7 Google changes that will make or break your SEO

Each year, Google changes its search algorithm over 600 times. Each year, there are more updates than a year before. 2015 was a rollercoaster for marketers who were trying to keep up with Google… and we can expect much more yet to come in 2016.
While many of these changes are minor, Google occasionally rolls out a major algorithmic update (such as the Hummingbird) that affects search results in significant ways.

Is your SEO strategy up to scratch for 2016?

This very question will be floating around the offices of many small to large businesses as we head into an ultra-competitive (and ultra-technological) era in organic search. Are you ready?
As always, it pays to keep on top of the latest trends to remain ahead of the curve. So I teamed up with Sam Hurley, who is the head of search at Midas Media in the UK, to write this article to explore how to stay in front of Google as it evolves at a light speed.
Let’s get in gear and dig into the most important shifts in Google shaping the landscape for search marketers in 2016 and beyond.
Featured Snippets: Be the Answer
Remember the days when Google search would retrieve ten blue links to websites? SEO was more straightforward then. Keywords in content, meta data, and inbound links.
Today, blue links to websites are giving way to the Knowledge Graph (their very own colossal vault of information). It’s a much more complex territory. Google no longer thinks of itself as the middleman. Google wants to be “the answer.”
As part of Google’s Knowledge Graph, Answer Boxes have become a prominent feature in the new Google SERPs (search engine result pages).
This is Google’s reaction to our ever-decreasing attention spans and growing expectancy of everything ‘instantaneous.’ Google measures success by how quickly they get the user from question to answer.
The more real-estate you can obtain on the SERPs; the better. It means showing up in Answer Box results is now a critical component of any SEO strategy.

The optimal search marketing objective for your most profitable keywords in 2016 should be to own top positions in AdWords result, a position #1 Direct Answer Box, a local listing, a standard organic listing in top position followed by further box results lower down the page. You should also show up in images, videos, Twitter feed, Knowledge Graph, and maps, which are the features Google is increasingly displaying in search results.
You need to look beyond your website if you aim for complete domination of the search results in 2016. As Pete Meyers of Moz pointed out, SEO in 2016 is about ‘being the answer.’
Feed the Hummingbird by using schema markup to increase the changes of better indexation by Google.
Today, many featured snippets in Google require a more elaborate content strategy. Here’s a relatively new, accordion-like development of the Answer Box called “People also ask”:
Using keyword research tools, you can craft your writing in a way which answers these questions succinctly yet leads the searcher to more detailed information. Over time, Google should acknowledge and select your results over the competition, while your cliff-hanger Answer Cards can attract more clicks.
In case you want to learn more about how to optimize for the featured snippets, here’s an insightful video from Moz; Optimizing for The Knowledge Graph.
RankBrain: Machines are Taking Over
“Machine learning is a core transformative way by which we are rethinking everything we are doing,” said Google’s Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai on the company’s earnings call.
RankBrain is Google’s new machine-learning algorithm with artificial intelligence at its core, which better interprets search queries and learns from each action taken by searchers. In 2015, “a very large fraction” of the millions of queries a second that people type into the Google’s search engine were interpreted by RankBrain. The results – according to Google – were “better than expected.”
For instance: ‘gimme pizza close’ currently returns results for a kids’ TV show. What if all of a sudden, there was an influx of searchers entering this query (for example, due to a marketing stimulus) who wanted takeaway pizza close to their home? RankBrain would measure user behavior, learn from data, and alter the results to show just that.
Putting it simply, Google is becoming smarter all the time but this Artificial Intelligence has really turned things up a notch.
Local SEO (on-page and off), schema markup, user experience, content quality and relevancy are key takeaways here.
Structured Data: Soon a Ranking Signal
John Mueller, Google’s Webmaster Trends Analyst, let it slip that search results with rich snippets may soon rank higher
This would make sense to Google as it would aid RankBrain in its perception of results. Google wants the webmasters to implement structured data so that there is reduced data ambiguity. All the signals point to increased importance of Structured Data in 2016, so make it one of the fundamental parts of your website audit in 2016.
To quickly view how the Structured Data appears on your website, you can use Google’s Structured Data Tool. Read more about Structured Data on Google’s Develop blog here.
Mobilegeddon: The Mobile Update
This Google update was set to debunk websites that were not mobile friendly in mobile SERPs. It produced crazed media-hype but actually turned out to be something not-so daunting. This update has had rather negligible impact thus far.
Nevertheless, while Google has given website owners ample time to improve their mobile experience, the honeymoon may soon be over. Expect search becoming more mobile in 2016, and so you want to stay ahead of this trend.
Moreover, it is still absolutely critical to own a mobile-responsive website to appease user-experience (another Google ranking factor) and increase conversions.
If you haven’t made your website mobile yet, you need to. Fast. It’s the standard of the world we live in; people expect a great mobile experience at all times and if you can’t offer that, they will leave your website pronto.
Accelerated Mobile Pages are next on the horizon. It’s the new open source project from Google, set to enable web pages to load almost instantly on mobile devices. Look out for its mainstream release in early this year.
You can use Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool to learn if there are issues with your website.
Secure Web: HTTPS as a Ranking Signal
One of the first questions Google asks when evaluating the quality it’s search results is: “Can I trust this website?”
Similarly to the Mobile Update, the HTTPS update turned out to be another non-event that marketing blogs built up into frenzy. Webmasters frantically switched over to HTTPS, the secure version of HTTP, in a bid to gain the competitive edge. However, not much happened so far.
However, taking note of Google’s shifts now means better preparation for the future. Google may well give the HTTPS another push soon; weighting rank signals heavily towards HTTPS websites where user data is captured, such as e-commerce sites.
Switching from unsecure to secure protocol is a large and complex job, make no mistake.
Be sure to weigh it up: if you’re an e-commerce store or apply a log-in feature, you should be running HTTPS regardless. If you own an established blog, it may not be worth encrypting just yet. Starting a website from scratch? Go HTTPS.
Bad Links: Real-Time Penguin Update

