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    Month: November 2018

    How Apple Is Changing The Mobile Internet

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    Remember back when Google focused on the user? Back before organic results were overtaken with PPC ads and knowledge graphs – and back before ads triggered by last night’s searches? It was a simpler time. Apple’s bold new moves hearken back to this simpler time, and their emphasis on user experience is likely to be a big win. 1. Ad blocking As mobile has exploded, the rise of mobile advertising has meant big profits for Google. Ads have made the mobile experience somewhat undesirable, with bandwidth usage and speed being the primary factors. It’s no wonder that one of the new “Ad blockers” allowed by Apple was named Peace. Click-through-rates on mobile have long been suspiciously high, thanks to the fingers of users navigating free apps filled with advertisements. We once audited a manufacturing company’s PPC account to find the amazing clickthrough in their app ads were simply toddlers playing a construction game. This abuse is what prompted change. With one fell swoop, Apple allowed ad blockers at a level that both apps and browsers can be cleansed of ads. Early feedback is that mobile browsing is quite pleasant, and ad blocking is likely to go mainstream. This isn’t just a big shift for mobile ads, but also for remarketing/retargeting ads. With remarketing, ads can be displayed based on sites you’ve visited, shopping carts you’ve abandoned, or even searches you’ve made. It’s a great way to stay in front of – or even annoy – your audience. With one fell swoop, ad blocking apps are likely to snuff out remarketing opportunities as well. 2. Spotlight “Apple’s spotlight is the stealth search engine you’ve been using,” says Jason Calacanis. Spotlight is fueled by Bing, and provides search as part of the operating system. No need to even visit a website to search. And app results are often prioritized above web results! There are also no ads in Spotlight, and no privacy concerns. It’s hard to say how Spotlight will evolve, but “Applebot” has been crawling the web since Spring 2015. It even follows directives in robots.txt specifically for Googlebot! This is likely to make a small dent in Google’s business, regardless.   Reactions from the advertising industry are across the entire spectrum of responses: Some say users won’t go to the trouble of setting up ad blocking, others see this as an ad-pocalypse. But with change always comes opportunity. And without ads everywhere, where to spend ad dollars? SEO (search engine optimization): As long as machines are trying to rank content, there will be place for SEO. Merchants will want their products to come up first on Amazon, Google, Etsy, and everywhere else buyers are searching. PPC (pay per click): Most ad blockers are likely not going to block PPC ads. But aren’t Google and Facebook just giant ad networks with search/social features?! ASO: App search optimization to get those deeplinks in apps in front of Spotlight. App developers will always want to outrank competitors in app stores, as well. Native Ads: Native ads look like content on the site itself. Advertorials, featured and sponsored content can be hard for both humans and software to pick out. A brave new world lies ahead!

