Digital Marketing During Lockdown

Ensure Your Website Is optimised And Ready For Visitors

Lockdown has given many website owners a chance to take a long, hard look at their site. Ensuring your site is fast-loading, mobile-friendly and easy to navigate has never been more important. By optimising your site you are more likely to drive in high quality traffic. If site optimisation is something you may be interested in, we can certainly help!

Get Your PPC On Lock

Well rounded digital marketing strategies utilise all possible traffic sources, including paid advertising. By taking advantage of PPC on platforms such as Google, Bing, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube you can make a huge difference to site traffic. When run incorrectly, it can soon get very expensive and inefficient. However, when utilised correctly the results can be excellent. We run a wide range of PPC campaigns for a variety of clients, contact us today and tap into your PPC potential.

Utilising The Power Of Social Media

Social media can make a massive difference to a business when used properly. Lockdown highlighted the power of well run social media campaigns. By ensuring you stay in contact with your clients and customers as well as drive in potential business, social media provides a fantastic opportunity to grow exponentially. If social media marketing is something you may be interested in, our social media specialists are here to help!

If You Are Not Online, Now Is The Time

One thing lockdown has highlighted is the importance of being online. E-commerce sales have soared as shops were shut, highlighting the importance of online marketing. In some cases it was simply a case of waiting it out, but many industries have used this as a chance to rethink their business models. Offering services online via zoom calls for example have allowed greater flexibility. Many have cut commuting costs by being allowed the possibility to work from home, win win! Are you looking at introducing an e-commerce function to your business? If so, contact us today!

Tap Into The Power Of Emails

Email marketing is an often overlooked traffic source. Emails provide the perfect opportunity to communicate with both existing and potential new clients and customers, an immediate and relatively inexpensive path of communication. The return on investment can be massive! If you are interested in tapping into the vast potential of email marketing, contact our expert team today!

Digital Marketing During A Pandemic

With the distinct possibility of there being future lockdowns, there is still time to take advantage of quality digital marketing strategies. If any of these are of interest to you, contact us today for a free site audit.

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The UK has been showing SERP volatility on both desktop and mobile viewports beginning Feb 1st 2020 and continuing through the weekend and into the early stages of the week. We do not yet quite know the implications of these shock waves and as ever Google is typically mute on the topic! We will continue to monitor the sensors and search engine result pages and see if we can discover more. From our end we can only see positive movements for rankings and traffic!

February 8th Search Update – Something Big Happening?

Through the weekend beginning Saturday 8th February 2020, sensors have been picking up signs of a potentially massive Google algorithm update. SEMRush sensor has been throwing up some massive scores well in excess of 9.0/10 throughout the UK! This is consistent throughout locations in both Europe and the US on both desktop and mobile viewports. Whatever Google is rolling out, it is safe to assume it is going to be a big one!

There has been speculation as to whether Google’s featured snippet update (see below) could have some impact upon fluctuation. However, it has been confirmed this update is unlikely to impact scores. The scores that are being thrown up by sensors appear to be correct. Google is yet to comment on the matter. As the rollout continues and more becomes clear we are sure to learn more about its impact and intentions. Until then, sit tight until it blows over!

Quick update on this. I contacted @semrush and the Sensor data should *not* be affected by the recent featured snippet changes. They are looking into the spike, but said the volatility should be accurate… This matches what @dr_pete said about Mozcast data. Just a heads-up. https://t.co/MWisOkBueG

— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) February 8, 2020

January 2020 Core Update

With the release of the January 2020 Core Update, as named by Google themselves, we can be sure that 2020 promises to be another interesting year. Although they are typically vague when explaining what aspect of search this update will impact, it would be wise to follow previous guidelines. As the emphasis on search intent and context becomes ever more prominent, be sure to optimise your content for the user!

