Google Begins Sending Mobile-First Indexing Notifications

Google has started sending emails to notify webmasters that their site has been migrated to mobile-first indexing.
The company announced last month that it would be sending notifications regarding mobile-first indexing, but today marks the first time anyone has actually seen them.
However, that doesn’t mean mobile-first indexing is just starting now. Google has confirmed that migration to mobile-first indexing began months ago.
Here is a look at the notifications Google is sending to webmasters who have verified ownership of their site with Google Search Console.

In case you cannot see the image above, here is what it says:

”Mobile-first indexing enabled for <URL>
To owner of <URL>
This means that you may see more traffic in your logs from Googlebot Smartphone. You may also see that snippets in Google Search results are now generated from the mobile version of your content.
Background: Mobile-first indexing means that Googlebot will now use the mobile version of your site for indexing and ranking, to better help our (primarily mobile) users find what they’re looking for. Google’s crawling, indexing, and ranking systems have historically used the desktop version of your site’s content, which can cause issues for mobile searchers when the desktop version differs from the mobile version. Our analysis indicates that the mobile and desktop versions of your site are comparable.”

Google has previously mentioned that sites migrated to mobile-first indexing will see an increase in activity from the Googlebot Smarphone crawler.

Reference:https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-begins-sending-mobile-first-indexing-notifications/251095/

10 Best Mobile Landing Page Optimization Tips

Mobile only continues to grow more important every year.
Google’s recent rollout of a mobile-first index only emphasizes this point. It also helps to reinforce the notion that mobile SEO is deserving of a significant amount of marketers’ time and strategic efforts.
The differences between a user landing on a desktop landing page and a mobile landing page are crucial to consider.
Users behave differently across multiple devices, and that behavior must be taken into account when it comes to optimization.
In order to really prioritize the ever-increasing usage of mobile devices for search, it is wise for marketers to ensure that a company’s site has landing pages designed specifically for mobile.
Simply making a “mobile-friendly website” is just not good enough.
There are many things to consider when optimizing for mobile landing pages, but there are a few that continue to stand out over the years and also grow in importance as well.

1. Get to the Point Fast

You have a ridiculously limited amount of time to grab a user’s attention.
So it’s imperative to place the most relevant messaging that you want users to see in front of them as quickly as possible.
This becomes even more important with mobile, where space is limited due to size constraints of devices.
If a user isn’t captivated by what they see on the screen, they will quickly move on.
Ensure that the most important information is prioritized so that visitors can find it fast.

2. Content Placement & Length

Again, screen size is crucial.
The amount of real estate you have to grab a user’s attention or direct them toward what you would like them to look at is significantly minimized on mobile devices in comparison to desktop.
If there is a notable call-to-action you are trying to entice the user to engage with, then it is absolutely critical to place this somewhere it can be seen, without scrolling, on a smartphone.
Also due to size constraints, it’ important to think about how much content is displayed.
Overloading a mobile landing page with large blocks of text can potentially reap havoc on click-through rates.
The content should be clearly organized in a way that the user can easily understand, and they should be guided to the meat of that content.
Graphics can also help guide users to this, in place of large chunks of text that are not as fitting for smaller screen sizes.

3. Easy-to-Use Navigation

Navigation should essentially be intuitive.
If a user cannot easily find the primary navigation in order to get from one place to another on their device, they have a much higher chance of bouncing.
A home page link and other significant buttons should be easily viewable and accessible.
Keep in mind, though, that on landing pages you want to limit the number of navigation options a user has in order to direct them to the desired action that you want them to take.

4. Scalable Across Multiple Device Types

There are hundreds of device types out there – Apple, Android, and Windows, among others.
All have various sizing constraints and specifications.
Creating a mobile landing page that works across all of these can be a challenge.
That is one of the reasons why it is particularly important to have a responsive website that can display the page accurately across multiple devices.

5. Avoid Pinch to Zoom

Simply put, a user should not have to zoom in on their phone in order to see your website content.
It has been proven that users oftentimes do not prefer to have to either zoom or scroll for long amounts of time in order to view the content that they are trying to get to.
Make it easy for a user – display the most critical content at an appropriate size and above-the-fold for mobile so that they can easily get to what they want.

6. Aesthetics

A proper look and feel can make all the difference.
Be selective in the choice of fonts, color schemes, etc.
This is arguably even more important on mobiles, where the scope of viewability is more limited.
You must cue your readers with effective design aesthetics as to what content is important in order to get them to take the action that you are wanting them to take.

7. Page Speed

If you aren’t paying close attention to page speed load times on a site, you could potentially lose a large amount of users quickly.
A page that loads slowly only causes users to become impatient and bounce off the site.
No one wants to sit and wait for content to load on their device.
One of the common items that affect load time that people overlook is images.
They should be scaled appropriately so that they can fit on the screen, and also be compressed to reduce their size.

8. Geo-Targeting

A user’s location can be determined within a range of about 5-20 miles thanks to GPS on smartphone devices.
Using an IP address, a user’s location details can be calculated, including their country, region, ZIP code, or metro area.
This can be an advantage particularly for brick-and-mortar stores, which could edit particular mobile landing pages based on a user’s location and add some personalization this way.

9. Effective CTAs

The purpose of a mobile landing page should be clear. It should also be compelling and entice a user to take action.
Ensure that that action is visible and stands out to the user.
Do this using compelling graphics and a concise layout, and limit the options a user has.
For instance, if a user can click to access social profiles, share the page, submit a form, have a menu expand, expand, they are being presented with more options, which decreases the likelihood that they will take the action you are wanting them to take.

10. Always Be Testing

A/B tests have been used frequently, and due to extra size constraints of mobile, they can be even more helpful.
The only way to know if any of the above tips are effective is to test them.
Try changing one attribute at a time and see what really works.
For example, swap out a graphic or reposition a CTA and analyze the results to see if it made a difference. You can then use those results to help guide any future iterations of a page.