    5 Biggest SEO Fails seen in 100+ Web Redesigns, and 2 to watch out for!

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    With Hyper Dog Media turning 11 this month, we having been looking back at the most common SEOproblems created by website redesigns. On some website redesigns, we’ve been on the team preventingthese SEO killers from happening. But in the vast majority of cases, we are brought in after a web redesign kills organic – and sometimes referral – traffic. Here are four potential problems we see time and again 1. 301 redirects of old pages As website technologies have evolved, so have URLs. An oft forgotten part of website redesigns is the 301 redirecting of old page locations. Traffic can shrink instantly, but the conventional point of view was that Google will figure it out. I’m not sure if that approach ever worked – for anyone – but especially now it is absolutely vital to 301 redirect old page locations to their new equivalents. Not only should URLs be redirected from the previous version of the site, but of ALL previous versions of a site. Doing so helps these key visitor groups stay happy: Visitors that have bookmarked a page: Don’t make these folks return to Google when they could stay on your site. Search engines that have ranked a page: If a page is ranking well, you don’t want to lose that! Webmasters that have linked to your page: Dead links tend to get removed. But also, 301 redirects preserve the rankings boost from these inbound links. Visitors to other sites that have followed a link to your page: Referral visitors are notoriously impatient when links are dead. Having dynamic content in various stages of the web’s development has often meant having various suffixes on URLs: .shtml, .pl, .php and/or many different parameters. Have you redirected these? Consider pulling ancient page URLs from analytics, archive.org, and even old backups. We’ve seen rankings boosts among clients that justify this level of obsession with 301 redirects! 2. Handling the development site Blocking During the development phase, Google can sometimes discover new website versions. It is fascinating the many ways Google can discover content… until they find and penalize for duplicate content! Unblocking You blocked the development version? Excellent. Now don’t forget to unblock when you go live! Whether it’s a robots.txt file, password authentication, or robots metatags on the pages, we’ve seen these blocking techniques go live with the new site. Make it part of your launch checklist to remove these. The consequences of lost indexed pages, traffic and rankings are severe and all too easy. Removing In the rush to launch a new website, the development server might be left behind. These old subdomains or subdirectories have a way of showing up, though! Make sure you nuke that old server (from space, it’s the only way to be sure!). Or, just take it offline. 3. 404 error pages With larger web development changes, the 404 error page can disappear. Or it might start returning a 302 redirect! If your site has changed CMS, web server, or scripting languages make sure a friendly 404 error page comes up for missing pages, has analytics code on it, and returns a code 404. 4. Canonical tags Canonical tags are a wonderful way to prevent duplicate content penalties. Unfortunately, some things can go wrong. We’ve seen sites that describe every version of a page as canonical, which is like communicating noise to Googlebot. It’s worse than saying nothing at all. One valid implementation we’ve seen causing trouble is the use of relative canonical tags. We’ve seen a tag such as this: <link rel=”canonical” href=”/services” /> show up on several subdomains/ protocols: http://www.site.com/services http://site.com/services https://www.site.com/services https://site.com/services This can confuse Googlebot, as both pages are describing themselves as the canonical version. It’s best to use an absolute URL, and make sure your server isn’t spitting this out for both http and https: <link rel=”canonical” href=”https://www.site.com//services” /> 5. Old dirty sitemap.xml files The sitemap.xml file is an excellent way to communicate URLs to Google, along with freshness and priority. But we encounter many sitemap.xml files that are full of these problems: Old, dead, missing pages URLs that redirect URLs that do not match what Google can crawl, or those listed in canonical tags And here are two more problems we can see likely to happen in redesigns this year: 6. HTTPS Implementation HTTPS was added as a small ranking signal in the last year, and many sites have made the switch. Or have they? Often image files, 3rd party scripts, or other elements mean that not all page elements are https. Google has let this slide, but recently Google said last week that may change. 7. Mobile Friendly pages The mobile update ranks pages individually, so it’s important to test your site’s most important landing pages on mobile devices. But also check devices are indeed triggering mobile sites to show: Even big brands such as Noodles & Company can discover their mobile site isn’t being triggered. Websites are meant to be changed. Not only do prospects expect fresh content and design at proper intervals, but search engines do too! With Google’s newest updates, there are more changes happening than ever. Change is good. Embrace change, and redesign that site – but be careful not to make these common mistakes! PSST! Need a Free Link? Get a free link for your agency: Would you like our monthly take on the changing world of SEO delivered to your inbox?Subscribe to the Hyper Dog Media SEO Newsletter HERE! When you subscribe, each newsletter will contain a link idea for your business!

