How bots are reshaping the customer experience
An exciting thing is happening in technology today, and its implications for digital transformation are profound: the rise of the bot. These digital agents can talk, perform tasks, and simulate countless other human activities – and enable businesses to personalise products and services at scale.
Post from James Murray
The mobile marketing checklist you need for 2018
In today’s interconnected and technology-dependent world, businesses can no longer afford to stay away from mobile. An efficiently launched and well-run mobile marketing campaign can become pivotal in impacting SERPs, traffic, user engagement, and conversions. In short, it is one of a few crucial areas that every SEO professional needs to pay attention to in 2018.
What does Google’s “Speed Update” mean for mobile?
Yesterday, Google announced a major upcoming change to its mobile ranking algorithm. What do we know so far about Google’s “Speed Update”, and what does it mean for mobile SEO?
Using page speed in mobile search ranking
People want to be able to find answers to their questions as fast as possible — studies show that people really care about the speed of a page. Although speed has been used in ranking for some time, that signal was focused on desktop searches. Today we’re announcing that starting in July 2018, page speed will be a ranking factor for mobile searches.
The “Speed Update,” as we’re calling it, will only affect pages that deliver the slowest experience to users and will only affect a small percentage of queries. It applies the same standard to all pages, regardless of the technology used to build the page. The intent of the search query is still a very strong signal, so a slow page may still rank highly if it has great, relevant content.
We encourage developers to think broadly how about performance affects a user’s experience of their page and to consider a variety of user experience metrics. Although there is no tool that directly indicates whether a page is affected by this new ranking factor, here are some resources that can be used to evaluate a page’s performance.
- Chrome User Experience Report, a public dataset of key user experience metrics for popular destinations on the web, as experienced by Chrome users under real-world conditions
- Lighthouse, an automated tool and a part of Chrome Developer Tools for auditing the quality (performance, accessibility, and more) of web pages
- PageSpeed Insights, a tool that indicates how well a page performs on the Chrome UX Report and suggests performance optimizations
As always, if you have any questions or feedback, please visit our webmaster forums.
Posted by Zhiheng Wang and Doantam Phan
Using page speed in mobile search ranking
People want to be able to find answers to their questions as fast as possible — studies show that people really care about the speed of a page. Although speed has been used in ranking for some time, that signal was focused on desktop searches. Today we’re announcing that starting in July 2018, page speed will be a ranking factor for mobile searches.
The “Speed Update,” as we’re calling it, will only affect pages that deliver the slowest experience to users and will only affect a small percentage of queries. It applies the same standard to all pages, regardless of the technology used to build the page. The intent of the search query is still a very strong signal, so a slow page may still rank highly if it has great, relevant content.
We encourage developers to think broadly how about performance affects a user’s experience of their page and to consider a variety of user experience metrics. Although there is no tool that directly indicates whether a page is affected by this new ranking factor, here are some resources that can be used to evaluate a page’s performance.
- Chrome User Experience Report, a public dataset of key user experience metrics for popular destinations on the web, as experienced by Chrome users under real-world conditions
- Lighthouse, an automated tool and a part of Chrome Developer Tools for auditing the quality (performance, accessibility, and more) of web pages
- PageSpeed Insights, a tool that indicates how well a page performs on the Chrome UX Report and suggests performance optimizations
As always, if you have any questions or feedback, please visit our webmaster forums.
Posted by Zhiheng Wang and Doantam Phan
CES 2018: Google ramps up Assistant with smart displays, native podcasts, recipes and news
Amazon Echo and its voice assistant, Alexa, might be the current market leaders in voice-activated smart technology, but the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show has shown that Google fully intends to challenge Amazon for that crown.
Mobile-first indexing in 2018: 3 things SEO professionals should do right now
With 2018 now upon us, there is a need to prepare for the upcoming update to Google’s search index to prioritize mobile websites, if you haven’t already done so. Here are three things SEO professionals need to do immediately to prepare for a mobile-first index and help their, or their clients’, sites weather the storm.
How to get mobile SEO for voice search right
Voice search and mobile usage are both on the rise and look set to shape the SEO industry for some time to come. Nonetheless, 62% of marketers have no specific plans for voice search in 2018. How can marketers take action today to tap into two of the most important trends in the industry?
How to carry out a mobile SEO audit on your site
Mobile optimization should be an integral part of your SEO strategy, and it goes beyond just checking whether your site passes Google’s Mobile Friendly test. In order to cover off all the factors involved in achieving the ultimate mobile-optimized website, it is necessary to carry out a mobile SEO audit on your site.
Smart shopping season checklists: Mobile and desktop, content and SEO
Constantly changing consumer behaviors and the demand for more personalized, meaningful experiences have retailers facing huge challenges this year. Competition in the … read more
4 common mistakes that tank responsive mobile conversion
About 10 years ago, just two screen sizes accounted for 77% of all web usage. Fast-forward to today, and things are very different, with laptops, tablets, smartphones, netbooks and web-enabled TVs among the devices that can access the internet. Responsive web design is the answer to staying competitive in our many-screened landscape – but it isn’t a silver bullet. Here are 4 things that can kill your conversion rates even with a responsive website.