Conclusion

When it comes to mobile, you have even less space, and arguably less time in some scenarios, to really grab a user’s attention and guide them to take an action.
It is critical to separate the mobile and desktop experiences and understand how users’ behavior varies between the two in order to optimize for conversions.

Reference:https://www.searchenginejournal.com/optimize-mobile-landing-pages/250661/?ver=250661X3

Content Promotion Tactics That Result In Attracting Traffic

If you produce content and really want to generate traffic, then running a content promotion campaign is a must. There are numerous articles describing this subject. So why is this post any better than the rest of them?
Through trial and error, Prnews.io has been able to figure out which tactics work and which techniques one needs to avoid:

Let us guide you through five of the most successful strategies in driving traffic.

5 Subtleties of Successful Traffic Acquisition

Is there a prescribed recipe for bringing new users on board? Probably not.
But are there any sure-shot strategies that can drive traffic to your site? Yes, there are.
As Andy Crestodina put it, “Where there’s traffic there’s hope.” Let’s hop in!

1. Using Quora & Reddit

Both communities are great sources of new users, especially for a relatively small site.
For instance, in the screenshot below you can see that Remoters.net (project belonging to an illustrious Aleyda Solis) receives a fair number of users from Reddit:

To help you get motivated and inspired, I’d like to share a couple of real-life cases of successful networking and communication on Reddit and Quora.

Reddit: Success story 1

An influential expert, Joe Youngblood, once shared his thoughts about the changes that were happening to Facebook’s algorithm. Then, a blogger visited the thread and asked Youngblood if he would be OK with her using Youngblood’s conclusions in her own post.
After Youngblood agreed, she promptly published her article with a link to Youngblood’s post within the same thread on Reddit. Here’s what happened:

Reddit: Success story 2

Another example is a little more straight to the point, but it seems to work well, too.
You can share something valuable without selling anything.
In this post, a user shares information about his free tool. This brought him a decent number of new users:

Quora: Success story

One of Quora’s discussion board mentioned link building tools.
Among all comments, there was one that contained a meaningful question from a guy who also skillfully and subtly managed to talk about himself. His comment has a link to a post that attracts a lot of visitors on a monthly basis:

Unlike Reddit, Quora allows you to bring traffic from your profile page because profile pages on Quora are designed for this task. So if you’re active on Quora, then your own profile page can become a traffic magnet.

2. Guest Posting

If you want to use guest posting to acquire new users, then you should know that this tactic requires some die-hard determination.
However, if you can handle it, then you’re hitting a jackpot! We’re talking 500 new users coming to you all at once.
The most common mistake is to target popular sites and blogs. Such sites can only bring value to your SEO performance because receiving links from them is extremely valuable.
If you still don’t believe me, then take a look at the screenshot below. These are the leading referring domains of one of the websites we analyzed:

We can see blogs like Forbes, Buffer, and Social Media Examiner. But what if we check whether any of these referring domains are actually sending traffic to this site?
We can do it by simply matching data from Ahrefs with SimilarWeb’s report that tells which sites are bringing users to the same domain we analyzed:

After matching the data we got from both Ahrefs and SimilarWeb, we receive the following results:

Numbers don’t lie. They demonstrate us that big sites with mind-blowing traffic like Forbes (125 million monthly visitors) or HuffPost (166 million monthly visitors) won’t bring you new users:

So Where Do I Go to Find Traffic? We’re Glad You Asked!

Your best bet is to search for smaller blogs where users directly engage with content.
Here’s what you can do to find these blogs:
1. Use tools like SimilarWeb that allows you to spot which resources bring referral traffic to websites related to yours. And they are also relatively small businesses. Most likely, you’re going to see something like this:

2. You need to figure out what kind of pages are sending traffic. You can use Ahrefs to find which pages of a particular site have links:

3. As your final step, you need to find the reason why a site is sending referral traffic to another site: is it their active community, or is it because a URL is ranking well in organic results? SEMrush is here to help:

Our example demonstrates that visitors of the domain we’ve been researching continuously interact with its content, and this is exactly what we needed to know.
But what’s important is that if the referral traffic comes from organic search results of the URL you’re examining, it might take months for your URL to get to the top of SERPs.
This is a long-term investment that is irrelevant in this particular case. We don’t need sites that are bringing referral traffic through organic channel.

3. Sponsored Posts

As it was mentioned above, guest posts are the essence of hard work: you need to research those relevant resources that will bring you traffic, and then to convince the editors to accept your content.
Even with smaller blogs, it takes a while for the process to move to its final stage. So don’t hold your breath to see your post published the next day after you created it.
Sponsored posts, on the other hand, can offer you a lifeline because you won’t have to wait too long. Platforms that offer sponsored posts are always passionate about customer satisfaction. Some of these sites will even include an email blast to maximize the efforts, free of charge.
So we recommend  considering sponsored posts. Getting nearly as many new visitors on your own will take you longer than if you simply purchase a sponsored post.
It’s a matter of simple math. If you need to spend more than 20 hours of your time to get 100-200 conversions, and an hour of your time costs $100, then the overall cost of attracting this traffic is $2,000.
But then you have a platform that offers the exact same results for only $1,000. The problem with the market of sponsored posts is the fact that it’s complicated, and you need to spend who knows how long to understand the prices and to contact different blogs that publish sponsored posts.
This is when sites like Prnews.io come to the rescue.
Prnews.io has already collected all possible options to choose from, and they even organized this information by adding traffic numbers:

Another great thing about Prnews.io is that it takes care of all negotiations involved in the process. All you need to do is to come up with good content, sit back, and relax.
As you are waiting for the article to get published, you can spend some time promoting your content through other channels.

4. Slack Channels

We’re sure most of you thought of Slack as a way to talk to your coworkers.
Yes, but there’s a variety of Slack channels you can join to network with industry experts.
However, Slack groups aren’t initially for content promotion.
So if you wish to use this strategy, stay active in selected groups and bring value to the group you’re contributing by sharing posts of other authors.
There’s a great way to research new and interesting Slack channels. You can find them using SimilarWeb’s Referral Traffic report.