Later today, we are releasing a broad core algorithm update, as we do several times per year. It is called the January 2020 Core Update. Our guidance about such updates remains as we’ve covered before. Please see this blog post for more about that:https://t.co/e5ZQUA3RC6

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) January 13, 2020

January 2020 Featured Snippet Update

Another interesting development that January 2020 brought us was their change to featured snippets. Featured snippets are the boxes of information that will summarise a search query and can be found at the top of the organic listings. Before this update it was possible to be able to hold the featured snippet position for a given search term and also rank in the organic listing with the same URL for the search term. Sadly this is no longer! Danny Sullivan, of Google, announced that they would no longer be repeating web pages in the search results. They claim it will help to declutter the result pages and help users to locate relevant information more easily. Makes sense! This makes the importance of clear, concise and well structured content even more important!

If a web page listing is elevated into the featured snippet position, we no longer repeat the listing in the search results. This declutters the results & helps users locate relevant information more easily. Featured snippets count as one of the ten web page listings we show.

— Danny Sullivan (@dannysullivan) January 22, 2020

Google Algorithm Updates – Are They Ruining Your Digital Strategy?

Are you struggling with your digital marketing strategy in 2020? Perhaps you’re not sure where to begin? Whatever the circumstances, contact Leicester’s SEO and PPC experts here at USDigital for a free site audit!

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Google Algorithm Update January 2020

SEMrush is throwing up scores of 4.7/10 for both desktop and mobile viewports for 7th January 2020. This is also a similar theme throughout Europe with various locations such as France, Germany and Spain showing similar scores. With the start of the New Year perhaps Google are rolling out updates in line with their increased emphasis on search intent. One area of optimisation that we believe is often overlooked is media. When correctly optimised, images and video have the potential to drive in large levels of traffic. YouTube is a massive search engine in its own right, coupled with videos pulled directly through to Google result pages and their image search capabilities the potential is massive!

Voice Search Optimisation

One interesting point is that of voice optimisation. This was widely predicted to massively take off with the growth in mobile devices and also the introduction of voice activated technology such as Alexa. Interestingly, Google employee Gary Illyes made a point about putting the voice optimisation trend to sleep. There is no doubt that voice optimisation is growing. However, you cannot optimise differently for voice search than you would for normal searches so stop trying to do so. Optimise for normal searches and focus on the quality of your content! The best way to do this is to write your content naturally and use language that is natural and easy to read. He also predicts images and multimedia will be the big thing in the near future.

It’s a new year, maybe we can put the voice search optimization fad to sleep finally…

— Gary “鯨理／경리” Illyes (@methode) January 3, 2020

Bing also echo this approach. As we move into 2020, instead of focusing purely upon keyword research practices we should move towards search intent research. Keywords still play a massive role in optimisation but it is also about understanding the intent behind the keyword searches. With the emphasis on search intent and updates such as BERT, this is likely to take off in the coming year. By optimising for search intent this is also effectively optimising for voice search anyway!

January 2020 Core Update

Google has announced the rollout of a broad core algorithm update, going live 13th January 2020. This will be rolled out to the various data centres over the following days. They have named the update the January 2020 Core Update, catchy! As ever, Google are typically vague about what the update covers. Their advice is to follow previous advice that they have given. This advice can be found at the Google Webmaster Blog.

This update is being picked up by sensors such as SEMrush, throwing up scores of 7.3 and 7.4 for desktop and mobile viewports throughout the UK. This is a similar theme throughout Europe, high volatility being seen in locations such as Germany and France. We will monitor this update over the coming days and weeks, providing any feedback and findings when they occur!

Later today, we are releasing a broad core algorithm update, as we do several times per year. It is called the January 2020 Core Update. Our guidance about such updates remains as we’ve covered before. Please see this blog post for more about that:https://t.co/e5ZQUA3RC6

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) January 13, 2020

Google Algorithm Updates – Impacting Your Digital Strategy

Moving into the new decade are you struggling with your digital marketing strategy? Perhaps you’re not sure where to begin? Whatever the circumstances, contact Leicester’s SEO and PPC experts here at USDigital for a free site audit!

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What Are Keywords?

