Warning: Creating default object from empty value in /home/phxseopt/domains/phoenixsearchengineoptimization.com/public_html/wp-content/themes/enfold/config-templatebuilder/avia-shortcodes/slideshow_layerslider/slideshow_layerslider.php on line 28
 July 2019 | Page 2 of 2 | Linkhelpers SEO

What’s In An SEO Report

/in /by

When you hire an SEO agency on a monthly container, you should be expecting a report every month. Every agency does reports differently, however. But regardless of what it looks like, the report should provide you with all of the results of the agency’s work and the benefits for your business.

This often isn’t the case, however. Most SEO reports either contain too little detail or contain so much information that it is confusing for business owners. This can be very misleading for business owners and cause them to work with an SEO agency for too long even when they aren’t producing the results.

Understanding what to expect from an SEO report can help you find an SEO agency that can trust. And that’s exactly what we’re going to do here.

 

What are the Basics of an SEO Report

There are a few things that an SEO report should contain, they include data on:

  • Traffic
  • Conversions
  • Rankings

These three factors account for the main general goals of SEO: to improve visibility in Google, to increase traffic and to get more customers.

 

What Else to Look For in an SEO Report

This isn’t all an SEO report should contain, however. There are several other things that should be included to make the report readable and valuable.

 

1. SEO Metrics

Metrics allow SEO agencies to present their efforts and results in a format that is easy for clients to understand. Mapping key metrics to graphs can let business owners quickly see how successful efforts have been.

These shouldn’t just be any combination of metrics. These metrics should coincide with your business and SEO objectives. There’s no point doing SEO for the sake of it. There has to be a goal to the process and these are the metrics that should be detailed in your report.

This could include:

  • Traffic to particular pages or parts of your website
  • Rankings on particular keywords
  • On-page stats such as site speed
  • Conversion rates

 

2. Analysis

The metrics mentioned above should be easy enough to understand on their own. But that doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be any commentary on them. There should also be analysis provided by the SEO company that provides some commentary on the metrics and helps business owners to understand them.

This shouldn’t be too technical, however. When techical SEO jargon is used, business owners can be left confused. The more open, honest and plain the commentary is, the better the company tends to be.

 

3. Next Steps

If you are getting an SEO report, the chances are that you will have entered into an ongoing relationship with an SEO company. As part of the report, therefore, there should be notes on what will be happening to your site and social presence next month. If the company can’t explain what they are going to do for you, what are you paying them for.

If you’re not happy with your current SEO report, try our services instead. Get in touch today for a free consultation.

Everything Website Owners Need To Know About Accessibility

/in /by

The Americans with Disabilities Act became law over 30 years ago, but it isn’t until recently that the legislation has applied to website owners. Interestingly, there has also been a resultant rise in law suits related to website accessibility issues. International law firm Seyfarth Shaw reported an increase of 16 percent in ADA lawsuits in 2017, with most of them related to non-compliant websites.

ADA and Website Accessibility

The Americans with Disabilities Act (or ADA) was created to procted people with disabilities from discrimination. Created before the world wide web, it has a very wide scope that covers:

  • Private and public spaces
  • State and local government institutions
  • Employment opportunities
  • Transportation and telecommunications
  • Building codes

 

A background on website accessibility

There was naturally no need for the ADA the account for the accessibility of websites in its original outline. But this changed in 2003 when the Department of Justice published initial guidelines aimed at state and local governments on how to make their websites more accessible.

In 2018, a revised version of Section 508 under Title II of the ADA came into force. This was known as the Section 508 Refresh and it included accessbility standards that were based on the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines is a list of requirements that websites need to meet in order to be deemed accessible. It is a global initiative that was published by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) under the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

Despite all of this, many website owners are still vulnerable to lawsuits.

 

The Problem with ADA and Website Accessibility

If you’re reading this you may think that it is the website owner’s fault when they are hit with a lawsuit. But often that isn’t the case.

The section 508 Refresh is only applicable to local and state government websites. There are no hard and fast rules for commercial businesses or anyone else. What businesses need to be aware of is Title III of the ADA, rather than Title II.