    The Constant Evolution of Google: What’s In, What’s Out

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    Google is constantly evolving, as the internet itself has evolved. Some of the many questions Google has asked to keep itself relevant include: How are people searching? How should results be formatted? How many answers does the user want? Are recommendations from friends helpful in this search? Is this a local search? Website QualityGoogle just unveiled a Panda Update the SEO community is calling “Panda version 4.2”. While the update is just beginning a months-long rollout, it is likely to be looking at many of the same technical SEO issues as previous Panda updates. There are likely many more Website Quality criteria being evaluated by Google as well. User ExperienceMetrics such as Click-Through-Rate, Bounce Rate, and “Time On Site” all can give insight as to user experience on a site.  These can be influenced with videos, widgets, and marketing. Do the presence of these mean a high quality site? Not always, but it’s likely possible for Google to understand quite a bit – thanks to human “website quality raters”, big data from analytics, YouTube, so much more. Inbound LinksGoogle has invested blood, sweat and tears into cleaning up the link ecosystem. Their previous policy of ignoring poor quality inbound links meant 10 years of quick-and-dirty link building. But in the last three years, link earning and content marketing have become the best way forward. Google isn’t about to abandon inbound links as a major ranking factor in their algorithm at this point: They have invested too much into it! Recent comments from Googlers have included “I wouldn’t focus on link building just now” and “never ask for a link” are easily misinterpreted. Google treats good quality inbound links as a positive review, and would rather have these happen organically – instead of part of a campaign. Links should happen because of the quality of content, the helpfulness of the site: Seeking undeserved positive reviews, and inbound links without earning them, has been out for some time. Google+ Less ImportantGoogle+ is no longer required on YouTube. This ramping down of Google+ has been happening since last year, with zero user backlash. Google+ usage was too low to provide great social signals data. Many people were forced to get an account, so the numbers were impressive – but engagement was always horribly low. It always seemed to us that SEOs, and other marketers, used it begrudgingly. Social signalsTwitter admitted 5% of it’s users are likely fake, with other source setting the number at 10% instead. That’s still pretty low. And if it’s easy for an independent audit to measure, Google can easily see and disregard that data. In a user’s social feed, they are curating content to help their audience. Links send traffic, and could be a ranking signal at some point. It’s been two years since Google helped debunk a study showing social signals influenced rankings. The future is likely to have social signals as part of the formula for some audiences. PSST! Need a Free Link?  Get a free link for your agency: Would you like our monthly take on the changing world of SEO delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to the Hyper Dog Media SEO Newsletter HERE! When you subscribe, each newsletter will contain a link idea for your business!

    The SEO Implications of Getting “Hacked”

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    Websites are increasingly being hacked on autopilot. Intruders are using scripts to crawl the web and infect sites using outdated or insecure software. Including plugins, add-ons, and themes. Security is necessary for web marketing to be successful, and SEO is particularly vulnerable.   1. Spammy ContentIntruders typically want to use a website’s existing authority in Google to push the most spammy content. Usually with affiliate links to casinos, adult content, pharmacies, etc. New pages, outside of the view of your normal website, are often created. Once Google finds this kind of spammy content on your site, your rankings can suffer. And your site might even be classified as “Adult in Nature.” That can mean a complete loss of search viability for prospects with “Safe Search” turned on in their search engine of choice! Google has said that even comments are taken into account when considering overall page content, so having entire sections of pages vulnerable can be particularly dangerous. 2. Thin and Duplicate Content PenaltiesThe pages that intruders create are usually low quality content. To build pages of unique content on hijacked websites, shortcuts are followed. These shortcuts can mean a Google Panda penalty for your site as well! Thin pages and duplicate content matching other hacked sites are enough to set off Google’s alarms. 3. Ads and Affiliate linksWith Google’s new updates centered around quality, it’s easy to also set off alarms when your site is suddenly hosting ads and affiliate links for all sorts of things. Google’s quality guidelines take into account various factors such as ads above the fold, links to known affiliate networks, etc. If these are in your intruder’s monetization strategy, your rankings in Google are very likely to suffer! 4. Over Optimized ContentOutdated and aggressive SEO techniques are still often used by intruders, and that can mean over optimization penalties as well. Repeating a keyword several times in a title tag, or endlessly in page content, is an aggressive SEO technique that used to actually work. But not with modern Google! With spammy automated content created by an intruder, hacked websites are again vulnerable to Google penalties. 5. Growth and Loss of Indexed PagesFor years, Google has been wary of sites that grow their page count by a thousand percent overnight. And when the intrusion is fixed, it can look like a massive cull to Google, as 90% of the site’s content is suddenly uncrawlable. This instability is bad both ways in the world of search engine crawlers, and can take a while to undo. 6. Spammy Inbound LinksTo get the intruder’s pages to rank on search engines, an automated link campaign is often created. The words “automated link campaign” carry the connotation of low quality, and that’s especially true here. Links can be from other compromised websites, adult sites, and just the absolute worst of the web! There are various ways to research what links have been created, but it’s difficult to catch them all! Many will have been de-indexed by Google, but still counted. Link cleanup & disavowal could potentially go on for years. 7. Getting Onto a BlacklistThere are sites, including Google, that may be warning off potential visitors to your site. Google will warn potential visitors right from their search results! But Antivirus software programs from Norton, McAfee, and many others are also scanning websites. Once you are on one of their blacklists, they can potentially block visitors. You won’t even see those attempted visits show up and bounce in analytics. They don’t even get to view your site and trigger analytics code before being blocked. And it can be hard to get off of these blacklists, too. Most companies don’t even think to check blacklists after cleaning up an intrusion. So what can you do about this? Well prevention is key!When it comes to website intrusions, prevention is crucial. Even large companies do not pay enough attention to security until an intrusion happens. Software updates are just the beginning for prevention. Consider monitoring admin logins, file system changes, and more. Catching an intrusion early on will be vital as well. If warnings are in webmaster tools, it could be a long road back for website visibility. PSST! Need a Free Link?We’d like to help you promote your own business, hoping more work for you brings more work our way! Subscribe to the Hyper Dog Media SEO Newsletter HERE!