Keywords or phrases in a digital marketing sense are the words and phrases that searchers use when entering queries into search engines. As a webmaster, you want the keywords on your pages to be relevant and match what people are searching, giving you a greater chance of being found and driving traffic.

Why Are Keywords Important?

Keywords are important as they act as the middle ground between what a user is searching for and webmasters publishing and providing relevant content to the user. When a site ranks effectively in search engines it will drive organic traffic to the site, the keywords that you optimise for determine the kind of traffic you will receive. Effective optimisation that is targeted towards a companies target market ensures you will drive in relevant traffic.

As search engines become more intelligent and sophisticated, the relevance of keywords’ content and context are becoming more important. Users perform searches differently, variations such as language, tone and tense play a role in the search results displayed. To create content that ranks organically and drives in traffic it is important to understand the needs of visitors. Effective keyword research, customer feedback, engaging in community forums and even observing the results pages gives you the opportunity to get a feel for your target market and the kind of searches that are being made.

Are Long Tail Keywords Useful?

Keywords contain different dynamics. Top level keywords, which tend to be generic terms, are usually shorter but have much larger search volumes. These naturally tend to be much harder and more competitive to rank for. Longer tailed keywords or phrases are longer and contain a more detailed search intent. Because of this, longer tailed keywords will tend to have lower search volumes but are usually easier to rank for. While it is tempting to target keywords with massive search volumes, the reality of you ranking well in a short period of time is very low. In some instances companies find it makes more sense to rank much higher for lower volume search terms.

Using Keywords Effectively

In the early days of SEO it was common practice to keyword stuff, mention your keywords as many times as possible, and this would often be enough to rank well. However, as search engines grew more sophisticated the need to publish good quality, authoritative content that provided a service to users became very important. When tied in with strong backlink profiles, proper on-page optimisation and search engine friendly sites it provides a solid foundation. Best practice dictates including target keywords in places such as the page title, meta description, alt tags and headings, as well as in the main bodies of content. Also using synonyms and variations of terms can help with ranking.

Keywords still have a big role to play in optimisation. Ensuring your content is targeting the right market and providing users with quality information will drive in high quality traffic. When implemented as part of a well rounded digital marketing strategy you are sure to succeed!

The post A Beginner’s Guide To Keywords appeared first on USdigital.

There is currently low level chat throughout various SEO communities such as WebmasterWorld of ‘significant volatility’. SERP movement also appears to be evident in various European locations such as Spain and Germany, although this does not appear to be the case in the US. Perhaps Google is testing updates throughout Europe before rolling them out further? As ever, we will continue to monitor the situation and see.

Sensors Showing Signs of Search Volatility December 11th 2019

December 11th 2019 is showing signs of search volatility on both mobile and desktop view ports throughout the UK with scores of 5.9 and 6.5 recorded. Chatter throughout the SEO community is speaking of organic traffic fluctuations, although not necessarily keyword ranking shifts. Because of this there has been some speculation as to whether these dramatic traffic fluctuations are actually in fact being caused by a Google Analytics bug. However, with the volatility seen throughout the 11th Dec this would appear to support some form of minor Google algorithm update at the very least. From our end we are not seeing any major fluctuations from both a ranking or traffic perspective. We will continue to monitor the situation.

Google’s November 2019 Local Search Update

In early November 2019, Google rolled out updates that began to make use of neural matching to allow them to better generate local results (hence the name). This allows them to better understand the content and context of search queries and ultimately provide better search results to users locally. Covering countries and languages worldwide this certainly has the potential to be massive. The Google SearchLiaison team have confirmed how it enables them to go beyond exact words in the business name and description, allowing better understanding of search terms:

In early November, we began making use of neural matching as part of the process of generating local search results. Neural matching allows us to better understand how words are related to concepts, as explained more here: https://t.co/ShQm7g9CvN

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) December 2, 2019

As expected this local search update brought about big implications. Despite sensors appearing to show a lack of search volatility, some sites took massive hits with their ranking keywords and traffic plummeting. This image below provides an example of one site taking a quite significant hit with the local search update:

This site has seen a significant drop in organic traffic and keywords beginning 8th Nov 2019

With some speculation this update also paid attention to link quality, long term implications could be significant. A lot of recent updates are focusing upon the quality of content and unnatural looking link building tactics, if you do not give Google a reason to penalise you then surely they will not?