This Title mandate that public businesses remove “access barriers” that may prevent disabled people from accessing the goods and services they offer. It has been argued that any website that sells goods or services should also come under this ruling, even if they have no physical presence. As a result, website owners are under threat of ADA lawsuits.

 

How Can I Protect Myself Against ADA Lawsuits?

In 2018, the DOJ said that they would update Title II to include outlines for website accessibility. Unfortunately, they have yet to make these changes. Until then, the best thing for business owners to do is to use the same WCAG guidelines as used by government organizations.

Making your website accessible to everyone is incredibly tricky. But we can help. For more information on website accessibility, get in touch with our website experts for a free consultation on how we can help get your website in order.

Google’s June 2019 Core Update: What you need to know

/in /by

Earlier this month, on June 3, Google released a new algorithm update dubbed the June 2019 core update. Google has claimed that this is not a massive algorithm update but there are many SEO experts and business owners who think otherwise. In fact, we are still seeing changes and fluctuations in rankings as the algorithm continues to settle.

 

If you are a bit of an SEO nerd, you will know that this is not the first time a big algorithm update has happened this year. Earlier in March, SEOs began to notice big fluctuations in the way that Google ranked particular websites. So much so that many predicted an algo update before Google even announced one. Yet again, however, Google said that it was not a full-on algorithm update and only affected a small section of websites.

If you’re unsure what this June update means for you, we’ve rounded up the leading SEO opinions to fill you in. Here’s what the SEO experts have to say.

 

Moz: Health sites improve despite no changes in SERP features

Pete Meyers of Moz fame was one of the first to notice and comment on the changes. He found that health brands such as Healthline, Verywell Health and Dr. Axe saw big gains as a result of the update.

This was despite no change in SERP features such as the Health Panel. As a result, we can expect that any website who has or doesn’t have content in the Health Panel feature will stay the same over the next few months.

 

Sistrix: More movers and shakers than in March

SISTRIX used their Visibility Index Tool to look at the changes created by the June update from a UK perspective. Looking at data collected in May and comparing it to the most recent data in June, they noticed huge changes in visibility across a number of domains. News websites in particular changed significantly with the Mirror Online and the HuffPost gaining, and the Daily Mail losing out.

This, Sistrix pointed out, set the June update apart from March. In March, only Your Money or Your Life websites (like health websites) were affected. This time around websites in a huge number of verticals appear to have been affected.

 

SearchMetrics: New update reverts previous changes

Marcus Tober, Founder and Chief Innovation Officer of SearchMetrics, thinks that a lot of the changes we are seeing in June is a reaction to the fallout of the March update. In particular, he thinks big, trusted brands that suffered big losses in traffic on March have now been restored. This includes websites like WebMD and Dr. Axe who suffered at the hands of a blanket drop in health website rankings in March.

 

RankRanger: Your Money or Your Life was still affected in June, however

RankRanger looked at a huge number of top 10 search results across the US in a number of different niches. The software provider noticed that fluctuations fell into normal ranges for the most part. But three niches suffered huge fluctuations in particular. They were gambling, health and finance.

Was your website affected by the June update? Get in touch today to find out how our SEO experts can help restore and improve your rankings.

Google Local Inventory Ads: What stores need to know

/in /by

Shopping in physical stores is becoming less and less common by the day. Many customers prefer the ease and speed of shopping online and having stuff delivered straight to their door. As many as 80 percent of customers won’t even visit a brick and mortar store unless they have their inventory online, says a report by Kibo.

The rise and rise of eCommerce is threatening to wipe out many local stores. But there are still opportunities to win online. One of them is Google’s Local Inventory Ads.

 

What are Google Local Inventory Ads?

Local Inventory Ads are a form of Google PPC ad that let physical store display their products at the top of the search engine results for relevant searches. If a searcher is looking for soap near her, a local beauty shop will be able to promote their own soap, for instance.

If a searcher clicks on the ad, they will be directed to the stores local storefront, and online version of their brick and mortar store that lets shoppers see what is on offer, how much it is and then provides directions via Google Map on how to get to the store.