5. Social Media Promotion

Social media promotion mostly depends on the size of your online audience.
Here’s what we think: This tactic will only pay you off if some of your users with established communities around them will do you a favor of supporting your post.
By the way, that’s the reason why roundup posts are among the most popular types of content. As a result, you can generate around 100 to 200 new visitors from social media channels.
However, in case you don’t have any roundup posts of your own, you can always quote your industry experts that have thousands of followers.
We have our own example when experts who were mentioned in our article called “Forbes Most Viral Content, And Who’s Responsible For It” contributed to its distribution across major social networks using their own communities for spreading the news.
Thanks to them, Prnews.io was able to increase the volume of traffic coming to our blog. Most of Prnews.io’s channels aren’t performing that well, but social media promotion attracted a lot of new users.

Another option is to share your content with industry groups on Facebook. In order to find private Facebook groups that will bring you traffic, you can use SimilarWeb.
To find these Facebook groups, you can also use SimilarWeb and analyze which Facebook groups drive traffic to your rival’s websites:

It’s Time For Action

We hope that one of these strategies help you improve your traffic volume. They are easy to implement and some other people like Youngblood have managed to take advantage of them.
But regardless of the platform you choose, or the kind of content you want to create, if your content sucks – nobody is going to care about your product.

Reference:https://www.searchenginejournal.com/prnewsio-content-promotion-tactics/248369/

How to integrate SEO into the translation process to maximize global success

 
When expanding internationally, there is a common misconception that SEO, and in particular technical SEO, should be done once the website has been built. However, by implementing any SEO recommendations after a website has been translated, there could be extensive rework which will delay a website launch and impact on budgets. There are also some aspects in a site’s infrastructure that are essential to optimize in advance to avoid extensive rework later. So, how do you go about building this into the translation process?

The old approach to translation

For a while now, companies have been aware of the need for a local language website when targeting new global markets. Back in 2014 a Common Sense Advisory report stated “75% [of web visitors] prefer to buy products in their native language. In addition, 60% rarely or never buy from English-only websites.” Competing in global markets with a non-translated website is no longer seen as a viable option if a company wants to compete against local business.
The traditional approach has been to focus on translation only, with the key debate being around whether you should use a human translator or machine translation, such as Google Translate.
This approach is now shifting as companies have begun to realize the benefits of localizing their content and website for their target markets. Instead of a single piece of content being translated word for word, companies are now adapting the content to resonate and engage, allowing them to compete more effectively against local competitors. This is known as transcreation, where marketing messages are adapted to different cultures and languages whilst maintaining the original context and intent of the messaging.
However, localization and transcreation are still not enough to succeed globally. Customers need to be able to find your website and the only way to do that is to increase your online visibility. This is where integrating SEO into translation workflows comes in.

A new approach to succeeding globally

To succeed in new markets, you need to maximize the visibility of your products or services. To do this SEO needs to be woven into the translation process, but it needs to be adapted to different markets. The key elements to consider are localized keyword research, site structure and hreflang implementation.
Localized keyword research
Many companies simply translate domestic keywords in the hopes of ranking well in new markets. The problem with this strategy is it doesn’t take account of the search volume in different markets or country-unique keywords that may have high search volume but no domestic equivalent terminology.
The only way to ensure you are targeting the right relevant keywords is to use a vendor with native linguists who also understand the process of keyword research. However, many believe keyword research is enough to help you rank in new markets. This process needs to occur alongside technical SEO, two elements of which we will now discuss.
Site structure – which domain?
When it comes to site structure, it is important to consider future expansion plans and ensure the option you pick is future proofed for your needs.
There are three main options to consider:

1. ccTLD – Country Code Top-Level domain (example.fr)

In general, this is the preferred domain option when expanding internationally. By using the ccTLD you’re not only sending a strong signal to search engines that you are targeting a specific country, but you are also establishing trust with the user, which will result in a better click-through rate from the SERPs. For example, users in France are notoriously swayed by .FR websites and will be more likely to click on these than generic domains such as .com
The downside to ccTLD is there is no sharing of link authority from any parent top-level domain. In essence, you’re building up the link authority of these sites from scratch, which can make it harder to rank. There is also the potential for your domain to be unavailable in new markets.

2. Sub-folder (example.com/fr)

The main benefit of using the sub-folder approach is the shared link authority of the top-level domain. Any links built across all the country sites will benefit each subsequent site because that link authority is held within the top-level domain. This can have a real ranking benefit for all your regional sites, even if they are relatively new.
The downside is it creates less trust than using a ccTLD structure and as a result, this may impact on the click-through rate. It is also a weaker location signal to search engines compared to ccTLD and using a sub-domain structure.

3. Sub-domain (fr.example.com)

This approach sits between the other two in terms of pros and cons. Firstly, there is a degree of location signal given to search engines because you can host separate sub-domains in separate countries, which could potentially give you a ranking boost in that country. There is also some sharing of the authority of the main domain, but certainly not as much as you would see with the sub-folder approach.
The downside is that there will still be some linking activity required because you won’t benefit from all of the link authority of the ccTLD. The location signal is also not as strong as you would get with a unique ccTLD.
It is important to choose a domain structure that is right for your business and future expansion plans. ccTLD is the ideal structure but for some companies it may not be possible, or you may decide the sharing of link authority is more important and opt for a sub-folder structure. Whichever option you chose, it is important to consider site structure before building a website, not after.
Implenting hreflang
Hreflang is an HTML tag that you can add directly to the source code of a page when you have duplicate content in multiple languages. It helps search engines understand the language of a piece of content and therefore help ensure it’s served to the right users in the right market. Correct implementation of hreflang is essential to ensure your localized websites are ranked correctly.
A key element to consider is how to implement hreflang correctly for two bits of same-language content that target two different countries e.g. French for France versus French for Canada. By incorrectly implementing the hreflang code you could not only affect your chances of ranking organically in an entire market but also affect the original and other connected sites.

One vendor or two?

