DigitalCast

We've talked before about the importance of alt text on images, but if you use an image as a link it's even more important.

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If you have a bunch of content on a page, Google will hopefully index all of it, but it will consider it as a single page of text, not as separate …

Google has over 200 ranking factors, but the number of words on a page isn't one of them.

See full show notes at: https://digitalcast.org/podcast135

We all know that inbound links, pointing to your site, are generally good for your SEO. But how about outbound links?

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A recent survey from Adobe shows that 48% of consumers have used voice search for general web queries, and the number keeps going up.

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Google is once again beginning to look at the author of content to influence rankings, but they admit it can be hard to tell who is really the author.

It's something you likely don't think about often, or even really notice, but Google says to be consistent with whether or not you put a slash at the …

There have been theories over the years that old domains (or perhaps new domains) get some kind of ranking boost. Google says it's not true.

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If you follow search engine news at all, you've likely heard of TF-IDF. But what is it?

See full show notes at: https://digitalcast.org/podcast129

Google often likes fresh content, but it depends on the context of each search query, and updating your posts to seem more fresh isn't going to help …

Many website caching tools including options for minifying HTML and CSS. Does it help? Google says yes.

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If you're migrating a site to a new domain or CMS, the final step of the migration should only take about a day — if you do it correctly.

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Do people browse the blog category listings on your website? Probably not, but that's ok.

See full show notes at: https://digitalcast.org/podcast125

We talk about XML sitemaps on here fairly often, and they're a good thing to have, but they have no direct impact on your search rankings.

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We all know that alt text can help your images rank in Google, but that text can also help the page itself rank a bit higher.

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According to a recent study, 49% of all Google searches are now "zero-click", meaning users are getting the answer they need without having to click …

For years, Google Search Console has allowed you to set your "preferred domain". With the new version, though, that option is going away. How will …

Google typically finds websites through backlinks or XML sitemaps, but can it find them other ways as well?

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People talk about website authority scores quite a bit, and I use them from time to time myself, but Google has made it clear that they have no such …

XML sitemaps are a great way to help inform Google about the content on your site, and there are many great WordPress plugins to help with that. …

Sometimes Google likes to point things out that are obvious yet need repeating, so we'll help repeat them here; links and title tags still matter.

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When you do a search on Google, there are times when the first page is filled almost entirely with results from the same site. With their latest …

Google has said before that having SSL on your site is a "light-weight ranking" factor, and that continues to be the case, but Google seems to be …

Adding text to the alt attribute of an image is a great way to help vision-impaired users (and Google) understand what the image is about. However, …

The most common way to let Google know about new content on your site is by using XML sitemaps. However, some folks have started using Google's …

Google has been slowly rolling out their mobile first index, and will continue to roll it out on existing sites, but starting July 1 all new sites …

Companies have struggled over the years about whether to create one website for their entire business, or separate ones for different pieces. In most …

While it's certainly important to have a solid presence on Google My Business, a recent study shows that people put much more trust into a company's …

How often does Google makes adjustments to their algorithm? In 2018, there were over 3,200 changes, or nearly nine per day. How much do they all …

I'm a big believer in backups. For client sites that our agency manages, we take 2-3 backups of every site, every day, if not more. However, when my computer crashed last week, I got up and running on a new one with no …

 At WordCamp Atlanta a few weeks ago, I got into a discussion with some other folks about RSS, and was surprised that many weren't familiar with it. …

Whether you realize it or not, spammers are likely stealing your content and reposting it on other sites across the web. That's certainly not a good …

It's thought that there are roughly 200 factors in Google's ranking algorithm, so if you're trying to track your progress on just one of them, it may …

This is something Google has said for years, but they're making sure we hear it again; if you use Google Ads or Google Analytics, that's great, but it has literally no direct impact on your rankings in the main search …

The blockquote tag in HTML can be a useful way to pull content out of your posts to highlight it for readers, but Google has said that text in a …