 

What are the Benefits of Local Inventory Ads?

Google’s Local Inventory Ads provide several benefits to physical stores of all sizes

1. Take your physical store online

Google Local Inventory Ads offer a fast and easy way to get your store online and take a piece of the eCommerce pie. You don’t need any other presence and it’s very quick to get started. Best of all, because the searches are local, you’ll be able to tempt people to come and visit your store rather than buy online.

 

2. Showcase your products

Unless you are a huge brand it can be almost impossible to get your products on the front page of Google. Local stores simply don’t have the budget to pay for normal shopping ads. But Local Inventory Ads are different. Because they are local, they are much cheaper and there is far less competition. Any store can get on the front page of Google for relevant searches as a result.

It’s also a great way to build brand awareness. Even if searchers don’t click on your ad and visit your store, they will still see an advert for your business.

 

3. Stand out against competition

There’s a good chance that most if not all of your competitors are not using Local Inventory Ads at the moment. This gives you a great opportunity to separate yourself from the pack and win over a lot more customers.

 

How To Set Up A Local Storefront on Google?

At the moment, Local Inventory Ads can only be used by stores in the US, UK, Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Norway, and Switzerland.

You also need to pass several criteria:

  • Owns a physical store which is open to the public
  • Sells physical products which shoppers can buy without having to pay for anything else (i.e. membership)
  • Physical store must be located in a country where ads will be targeted to
  • Store owner must take precautionary and active measures to secure their customers’ Personally Identifiable Information (PII)

If you do, you’re all set to have your products listed at the top of Google!

A Local Business Guide to Bing

/in /by

Everyone knows that Google is the biggest search engine in the world. But that doesn’t mean you should be ignoring what Bing can do for your business. When you optimize for Bing, it can actually bring in a lot of traffic to your website.

In today’s article, we’ll look at why Bing is actually a great search engine, what it can do for your business and how you can get started optimizing for it.

 

Why Bing is great

Did you know that Bing is the third largest search engine in the world behind Google and Yahoo!? In 2018, for instance, Bing accounted for 4.58 percent of all global searches. Although that may seem small on the face of it, it still accounts for billions of queries.

What’s more, Yahoo! is actually powered by Bing. That means when you optimize your web presence for Bing, you are automatically optimizing it for Yahoo! too. Yes, you are effectively killing two birds with one stone.

 

Expand your reach with Bing

We understand why the vast majority of businesses only focus on Google — we focus most of our attention their, too. It’s the first website most people visit to get answers to their questions after all.

But Bing shouldn’t be ignored! No matter what kind of business you have or where you are based, if you have a web presence optimizing for Bing can bring more traffic to your website.

 

How to Optimize Your Website for Bing

Bing isn’t the same as Google. It uses a different algorithm so what you do for Google won’t be reflected in Bing. They are similar though, and if you can do one you can do the other.

 

Step 1: Register your business

The first thing you should do is to claim your business’ listing on Bing. This gives you control over the way your business appears in Bing’s local results. If you have Bing Local and Google My Business listings both claimed you have covered all your bases.

Best of all, you’ll also have a listing automatically created on Yahoo when you do this because the two websites are connected.

 

Step 2: Have your website indexed

To make sure that you appear in Bing’s search results, you’ll need to make sure that you have submitted your website to Bing. To do this you’ll need to create a Bing account or log in using your Outlook or Microsoft account.

Log in and go to the Bing Website Submission page Fill in the form and you’ll be able to submit your XML sitemap for Bing to crawl.

 

Step 3: Perform SEO

You’ll need to do SEO on your website to make sure that you rank high in Bing just as you do for Google. That being said, you are better off focusing your SEO efforts on Google. You can’t optimize your website perfectly for both search engines so you may as well focus on the one with the most traffic.

If you need help getting started on Bing, reach out to our experts for a free consultation.

What Website Owners Need to Know About E-A-T

/in /by

If you think E-A-T has anything to do with food, you’re dead wrong. It’s not about consuming something tasty, it’s about how well you rank in Google.