When it comes to integrating SEO and translation into one workflow, a big consideration is whether to have one vendor who specializes in search engine-optimized website translation or two vendors, one an SEO specialist and the other a professional translation company.

If you already have agency support for SEO as part of your integrated digital marketing strategy, deciding to just outsource the translation element may seem like the easiest option. However, managing two vendors can become a tricky task and it is difficult to weave the SEO into the translation process this way. Also, some digital agencies may be experts in SEO but they may not have the same expertise when it comes to international site structures or international keyword research. Finally, every time you update content, there is also a potential for previous SEO work to be overwritten and this can lead to large costs as previous SEO work will have to be redone having implications not only on project costs but also search traffic to your site.
Having one vendor allows you to manage the process much more easily. The workflows of the language service provider should be refined to weave SEO in throughout and there should be one upfront cost for the SEO work, which should save you money in the long run. Having one vendor also helps with ensuring keyword research has been carried out that is relevant to the new market rather than a simple translation of domestic keywords.

So, what next?

The translation industry has changed a lot in the last few years, moving from just accurately translated content to localizing content to resonate and now optimizing on a local level for increased organic visibility. Whilst incorporating SEO is a big step in the right direction, there is still more that can be done to increase the chances of success in new markets. The next step for companies is to consider the cultural elements when they expand internationally. This includes the best payment methods, delivery options and trust signals for those markets. By incorporating this with SEO, you will improve your online visibility, conversion rates and ultimately your overall ROI.

Reference:https://searchenginewatch.com/2018/04/19/how-to-integrate-seo-into-the-translation-process-to-maximize-global-success/

How to force Google to recrawl your website

If you have launched a new website, updated a single page on your existing domain, or altered many pages and/or the structure of your site, you will likely want Google to display your latest content in its SERPs.

Google’s crawlers are pretty good at their job. If you think of a new article on a big domain, for example, the search engine will crawl and index any changes pretty quickly thanks to the natural traffic and links from around the web which will alert its algorithms to this new content.
For most sites, however, it is good practice to give Google a little assistance with its indexing job.
Each of the following official Google tools can achieve this. And each are more or less suitable depending on whether you want Google to recrawl a single or page or more of your site.
It is also important to note two things before we start:

1. None of these tools can force Google to start indexing your site immediately. You do have to be patient
2. Quicker and more comprehensive indexing of your site will occur if your content is fresh, original, useful, easy to navigate, and being linked to from elsewhere on the web. These tools can’t guarantee Google will deem your site indexable. And they shouldn’t be used as an alternative to publishing content which is adding value to the internet ecosystem.

Fetch as Google
Google’s Fetch tool is the most logical starting point for getting your great new site or content indexed.

First, you need to have a Google account in order to have a Google Webmaster account – from there you will be prompted to ‘add a property’ which you will then have to verify. This is all very straightforward if you have not yet done this.
Once you have the relevant property listed in your Webmaster Tools account, you can then ‘perform a fetch’ on any URL related to that property. If your site is fetchable (you can also check if it is displaying correctly) you can then submit for it to be added to Google’s index.
This tool also allows you to submit a single URL (‘Crawl only this URL’) or the selected URL and any pages it links to directly (‘Crawl this URL and its direct links’). Although both of these requests come with their own limits; 10 for the former option and 2 for the latter.
Add URL

You might also have heard of Google’s Add URL tool.
Think of this as a simpler version of the above Fetch tool. It is a slower, simpler tool without the functionality and versatility of Fetch. But it still exists, so – it seems – still worth adding your URL to if you can.
You can also use Add URL with just a Google account, rather than adding and verifying a property to Webmaster Tools. Simply add your URL and click to assure the service you aren’t a robot!
Add a Sitemap
If you have amended many pages on a domain or changed the structure of the site, adding a sitemap to Google is the best option.

Like Fetch As Google, you need to add a sitemap via the Webmaster search console.
[See our post Sitemaps & SEO: An introductory guide if you are in the dark about what sitemaps are].
Once you have generated or built a sitemap: on Webmaster Tools select the domain on which it appears, select ‘crawl’/’sitemaps’/’add/test sitemap’, type in its URL (or, as you can see, the domain URL appended with sitemap.xml) and ‘submit’.

As I pointed out in the introduction to this post…
Google is pretty good at crawling and indexing the web but giving the spiders as much assistance with their job as possible makes for quicker and cleaner SEO.
Simply having your property added to Webmaster Tools, running Google Analytics, and then using the above tools are the foundation for getting your site noticed by the search giant.
But good, useful content on a well-designed usable site really gets you visible – by Google and most importantly humans.

Reference:https://searchenginewatch.com/2018/04/20/how-to-force-google-to-recrawl-your-website/

The Importance of Cybersecurity to SEOs [POLL]

HTTPS has, for the most part, become the “poster boy” of cyber security, thanks in part to Google naming it as a ranking signal and then pushing for it further through changes in the Chrome browser.
But as we know, cyber security doesn’t stop at HTTPS, and HTTPS does not mean that you have a secure website.
In my first post for Search Engine Journal, I wrote about how Google could introduce passive scanning elements in one of its future, more advanced web-crawlers, as well as identify if a website contains malware and other common types of hacks.
SEO pros have always been aware of the negative impacts that a website hack can have in terms of warnings in the SERPs and potential ranking losses, but are the true cost of a website hack and data breach really known?

Having worked in both SEO, and recently foraying into the cybersecurity world, I’ve been fortunate to experience both sides and witnessed various different types of hack and malicious website exploitation.

What’s the SEO Community’s Perception of Cybersecurity?

In order to establish how the SEO community feels about cybersecurity, and how important they perceive it to be – I surveyed them.
In total, 136 members of the SEO community responded and gave their thoughts on the topic.

About the Respondents

Of the 136 respondents, 45 percent have 10+ years experience working in SEO, with 26 percent claiming between 6 and 10 years.

While the cohort is on the experienced side, the distribution between independent, in-agency, and in-house SEO was more evenly spread.

Having had a fantastic response to the survey on Twitter, I can unofficially say that the 136 respondents were from around the world and a mixture of regular, well-known faces in the industry, plus some new faces.