    Google’s “Quality Update” Rewards Positive Behavior

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    Google’s updates have been focused around penalizing bad behavior: low quality links, duplicate or thin content, ad heavy pages, doorway pages, and more. But at the beginning of May, a mysterious Google update was released that looks to be more focused on boosting the right sites. Google officially claimed there was no update, then later admitted to a “quality update” – and to the core algorithm! 1. Good Design  Structure of your site:  Websites structured around their main audiences tend to be structured (with “silos”) around their main keywords. This site structure makes it easy for both prospects and Googlebot to understand your site. With breadcrumb navigation, it’s very easy to communicate site structure. And with schema support, it’s an even better idea. Variety of content: Are you mixing in photos, videos, infographics, slides and the many other kinds of content? Consider this a quiz (which is another piece of content). Which of the types of content are on your site? 2. Good Content Original content/not syndicated: Syndication is more confusing than ever, despite the existence of the canonical tag. Sharing on your site first is vital. For authority sites such as linkedin.com, business2community.com and others, the best results come with rewriting a unique shortened version of your content. Links to related content on your site:  When a site visitor is reading about one topic, it’s a great idea to showcase related articles. This too can have an effect, as you are linking to other articles about your main keyword or concept. Hummingbird can understand concepts, but it’s always been valuable to talk around your main keywords. Having good content all around a certain topic makes a site the authority on that topic. Not too many ads, no deceptive ads:  SEO Glen Gabe noticed sites with ads hidden in the content sunk in this Quality Update. Some sites were hiding ads in with their content, making ad links look very similar to links to content on the site. Gabe points this out in his excellent analysis of sites hit by the Quality Update stating, “I also saw deceiving ads that blended way too much with the content”. Not thin: Thin content such as tag pages or short articles won’t make the cut. It’s ironic that tweets are now at the top of many Google search engine result pages, but that Google also abhors thin content. Don’t be fooled by Google’s new-found love for those 160 characters: Good articles tend to be fully thought out pieces of 1000 WORDS or more! You might get by with 450 words, but really try to make your content deeper articles of 650 words plus. Numbers are nearly as important as the quality of the piece though. No low quality user generated content:  User generated content sounds like a dream come true for many site owners, but policing the quality of comments, uploads, and topics can become quite a task. Sites such as answers.com and wikihow.com were hit in the Quality Update, and, have begun cleanup as well. Want to learn more about the update? Visit Glenn Gabe’s analysis or this great article at SEMPost. PSST! Need a Free Link?  Get a free link for your agency: Would you like our monthly take on the changing world of SEO delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to the Hyper Dog Media SEO Newsletter HERE! When you subscribe, each newsletter will contain a link idea for your business!

