Conclusion

Mobile plays a key role in any SEO strategy today. By avoiding these aforementioned mistakes, you can optimize your website for mobile and improve search rankings across the board.

The post 5 Big Mobile SEO Mistakes appeared first on Improve My Search Ranking.

Google made the announcement last week. According to Google, this change was made to make it easier for searchers to find content easily and quickly.

“At Google, we’re always exploring new ways to help people find what they’re looking for quickly and easily. Earlier this year, we launched a redesign of the search results page on mobile for a more modern experience that’s easier to scan and navigate.

Today, we’re making browsing search results more seamless and intuitive with the introduction of continuous scrolling on mobile devices.”

A much-needed QOL upgrade for mobile users

While paginated results are not a big problem on desktop devices, clicking on tiny links to go to subsequent pages on smaller mobile screens is an issue that affects mobile searchers as well as content publishers.

Now, it would be easier for mobile searchers to scroll through an almost endless list of search results on their mobile results. We believe the success of TikTok — mainly supported by its continuous scrolling interface design — would have played a key role here.

The endless stream of content keeps engagement high. On Google SERPs, that endless stream of content would also help searchers find the content they are looking for.

Benefits for publishers

But how does this change affect content creators, SEOs, and website owners?

According to a 2020 study, the click-through rate on the second page of Google search results is less than 1 percent. That is because search engine users rarely click on a result that isn’t on the first page.

Apart from being inconvenient, it may also have something to do with the perceived quality (or lack thereof) if a website result didn’t make it to Google’s first page.

By blurring the line between page one and page two and removing the inconvenience that comes with viewing the results on the second page, lower-ranked results are also expected to receive a lot more clicks and traffic.

What’s next?

If you get a substantial amount of traffic from mobile searches in the U.S., you may see an increase in organic traffic.

At the moment, this change hasn’t been rolled out globally — but we expect a global rollout soon after.

The post Google is updating mobile search with continuous scrolling appeared first on Improve My Search Ranking.

H1 heading tags are still used as one of the key things to optimize on a web page.

However, its use has some confusion. More specifically, there is an argument over how many H1 heading tags can be used on a web page. There is also some doubt regarding its importance and whether or not Google still uses the H1 heading tag to determine what a web page is about.

In this article, we will:

• Discuss more about the H1 heading tag and its uses,
• Share results of a recent survey by SEO professionals indicating their opinions on how to use the H1 tag,
• See what Google has to say about the H1 heading tag, and
• Share our recommendation on what you should do in case you are not sure.

Let’s begin.

What is the H1 heading tag?

H1 heading tag normally refers to the main heading of a web page. It is often very similar to the meta title of a web page.

In normal circumstances, it is assumed that the H1 heading tag represents the title of the web page and/or the main contents of a page.

The heading tag is created as <h1>Heading</h1> in HTML.

How do SEO professionals use the H1 tag?

As mentioned earlier, there is some doubt regarding whether or not you can have multiple H1 heading tags on a web page. Recently, Cyrus Shepard conducted an online survey on Twitter that showed the following results.

This survey showed that almost 57 percent of SEO professionals believe that only one H1 heading tag should be used per page.

You will notice that most SEO audit tools (e.g., SEMRush and Ahrefs) also recommend using only one <h1> per page.  However, there is a fairly sizable percentage of people who believe that it is okay to use multiple H1 heading tags per page.

So, what does Google say about it?

Multiple H1 heading tags and Google’s recommendation

Surprisingly, Google does not restrict using just one H1 tag per page. In fact, Google says there is no upper bound or lower bound limit at all. You can use as many H1 tags per page you want, or you can use none at all.

According to Google’s John Mueller:

“You can use H1 tags as often as you want on a page. There’s no limit, neither upper or lower bound.  Your site is going to rank perfectly fine with no H1 tags or with five H1 tags.”

“Our systems don’t have a problem when it comes to multiple H1 headings on a page.”

Moreover, if a web page does not have an H1 tag, it may still rank for keywords in the H2 title.

When someone asked the same question and confirmed it with John, he responded:

“Of course.  

Will it still [rank for the keywords in H2]? I don’t know if it will still but it can. It can, absolutely.”

In response to these questions, John Mueller also provided some more context regarding the use of heading tags. He said:

“Headings on a page help us to better understand the content on the page.

Headings on the page are not the only ranking factor that we have. We look at the content on its own as well.

But sometimes having a clear heading on a page gives us a little bit more information on what that section is about.”

And this is something that is certainly true. In the early 2000s, when Google search ranking algorithms weren’t smart enough, they used to take strong signals from heading tags to determine the content of a page.

But that was a long time ago.

Google is now smarter than ever and is perfectly capable of understanding the contextual meaning of a web page and then ranking it accordingly for the right queries.