The Survey

Question 1: As part of your initial website and technical auditing process, do you factor in website security (beyond HTTPS)?

Little over two-thirds of SEO professionals surveyed factor in website security checks (beyond whether the site is on HTTPS).
This is positive, as there is often a misconception that HTTPS secures a website – when in reality an SSL certificate only secures a connection and encrypts data in transit (you can read more about this here).
Establishing a website’s vulnerabilities is a different skillset to SEO. The skills needed are likely to be available in full-service agencies, and for independents and in-house SEO practitioners, there are tools such as Detectify and CyberScanner that can provide the insights needed to advise clients.

Question 2: When onboarding a new client, and website(s), do you establish whether the site has been hacked previously?

One in four SEO pros surveyed don’t actively try to establish whether a website has been hacked previously.
Aside from Google warnings and the business being open about a previous hack, it’s sometimes difficult to determine if there has been a hack.
Now we have 16-months worth of Google Search Console data, we can potentially identify spam injection easier by looking at impression data, but not all hacks take this form and may need specialist tools to help diagnose malware, phishing, and crypto-mining software.

Question 3: In your experience, how detrimental has a website hack been to the organic search performance of websites you’ve been working on? (1 not detrimental at all, 10 badly damaged the site long term)

The effects of a hack on SEO have been debated for a number of years, however as the above data shows in experience the impact of a hack has been felt considerably.
Google has previously said that 84 percent of sites are successful in applying for reconsideration following a site hack, but the impact of a hack is still felt prior to reconsideration.

Question 4: In your experience, how long has it taken a website you’re working on that has been hacked to fully recover within search results?

There are a number of studies looking at the impact of a website hack (such as this Wordfence study from 2015), but few about how long it takes to recover.
Recovery is based on a number of factors, including the severity of the hack, type of hack, and agility of the business to implement changes.
The general consensus among respondents is that it can take weeks to months for a site to fully recover, with one respondent claiming no recover whatsoever.
Identifying a hack, however, is the first challenge, and not all verticals are the same – so sites with extreme traffic variations and seasonality (such as the website for an annual event) will regularly see peaks and troughs.

How a Hack Can Damage a Website

Julia Logan (a.k.a., IrishWonder) shared the below experience with me, from a hacked event website in 2015.
Working on the website of an annual industry event there was an abnormal spike in search visibility outside of their normal pattern. This was down to an influx of parasite pages:

After getting hacked in July 2015, the site got blacklisted by Google. The site was powered by WordPress and was using a number of plugins with known vulnerabilities at the time of the hack. These were:

• Wordfence: There was a known cross-site scripting vulnerability that had been discovered in November 2014 affecting version 5.1.2 and patched in v. 5.1.4.
• WordPress SEO by Yoast: There was a known SQL injection vulnerability that had been discovered in March 2015, affecting versions 1.7.3.3 and below.

Prior to the hack, the site’s directories had not been closed from listing their content. As a result, a number of theme and plugin related directories’ index pages got into Google’s index, making the site an easy target for potential bulk platform-based/plugin vulnerability-based hacking.
After the initial site cleanup, these indexed directories still posed a threat – the server had been configured to serve up a 404 response for them, however having URLs like these indexed could lead to further hack attempts.
It was decided to not close them from indexing via robots.txt as that would still be a telling footprint (besides, these folders contained CSS files which Google insists on being indexable) but to remove them from Google’s index manually via the URL removal request form.
The hackers had also taken control over the site’s SMTP services and had been using them to send out spam emails, leading to the site getting blacklisted with all main email spam databases. This was critical because as an event site, they had a legitimate need to send out emails to their subscribers/event participants, damaging the business’ core function.
The parasite pages had to be manually removed from Google’s index to speed up the index cleanup. However, it took multiple attempts and email correspondence to remove the site from the email spam databases. The site was then also migrated to HTTPS.

What About GDPR?

The upcoming GDPR regulations have thrust the cybersecurity debate into the public eye and raised awareness, although a lot of businesses from my experience are still yet to grasp the importance of securing digital assets.

Question 5: On a scale from 1 to 10, 1 being not at all, how prepared do you believe your clients are to be secure and comply with the upcoming GDPR regulations?

As you’d probably expect, the feeling is that a lot of companies are still progressing toward being wholly compliant, with few almost at the end.
Compliance comes in different formats for different businesses, depending on the amount of data and the type of data that they process.
A recent study by Deloitte estimates that only 15 percent of organizations they surveyed would be compliant with GDPR regulations come May 25. The data collected here shows ~44 percent of respondents scored 1-4 on the scale.
GDPR doesn’t just affect organizations based within the European Union, but also those outside of the EU who deal with EU countries.

Question 6: On a scale from 1 to 10, 1 being not at all, how prepared do you believe your U.S. clients are to be compliant with the new EU GDPR regulations?

From the 124 respondents to this question, there is even less faith that the U.S. clients of those surveyed would be ready to comply with GDPR and the new European laws.
Speaking with fellow SEO Ryan Siddle from MERJ about the topic of GDPR and how prepared businesses are, he had the following to say:

Medium and large businesses generally have more data and people working with it, usually at a slower pace. Costs are high as they need legal counsel to read, understand, plan and act in accordance with legislation. Legacy systems may not be compatible with new requirements. The software may require dramatic changes to meet them, with months of dry run testing to ensure data integrity.
It is not always possible for small businesses to spend tens of thousands of pounds on legal counsel. Small businesses focus on revenue growth and wait for the larger businesses to act first. The larger businesses digest the information and communicate actionable information to their affiliates and partners.

Who’s Responsibility Is Cyber Security?

Speaking with a number of companies over the past few months has shown me that there is a lot of misinformation and misconception surrounding who is responsible for maintaining the security of a website.
Under GDPR, the business themselves will be on the end of any fine given and not their development company (although some business owners I’ve spoken to believe it is in their development contract to shoulder the fine).

Question 7: Who do you believe is responsible for making sure that a website is secure?