Google’s John Mueller (almost) confirmed the real-time algo update will be released in early 2016.
This will be welcomed as a god-send for many webmasters and marketers feeling the long, drawn-out brunt of the link-based, algorithmic Google ‘penalty’ known as Penguin. Searchmetrics reported that Google has already started rolling out new quality updates in January this year.
The fresh update to Google’s algorithm means more immediate positive ranking results should ensue if you rectify any detrimental assets i.e. low quality links, spammy anchor text and ratio of exact match (providing the rest of your website is solid). There’ll be less waiting for severe drops in rankings to become elevated.
On the other hand, it will become just as easy to get slapped with an algorithmic debunk in rankings if you are breaking Google’s Quality Guidelines, whether you are aware of them or not. Most penalties and filters are automated if your website gets flagged for violation.
Watch your step where links are concerned – now is an appropriate time to investigate your link profile with a keen eye to ensure there are no loose ends. Know your risks if you are engaging in old-school SEO tactics. Google has become very smart in detecting spam.
Check out the actionable link building strategies for 2016 Sam Hurley shared “from experience” in my interview with him on Search Decoder.
Google My Business and Local Results Shake Ups
Aligning mobile search with local results; a Google study indicated that local searches lead 50 percent of mobile visitors to visit stores within one day.
In addition, the rise of voice search means that search queries are more in tune with location now than ever:

Source: Search Engine Watch

The need for local visibility is undeniable and Google have recently made these positions especially coveted…
For example, local search packs in the SERPs now show only three listings instead of seven.
In addition, local businesses have welcomed the new Google My Business, which replaces the failed Google+ Local experiment, and provides a hope for better, integrated management of local listings.
Lastly, Adwords Ads are continually taking up critical room above the fold on both desktop and mobile devices. On mobile in particular, not owning a top 3 ad position for a sales-focused query simply means – you’re not going to get a look in.
Spot the organic:
Businesses are increasingly confronted with a choice to pay for Adwords if they attempt to dominate search results and be ‘top of mind’ on their most important keywords.
Is your SEO set to break or make? What other critical Google changes are seeing on the horizon that will affect SEO in a major way?

Digital 4 Trade: Top rank or money back offer.

Top rank or money back offer.

 

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Our cheap and affordable search engine optimisation (SEO) packages will help you reduce your marketing costs while improving sales, without compromising on quality. We pride ourselves in providing quality and effective solutions, this is what makes our approach different from others not just Seo in Coventry but all over the UK. We practice white-hat SEO and meticulously follow Google Webmaster Guidelines when formulating strategies that will work for your business.
Our services are tailored to be relevant in 21st century search engine optimisation and cater for new business websites and existing websites. Our services include on-page and off-page SEO geared toward providing excellent user experience with the right solution for our customers in accordance with Google’s latest updates. In addition to a full website audit, we provide three SEO packages. All our packages come with Google onsite set up, search engine submission and a dedicated SEO specialist to provide you with a personalised service and cater for all your needs. In addition, we carry out extensive keyword research and analysis for all our clients. Further details of our SEO packages and site audit are presented below.
As well as this we run a social media campaign on your behalf. This is ideal to promote an event, promote a launch, reach a new audience or simply increase awareness of a product or service. We will work with you to plan and a social media campaign that will make a real difference. During the campaign we will fully manage your social media publishing, content creation and engagement in relation to the campaign. We will use our expertise to ensure your campaign achieves the maximum return.
More and more prospective buyers are using social media to check out potential suppliers and get a feeling for their values and personality. Many business owners and marketers want to get involved in social media to help them develop relationships with this wider audience of prospects and to engage with customers on a more personal level. But often you don’t have the time, or don’t know how to get started. It’s all so confusing with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google Plus, and lots of others – what to start with? What to use each one for?
That’s were our fully trained and qualified professionals come it, we do the setup, management and engagement on your behalf, leaving you to do what you do best.