The 5 best tools to develop a mobile-first SEO strategy
Search marketers rely on tools to make sense of what it is a very complex, fluid environment. With the increasing importance of mobile, the list of tools grows even longer. Which platforms should search marketers use to devise a mobile-first SEO strategy?
How does Bing’s voice search compare to Google’s?
Google remains the dominant player in search marketing, but the industry is changing very rapidly and the old certainties may erode. Does voice search provide a platform for Microsoft to compete?
How to move from m-dot URLs to responsive site
With more sites moving towards responsive web design, many webmasters have questions about migrating from separate mobile URLs, also frequently known as “m-dot URLs”, to using responsive web design. Here are some recommendations on how to move from separate urls to one responsive URL in a way that gives your sites the best chance of performing well on Google’s search results.
Moving to responsive sites in a Googlebot-friendly way
Once you have your responsive site ready, moving is something you can definitely do with just a bit of forethought. Considering your URLs stay the same for desktop version, all you have to do is to configure 301 redirects from the mobile URLs to the responsive web URLs.
Here are the detailed steps:
- Get your responsive site ready
- Configure 301 redirects on the old mobile URLs to point to the responsive versions (the new pages). These redirects need to be done on a per-URL basis, individually from each mobile URLs to the responsive URLs.
- Remove any mobile-URL specific configuration your site might have, such as conditional redirects or a vary HTTP header.
- As a good practice, setup rel=canonical on the responsive URLs pointing to themselves (self-referential canonicals).
If you’re currently using dynamic serving and want to move to responsive design, you don’t need to add or change any redirects.
Some benefits for moving to responsive web design
Moving to a responsive site should make maintenance and reporting much easier for you down the road. Aside from no longer needing to manage separate URLs for all pages, it will also make it much easier to adopt practices and technologies such as hreflang for internationalization, AMP for speed, structured data for advanced search features and more.
As always, if you need more help you can ask a question in our webmaster forum.
Posted by Cherry Prommawin, Webmaster Relations
How to move from m-dot URLs to responsive site
With more sites moving towards responsive web design, many webmasters have questions about migrating from separate mobile URLs, also frequently known as “m-dot URLs”, to using responsive web design. Here are some recommendations on how to move from separate urls to one responsive URL in a way that gives your sites the best chance of performing well on Google’s search results.
Moving to responsive sites in a Googlebot-friendly way
Once you have your responsive site ready, moving is something you can definitely do with just a bit of forethought. Considering your URLs stay the same for desktop version, all you have to do is to configure 301 redirects from the mobile URLs to the responsive web URLs.
Here are the detailed steps:
- Get your responsive site ready
- Configure 301 redirects on the old mobile URLs to point to the responsive versions (the new pages). These redirects need to be done on a per-URL basis, individually from each mobile URLs to the responsive URLs.
- Remove any mobile-URL specific configuration your site might have, such as conditional redirects or a vary HTTP header.
- As a good practice, setup rel=canonical on the responsive URLs pointing to themselves (self-referential canonicals).
If you’re currently using dynamic serving and want to move to responsive design, you don’t need to add or change any redirects.
Some benefits for moving to responsive web design
Moving to a responsive site should make maintenance and reporting much easier for you down the road. Aside from no longer needing to manage separate URLs for all pages, it will also make it much easier to adopt practices and technologies such as hreflang for internationalization, AMP for speed, structured data for advanced search features and more.
As always, if you need more help you can ask a question in our webmaster forum.
Posted by Cherry Prommawin, Webmaster Relations
What is Google Stamp and what will it mean for marketers?
Google is set to launch a competitor to Snapchat Discover, known as Google Stamp. This new product will bring with it a host of opportunities for publishers and advertisers alike, but it brings with it some challenges too. What do marketers need to know about this new service – and how successful might it be?
How to optimize VR content for search
Virtual reality (VR) has been the talk of the town for a little while now and its marketing potential is getting difficult to ignore. But despite the clear benefits of VR, businesses are still hesitant about diving in. Can VR content be found using search engines? Is it even possible to optimize virtual reality content for search? We take a look at how to do VR SEO.
How to optimize featured snippets for voice search
When it comes to voice search, featured snippets are key. If a searcher is using voice search and expecting a verbal reply, they will not be presented with a choice of results – and where a featured snippet is present, this will be the result read out. So how can you optimize your featured snippets for voice search?
Why SEOs can’t afford to wait around for a mobile-first index
SEO and performance marketing agency BrightEdge today released a new report which sheds light on the steadily widening gap between mobile and desktop search. I spoke to Erik Newton, VP of Customer Marketing and Head of SEO at BrightEdge, about the report’s findings, Google’s mobile-first index tests, and how SEOs can adapt their strategy.
Mobile SEO: The 3 areas that really matter for SEO performance
Mobile SEO is distinct from its desktop counterpart in significant – sometimes very subtle – ways. As mobile usage continues to grow, user behaviors and expectations change too. In this article, we’ll look at three categories in which mobile SEO stands apart, with practical tips to help marketers drive improved performance in each.