Out of the 136 respondents, 64 percent believe that the security of a website is down to all stakeholders, with just under a third thinking the responsibility lies solely with the business.
While under GDPR the fines sit with the business, both the online and offline compliance processes are the responsibility of all stakeholders, including external agencies.
As an external agency, we often have access to website CMSs, analytics, FTP, and other sensitive areas so the onus is on us to use two-step authentication and have our own security policies in place.

Conclusion

From talking to a number of SEO professionals while conducting this survey, and from seeing trends in the industry it’s clear that website security is a topic that’s going to be here for a while.
It’s also important that as an industry we help educate clients about the potential risks, not only to SEO but also to their businesses.

Reference:https://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-cybersecurity/248747/?ver=248747X2

Google's Black Hat Sitemap Bug: 4 Things to Know

A few months back I discovered a shocking bug in how Google handles XML sitemaps, which enabled brand new sites to rank for competitive shopping terms by hijacking the equity from legitimate sites.
I reported this issue to Google, and they have now fixed the issue, and paid me a bug bounty.
However, since I published my write up of the issue, a number of SEO professionals have contacted me worrying that they may have been a victim of such an attack, requesting that I help use the attack or theorizing variations which may still work.
This article will answer some of the most popular questions I’ve been getting.

What Was Google’s XML Sitemap Bug?

The issue is related to how Google handles and authenticates XML sitemap files, specifically those files that were submitted via the ping mechanism.
Sitemaps can be submitted directly to Google Search Console, via an entry in your robots.txt file, or by ‘pinging’ them by sending the sitemap URL to a special endpoint that Google provides.
For GSC and robots.txt entries these are obviously authenticated as genuine by the fact you have entry to the domain’s GSC or robots.txt file, but for ping URLs, Google seemed to decide whether they were trustworthy simply by looking at the domain in the URL that you send.
The issue is that if this URL redirects elsewhere, even to a different domain, then Google still trusts it as belonging to that original URL.
So, for example, I may submit a sitemap URL of apples.com/sitemap.xml, but that URL may redirect to oranges.com/sitemap.xml, but Google would still associate the XML sitemap as belonging to apples.com.

What Are Open Redirects?

Many websites succumb to a form of manipulation known as “open redirects,” where an attacker can trick a website into redirecting to a location of their choice.
An example may be websites that have a login mechanism that has the form apples.com/login.php?continue=/shop, which may be manipulated to be apples.com/logout.php?continue=http://evil.com/.
In my research, I found open redirects on Facebook, LinkedIn, Tesco, and a number of other sites (I’ve reported all of these, and many have been fixed).
To give an indication of how widespread they are, Google’s Vulnerability Rewards Program explicitly excludes open redirects as qualifying for a bounty (and indeed there are known open redirects on Google).
This allowed for the opportunity to ping sitemaps via an open redirect on a legitimate site which would redirect to the XML file hosted on an attacker site.
For example, by submitting a sitemap on the URL apples.com/logout.php?continue=http://evil.com/sitemap.xml, Google would treat it as being an authentic sitemap for apples.com, but it would actually be hosted on evil.com.
At this point, evil.com can submit sitemaps for apples.com, and by including hreflang entries in these sitemaps, it can leverage apples.com’s equity (PageRank) to rank for search results it has no legitimate right to do so.

Are You a Victim & Now Being Outranked?

Since the news became public, I have had a bunch of SEO professionals from various places reach out to me asking me to review their case, concerned that they may have been the victim of this or asking if this is how a competitor is able to outrank them.
I can certainly understand why.
It can sometimes be super frustrating to try to understand why another site is ranking so well against you, or why your site has suddenly had a lull in performance.
Having an explanation for these edge cases is certainly appealing.
So far I have not seen anything to convince me that this bug was being exploited in the wild.
Google is a complex beast, and there could be all sorts of explanations for why certain sites are ranking the way they are, but at the moment I remain to be convinced that this bug is one of them.
If you are concerned you are the victim of this, then the only real footprint it would leave is an entry in your server logs showing Googlebot coming to your site to collect a sitemap and being 3xx redirected to another domain (JavaScript and meta-refresh redirects wouldn’t work).
This is the best thing you can check.
In my experiment, I was regularly re-pinging the sitemap, but even without re-pings it I believe Google would always go via the open redirect, so you should see entries in your server logs.

Does This Change Anything About XML Sitemaps?

Yes. It changes when hreflang entries will be used.
Google will no longer pay attention to hreflang entries in “unverified sitemaps”, which I believe means those submitted via the ping URL.
Those submitted inside Google Search Console or in your robots.txt file will still operate as they always have done, and pinging one of these sitemaps to prompt a recrawl from Google will also work as expected.
I anticipate the change will affect very few sites, but you should be aware of it.

Conclusion

My recommendation: submit sitemaps via both the GSC interface and include them inside your robots.txt. If you are a site that suffers particularly from scrapers, for whatever reason, then you may wish to exclude sitemap entries from your robots.txt file such that bad actors cannot find them and use them to expedite their efforts.

Reference:https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-xml-sitemap-bug/249805/?ver=249805X3

Google AdWords Introduces New Video Format to Reach More People

Google AdWords has introduced a new video format which is said to extend the reach of video campaigns beyond YouTube.
The new format, called outstream video ads, is built exclusively for mobile and will be displayed in mobile browsers and apps.

”Outstream ads drive incremental, cost-efficient and viewable reach beyond YouTube. Ads show on Google video partners, which are high-quality publisher websites and mobile apps where you can show video ads, including TrueView in-stream and Bumper ads.”

Outstream video ads will play on a user’s screen automatically when they come into video. However, they will play with the sound off. Users can turn sound on by tapping the ad, and can also restart the video from the beginning if they wish.
Advertisers will be charged for outstream video ads based on viewable CPM, which means they will only pay for impressions when the ad has been on screen and viewable.
In other words, if the ad appears toward the bottom of the screen and the user doesn’t scroll down that far, then the advertiser will not be charged for an impression.
Google AdWords advertisers can add outstream video ads to their campaigns starting today.