If you've ever looked at the URL for your Google My Business page, it's ugly. Google is now rolling out a way for you to get a nice, clean URL for …

In many cases, the pages on your site that rank well in Google aren't your home page; they're internal pages that are focused on a particular topic. …

When you need to remove or change a page to have it point to a different page, you typically use a 301 redirect. Google appreciates those, but thinks …

Becoming a Google Partner can be a great thing. Not only will it look good for you or your company, but you'll learn a lot throughout the process. In the end, though, that partnership doesn't earn any special favors …

When it comes to handling mobile users, you have a few ways you can set up your site. A mobile responsive site is often the best way to go, but you can also set up a separate mobile site. Whatever you do, choose one …

Every few years, the question comes up of whether or not Google has a budget for how much traffic they're willing to send to a site. As before, the …

We often say on here that simply helping Google understand your content can be very important, and knowing how Google understands dates is a big part …

Videos can be a great addition to your website, but if you want Google to appreciate those pages you'll want to add some other content to support the …

If ranking well in Google Image Search is important to you, don't worry about necessarily hosting images on your own domain.

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In general, it's typically pretty easy to rank first for your own brand name. But what if you're not? Google has some thoughts on that.

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A user recently came across some uniquely-named CSS content, and asked Google if that mattered. Google's response, as expected, is that it's ignored.

Getting more links to point to your site is important and difficult, but some people think they found a way to trick Google. No, it doesn't work.

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Google's Martin Splitt has started a new web series focused on SEO and JavaScript, and his first installment has some interesting details on how …

If you've done work on your website specifically to improve the mobile speed, that's great! However, your job isn't done; mobile speed and experience …

Ranking category pages on an ecommerce site can be tough, so many resort to just putting a bunch of text at the bottom of each page, below the …

It comes around every few years, with someone saying that the click through rate in search results affects your rankings, but Google always denies …

Using UTM parameters on your links can be a great way to better understand how users find your site, but leaving those parameters on internal links …

For many businesses, a solid ranking on Google Maps is vitally important. Unfortunately, it's very easy for competitors to sabotage your listings. …

If you're struggling to move up the rankings on Google, it can be frustrating to see a competitor ahead of you that isn't following the rules. It …

On most podcasts, you'll hear the host say something like "to help keep this show running, please rate and review the podcast". But does it really …

Links are the currency of SEO, and therefore Google has a lot of rules and ideas about how sites should link to one another. When it comes to linking …

Much has been said about Googles hundreds of ranking factors, but they just came out and said, not surprisingly, that "pornyness" is one of them. 

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We talk a lot on this show about little tips and techniques to help your site rank better, but in most cases your time is best spent making sure you …

If you use the hreflang attribute on your site to help Google understand language, it won't directly affect your ranking but could still help drive …

Google uses a machine learning technology called RankBrain to help with search results, but much of how it works is shrouded in mystery. While much …

 When you make changes to your site to try to improve your rankings, how long will it take until you start moving higher in Google? It all depends. 

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It's been a long, slow death for Google+, and they're officially closing it up on April 2. What do you need to do about it?

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There are two main ways that search engines find new content on the web; from user-submitted sitemaps and by sending out their bots to crawl around. With a new move from Bing, it appears they may be slowly moving away …

It's mostly common sense at this point, but a survey from Unbounce brought to light some interesting stats on how users feel about the loading speed …

According to a recent survey, if your website isn't kept up to date, 81% of visitors will think less of your brand.

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While adding HTTPS support to your site is a wise move for a variety of reasons, it's not required to have HTTPS in order to rank on Google. 

