Google’s recent SERP changes and tests: everything you need to know. Over the past couple of weeks, Google has been spotted introducing some interesting changes to the look and layout of its search results pages. The first, as we reported in our round-up of key search marketing news on Friday, is that Google appears to have increased the length limit for title tags in the SERPs to around 69-70 characters. Title tags on mobile have lengthened even further, some now clocking in at a whopping 78 characters, giving rise to a bit of a dilemma for SEOs wanting to optimise for both desktop and mobile.
Featured snippets have also grown in size, while descriptions now seem to be able to fit a larger number of characters onto one line, although the overall length of descriptions appears to be staying the same for the moment. Meanwhile, Google is also conducting some A/B testing of different link colours, in a move reminiscent of its infamous “fifty shades of blue” test in 2009. Meanwhile, on mobile… Achieving an SEO-Friendly Domain Migration - The Infographic. Why My Google Organic Search Web Traffic Dropped? HTTP to HTTPS: An SEO's guide to securing a website. Google Glossary: Revenge of Mega-SERP.
The Google landscape is constantly changing. Two years ago, I created the Mega-SERP, and within days it was already outdated. This time, we've set out to create a more permanent glossary of Google features – a reference that we'll update as the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages) change. If your focus is on organic SEO, why should you care about the wider world of Google features? Put simply, because rich SERP features are no longer the exception to the rule. Across 10,000 keywords tracked daily by the MozCast project, this is what we saw as of September 1, 2015: Of course, this is just one data set, but even with a healthy margin of error, the story is clear – Google SERPs are dynamic and feature-rich. Table of Contents This glossary is organized by the sections in the graph above and is an attempt to cover major SERP features currently seen on Google.
New & In Testing Let's start with what's new and currently in testing. Compare Mortgages Search: "should I refinance" Car Loan Calculator. The 3 Most Common SEO Problems on Listings Sites. Listings sites have a very specific set of search problems that you don't run into everywhere else. In the day I'm one of Distilled's analysts, but by night I run a job listings site, teflSearch. So, for my first Moz Blog post I thought I'd cover the three search problems with listings sites that I spent far too long agonising about. Quick clarification time: What is a listings site (i.e. will this post be useful for you)?
The classic listings site is Craigslist, but plenty of other sites act like listing sites: Job sites like Monster E-commerce sites like Amazon Matching sites like Spareroom 1. The landing pages on listings sites are incredibly important. For example, if I search "Jobs in Manchester", you can see nearly every result is an automatically generated landing page or category page.
There are three common ways to generate these pages (occasionally a combination of more than one is used): Those definitions are still bit general; let's clear them up with some examples: Aside Solution. Why We Can't Do Keyword Research Like It's 2010 - Whiteboard Friday. Off with Your Head Terms: Leveraging Long-Tail Opportunity with Content. The author's posts are entirely his or her own (excluding the unlikely event of hypnosis) and may not always reflect the views of Moz.
Running an agency comes with many privileges, including a first-hand look at large amounts of data on how clients' sites behave in search, and especially how that behavior changes day-to-day and month-to-month. While every niche is different and can have subtle nuances that frustrate even the most hardened SEOs or data analysts, there are undoubtedly trends that stick out every so often which are worthy of further investigation.
In the past year, the Zazzle Media team has been monitoring one in particular, and today's post is designed to shed some light on it in hopes of creating a wider debate. What is this trend, you ask? In simple terms, it's what we see as a major shift in the way results are presented, and it's resulting in more traffic for the long tail. 2014 growth Keyword matching Hummingbird Why is this happening? Implicit vs. explicit Persona creation. 15 SEO Best Practices for Structuring URLs. It's been a long time since we covered one of the most fundamental building blocks of SEO—the structure of domain names and URLs—and I think it's high time to revisit. But, an important caveat before we begin: the optimal structures and practices I'll be describing in the tips below are NOT absolutely critical on any/every page you create.