Merry Christmas!
Anthony Johnson
Digital 4 Trade

Seo is more than just link building and well written content.

Seo is more than just link building and well written content.

Having a professional Seo company look at the structure of your website is a must if you really want to make sure that search engines rank your website at the highest level. If your website's pages contain certain errors, search engines (mainly Google) will pick up on the errors and flag them.

See if your website has any critical issues

Critical errors will have an immediate effect on the rankings of your website on Search engines, Broken links are the main cause.

Most website have broken links. If you update your web pages frequently, you may find broken links that need addressing.

Hosting errors are another issue, the cheapest servers are not always the best. Use UK hosting from a reputable company, preferably with a instant support facility via chat or local rate phone number, last resort a fast response ticketing system.

Server errors can cause major problems with search engines. Slow loading pages can be overlooked by the search engines and some not even indexed.

This also delivers a bad customer journey.

Your website pages have to communicate with the search engine and your visitor, not having titles on your pages or duplicate titles can cause the most important of your pages not to show in search also.

There are tools out there to check this for free, but they will not fix the issue.

So your website has no critical issues, but still not ranking?

There are many influencing factors to ranking on search, you really need to go to town on your pages content and the message you want to deliver.

One major issue for people is page content and the pages themselves being duplicated or even being very similar to each other, there is no penalty for duplicate content, but one page will usually be chosen to be displayed to the visitors search and the other give no or very little rank.

Web pages with no content or little text content won't get high rankings, also very importantly check the spelling.

If your web pages are linked with and without www, and with both http and https, there can be canonical URL problems. Ask your server provider to make the changes, they are usually happy to do so or get a pro to add a canonical attribute .

Some website designers accidentally block search engine robots. If a web page blocks search engine robots, it cannot get high rankings.

A very high click depth can be an indicator that people cannot find a page easily. Web pages that aren't easy to find should not contain important content.


Temporary redirects are very common, these can cause problems as do pages with to many out bound links.

There has be a lot said about the websites meta description and if it influences rankings, but this is still very important, this is the wording that shows in the search bellow your title, your visitors will use this as a quick reference as to weather your site is the one they need. Also a duplicate meta tag will flag the page as poor quality.

Websites can always be improved!

The information above will help you on your way to having a high ranking website, there are many more factors that you can find on my other posts.

Here is a list of other issues to look out for.

Redirect same URL
Upper case URLs
Rel. link to domain
Canonical URL used
Meta Robots None
Meta NoFollow
Meta NoIndex
Meta NoSnippet
Anchor text wasted
H1 tag keyword
H1 tag empty
H1 tag missing
H1 tag wasted
Image problems
Perm. redirect (301)
Other redirect (303)
Temp. redirect (307)
Forbidden (403)

Checking these things will make sure that your web pages is optimised.

You can contact us to do the audit and repairs for you anytime.

The mobilegeddon aftermath, was it as bad as expected?

The mobilegeddon aftermath

Since Google announced the new mobile ranking algorithm, the media have been predicting the end of high rankings for non-mobile friendly websites calling 'mobilegeddon' on mass too all.
Google have released the new algorithm now. so is it as bad as expected?
Do you still have to convert your web pages?
What exactly is Google's new algorithm?
On 21 April, Google released a ranking algorithm that changes the way web pages are ranked in Google's mobile results. According to Google, web pages that do not display correctly on mobile phones, will get lower rankings than before:
According to Google, there's less that 5% more mobile-friendly websites from two months ago, when Google announced the new algorithm. The update doesn’t apply to all devices or results though:

• it affects only mobile device search rankings
• it applies to individual pages of a site, not all of the website
• it is a global algorithm update that affects search results in all languages

Many webmasters changed their websites - was it worth it?

Well we predicted this change would and was happening before Christmas, we noticed back then that changes were happening to mobile search and we advised all our clients to "get mobile friendly"  in December.

The mobile results haven't changed dramatically for many websites, the effect seems to be small. Some websites saw dropped rankings for some of their main keywords but not for all.

Google did say that secure websites would get an advantage, a lot of webmasters added SSL certificates in a rush and encountered many problems that were hard to fix (broken security certificates, broken plugins, less relevant AdSense ads, etc.). So far, HTTPS sites do not seem to rank better but we will be keeping an eye on things and information will be posted we found.
The new mobile algorithm could be similar. A new mobile website can also cause problems:

• for many websites, mobile traffic is worth less than desktop traffic
• if you change an effective web page with high conversions and replace it with an untested mobile design, conversions might drop
• Contact a reputable company that are specialists in mobile websites.

Anthony Johnson
@anthonyjohns0n

www.digital4trade.co.uk

Google mobile penalised?

Oh Boy! Looks like this just got Real!

if you need help or to find out if your site has been penalized contact us asap.

www.search-find.co.uk