. Some rely on automatic SEO reporting tools. For other companies, it’s a time-intensive and considerably low-value exercise.

Improve SEO by Auditing and Fixing Canonical Tags (and How to Do It)
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Improve SEO by Auditing and Fixing Canonical Tags (and How to Do It)

The reason Google doesn’t accept the canonical tag as a directive is probably because they know many webmasters will screw it up. If you have a massive database-driven eCommerce site, and you’ve tried to get a developer team to implement, you’ve seen how it can ultimately launch with a ton of unexpected results. Examples I’ve seen: via templates, products were suddenly “canonicalizing” to the homepage. Page 4 of a collection suddenly canonicalizing to page 1 of the collection. Crazy, random results are always likely if not implemented and QA’d properly. When the tag was announced in February of 2009, I worked for one of the largest eCommerce platforms at the time. We wanted to be first to offer this, and we rushed it out – with many, many problems. I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with this tag.

The Truth About Multiple H1 Tags and SEO
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The Truth About Multiple H1 Tags and SEO

The “official rollout” of HTML 5 in October 2014 ignited renewed interests in an old SEO debate: whether or not using multiple H1 tags on a single page is bad for SEO. Depending on the school of thought, some designers debated the true use case. Likewise, some SEOs had a similar debate. We know H1 tags have value, to which some SEOs try desperately to insert several H1 tags on a page (usually with target keywords). I’ve seen H1 tags in breadcrumb trails, hidden behind wordless graphics, and pushed to the margin with CSS. But other SEOs, who worry about being seen as spammy, go with the “one H1 per page” rule of thumb. When one of our clients recently asked this question, we found ourselves reevaluating and realigning our multiple H1 best practices. We had to establish where we stand on the answer.

Voice Search Optimization: The SEO’s Journey (So Far)
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Voice Search Optimization: The SEO’s Journey (So Far)

  As long as I’ve been doing SEO and digital marketing, I’ve pushed for the early adoption of new products, platforms, and technology. The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing (not an Amazon affiliate link, I swear!) has been a book I’ve leaned on since studying marketing in college. The first law states, “being first in the…

Don’t Make These Ridiculously Simple Mobile SEO Mistakes
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Don’t Make These Ridiculously Simple Mobile SEO Mistakes

Unless you’ve been dialing up to the internet on a 56K modem attached to your Tangerine iBook G3, chances are you’ve heard that mobile internet usage has surpassed desktop usage for over a year now. Mobile SEO and the mobile experience is perhaps the most important consideration for your site after the content itself. Source:…