Welcome to this month’s SEO and online marketing report covering June 2016.
Quite a bit has happened over the last month so we will dive straight in…
Put the Paper down!
Penguin 4.0
News on the Penguin 4.0 update, a quick reminder that this version of the algorithm will continuously update so it is the last ‘major’ Penguin update we should see. Google have said ‘it is not too long now!’. Hmm heard that before!
Mobile
In the past Google have ‘scored’ your websites speed for their mobile search results with the same results they use to help rank your desktop version of your website. This just doesn’t make sense and Google know this. They have said this month that a mobile version of their speed test is on its way. Please please make sure your website is not only mobile friendly but also usable on ALL mobile devices!
Tools
Google have created a new tool aimed at small businesses to help them fix slow websites both mobile and desktop versions and identify what they need to do to make their website mobile friendly.
Worth a look: https://testmysite.thinkwithgoogle.com/
Page Titles
Google doesn’t care if you use Underscores ‘_’, Dashes ‘-‘ or Pipes ‘|’ in your page title tags, just pick the one you like the most! Tip: Commas are most like English sentences, therefore easier to read.
Page URL’s
Also this month Google confirmed that they don’t care which of the following you use in your URL, Underscores or Dashes. They seem to be in a non-caring mood at the moment!
TLD
If you are thinking of moving your website to a new industry version of a TLD (see glossary) like www.juicyseo.seo instead of www.juicyseo.co.uk it will not give you any advantage in their page ranking results. Phew because that is a lot of work to do that!!
Social Media
Google confirmed once again that Social Media is not used to decide their search ranking results. We do know that quantity of traffic to a page can help your website page perform better so Social Media can affect it indirectly.
Gossip
Some ‘old school’ SEO gossip raised it’s head again this month. It has in the past be thought by many SEO’s that if they see a large spike in their search ranking positions then a new Google algorithm was about to be rolled out, this is completely untrue and Google confirmed that once more this month.
Googler
An interesting conversation occurred this month with a Googler. Google’s quality algorithms might and most likely do not ‘judge’ your website right away but wait for a little while before penalising your site. This makes it very hard to see what new or changed content has affected the page ranking if affected by a penalty.
Authorship
Remember the ‘Authorship Markup‘?
A couple of years ago Google asked webmasters to create this markup on their website so they could use the data in their search results. Well, this month Google have confirmed that we all can remove them again as they are not using them anymore. Nothing like wasting a bit of time is there!?
Search Console
If you use Google Search Console (shame on you if you are not!) then you will know the maximum amount of data they hold for you to use is 90 days. Google this month have said that this will increase in the future. This is very good news!
AMP
AMP is a bit of a new buzz word, we have mentioned AMP a lot over the months but this month Google have said that it is an area for SEO’s to concentrate on. This is a BIG tip. If you are not aware of AMP here is a link to all the info you need! https://www.ampproject.org/
Rankbrain
Google have confirmed that their Rankbrain ‘algorithm’ doesn’t score websites so it is not possible to optimise for it. If your SEO says they are optimising for Rankbrain then simply say:
“Liar liar your pants are on fire!”.
Adwords
Google Adwords now offers buttons called ‘Click to Text‘. As the name suggest the customer-to-be just clicks the button in the Adwords advert and they can text directly to the seller.
Juicy SEO Tip
Our Tip for this month is to think about search results that have been created using Voice. Roughly about 30% of all Google searches are via voice and it will grow very quickly. Think about the way people say sentences instead of writing. There will be a lot of questions!
Glossary
Panda: The Google Panda update concentrates on the quality of the web page content, if the algorithm thinks the page is of low quality it might penalise it in Google’s search results.
Penguin: Google has an algorithm called Penguin which analyses links to web pages and identifies which ones are valuable or spam links. An example of a spam link would be a paid link to your site.
Pigeon: Google’s Pigeon algorithm concentrates on Local SEO, if you have a bricks and mortar business this is something you should take note of.
Phantom (Quality Update): This algorithm rewards website pages for good content.
TDL: A TLD means Top Level Domain like .com or .net or .co.uk.