In this article, we’ll explain what E-A-T means and why it matters if you’re a website owner and what to do about it.

What is E-A-T?

E-A-T is an acronym that stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness. All three are used by Google to determine how worthy your page and your website is of ranking.

Google is using more and more tactics in order to do so. Today, it doesn’t just look at the keywords on your page or even just your backlinks. It is now taking a comprehensive approach to your page and website’s quality, hence the inclusion of E-A-T.

Let’s look at what each of the factors mean in turn.

 

1. E for Expertise

Google is determined to serve up the best experts in the world on their search platform. That’s why the first thing it considers is your level of expertise.

Let’s take the health niche, as an example. If a health website that offers medical advice wants to have a high expertise score, they should make sure that their content is written by a medical professional and references relevant medical journals.

What counts as high expertise will naturally change depending on the niche you are writing in. Not everyone is able to reference medical journals, after all. But the more authoritative resources you can reference in your writing, the better.

 

2. A for Authoritativeness

Speaking of authoritativeness, that’s what A stands for. Google doesn’t just want you to be an expert on a particular topic, it wants your entire website to be considered an authority.

Google uses several factors to measure the authoritativeness of websites. These include:

  • Customer reviews and ratings
  • Backlinks (the kinds of websites linking back to you)
  • Mentions and citations by other authors
  • Sites where you appear in (such as in guest posting)

In other words, you want your website to be one of the go-to resources in your niche.

 

3. T for Trustworthiness

Google wants to provide safe results for its users. As a result, it wants to reward websites that it considers trustworthy and rank them above other websites.

Part of this is achieved with the above two factors, writing expertly about topics and being a renowned resource. But there is also a technical element, as well. Your website will need to have an SSL certificate if Google is to consider you trustworthy. And if you are an ecommerce store you should go over and above to make sure you are protecting user data.

 

Why E-A-T Should Matter to You

Google has stated that they use E-A-T as part of their Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines. So if you don’t have a good E-A-T score, Google is going to punish you.

If you want help understanding your E-A-T score or want help improving it, our team of SEO experts can help. Get in touch today for a free consultation.

How Often Does Google Update Its Algorithm?

/in /by

If you’ve been keeping track of Google lately, you’ll know that the search engine has been introducing a lot of changes. First there was the March update which saw rankings drop across the board. Then there was the June update, which saw some rankings increase in response. In July, more changes are happening as Google begins to use mobile versions of websites to fill its index.

All this change got us wondering just how much Google does change its algorithm. So in this post we’re going to discover just that. We’ll provide some fun facts about Google, look at how often updates really happen and why tracking these updates is so important.

Some Facts On Google Updates

You may think that three major updates in a few months is quite a lot. But it’s actually nothing compared to the amount of updates that Google makes every single year. This can number in the thousands.

Let’s look at 2018 as an example. Last year, Google reported 3,234 updates to their search engine. That is a huge increase compared to 2009 where Matt Cutts only made between 350 and 400 updates.

If we look at the timeline below, we’ll see that Google is rapidly increasing the amount of changes that it makes:

  • 2009. Cutts released a video stating that Google made 350 to 450 updates to their search algorithm.
  • 2010. Eric Shmidt, then Executive Chairman of Google, testified before the Congress that they made 516 algorithm changes that year.
  • 2012. In the archived page from “How Search Works,” Google published an infographic where it states that 665 launches were approved.
  • 2013. Amit Singhal, Google’s former Senior Vice President, announced in a Google+ post the 890 improvements were made to Search.
  • 2016. Google said they launched 1,653 improvements in a now-defunct page from “How Search Works”.
  • 2017. During an internal Google meeting, it was discussed they released 2,453 Google updates, according to CNBC.
  • 2018. In their latest update via “How Search Works,” Google said they performed 3,234 search improvements.

 

Does Google Update Its Algorithm Every Day?

With so many thousands of updates happening every year, Google must update its algorithm every day, right? Well there are rumors that the search engine makes multiple updates every day.