Reference:https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-adwords-introduces-new-video-format-reach-people/249825/

Top 12 Reasons Why Every Business Needs SEO

Many brands and businesses know (or think they know) that they need SEO for their digital properties, and the benefits they will get from that SEO work being implemented on their behalf.
SEO will certainly improve a website’s overall searchability and visibility, but what other real value does it offer? Why is SEO so important?
These 12 reasons should offer some clarity, regardless of the industry or business size, as to why businesses need SEO to take their brand to the next level.

1. Organic Search Is Most Often the Primary Source of Website Traffic

Organic search is a huge part of most business’s website performance, as well as a critical component of the buyer funnel and ultimately getting users to complete a conversion or engagement.
As marketers know, Google owns a significantly larger portion of the search market than competitors like Yahoo, Bing, Baidu, Yandex, DuckDuckGo, and the many, many others.
That’s not to say that all search engines don’t contribute to a brand’s visibility — they do — it’s just that Google owns about 75 percent of the overall search market. It’s the clear-cut leader and thus its guidelines are important to follow.
But the remaining 25 percent of the market owned by other engines is obviously valuable to brands, too.
Google, being the most visited website in the world (as well as specifically in the United States), also happens to be the most popular email provider in the world (with more than 1 billion users). Not to mention YouTube is the second biggest search engine.
We know that a clear majority of the world that has access to the internet is visiting Google at least once a day to get information.
Being highly visible as a trusted resource by Google and other search engines is always going to work in a brand’s favor. Quality SEO and a high-quality website takes brands there.

2. SEO Builds Trust & Credibility

The goal of any experienced SEO is to establish a strong foundation for a beautiful website with a clean, effective user experience that is easily discoverable in search with thanks to the trust and credibility of the brand and its digital properties.
Many elements go into establishing authority regarding search engines like Google. In addition to the factors mentioned above, authority is accrued over time as a result of elements like:

• Quality backlink profiles.
• Positive user behavior.
• Machine-learning signals.
• Optimized on-page elements and content.

But establishing that authority will do more for a brand than most, if not all, other digital optimizations. Problem is, it’s impossible to build trust and credibility overnight — just like real life. Authority is earned and built over time.
Establishing a brand as an authority takes patience, effort, and commitment, but also relies on offering a valuable, quality product or service that allows customers to trust a brand.

3. Good SEO Also Means a Better User Experience

Everyone wants better organic rankings and maximum visibility. Few realize that optimal user experience is a big part of getting there.
Google has learned how to interpret a favorable or unfavorable user experience, and a positive user experience has become a pivotal element to a website’s success.
Customers know what they want. If they can’t find it, there’s going to be a problem. And performance will suffer.
A clear example of building a strong user experience is how Google has become more and more of an answer engine offering the sought-after data directly on the SERPs (search engine results pages) for users.
The intention of that is offering users the information they are looking for in fewer clicks, quickly and easily.
Quality SEO incorporates a positive user experience, leveraging it to work in a brand’s favor.

4. Local SEO Means Increased Engagement, Traffic & Conversions

With the rise and growing domination of mobile traffic, local search has become a fundamental part of small- and medium-sized businesses’ success.
Local SEO aims at optimizing your digital properties for a specific vicinity, so people can find you quickly and easily, putting them one step closer to a transaction.
Local optimizations focus on specific towns, cities, regions, and even states, to establish a viable medium for a brand’s messaging on a local level.
SEO pros do this by optimizing the brand’s website and its content, including local citations and backlinks, as well as local listings relevant to the location and business sector a brand belongs to.
To promote engagement on the local level, SEO pros should optimize a brand’s Knowledge Graph panel, its Google My Business listing, and its social media profiles as a start.
There should also be a strong emphasis on user reviews on Google, as well as other reviews sites like Yelp, Home Advisor, and Angie’s List (among others), depending on the industry.

5. SEO Impacts the Buying Cycle

Customers do their research. That’s one of the biggest advantages of the internet from a buyer perspective.
Using SEO tactics to relay your messaging for good deals, groundbreaking products and/or services, and the importance and dependability of what you offer customers will be a game changer.
It will also undoubtedly impact the buying cycle in a positive way when done right.
Brands must be visible in the places people need them for a worthy connection to be made. Local SEO enhances that visibility and lets potential customers find the answers, and the businesses providing those answer.

6. SEO Best Practices Are Always Being Updated

It’s great to have SEO tactics implemented on a brand’s website and across its digital properties, but if it’s a short-term engagement (budget constraints, etc.) and the site isn’t re-evaluated consistently over time, it will reach a threshold where it can no longer improve because of other hinderances.
The way the search world evolves, basically at the discretion of Google, requires constant monitoring for changes to stay ahead of the competition and, hopefully, on Page 1.
Being proactive and monitoring for major algorithm changes is always going to benefit the brands doing so.
We know Google makes thousands of algorithm changes a year. Fall too far behind, and it will be extremely difficult to come back. SEO pros help to ensure that is avoided.

7. Understanding SEO Helps You Understand the Environment of the Web

With the always-changing environment that is the World Wide Web, it can be a challenge to stay on top of the changes as they take place.
But staying on top of SEO includes being in the loop for the major changes taking place for search.
Knowing the environment of the Web, including tactics being used by other local, comparable businesses and competitors, will always be beneficial for those brands.

8. SEO Is Relatively Cheap

Sure, it costs money. All the best things do, right?
But SEO is relatively cheap in the grand scheme of things, and the payoff will most likely be considerable in terms of a brand’s benefit and bottom line.
This isn’t a marketing cost; this is a true business investment. Good SEO implementation will hold water for years to come. And, like most things in life, will only be better with the more attention (and investment) it gets.