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It can be frustrating to publish a brilliant new piece of content, but find a similar article from 7 years ago continue to rank above yours. Why is …

If you've used the Posts feature inside of Google My Business, you may have noticed recently that they're showing up less and less in the search engines. While they may be fading, here are some reasons not to give up on …

There are a lot of different ways to generate web pages, such as PHP and JavaScript, but if you're trying something creative with your site, make …

We talk about 301 redirects on here quite a bit, as they're an important technical piece to help your site rank well. If you set up a redirect, how …

As they've done for a few years now, the folks at Stone Temple Consulting have studied thousands of search results to see the impact that links have …

Coming later this year is a new publishing platform called "Newspack", developed jointly by Google and WordPress, to help make it easier to publish …

There are a lot of technical things you should do on your website if you want it to rank well, but Google reminds us that all of the technical work …

While having good names for your images is important, such as "greenapple.jpg" instead of "DSC1058.jpg", changing the image names once they're …

WordPress version 5.1, due to come out in late February, will have a new feature that will help keep you out of trouble when working on your site. 

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 As 2019 gets going, here are 11 great content marketing quotes to help inspire and direct your work in the coming year. 

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When you need to remove a page from your website, you might consider redirecting that page to your home page, rather than making it a proper "404 not …

 Websites linking to one another is largely the basis for how Google got started, and we've talked about external links quite a few times on here. However, sites also have many internal links that point to other pages …

 Yelp is known for often moving a lot of reviews to their "not recommended" section, but that number has been increasing lately thanks to an update …

 While it's always been frowned upon, Google now officially says that you can't require a followed link in any kind of terms of service or contract. 

Google's partner programs are a good thing to be a part of, but they don't have one for official search engine optimization partnerships. 

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Getting other sites to link to yours is one of the best things you can do to help your site rank better, and spammers take full advantage of it. For …

If you're buying Google Ads for your site, the use of negative keywords is very important and can make your campaign much less expensive and more …

Every year Google releases their list of the most popular searches across a variety of categories. Let's take a look at what we were all searching …

If you have a WordPress site, you likely already have Google Analytics on it. If not, you should. Coming early in 2019, Google will be rolling out a …

As we mentioned last week, WordPress 5.0 was just released and included their shiny new "Gutenberg" page editor. It's a great step forward, but it's just the first of many steps for Gutenberg.

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Google's told us before and they'll tell us again, but keywords in your URLs really don't matter much. Let's quickly unpack what they've said.

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It's generally thought that having an image on each page of your site is a good thing, and Google agrees. In fact, they suggest that you put a unique …

WordPress version 5.0, which includes the new Gutenberg editor, launches today. By the time you listen to this episode, it's likely already gone live. There is a good bit of debate about this new version, but I'm here …

There are over two billion searches performed on Facebook every day, but relatively little is known about their search algorithm, especially compared to Google. They've now unveiled a bit more about how their searches …

I've heard a few times that video does very well on LinkedIn, because their algorithm pushes it pretty hard. This podcast shows that it's true, and I …

With the holiday season approaching, you're likely going to add a few holiday-specific pages to your site. Come January, what should you do with …

Over the last few years, we've seen Google provide a lot more answers in position zero; the spot above the search results where they answer simple …

As you build your website over time, it'll likely be important to set up redirects to handle pages that you remove, or when adding SSL, or other things of that nature. Google wants to remind you that when you set up a …

It can be frustrating when your company gets mentioned on a popular site and they "nofollow" the link to your site (essentially hiding it from …

In marketing, it's long been said that people do business with those that they "know, like and trust". However, establishing trust on your website with Google can be much different than establishing trust on your …

The folks at Search Engine Land just published a list of the five SEO trends that will matter in 2019, and I thought it was a great list, so we'll …

We all know that it's important to have a fast loading website, but how exactly does speed affect users on your site? The folks at Yoast just shared …

Google already has a variety of tools to help you optimize your website (Analytics, Search Console, PageSpeed Insights, and others), but now a new …

WordPress powers roughly 1/3 of the entire internet, but starting next month more than half of the WordPress sites out there could become much less …

Having more pages can potentially help a site rank better in Google, for a few reasons, but simply having a bunch of pages means nothing in an of …

When you search for something on Google, the text the appears below each link often comes from the "meta descriptions" on those sites. While Google will generate them automatically when needed, they suggest you write …

If you remove a page or change websites, or somehow just need to set up a redirect, the best way to do it (for the sake of Google) is with what's know as a "301 redirect". Much has been said over the years about how …

If you use WordPress, you're likely familiar with the new Gutenberg editor that is coming soon. They just released version 4.1 of the editor and consider it "feature complete", meaning it's getting close to being added …

The days of submitting your websites and pages to Google are long gone, but you still need them to find you. How do they do that? The biggest way is through links, but they can also find your content through sitemaps.