The Importance of Local SEO

With an ever growing emphasis on search intent and context in local SEO, the image and reputation of your business plays a more important role than ever. Google My Business provides you with an excellent opportunity to grow your presence locally, immediately informing users of your business capabilities while also providing image and review options. Although separate and not related, this does tie in with the recent BERT update in terms of search context, understanding and using terms how a human would.

If your site has been hit by the recent local search update, contact the local SEO experts here at USDigital for a free site audit.

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What is Local SEO?

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the practice of impacting a sites visibility in a search engines results for unpaid search, often referred to as organic traffic. When we refer to local SEO the aim is to boost a site visibility for location based searches. This can include a range of qualifiers such as city, state, postcode or even ‘near me’ searches. If you are a bakery based in Leicester there is little point showing up for searches for ‘cakes for sale’ in the US. It would be far more effective appearing for search results based in and around Leicester. Local SEO is the practice of driving in more relevant, localised traffic.

Why is local SEO important?

If you have a defined business location or provide services within this locality you want to show for relevant traffic, right? With the rapid growth of smart phones and voice search commands, localised searches are becoming far more popular. With various options available such as calling local businesses directly, requesting directions and visiting sites it is crucial for any business that they are showing up in these search results. Any effective marketing campaign is sure to encompass various traffic channels, tapping into local traffic is as important as any of these.

Local SEO methods

An example of a Google My Business listing

Google My Business

One of the most popular methods for boosting a local SEO presence is utilising Google My Business. Google My Business (GMB) is a Google tool that lets you manage how your business appears on Google Search and Maps. The listing includes your business name, logo, phone number, location, opening hours, photos, reviews and pre-set call to action buttons. These listings also allow you to monitor and replying to customer reviews and learning where and how people are searching for you. Our guide to Google My Business can provide you with more in depth information.

Directories (NAP)

Search engines are the most popular method when it comes to conducting local searches. Ensure your business is receiving as much exposure as possible with correct and consistent local directory listings. Directories like Yelp are an excellent opportunity to get yourself noticed. Make sure you list the correct information for your business name, address and phone number (NAP), failure to can lead to discrepancies in information which may result in your listing not being shown.

Reviews

Your reputation matters. Users are far more likely to use a product or service if they have a wealth of good quality, recommended reviews. Marketing tools such as Trust Pilot allow you to actively manage your reviews. Even reviews left on social media platforms such as Facebook will send signals, both to users and search engines, which can result in increased exposure.

Google My Business Listing

Localised web pages

A popular method of targeting localised traffic is to create dedicated local search intent landing pages. Creating pages that are optimised for the local area provide an effective method to target relevant traffic and is more likely to show in localised search results.

Localised link-building and PR campaigns

Boost your brand presence and exposure throughout the local regions with link building and dedicated PR campaigns. If you are a recognised presence throughout the surrounding areas you are far more likely to drive in high quality traffic.

Local SEO Campaigns

Local SEO boosts site visibility within localised regions. By boosting a brand presence and increasing exposure locally, you are far more likely to drive in relevant traffic that is more likely to convert. The key to any successful business is taking advantage of all potential traffic sources available. If you are interested in a digital marketing strategy but do not know where to begin, get in contact with the experts here at USDigital today!

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The 21st of November is throwing up scores of 5.0 and 5.6 for desktop and mobile view ports respectively throughout the United Kingdom. This appears to be consistent in various European locations such as Spain and Germany, but not the US. Perhaps a localised update for European regions or possibly even a test before being rolled out fully? Google is as quiet as ever on the matter. Despite chatter throughout the month of fluctuations, they have been typically vague, stating Google rolls out updates constantly. We will continue to monitor this current chatter and any potential implications.