9. It’s A Long-Term Strategy

SEO can (and hopefully does) have a noticeable impact within the first year of action being taken, and many of those actions will have an impact that lasts more than several years.
As the market evolves, yes, it’s best to follow the trends and changes closely. But even a site that hasn’t had a boatload of intense SEO recommendations implemented will improve from basic SEO best practices being employed on an honest website with a decent user experience.
And the more SEO time, effort, and budget that is committed to it, the better and longer a website stands to being a worthy contender in its market.

10. It’s Quantifiable

While SEO doesn’t offer the easier-to-calculate ROI like that of paid search, you can measure almost anything with proper tracking and analytics.
The big problem is trying to connect the dots on the back end since there is no definitive way to understand the correlation between all actions taken.
Still, it is worth understanding how certain actions are supposed to affect performance and growth, and hopefully they do.
Any good SEO is going to be aiming at those improvements, so connecting the dots should not be a challenge.
Brands also want to know and understand where they were, where they are, and where they’re going in terms of digital performance, especially for SEO when they have a person/company that is being paid to execute on its behalf.
There’s no better way to show the success of SEO, either. We all know the data never lies.

11. SEO Brings New Opportunities to Light

High-quality SEO will always find a means of discovering and leveraging new opportunities for brands to, not just be discovered, but to shine.
Offering quality SEO to brands means submersing an SEO team in everything that is that brand. It’s the only way to truly market a brand with the passion and understanding that brand’s stakeholders have for it: becoming a stakeholder.
The better a brand is understood, the more opportunities will arise to help it thrive. The same can be said about SEO.

12. If You’re Not on Page 1, You’re Not Winning the Click

It’s no secret in the world of SEO that if you’re not on Page 1, you’re likely not killing the organic search game.
A recent study shows that the first three organic search ranking positions result in nearly 40 percent of all click-throughs, while up to 30 percent of all results on Page 1 and 2 don’t get clicked at all.
What’s this mean? Two things:

• If you’re not on Page 1, you need to be.
• There are still too many instances when a user types a search query and can’t find exactly what it’s looking for.

Conclusion

Implementing strong, quality SEO on a brand’s website and digital properties is always going to be beneficial to that brand and its marketing efforts.
It’s considered a “new age” marketing technique, but it’s critical to a brand’s web presence in this day and age, especially as available data and rivaling competition continue to increase and grow.

Reference:https://www.searchenginejournal.com/why-seo-is-important-for-business/248101/?ver=248101X2

5 Mobile SEO Mistakes that Can Kill your Conversions

Improving website site speed, eliminate intrusive interstitials, improve typography, increase the size of touch elements, and write persuasive website copy will increase conversions 

 

We are at a time when more and more searches are happening on mobile phones than desktops. This makes it imperative for all brands, small or big, to adopt aggressive mobile strategies for accelerating their growth. Though most brands understand this fact, only a few are able to offer seamless, optimized mobile experience to their visitors. Why? What are the main mobile SEO mistakes that brands should not commit?
My friend, only designing a mobile-friendly website is not enough, one needs to optimize the whole mobile experience for visitors to maximize success. In today's post, I'm going to discuss the top five mobile SEO mistakes that often kill conversions.
1- Sitespeed
Will you continue with a site that is taking too much time to load on your mobile phone? I won't and I believe you too won't continue with a slow loading website. 40% of people abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load. What's more, a 1-second delay can cause a 7% reduction in conversions. This is how page load time affects conversion.
Google considers page speed a ranking factor. As Google has started mobile-first indexing, slow loading sites are going to face a strong backlash from the search engine giant. The time of slow loading sites is over. Improve your site speed to improve conversions.
2- Intrusive Interstitials
When it comes to mobile search, Google's first priority is to offer a higher user experience. As intrusive interstitials affect user experience, Google may not rank websites with interstitials as highly. Once the ranking is dropped, the conversion rate will go lower subsequently.
Here are four types of intrusive interstitials you should avoid to use on your mobile site:

• Pop-ups that covers the entire web page immediately after a user reaches the web page through search
• Pop-ups that covers the main content when a user is looking at it
• The main content is hidden by an interstitial and a user need to dismiss it to access the main content
• Having the main content under the above-the-fold portion

If you want to make your mobile website a conversion-friendly, don't use these intrusive interstitials.
3- Typography
This is one of most common mobile SEO mistakes that many businesses commit. Typography plays an important role in mobile conversion. What exactly does typography include? The key elements of typography are typeface, fonts, line length, leading, and kerning. As mobile devices have smaller screen sizes as compared to desktops and laptops, mobile users like easy-to-read typography. If mobile users find it difficult to read your website copy, they won't hesitate to leave your website.
Follow these points to provide your mobile users with a seamless reading experience:

• Never use font less than 14 pixels
• Font color should complement your website theme color
• Use plenty of whitespace between headlines and paragraphs
• A line should not go beyond 65 characters

4- Touch Elements
If your website has interactive elements, such as checkboxes, buttons, or surveys quizzes, you should be extra careful with touch elements. To make sure mobile users are clicking the right touch elements, you should use large touch buttons optimized for mobile devices, or else you will lose many mobile visitors. Also, you should use a distinct color for all touch elements.
Remember, mobile SEO is all about boosting user experience. Small touch elements, because many mobile users find it difficult to click on them correctly, affect mobile conversions badly.
5- Website Copy
Website copy plays a vital role in conversions. As I mentioned earlier, mobile devices have small screens as compared to desktops and laptops, long copy doesn't perform well on mobile devices. Mobile users tend to be less tolerant and more demanding than desktop users. Therefore, you should make sure that your website copy is persuasive and succinct to keep your mobile visitors glued to your website.
Here are a few tips on creating website copy that converts on mobile devices:

• Write buyer's persona based copy that addresses your audience's objections
• Use the language and tone of voice that your buyer persona uses
• Focus on benefits, rather than features
• Use short words and short, simple sentences
• Around 500 words web copy tends to perform better on mobile devices

Final thoughts,
Mobile SEO is something that businesses can't ignore. If you improve website site speed, eliminate intrusive interstitials, improve typography, increase the size of touch elements, and write persuasive website copy, you will avoid common mobile SEO mistakes that kill conversions.

Reference:https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/308594