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As a general rule, having more content on your site will help with SEO. However, quality is a big factor and Google makes it very clear that better …

Recently at PubCon, Google's Gary Illyes advised that you should include "no hashtags in URLs" for the sake of rankings, but it's a bit nuanced.

See …

Three years ago Matt Mullenweg, the creator of WordPress, advised developers to "learn JavaScript deeply", and it's proven be to solid advice. Now …

There's been some thought that since Google knows a good bit about real-life user activity, such as when stores are busy, they might use that data to affect search rankings. At least for now, that doesn't seem to be the …

Google has been making a lot of algorithm changes lately, but they seem to be (and should be) unrelated to the mobile-first indexing.

People working on their SEO often want to know exactly how best to build their pages; how many words, how many outgoing links, how many backlinks, things like that. Google's given us the answer -- stop counting that …

Links pointing to your website are one of the biggest factors to help rank well in Google, but they're one of the most difficult and confusing to …

Google pushed out a pretty big update on August 1, but then on September 27 they took it a bit further.

If you dig around your website stats and see that some pages get very low traffic, that could be an indication that the page is low quality -- but …

Over the past few months, Google has been applying neural matching to help better understand synonyms, impacting 30% of search queries (or over a billion searches per day).

Google has recently updated the look and feel of Google Image Search, but they've also made some substantial changes behind the scenes.

Many websites in the US have been lazy about how they have handled the GDPR changes, and that's causing some trouble for Google.

It's been debated for many years, but Google says that content inside of an accordion or tab on your site will get just as much credit as other text on the page.

Google has been personalizing search results for roughly a decade, but they're not personalized nearly as much as you think.

Having a fast-loading site is a good thing. Users like it and Google likes it. While there's no official guideline, Google says that a page should …

It makes sense, and Google has confirmed that if your site requires cookies in order to view content, Google won't index that content.

Google applies some penalties if your website header is so heavy that users can't easily find the content, but their focus with that is on ads, not white space.

Most businesses likely have some reviews on Google Maps, Yelp and other websites. If you want to put some of those reviews on your website, go for it!

It's always been said that you should have solid alt text on your images if you want them to rank well, and Google has confirmed that it's essential.

In the past, Google has told us that it's good to link to your most important pages from your home page in order to give them more weight in the …

Google has indexed PDFs in their search results for a long time, but it was never understood exactly how. Now they've come out and told us: they …

According to some stats from Salesforce, if 100 users visit your home page, only three of them will click through to your blog. That's not good, but all isn't lost.

Singular and plural keywords don't often rank the same, and Google has explained why.

A recent survey from Uberall shows that 82% of smartphone users have performed a search with the phrase (or intent) "near me".

There have been reports lately of an increasing number of Instagram accounts being hacked, but Instagram has finally released the ability to protect your account quite a bit more.

WordPress 5.0 and "Gutenberg", the new editing experience, is coming soon. If you're nervous about it, though, WordPress says not to worry.

Google judges all of the content on your website, not just the stuff that you have written.

Despite what you may have heard, Google doesn't favor fresh content.

A new editor for WordPress, code-named Gutenberg, is coming very soon, and now the most popular SEO plugin is ready for it.

Starting in 2011, Facebook was a major source of traffic for websites. Throughout 2018, Facebook referral traffic has continued to dwindle down and it's never coming back.

People say that Google has over 200 ranking factors, and that's likely true, but today we're going to run through the 11 that Google has actually confirmed.

Talking about Anchor.fm, the platform that we use for this podcast.