This list should serve as an "it would be great if we could," not an "if we don't do things this way, the search engines will never rank us well. " Google and Bing have come a long way and can handle a lot of technical challenges, but as always in SEO, the easier we make things for them (and for users), the better the results tend to be. #1: Whenever possible, use a single domain & subdomain It's hard to argue this given the preponderance of evidence and examples of folks moving their content from a subdomain to subfolder and seeing improved results (or, worse, moving content to a subdomain and losing traffic)
. #3: Keywords in URLs: still a good thing. A Visual Guide to Keyword Targeting and On-Page SEO. (Last Updated: October 24, 2014 by Rand) How do I build the perfectly optimized page? This is a challenging question for many in the SEO and web marketing fields. There are hundreds of "best practices" lists for where to place keywords and how to do "on-page optimization," but as search engines have evolved and as other sources of traffic — social networks, referring links, email, blogs, etc. — have become more important and interconnected, the very nature of what's "optimal" is up for debate. My perspective is certainly not gospel, but it's informed by years of experience, testing, failure, and learning alongside a lot of metrics from Moz's phenomenal data science team. I don't think there's one absolute right way to optimize a page, but I do think I can share a lot about the architecture of how to target content and increase the likelihood that it will: larger version In the old days of SEO, "on-page optimization" referred merely to keyword placement.
Larger version Uniquely valuable. 301 Redirect or A Google Webmaster Tools Change Of Address? Or both? It is both, obviously. When you carry out an effective domain migration, there are a lot of changes at stake. If you follow a clear process for your site, things usually go according to plan. Have you heard the adage about car mechanics always have the worst cars? When we migrated from SEOgadget.co.uk to SEOgadget.com I forgot something – the Google Webmaster Tools change of Address.
I decided that because we had a 301 redirect strategy in place, all would be fine. We’ve moved! It’s worth just taking into account there have been a few things happening to the site (that I can think of), here they are: – Techcrunch mentioned John-Henry’s post about the FullContact API on the 22nd August – I disavowed a list of crappy inbound links to the SEOgadget.co.uk domain on the 15th August 2013 But that’s it.
Take a look at these charts: Google Analytics – visits from Google Organic Search Here’s Google Webmaster Tool’s Search Queries Report data: Any real conclusion? Follow: | | | How to do Keyword Research in 90 Minutes. The author's posts are entirely his or her own (excluding the unlikely event of hypnosis) and may not always reflect the views of Moz. Everyone's been in the position where there's a million and one things going on, but a client (or you) still requires top-notch keyword research. So something needs to get done in a pinch. Searching around the internet and learning more about the trendiest aspects of keyword research (because let's face it, either it's been a while since you last did it or it's your first time doing it) can take a ton of time.
There are literally millions of things you could be reading about it; actually 15.4 million if we want to be precise. Unfortunately, no one has time to sift through 15,400,000 results and identify which ones are timely, relevant, or even correct. We begin this case study with a fictitious client, Joey Antipodean, who lives in Manhattan and really loves kangaroos. Using the Google suite of tools (40 minutes) (Figure 1) (Figure 2) Image Optimization Checklists for Beginner to Advanced SEOs by Vertical Measures. The Graph Every SEO MUST Show New Clients. Every SEO professional has received that dreaded phone call from a client who is very anxious, and very worried about how much longer it will take to see results.
This usually happens about 3-4 months into an SEO campaign, and it can really ruin your day. After all, you explained to your client that SEO doesn’t happen overnight. It takes months, and in some cases years to get a return on investment. Thankfully I have a solution that will help put an end to this. The Slope of SEO “The Slope of SEO” is a graph I created for our SEO sales team at The Ocean Agency. As you can see “The Slope of SEO” graph shows unrealistic SEO and realistic SEO over time. Conclusion There are many ways we can all manage our client’s expectations better. Mega-SERP: A Visual Guide to Google. The days of 10 blue links are over, and Google's search result pages seem to be evolving on a daily basis. We often see new SERP features in isolation, so I had an idea—what if I put all of them (or, at least, all of the big ones), on one mega-SERP?
The following is a visual guide to the state of Google in 2013. A few disclaimers This is not a real Google SERP, although it is constructed from real results. Let's dive into these 24 distinct features, which I've grouped into five color-coded buckets: "Local," "Advertising," "Knowledge Graph," "Vertical," and "General. " Local SERP features (A) Local Carousel – 1.0% (0.3%) There are two types of carousels—local and knowledge graph—but only one on any give SERP. (G) Local Knowledge Panel – 6.3% (3.4%) Some organic results are blended with a local listing and map pin, and clicking on them pulls up a Knowledge Graph panel (previously called an "authoritative one-box").
(J) Local "Pack" Results – 7.3% (8.4%) (M) Local "Near" Results – 5.1% (4.1%)