Our recommendation

For 99 percent of online content, we do not recommend using multiple H1 tags — despite the explicit confirmation by John Mueller.

It is important to understand the role of heading tags in modern-day SEO.  While keyword-rich heading tags may give you an occasional keyword ranking bonus, that is not the purpose of these heading tags anymore.

Headings and heading tags on a web page should be used primarily to structure your content and to improve the readability experience of your website visitors.

The right heading structure can also help search engines understand the content and various sections of your web page — especially for long-form content.

Any keyword ranking bonus is just that … a bonus. Therefore, it should not be the primary focus.

And most web pages tackle a single topic, which should be represented by a single H1 heading tag. 

Let us know what you think about H1 heading tags and how heading tags should be used in modern-day SEO.

Related Posts:

• On-Page SEO Guide
• Meta Description Best Practices
• How to Make a Good Headline
• Headlines That Work
• Headline Performance

The post H1 Tag Best Practices SEO appeared first on Improve My Search Ranking.

In simpler words, mobile-indexing means Google crawls your site from the perspective of a mobile browser and uses that mobile version for indexing and ranking the site in the SERPs.

This step by Google was taken keeping in view the growing importance and influence of mobile traffic and mobile devices. By December 2018, 50 percent of all websites on the web in the Google search results pages were from mobile-first indexing.

Now, Google is planning the mobile-first indexing to be applied to all websites within the next 6 to 12 months. Webmasters may have received notices from Google about this via Google Search Console.

This message clearly implies that Google is becoming more proactive when it comes to fixing mobile-first indexing issues. Notifying website owners about potential issues and giving them a timeline for applying mobile-first indexing to all websites within the next six to twelve months is a bold move.

Some of the potential mobile-first indexing issues may include:

• Video issues
• Page quality issue
• Missing image

If you have received this notice, you should actively take steps to resolve these issues as soon as possible. Google is serious about mobile-first indexing. If you don’t resolve the problems on your site, that would likely have a negative effect on your website’s rankings in the SERPs and the amount of organic traffic you receive.

There are plenty of suggestions and mobile-first indexing best practices that you can follow to make sure everything is in order. Here are a few of them:

• Make sure Google can crawl your resources. Don’t abuse the disallow directive.
• Use the same meta robot tags on mobile and desktop sites.
• Make sure the content is the same on both mobile and desktop versions of your site.
• Make sure both versions also have the same structured data.
• The meta metadata on both versions of the site should also be the same.
• Follow the Better Ads Standard best practices, so the placement of ads don’t affect the search rankings.

For more best practices, click here.

The post Google mobile-first indexing to be applied to all websites within 6-12 months appeared first on Improve My Search Ranking.

With more traffic comes more conversions, sales, and money. Tracking all of these factors is the key to online success.

Keeping that in mind, Google has decided to officially introduce a new conversion metric — the Relative Mobile Conversion Rate, which is being referred to as Rel McVr.

What is the Relative Mobile Conversion Rate?

The Relative Mobile Conversion Rate metric measures the ratio of desktop conversion rates in comparison to mobile conversion rates. In other words, it tells you how is your mobile conversion rate competing with the desktop conversion rate.

With this information, online marketers and businessperson can identify gaps in mobile performance and take necessary steps to remedy the situation.

Google explained the Rel McVr in the following words:

“As more and more of your customers are using mobile devices, you need to ensure your mobile conversion rate is keeping up, and maintain your revenue.

…The high traffic share for mobile, with lower conversion rates, will show your stakeholders that there is a gap the company will need to bridge by improving the mobile site.”

Desktop conversion rate vs. Mobile conversion rate

Depending on how your website is designed, your niche, and audience, you may be getting a different conversion rate on desktop and mobile devices.

That is normal.

In fact, Google stated that mobile conversion rate would typically remain lower than the desktop conversion rate. The reason is that mobile users are mostly in the research phase and don’t tend to shop a lot.

Lina Hanson, a conversion specialist at Google, suggested that you should aim to get at least a 50 percent mobile conversion rate. Anything less than 50 percent may indicate serious problems in the site’s mobile version and customer journey. She also recommends targeting 70 percent Rel McVr by the end of 2019.

“I would recommend that you set a target for your Rel mCvR when you start working with site speed and conversion rate optimization. Make sure you’re above 50% now – and then start going after 70% within 2019,” said Lisa.

Click here to read the announcement blog post by Google.

The post Google introduces Relative Mobile Conversion Rate metric (Rel mCvR) appeared first on Improve My Search Ranking.

Over the last few years, these voice assistants have been getting a lot of attention and popularity.

Because of this, the market for voice search is expanding rapidly.

This has changed the way the average consumer searches for product and information on the web. At the same time, it has also shifted the way digital marketers, SEO professionals, content creators, and online business people cater to their audience and potential buyers.