Most of these changes go unnoticed by everyone, even the most observant SEO won’t notice tiny changes in search rankings. That’s how small these daily updates are. It’s only when updates are huge and cause volatility that they get reported on.

 

Why are Google updates important?

You can be forgiven for wondering what the point of keeping track of all these updates is. If there are so many and most don’t do anything, what’s the point? But keeping track of updates is incredibly important. Big updates can have a huge impact on your business. You need to know when to make changes to keep or improve your rankings.

But that doesn’t mean you have to keep track of the changes. With a reliable SEO agency, like us, you can sit back while your agency does the hard work and makes sure you’re ranking well.

5 Ways to Improve Your Page Speed

/in /by

Do you know page speed is more important than ever before? It can have a huge impact on the way in which you rank in Google. The faster your site, the better you rank and the more visitors will stay on your website. That’s right, when you have a slow site, people leave in droves. In fact, Google has recently claimed that over half of users will leave a site that takes more then three seconds to load.

If you want to improve your page speed, this is the guide for you.

 

How to Improve Page Speed on the Front-end

Everyone sees the front-end of your website. It is the HTML, CSS and JavaScript that make up the way the site looks and works. Making it load quicker here is all about improving design elements.

 

1. Optimize fonts and images

You use fonts and images to make your site look awesome. But did you know they could also be slowing your website down, too?

You’ll need to look at both if you want to make your website as fast as possible. With fonts, try to use standard fonts where possible. These should be embedded as an inline SVG or they should be Google Web Fonts. These are universal fonts that load faster than any others.

With images these should be as small as possible. The bigger the file size, the longer it takes to load. So shrink the as much as possible without sacrificing quality.

 

2. Minify your JavaScript and CSS

You may also want to shrink your code as well as your images. This should only be done if you are a web developer as it can make your code hard to read. But minifying both your CSS, JavaScript and HTML can make your site load much, much faster.

 

3. Choose a content delivery network

A content delivery network is a system that stores a cached version of your website on servers located across the globe. Rather than load your website fresh everytime, CDNs will instantly load up a saved version of your website. This is perfect if you don’t change your site much.

 

How to Improve Your Page Speed On The Back-end

You can improve site speed on the back-end of your website, too. This is more technical, however, and should only be done by an expert.

 

1. Set up a reverse proxy and HTTP headers

A Reverse proxy and HTTP headers work in a similar way to CDNs in that they cahe pages and serve up saved versions to visitors. The benefit of reverse proxies is that you, unlike CDNs, you keep everything on your server.

 

2. Prolong the TTL of your cache

Did you know that caches aren’t stored forever? After a set amount of time they are wiped and need to be loaded again. If this happens often it can take a lot of time. You can increase the Time To Live (TTL) of your pages so that this happens less often.

For more information on increasing site speed, get in touch with our team today.

From July 1, New Websites Will Be Crawled Using Google’s Mobile-First Index

/in /by

In June, the SEO world was awash with news of a new core update. But something potentially even bigger is going to be happening in July.

From the start of the month, Google will be using its mobile-first index on all new websites. This is something Google has been talking about since 2016 and it is finally happening!

 

What is mobile-first indexing?

Mobile-first indexing is when Google uses the mobile (or responsive) version of your website to calculate where you appear in its search results. Google ranks based on a huge number of factors such as site speed, security, bounce rate and content. Initially this was done using the desktop of your website, but not anymore.

From July 1, Google will now only use the mobile-version of your website to work out where you should rank. If you don’t have a mobile version, then Google will revert to your desktop website but it may penalize you as a result .

 

What can I expect from Google’s mobile-first index?

What this means for you will depend on how old your website is and how proactive you have been.

 

New site owners

If you are a brand new website owner then the mobile version of your website of your website is going to be crawled by Google, regardless. This will be true even if your website was created before July 1 if it hasn’t yet been indexed by Google.

The good news is that almost all new websites should be ready for a mobile-first index. It is incredibly rare now that websites aren’t built responsive from the off. Because Google will be automatically indexing your mobile-version, you won’t be notified of this change in Google’s Search Console.