November 8th 2019 Potential Google Algorithm Update

There was a lot of chatter in various SEO communities talking of major fluctuations of visibility and traffic, despite sensors showing otherwise, for the 8th of November 2019. Sensors such as Algoroo, SEMrush and Mozcast have all indicated slight variations at the most:

Algoroo showing a relatively low score of 1.47 for Nov 8th 2019

Mozcast showing minimal fluctuations for 8th Nov 2019

SEMrush showing a relatively low score of 1.3/10 for 8th Nov 2019

However, evidence would suggest the opposite of this. Tracking tools have shown large fluctuations in organic ranking keywords and therefore traffic, below showing two sites that have taken a significant hit:

This site has seen a significant drop in organic traffic and keywords beginning 8th Nov 2019

Further evidence showing an 8th Nov 2019 algorithm update with a significant drop off in traffic and keywords

Despite tools suggesting otherwise, there has clearly been an update rolled out. These two shots were taken of sites based in different niches, one based in the technology industry and the other in the leisure and culture niche. Chatter amongst the SEO community has posed interesting targets for the update. Marie Haynes has suggested that this update is based upon link quality. Tests they performed appeared to show sites that had unnatural links pointing towards them, resulting in dropped rankings and traffic. Despite the significant fluctuations that have resulted, Google is evasive as ever, stating that yes there were updates throughout the week in question but this is the same in every week of the year.

Some have asked if we had an update to Google Search last week. We did, actually several updates, just as we have several updates in any given week on a regular basis. In this thread, a reminder of when and why we give specific guidance about particular updates….

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) November 12, 2019

As the initial euphoria slowly dies down, we will be able to analyse the full implications of this Google update in more detail. As ever, engaging in white-hat SEO techniques is our recommended path to take. A lot of recent updates are focusing upon the quality of content and unnatural looking link building tactics, if you do not give Google a reason to penalise you then surely they will not?

The Fallout From Google’s October BERT Update

October 2019 saw Google releasing the BERT update. The primary intention of this is to allow Google to better understand and interpret search queries. Estimated to impact 1 in every 10 search queries, it should allow the search engine to interpret queries in the same way a human would. This should provide more relevant search results. This is in line with Googles’ increased emphasis upon a mobile world as voice searches and machine learning becomes ever more prevalent in the digital world.

You cannot optimise specifically for BERT, instead optimise for humans. The idea is to answer a users search query, providing clean, concise information that is better than a competitors information. With the growth in search result features such as featured snippets, Google’s aim is to answer as quickly as possible. Focus on the quality of your content!

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This could of course be completely unrelated, hundreds of updates are released a year. However, it is interesting to note what appears to be high volatility so soon after a major core update. We or our clients are not currently witnessing any major changes from a traffic or ranking perspective but it is of course early days and there does appear to be some low lying algorithm chatter.  We will continue to monitor and provide any updates as and when they occur!

The fallout from Google’s Core Algorithm Update September 2019

While it is early days to be able to provide a comprehensive analysis on the impact of the Core September Update, it is interesting to consider the initial results. As with any update, whether it focuses on a core update, quality or even interface and user experience, search results will change. There are inevitable winners and losers with impact upon rankings and traffic. We can also experience large fluctuations in other metrics such as click-through rates. Core updates only tend to occur several times a year, around once a quarter.

Initial results suggest that the September Core Update is not as strong as the June Core Update. September’s update appears to have had more of an impact upon Your Money or Your Life (YMYL) sites, where quality of content and the trustworthiness of this play a particularly important role, as incorrect information can have a far more serious impact. On first impressions a big winner was the Daily Mail, which of course took a large hit earlier on in the year but does appear to be bouncing back.

The nature of core updates brings the potential for large fluctuations and the chance your site can plummet. Google is often reluctant to comment on specific updates, instead pointing towards their webmaster guidelines, which tells us to focus on the quality of our content, a strong and authoritative backlink profile and technical SEO optimisations with a particular focus on site speed and mobile usability.

