Google dropped a bombshell of a document just a few weeks ago in the form of their Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide. The guide is meant to give SEO wonks and concerned site owners a 10,000 mile high view of what they need to have all the needed SEO quality factors present. In many ways, the guide reads like a more in-depth version of our SEO Checklist for 2018 we recently published. What’s most interesting about the guide is how it puts to rest many rumors regarding SEO ranking factors. For instance, the guide clearly outlines the importance of URL length and readability when
“How long does SEO take to work?” It's a question that's heard often, and truthfully, professional marketers simply don't know how to answer it. But instead of saying that, some marketers make vague promises as to when SEO will start to measurably pay off. The truth is that there is no definitive answer. All time frames are estimates based on past experience, but experience also tells us that everything can be variable. Think about it like being on a long roadtrip with the family. Everyone in the car wants to know how long it'll be until they get to where they're going. The driver want to
SEO is constantly changing, yet so many companies stay stuck in the past when it comes to best practices. Starting right now, your Atlanta digital marketing team can pledge to keep up with modern changes and cut out bad habits in 2018 to find greater success. Here are five SEO New Year’s resolutions you can adopt to stick with the times and achieve better performance with less effort in the year ahead. 1. Strategize Content Around Keyword Groups Rather Than Picking Topics at Random Studies from thorough companies like SEMrush reveal that using specific keywords isn’t as important as covering certain topics. In fact, the top-ranked
The rise in search engine use by the average person lead to an explosion in visibility for small businesses. These businesses may not have been able to compete for customer attention through traditional media and advertising. Changes to Google’s search algorithm have made practices that raise search engine visibility all the more important. Because of Google, we all now care about HTMLs security, mobile-friendliness, and creating quality content. Heck, if it weren’t for Google, most of us in the Atlanta internet marketing industry would be out of a job. But are the opportunities Google has created staying the same? Or are they shrinking? Recent changes
Adding just a few quick upgrades to your current digital marketing toolset can make everyone’s lives easier on your team — just in time to serve as a Christmas gift of sorts. It’s the end of the year, and we’re all feeling a bit clocked out counting down the days at our Atlanta digital marketing agency until we get our Holiday break. In these last few days, starting a new project or making a significant change to your digital marketing practices can feel like the last thing you want to do. But you don’t have to write a 1,000 page strategy document to make positive
2018’s almost here, and search engine traffic will continue to play a growing part in nearly all businesses’ success in the months to come. Why? Because the vast majority of people perform research online before making a big purchase, and more often than not they’re turning to search engines to get started. 43% of all website traffic comes from SERP (search engine results page) referrals. And thanks to ad-blocking and things like ad blindness, people are 8.5 times more likely to click on a result that appears organically on the SERP compared to a paid ad. Even small, local businesses have a strong incentive to
Accelerate Mobile Pages, called “AMP” for short, create a mirror version of your website that’s stripped down and designed to load ultra-fast on mobile. Creating an AMP version of your content can therefore improve user experience for those accessing your site via mobile device. But the changes don’t benefit every type of company or content. AMP coding standards leave out most Javascript, for instance, taking away functionality like social sharing buttons. You are also left with barebones CSS, so your page style and formatting will be rather bleak. For pages that rely heavily on design or layout to guide conversions, AMP may therefore be
Google search users have noticed that the length of the descriptive snippet text found under search results has grown significantly over the past few weeks. Search queries now tend to yield results with descriptions going much longer than the ~160 character cap used for meta descriptions. These expanded snippets have been around the 230 character mark, on average. A spokesperson from Google confirmed the change to Search Engine Land, stating that it was made recently. Having a longer description makes a search result listing stand out compared to others on the page, potentially increasing CTR. It also provides more information to the user, helping them
Many digital marketers suspect that a high CTR (click-through rate) on a web page can boost that page’s organic ranking on a SERP (search engine results page). Thanks to some experimentation by Larry Kim of WordStream, we now have compelling evidence that this effect could definitely be real, especially for long tail queries. Based on this information, business websites seeking to gain ranking over competitors could earn top SERP spots by improving CTR. Read on to learn more about how Mr. Kim arrived at his conclusion as well as some advice from our Atlanta SEO agency on how to use this information to
Many marketers and business owners have heard how using Schema markup and earning rich snippets on search engines can boost their click-through rates. With the right use of Schema markup, you could earn more-prominent search engine placements and improved data fetching from your website. In turn, your website gets more clicks and a higher likelihood of earning new customers. But what, exactly, is the difference between rich snippets and Schema markup? And how does each benefit you in its own way? Well, as an expert Atlanta SEO company, we’re here to clear the air. Put simply: Schema markup is a coding practice that enables many