    Conversion is King

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    Content is helpful, but conversion is everything. The point of content – and usability in general – is to meet business objectives. Any business objective can be a conversion of sorts: bookmarking, social sharing/liking, video views, time on site, lead generation, add to cart, and hopefully even completing the sale! By measuring each step, brands can understand where their site can improve it’s usability and contribute more to the bottom line. 1. It can be easier to increase conversion than to increase traffic Increasing conversion also increases revenue, and can be easier than increasing traffic – up to a point. 2. Even mobile apps can easily conduct conversion optimization tests Mobile testing platforms now allow conversion and usability testing without rolling out new versions of your app. Solutions exist from Optimizely ,Visual Website Optimizer (VWO), Liquid, and Artisan Optimize Mobile App. 3. You should test EVERYTHING User Experience professionals agree: Take their advice, but “always keep testing”. Conversion case studies show all sorts of factors can influence conversion: Logos and headers Design style of the the site Product page designs Product descriptions and overall copy writing The text of your call to action buttons Images Use of video (usually boosts conversion, but not always!) Purchasing path through the site 4. Website redesigns should use, not reset your data Now if the site is just awful, start with a redesign. But a website redesign that starts over can sometimes be a horrible waste: Another shot in the dark, with hope and prayer. Consider instead a redesign process based on evolving the website with small changes, continually tested for improvement. But definitely start from having your website in a “good place”! Not sure of next steps for your site? Time to start testing – or maybe a redesign from that “good place”. Need a good interactive agency or website design firm? We’ve worked with agencies and designers. And we partner with the best! Talk to us about your needs, and we’ll introduce you to the right match. PSST! Need a Free Link? Get a free link for your agency: Would you like our monthly take on the changing world of SEO delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to the Hyper Dog Media SEO Newsletter HERE! When you subscribe, each newsletter will contain a link idea for your business! See you at SearchCon 2015! SearchCon! Are you interested in learning about the latest in search from the experts? Join us at SearchCon 2015 – The Digital Marketing and SEO Conference! SearchCon is April 9th and 10th and will be held at Beaver Run Resort in beautiful Breckenridge, Colorado. Register before March 2nd and take advantage of early bird pricing! http://searchcon.events/

    Kick-Start Your SEO in 2015

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    The search engine optimization (SEO) industry has certainly evolved these last few years. The many Google updates – and their sometimes heavy-handed penalties – in addition to an explosion of mobile traffic have shaped the rules for SEO and online marketing. When we look at what’s working at the end of 2014, we see just how much everything has changed. Big changes in SEO will certainly continue for 2015 and beyond. Here are six things to focus your efforts on in 2015: 1. Mobile If you haven’t already, it’s time to take a mobile-first approach with responsive website design. As mentioned in last month’s blog all about mobile, Google has a new tool (and new expectations) around mobile friendliness. Test your site here:https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/ 2. Rich SnippetsThese underlying webpage code elements help Google and other sites understand when to show review stars, customized descriptions, and more. All of which are vital to your site ranking and click through rate. Consider: A study last year showed an average rankings increase of 4 positions when rich snippets were implemented. In one case study, 30% more visitors clicked through from search results to a site with rich snippets. John Mueller of Google recently requested that examples of rich snippet “spam” in Google be sent directly to him. It must be working, and it must be valuable, if Google is looking for spam! There are many examples of different rich snippets at http://schema.org, a site and format created by Google, Yahoo and Bing. Some types include recipes, products, events, locations, people, ratings, etc. And other formats are also being provided by social media sites: Facebook open graph tags, LinkedIn cards, Twitter cards, and even Pinterest pincards. Consider how this tweet of a site using twitter cards looks better than the standard tweet: When twitter is given data in a twitter card format, they provide a much richer experience for viewers of that tweet. And there are many different types of twitter cards too: Galleries, large images, video players, etc. 3. Universal Analytics Google analytics is finally getting an upgrade. In the past, data about site visitors was lost if they visited several of a brand’s website properties, switched devices, or had an extended period of time between visits. Universal Analytics fixes that and even allows custom dimensions, as well as extreme customization. The system came out of beta testing in 2014, and will be a requirement at some point. Is it on your radar to transition? If not, better get to it! Google will not be providing new features to regular analytics and will eventually force webmasters to make the switch. 4. Link Disavowal Google’s Penguin penalty has made this a necessity. Do you know where your site has links? Most webmasters do not. And many links that were key in the past must now be disavowed in Google’s Webmaster Tools. That is the price we pay for Google’s ever-changing formula! Here are some possible sources of problematic links: “Site wide” footer linksAre other sites linking to you from every page or in their footer? Google no longer sees this as a positive thing. Links from 2004-2012If your SEO plan included creating links during this period, you should get a link analysis performed. Even if Google’s guidelines were being followed, it’s vital to make sure these links are still the kind Google wants to see. Low quality linksYou know these when you see them. Would you visit the site a link is on? Does Google still see any authority there? These are important considerations for your links! Links from penalized sitesSites that were once in Google’s good graces might now have switched hands or been penalized. Negative SEOSEOs used to debate whether any site’s rankings could be hurt from the outside. Now, it’s commonly accepted that negative SEO is possible and happening throughout the web. Some sites are building low quality links, links on penalized sites, etc. pointing to competitors’ websites! 5. Migrate Your Site to HTTPS Are you planning to migrate your entire site to HTTPS? Recent thoughts from Google are making this a more important consideration! A member of the Google Chrome browser team recently commented that anything less than HTTPS is like leaving the front door unlocked. On the search side, HTTPS has been identified as a minor ranking signal – and migrating your site should be considered. Be sure you don’t create duplicate content by accident though! 6. Use Content Marketing for Link Authority Content marketing is  the new link building. It’s authentic marketing that can also boost your site’s rankings (but it must be done with an emphasis on quality outreach). When done correctly, content marketing brings: social sharing brand visibility inbound links (with authority) referral traffic Search Engine Optimization will always be ever-changing: Technology is moving at breakneck speeds and search engines have ever-changing criteria and expectations. Having these six items on your radar will help carry you nicely into the new year. And then some. The year 2016 may be completely different, but these are good solid investments of time and money. Need a good interactive agency or website design firm? We’ve worked with many and partnered with the best. Talk to us about your needs, and we’ll introduce you to the right match! PSST! Need a Free Link?Get a free link for your agency: Would you like our monthly take on the changing world of SEO delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to the Hyper Dog Media SEO Newsletter HERE! When you subscribe, each newsletter will contain a link idea for your business!