Google’s BERT Algorithm Update

Throughout the week commencing 21st October, Google has been rolling out an algorithm update based around Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers or BERT for short. This has been labelled by Google themselves as ‘the biggest leap forward in the past five years, and one of the biggest leaps forward in the history of search’. The primary function of this update is to allow Google to better understand search queries, likely to affect one of every ten searches, in a way humans will understand.

How Will The BERT Algorithm Affect Me?

Google’s BERT Update is expected to impact 10% of all searches

Expected to be fully rolled out by the end of the week (Sunday 27th), it will initially be live for all US English language queries. Similar to RankBrain, it is a machine learning algorithm that aims to better understand queries, content and context. By better understanding the nuances and context of words in a search query it will provide more relevant search results, taking into account the human nature of search queries that will be used in conversation.

Google is placing a particular emphasis on the size of this update, not in terms of immediate search fluctuations but more on the impact it will have upon search results. It is expected to impact 10% of all search queries. Used in conjunction with other language algorithms such as RankBrain, it is unlikely that you will be able to optimise specifically for BERT, instead focus on the quality of your content and write for humans. It is still too early to be able to determine the full impact of this particular update. As the results become clearer we will be able to examine it in more detail.

Has your site taken a hit from the recent core algorithm update? Is your digital marketing strategy struggling in the current SEO climate? Or perhaps you are just starting out and don’t know where to begin? If any of these scenarios apply to you, why not try out our free SEO audit!

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What Are Backlinks?

Backlinks, also referred to as inbound links, are created when another site links to yours. Backlinks should be natural, you should not use artificial means to obtain them. The quality of your backlinks matters far more than the quantity.

Why Are Backlinks Important In SEO?

Backlinks are important in SEO as the linking site is effectively vouching for your content. Inbound links from highly reputable, trustworthy and authoritative sites to your own effectively tell search engines that your content is of a similar ilk. When a search engine notices that a webpage or site has a variety of high quality inbound links, that the site is worth linking to and visiting, they will be more likely to rank your content higher on their result pages. There is a strong correlation between a high quality and authoritative backlink profile and effective site ranking and search visibility.

Shady Link Building Tactics

If the world of internet marketing was simple then we would only need one type of link attribution. However, as we all know it is never that simple! In the early days of SEO there was only one standard regular link attribution. The result of this was spammy and unmoderated link building tactics. Common schemes would involve social bookmarking, automated directory submissions and comment spam.

• Social bookmarking – this was especially prevalent on sites such as Reddit and Delicious. Users would effectively create a link as a bookmark and post it out to these various sites. This link would point back to your site and pass on authority.

• Automated directory submissions – automated software programmes would take information such as company name and site URL and fire out this information to hundreds of poor quality directories. Again, the site would receive plenty of poor quality, spammy links. A common tactic was to also use the primary target keyword as the anchor text to try and rank higher for this given term.

• Comment spam – this would involve jumping onto the comment sections on articles or blogs and firing back links to your site. Again, the vast majority of these links would be poor quality and spammy in nature.

What Types Of Links Are There?

The problem with all these shady backlink schemes was the links would be obtained from poor quality sites that had been hit with similar tactics of people trying the same link building processes. With all these spammy link building schemes, search engines came to the decision to introduce the rel=”nofollow” attribution. This effectively tells bots to not pass on any weight or ‘linkjuice’ from the linking site. In the mid 2000’s this came into effect and towards the end of the decade large sites began to implement it sitewide. Used in conjunction with the ‘Penguin‘ algorithm update, the desire was to reduce ranking for sites that used black-hat SEO techniques. Below shows how a rel=”nofollow” link would appear in the backend of a site.

Penguin focused specifically on poor quality, spammy backlinks and wiped out the effectiveness of these. Black-hat link building tactics such as comment spam were no longer effective as the site  would no longer pass on any authority – although this of course has still not stopped the tactic from being deployed! Regular followed links are only applied when the webmaster deems it appropriate to do so.

More recently, Google has also announced that it will be introducing two more types of link attribution, rel=”sponsored” and rel=”ugc”.