 

Early adopters

If you have already migrated to using the mobile-first index than nothing will change for you as well. Again, you won’t receive a notification from Google because you have already made the switch.

 

Late adopters

Don’t worry, if you aren’t ready for mobile-first indexing and have an old website you won’t be forced to switch just yet. Google is still committed to giving older websites time to get ready for a mobile-first index.

That’s not to say you can hang around, however. You should be doing everything to get your website ready for a mobile-first index. The sooner the better, otherwise you risk getting penalized.

 

Is the desktop version of my site going to stop being indexed?

No the desktop version of your website isn’t going to stop being indexed just yet, especially if you don’t have a suitable mobile responsive website in place yet.

 

When will I know my site is ready for mobile-first indexing?

Google provides tools to see if you are ready for mobile-first indexing or not. Start by using the Mobile-Friendly Test tool to see if you’re ready. You can then use the URL Inspection Tool to check if Google is already crawling the mobile version of your website. If it is crawled by Google Smartphone then the mobile version of your website is being used.

For more information on mobile-first indexing or to get your website ready, get in touch with our search experts.

A Starter Guide to TF-IDF

/in /by

You probably haven’t heard of TF-IDF unless you are a bit of an SEO guru. Otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this article. On the face of it, it looks like a confusing term. It becomes even more so when you learn that it is a form of statistical math.

But you shouldn’t feel confused or intimidated. We’re going to teach you exactly what it means, how it works and how to calculate it.

 

What is TF-IDF?

TF-IDF stands for Term Frequency – Inverse Document Frequency. This numerical statistic is used by Google to workout what relevance a page has for a particular search term.

It works because TF-IDF is a statistical calculation of the frequency a term within a document compared to its frequency in all content across the internet. We can take an article on SEO as an example of this. If Google wants to calculate how relevant an article might be for the term SEO, it can look at its TF-IDF. If the TF-IDF is high, i.e  SEO is mentioned more times in that article than the average across all articles, it suggests that it is relevant.

You might now be thinking that TF-IDF is similar to keyword density. But it isn’t at all.

 

TD-IDF vs Keyword Density

Keyword density is a measure of the frequency of a term compared to all of the words in that article. If a term is mentioned 5 times in 100 words, it has a keyword density of five percent.

TF-IDF is similar to this, but instead of measuring the frequency of a term compared to all the words in a document, it compares it to the frequency of that term across all the words online.

As TF-IDF is more complex, it won’t come as a surprise to learn that Google has started to use TF-IDF more than it uses keyword density.

 

How you can  Calculate TF-IDF

We’ll now look at how to easily calculate TD-IDF without doing complicated math. The first thing to do is to sign up for Ryte. You can pay for the tool but there is a freemium version, too.

  • Step 1. Log in to your free Ryte account and click on ‘Content Success’. You should find it on the left side of your screen.
  • Step 2. Under Content Success, click ‘Go to Analyze’ and input your keyword, the country, and the language you are targeting.
  • Step 3. Click on ‘Start Content Analysis’ and wait for a few seconds until the page displays keyword recommendations and competition.
  • Step 4. Next, click on the ‘Competition’ tab. You should see a list of your keyword recommendations alongside competition.
  • Step 5. To view the TD-IDF, refer to the circles under each competition. Their size and color indicate thea following:
    • Small-sized, pale blue – Low TF-IDF (Low Relevance)
    • Medium-sized, aqua blue – Medium TF-IDF (Medium Relevance)
    • Large-sized, dark blue – High TF-IDF (High Relevance)

The higher the relevance, the tougher it is to beat your competition.

When you hover over the circles, you’ll see the relevancy score of a keyword (that is, its TD-IDF) and number of times it is mentioned in a page.

Contact Us

0 + 4 = ?

Phoenix Web Design

2 N Central Ave #1800, Phoenix, AZ 85004

Phone: (602) 888-2865

Copyright Phoenix SEO Company, LinkHelpers • Sitemap

Top Digital Marketing Agency in Phoenix