    April 2015 Did you survive Google’s Mobile-pocalypse?

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    One of Google’s largest updates in years happened last month. Did your mobile rankings survive what many were hailing as the end times for mobile traffic? It may not be as bad as expected for your site – but certainly beaware of the risks and rewards to make an informed decision. Here are some questions to ask yourself: 1. Are you indeed mobile friendly? If you see a “Mobile friendly” label next to your site in Google’s mobile search results, you are definitely mobile friendly. If not, Google’s tools may tell you what to fix. First, try Google’s “Mobile Friendly Tool”: https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/ But there are caveats: If resources such as CSS or JS are blocked, the tool could give a false positive. And if you aren’t seeing those labels next to your site in Google’s mobile search results, there must be a reason. So to be sure, run this tool on your site as well: https://developers.google.com/webmasters/mobile-sites/mobile-seo/?hl=en For people that pass the mobile friendly test – and even those that have the label – this tool will give the next items you should be working on. Because staying ahead of Google’s algorithm is a good investment of time and energy. 2. What percentage of organic traffic is on a “mobile device?” Everyone should know the percentage of their traffic on mobile. Many assume that tablets are included in the “mobile device” designation, but that isn’t true. Google count tablets more like desktop users, and expects the desktop version of your design towork for many of them. To find the your site’s mobile traffic percentage, click on Audience > Mobile > Overview in the left sidebar of Google Analytics. While you are in there, compare the percentage to last year: Your mobile traffic has likely grown greatly! 3. How soon can you fix the problem? If you missed the deadline, no worries: The update is ongoing. You can fix anytime, and google will notice shortly after. Unlike Penguin, no waiting a year on this update. Use Google Webmaster Tools to request a recrawl of fixed pages quickly. PSST! Need a Free Link? Get a free link for your agency: Would you like our monthly take on the changing world of SEO delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to the Hyper Dog Media SEO Newsletter HERE! When you subscribe, each newsletter will contain a link idea for your business!