• rel=”sponsored” attribution can be used on all sponsored and paid links.

• rel=”ugc” refers to user generated content, and is designed for use on links like comments and forum threads.

They have also added that you do not need to use these new link attributions, continuing to use the standard rel=”nofollow” is fine. There is no need to go through your site and update your links! Google have also added that they will use the attribution “nofollow” as a hint, it is completely at their discretion as to whether they pay attention to your directive. This will become live as of March 2020.

Domain Authority

Tools such as AHREFS and Moz are excellent when it comes to reviewing the strength of a given backlink profile. Measures such as Domain Rating (AHREFS) and Domain Authority (Moz) provide scores for a site out of 100 relative to all sites in the world. Although not in themselves considered to be a ranking factor, they do provide a useful barometer of how your site is performing in comparison to your competitors. As your site grows it becomes harder to grow your domain authority. It is far easier to grow your site from a DR score or 5 to 10 than it is to grow it from a DR score of 45 to 50.

Internal Linking

While we talk about the power of links, so far we have only considered the power of external linking. Another powerful tool in a digital marketers arsenal is that of internal linking. Effective internal linking allows us to pass that important ‘linkjuice’ from the most powerful pages on a site and spread the authority. If we consider a website structure similar to that of a spiders web, where the centre is the strongest page such as a homepage. As we expand outwards to pillar pages such as services or blog pages we should aim to maintain a strong internal linking structure.  As we then expand further onto sub-categories it allows the effective distribution of domain authority.

An effective internal linking structure is also extremely beneficial in allowing crawling bots such as Googlebot to crawl the entire site properly and index pages. Any page available to the public on a site should never be more than three clicks away from any given page.

The Importance Of Backlinks In Your SEO Strategy

You could own the most aesthetically pleasing and interesting website in the world, but if your site does not receive exposure than what is the point of it? A strong and well-rounded digital marketing strategy that encompasses various aspects such as SEO, technical and social is crucial should you wish to succeed. And the power of backlinks in all of this is as important now as it has ever been.

If you are interested in a full digital marketing strategy but don’t know where to start, why not try out our free SEO audit!

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On a mobile viewport this is slightly higher with a score of 6.2. This is a similar theme throughout Europe with scores as high as 7.8 recorded for Spain. Is this signalling a potential core algorithm update? Of course it is too soon to say but we will continue to monitor the SERPs and any potential implications this will bring. Signs began to be picked up on Friday the 13th (a bad omen?!) and appear to be continuing throughout the week. This is consistent with various monitors and chat forums, we are seeing talk of keyword and SERP fluctuations and in turn traffic changes. Although this update does not appear to be as large as previous core updates there is definitely chatter throughout the SEO community.

Google September Core Algorithm Update 24/09/2019

Google has just recently announced that they will be releasing a core algorithm update, named the ‘September 2019 Core Update’, which is scheduled to go live as of 24th September 2019. As previously mentioned Google releases many updates a year, most of which are not officially named and we are not usually warned. However, when a larger update is scheduled to be rolled out that is likely to have a larger impact upon rankings and traffic they will now warn us. Core updates are designed to focus on Google’s mission of presenting relevant and authoritative information to users. The official Google Search Liaison Twitter account has informed of this:

Later today, we are releasing a broad core algorithm update, as we do several times per year. It is called the September 2019 Core Update. Our guidance about such updates remains as we’ve covered before. Please see this blog for more about that: https://t.co/e5ZQUAlt0G

— Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) September 24, 2019

We can be sure this is likely to shake up the result pages. It is too soon to be able say the intention of this update, we will continue to monitor the situation!

Google Algorithm Updates – What Does This Mean For Me?

Updates are usually released each and every day. The vast majority of these are minor, barely noticeable within the SERPs, and are often centred around styling and appearance tweaks. However, every so often we witness large scale shakeups that have a major impact upon result pages and a sites ability to rank. Previous updates have focused around important ranking factors such as quality of content and strength of backlink profiles. This current shakeup does not appear to be a major core update. As time passes the true size and implications will become clearer.

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