Blog

What you need to know about Google’s mobile-first indexing

Mobile-first indexing has been the talk of the SEO world throughout 2018. The historic change from Google moving to a mobile-first system is currently being rolled out. It is perhaps symbolic of today’s society in that we are moving towards a mobile world. Desktop of course still plays a massive role in many industries but Google’s choice to switch to mobile-first is indicative. This change could have a profound impact upon search results. But first we must understand what we mean when we refer to mobile indexing.

Google’s New Image Search Display

Google loves an update. Its recent algorithm updates (Sep 11^th) and (Sep 20^th) are relatively big updates and yet we still don’t hear about the vast majority of them. However, the next one promises to be a big one. At the anniversary event held for their 20^th birthday Google announced it would be updating its image search design for desktop computers. Of course back in March Google released an image display update for mobile devices and this latest updates intention is to bring desktop and mobile back in line. But what will Google’s new image search display update entail?

Google’s Latest Algorithm Update (Sep 20th 2018)

Google is at it again. There has been talk of a possible algorithm update throughout the SEO world and evidence certainly seems to support this. Our favourite rankings tracker SEMrush gave a SERP volatility score of 6.5 for Thursday 20^th. Whilst not as high as the previous noticeable update (9.2), this is still considered high by the tracker. So what could Google’s Latest Algorithm Update (Sep 20th 2018) mean for me?

Is SEO as important as it once was?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has been around since the mid-90s and was often thought of as a bit of a dark art, crucial in website ranking but not universally known. However in recent times there has been the misconception that SEO should be common knowledge and something practiced by anybody loosely related to digital marketing. So we asked ourselves here at USdigital, is SEO as important as it once was?

Google AdWords: Google’s Keyword Search Terms Update

When the concept of keywords was first introduced, Google’s exact match for keyword targeting meant a user’s query had to exactly match that of the keyword. It is perhaps clear what problems this may have caused within the AdWords world. With these issues Google decided to introduce an update whereby allowing variations of the keyword to be considered. In 2014 Google introduced the concept of variations such as misspellings, plurals and abbreviations being considered. A later update was introduced in 2017 that would consider different word orders and word functions.

Google’s Recent Algorithm Updates (Sep 11th 2018)

As we know every year Google makes hundreds of updates to their search algorithm, constantly changing their ranking factors. No SEO or Digital Marketer will ever be able to predict these updates they occur that often. What marketers do like to do though is follow tremors and chatter throughout the SEO/keyword world and try pre-empt these changes. Generally these algorithm updates are only minor and tend not to effect search results all too heavily. However, every so often Google will reel out a big algorithm update and the effects to search results can be long lasting and profound.

Work Experience

The USdigital team recently welcomed Conor Holland for a week of work experience, a 17 year old currently studying at St Pauls in Leicester.

We put together a series of digital tasks and exercises for Conor, designed to give an insight into digital services and how we assist our clients on a daily basis, here are some words from Conor:

USdigital Workshops

The USdigital team has been working with a number of clients both new and existing lately through the delivery of tailored SEO and Digital Marketing workshops. The aim of the workshops is to clearly define the importance of online marketing to the audience through the use of real life working examples that are both relatable and of interest.

Ultimate Guide to Google Algorithm Updates

Every year, Google makes hundreds of updates to the search algorithm, always testing, refining and changing its ranking factors. No SEO, Content Marketer or Digital Marketer can predict what the future of search will look like, the majority of Google employees do not even have this privilege!

What we can do is monitor SERPs (a useful tool for this is: https://algoroo.com/) and see tremors when Google is brewing up a new algorithm update.

Fierce PC

USdigital client Fierce PC are one of the UK’s leading names in custom PC builds for the rapidly growing gaming market. We recently launched a brand new web framework for the client which includes a host of bespoke functionality including an interactive PC configurator that allows customers to create completely bespoke products based on their preferences and requirements.