According to a recent report by emarketer, the usage of voice assistant has increased from 102 million U.S. users in 2018 to 111.8 million U.S. users in 2019. It is an increase of 9.5 percent in one year.

These numbers mean that now nearly 40 percent of the internet users in the United States of America and 33.8 percent of the overall population use a voice assistant.

Over the next two years — by 2021 — it is expected that the percentages will increase to 42.2 percent and 36.6 percent respectively, and the total number of voice assistant users in the U.S. will reach 122.7 million.

Mobile voice assistants vs. Smart speakers

It is not surprising to see that most people use voice assistants on their smartphones. They are, of course, more accessible on the go, and they have been around for far longer than smart speakers.

However, smart home speakers have also been gaining traction recently. The report estimates that 77 million users in the U.S. will use smart speakers this year, and this number is likely to hit 88 million in 2021.

As you can see, they are not too far behind than users of voice assistants.

The study also revealed that 32 percent of people own a smart speaker, and 71 percent of them use voice commands on a daily basis.

What does the future hold?

Voice assistants and smart speakers are getting more integrated into our daily lives. As this technology becomes more readily available to users in the form of integrations with other household items, such as TVs, appliances, refrigerators, cars, wearables, etc., their usage will increase at an even faster pace.

The everyday typical activities performed via voice assistants include getting directions, making phone calls, playing music, and finding nearby stores and shopping outlets, which directly affect businessmen and online marketers. If you are an online business person or marketer, you should focus on voice search and integrate it into your overall marketing and content strategy.

Click here for the full report.

The post Voice Assistant Usage is Up by 9.5% in 2019 appeared first on Improve My Search Ranking.

However, not every Google Ad campaign is a success.

The efficacy of a paid search campaign heavily depends on your strategy and execution. You have to be tactical in how you plan your paid campaign and meticulous in the way you execute your strategy.

Following are 5 Google Ads tips that will help you improve CTR and conversion rate.

1. Competitor analysis

When it comes to Google Ads, one of the most important aspects is successful competitor analysis.

You may have a brilliant strategy in mind, but that may not be the correct one. Moreover, there is no way to learn whether your strategy is the right one or not unless you run your campaigns and spend a sizeable chunk of your marketing budget on it.

That is not always an option for newbies and smaller businesses with a  limited marketing budget. Thorough testing of ideas isn’t always a wise choice.

That’s why detailed competitor analysis is so crucial.

Identify competitors that have already found some success with paid campaigns. Analyse their paid campaign strategies. See what they are doing well and adopt the same strategy. You can always add more to it from your side and improve upon it.

Tools like SEMRush and SpyFu allow you to see your competitor’s paid campaigns, the keywords they target, the ad copy they use, and more.

Instead of shooting in the dark, you can make more intelligent and data-driven decisions with competitor analysis.

2. Write inviting and engaging ad copy

Ad copy often plays the most important role in increasing click-through and conversion rates. When creating copy for your ads, think from your customer’s perspective. Understand their emotions, identify their pain-points, and then base your ad copy around that.

Here are a few tips for creating a compelling and engaging ad copy:

• Appeal to the emotions of your potential customers.
• Use statistics whenever possible to increase credibility.
• Mirror the user’s goal in your ad copy.
• Creating an engaging headline that grabs your reader’s attention and encourages them to read further.
• Utilise the display URLs to full effect by adding important and relevant keywords for users.
• Preemptively respond to common objections, questions, and curiosities in your ad copy to minimise barriers.
• Focus on the benefits, not the features of your product or service.

3. Don’t forget negative keywords and exclusions

It is easy to lose hundreds of dollars by targeting the wrong keywords in a Google search campaign. You have to be mindful of the keywords you are targeting if you want to use your budget efficiently.

You can decrease your expenses and improve results from your ad at the same time by using negative keywords and exclusions.

For example, if you are selling only women’s handbags, you can use the negative keywords list to exclude keywords, such as “men’s purses”, “men’s handbags”, and “men’s wallets”, to make your ads more targeted and cost-efficient.

Similarly, you can also exclude placements to exclude business categories where you do not want your ads to show. This can save you irrelevant clicks and extra expenses.

4. Be mindful of mobile traffic

Mobile traffic has been on the rise. It has now officially surpassed desktop traffic. The volume of traffic coming from mobile devices is only going to increase in the near future, and for that, digital advertisers need to be ready.

You are not only supposed to have a mobile-friendly website to serve to mobile visitors, but you also need to leverage any tools available to make your ads more compelling and attractive to mobile users.

This includes leveraging mobile-exclusive ad extensions, such as “app promotions” and “call-only”. The former ad extension allows you to get more app installs, while the latter one enables a potential customer to call the business directly.