    8 Things We Know About Google’s Upcoming Mobile Update

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    Google is implementing a mobile update come April 21. They have been releasing small details, and here is what we know so far: 1. The penalty is on a page-by-page basis:  Instead of judging an entire site, Google will assess the mobile friendliness of each page. This is very unlike Google Panda’s penalties: Usually a small section of a site can potentially impact the entire site by spewing duplicate and/or thin content. If your site is too difficult to change in time, worry first about your site’s most important organic landing pages: Make sure they are mobile friendly, and disregard other areas of the site. 2. Google is currently showing labels for mobile-friendly sites in their mobile search results:Here is what the labels look like in mobile searches:   This is actually the most important of all tests: If your pages are showing the label, you’ve passed the mobile friendly test. 3. Come April 21, sites will start to see the ranking changes: Mobile friendly pages will see increased rankings, while unfriendly pages will see a decrease in rankings. 4. Bigger than panda or penguin: Google has relayed that this update is going to be larger than Panda or Penguin. The rankings of many pages are likely to be effected. 5. The update starts on April 21, and rolls out over a week: Do not breathe a sigh of relief on April 21 and stop checking. Instead check mobile friendliness labels, rankings and traffic levels daily for the week. 6. There are not degrees of mobile friendliness: Binary: There are not degrees of mobile friendliness. Even one issue is detected, and the URL will be treated as NOT mobile friendly. 7. The update is ongoing: No need to wait a year after you’ve implemented the fix. Instead, changes will be sensed on the next crawl of your page. Of course, you’ll want to use Google’s Webmaster Tools features to get pages reindexed quickly! 8. Some tests are inconclusive: When you spot the “Mobile Friendly” label on your page in Google’s mobile search results, you know your page is in the clear. But tool errors have been noted in Google’s testing tools: If pages are flagged in Webmaster Tools as Mobile Unfriendly, it can take a while for the errors displayed to clear once fixes are implemented. Some tests can fail or report a false positive when resources such as CSS or JS are blocked. Google has never given notice of an impending deadline like this. It’s a bold experiment to get the web moving in what is clearly the right direction. But can sites be changed in time? It’s a tough deadline to meet for most companies. PSST! Need a Free Link?Get a free link for your agency: Would you like our monthly take on the changing world of SEO delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to the Hyper Dog Media SEO Newsletter HERE! When you subscribe, each newsletter will contain a link idea for your business!

    Google, The Internet Police Force, Aims At Mobile

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    Google is quickly becoming the self-appointed internet police force. To be fair, it sure is nice to have Google warn us when a website may be compromised and spreading malware. Google recently gave some false positives, but otherwise does a good job of keeping the internet a safe and happy place. Now Google is going a step further and is targeting mobile experience. With dramatic increases in mobile search over the last several years (and decreasing desktop search), Google is on a mission to identify mobile-friendly design and usability. Google is again changing the face of the web by mandating these features for sites that wish to rank highly in search results. Text vs Images In the early days of the web, browsers did not support multiple typefaces / fonts. Designers used jpg and gif images to create buttons for their menus and navigation, but search engines couldn’t read the words – missing an important signal about the URLs being linked to. A compromise had to be made, and for designers it felt less than ideal. The advent of web fonts have breathed life back into web design, but it was a difficult transition for many. Site Speed Slow website loading times are repulsive to Google in a couple of different ways: Not only are Googlebot’s crawlers tied up, but user experience suffers as well. Google can see bounce rates increase and knows they didn’t deliver the “right result” in those ten blue links. Ads Above the Fold Google’s own advertising system helped create a world of sites filled with ads. Users developed ad blindness and ad blockers, but usability still suffered. Having ads at the top of the page became a signal of poor quality to Google, and they rolled out an algorithm update specifically targeting these designs. Moving the ads meant a reduction in revenue for many sites, but changes were made to preserve the sweet flow of Google traffic. Mobile Google’s latest improvement for the web is happening in mobile. Last fall, they started testing labeling which results were mobile friendly, showing tags next to sites on mobile devices. Google has announced a big change is coming in April for their mobile search results: sites will be severely penalized for a lack of mobile usability. Labels will be given to mobile friendly sites, too. It’s likely that many sites will see a drop in ranking when this goes into effect. Google and Bing both understand mobile is their most important battleground for marketshare, and Google assures us the change means “users will find it easier to get relevant, high quality search results that are optimized for their devices.” For businesses, it will be vital that all pages pass Google’s Mobile friendly test, check Mobile Error Reports in Webmaster Tools and watch for common mistakes on mobile. Not sure of next steps for your site? Time to start testing – or maybe a redesign from that “good place”. Need a good interactive agency or website design firm? We’ve worked with agencies and designers. And we partner with the best! Talk to us about your needs, and we’ll introduce you to the right match. PSST! Need a Free Link? Get a free link for your agency: Would you like our monthly take on the changing world of SEO delivered to your inbox? Subscribe to the Hyper Dog Media SEO Newsletter HERE! When you subscribe, each newsletter will contain a link idea for your business!