These are vital tricks to increase engagement and ad value.

Moreover, don’t forget that real-estate becomes all the more important for mobile traffic. Because of limited screen size, you need to have the most important part of the information in the first line of your landing page. This will encourage a higher engagement rate and conversion rate.

What’s next?

The above-mentioned tips will help you achieve a better CTR and conversion rate. The next steps would be to measure your ad performance, test different variations of your ads, and refine the entire process to optimise the results.

The post 4 Google Ads tips for improving click-through rate and conversion rate appeared first on Improve My Search Ranking.

One thing — that we didn’t even realize that we wanted — has been missing, though: popular dishes.

Now, with the help of machine learning, Google Maps will also recommend a restaurant’s most popular dishes, so you will have some idea of what to order when you get there.

As the announcement said:

“Whether you’re craving a tea cocktail in Brooklyn or sampling Pacific Rim cuisine in London, Google Maps now highlights a restaurant’s most popular items on the menu, so you can place your order with confidence.”

The popular dishes of a restaurant will be highlighted within the overview tab of restaurant listings. The dishes will also be matched with relevant photos and reviews so potential customers can make an informed decision.

To access that, search for a restaurant on Google maps and select the ‘Overview’ tab. Scroll down to see the popular dishes that the restaurant has to offer. Click on any specific dish, and you will be able to find and read specific reviews for that dish.

GIF link: https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb-uniblog-publish-prod/original_images/GSB_PopularDishes_v5.gif

The future of machine learning and online businesses

This new feature is a prime example of how machine learning is growing and having a more meaningful impact on online businesses. It is also an indication of how users may interact with businesses in the future and contribute to machine learning to make it even better.

Google highlighted the role customers can play to make machine learning even more powerful. It said:

“At the end of the day, this feature is made possible because of contributions from people around the world who want to help others using Google Maps. So if you want to pay it forward to the next diner, simply take a photo of your meal (before you’ve scarfed it down!) and add a dish name so others can know what’s good on the menu.”

This feature is already live on Android and will be rolling in iOS in the next few months.

GIF link: https://storage.googleapis.com/gweb-uniblog-publish-prod/original_images/GSB_PopularDishes_v5.gif

The post Google Maps will highlight popular dishes of restaurants appeared first on Improve My Search Ranking.

Voice search is a growing trend; there is no doubt about that. And Google is playing its part to encourage more and more people to search via voice instead of typing keywords.

After a recent update in that direction, Google has added a new microphone icon to the Google.com search field on Android phones. Previously, users could do a voice search on the mobile web with the help of their Android keyboard microphone. However, this latest change may encourage more people to use voice search.

Take a look at the following image that compares an Android device with an iPhone.

Another major difference is that after doing a voice search, users will be able to see the spoken words and hear a response from Google — instead of just seeing silent results on the screen. It seems like this is Google Assistant in action, but this cannot be confirmed just yet.

It’s important to understand that this is not a new capability. Android users can already do voice searches from the search bar on the home screen — by accessing Google Assistant. However, it can be termed an important step in the direction of familiarizing more people with voice searches.

With this seemingly minor update, Google is conditioning people to use voice search. This may have a significant impact on SEO professionals around the world because Android phones have a big share of the market — especially outside the USA.

If you are an SEO professional or an online business owner, you should start taking steps to optimize your website for voice searches.

Focus on featured snippets and structured data, answering questions, creating an FAQ page, using long-tail keywords, and improving the loading speed of your website to make your website more friendly for voice searches.

The post Google promotes voice search with a microphone icon in Google search appeared first on Improve My Search Ranking.

Google’s original blog post has also been updated; it now says that the speed update is “rolling out to all users.”

The algorithm will only affect mobile search rankings of the slowest websites on the web. Moreover, it is expected that “only a small percentage of websites” will be affected by the Google Speed Update.

The question is: does your website fall into the “slowest websites on the web” category?

No one can be certain about it. Google hasn’t highlighted any specific metrics to gauge that. However, there are tools that you can use to see if your website is doing good or not. Following are three tools that you should use:

• Page Insights tool
• Lighthouse
• Google Chrome User Experience report

One important point to remember here is that although speed is a big ranking signal, your website may still rank highly if it fails the Google Speed Update trial. In order to that, your website has to have excellent and relevant content for the readers. In that case, Google Speed Update will negatively affect your website, but it will still be able to stay on a relatively higher position.

Google says that the idea is to improve the search user experience. Therefore, if you have good, relevant content, and the overall experience (including website page speed) is good, you should be fine.

However, as the focus is now shifting more and more towards user experience, it would be a good time to analyze your website and see if there is any room for improvement in terms of user experience.

The post Google Speed Update has been released to all users appeared first on Improve My Search Ranking.