Google combined the naming structure for the rich snippets, rich cards, and enriched results and will now call all such results “Rich Results.” Here is a short primer on everything an SEO should know about these Rich Snippets: How does Google obtain rich results? If you want the data from your site in the rich results, you will need to enable some form of structured data to the search engine spiders. There is no guarantee that the data from your site will show as a rich result, although doing so increases the likelihood. WordPress users only need to install a plugin to enable schema.org structures for their site data. What is the preferred format? The reason sites like Google insist on using structured data for displaying these results is because they allow a site to provide structure to spiders while keeping the display of the data the same for users. Google supports JSON-LD, Microdata, and RDFa, but prefers JSON-LD. Will I rank better? The markup or even appearing in the rich results will not change your ranking for other terms or even the term that appears on the page. Google shows relevant rich results for the search from any of the top 10 results on the page. How do I know if it will work? Any webmaster can use the testing tool by Google to check if the structured markup is correct. Here is an excerpt from the Google Webmaster blog: “The new tool provides a more accurate reflection of the page’s appearance on Search and includes improved handling for Structured Data found on dynamically loaded content. The tests for Recipes, Jobs, Movies, and Courses are currently supported — but this is just a first step, we plan on expanding over...
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We have all known for some time now that links, the anchor text of those links and the number of links always played a key part in determining ranking on Google. These are part of a 200 signal ranking recipe that places varying levels of importance on each signal. We have never known how important one signal is over the other, let alone what the most important one is, until now. When a Search Quality Senior Strategist at Google (Andrey Lipattsev) was asked what the top two ranking factors were, he answered: “I can tell you what they are. It is content. And it’s links pointing to your site.”. We now know that the content on your site is the most important factor followed by the links to you site. In addition to the above we also got more information on whether click through rates affect ranking: Google engineer Paul Haahr revealed some of these new signals. Specifically, Paul revealed that: 1. Google runs A/B tests with the SERPs. So if you drop or go up 1-2 spots, it may have nothing to do with links, on-page SEO, etc. It could be a test. 2. Google definitely uses click-through-rate (CTR) data as a ranking signal. This lays to rest a long held belief that Google does consider end user behavior when ranking. With this news, there will be even more focus on bounce rate, as any visitor that clicks through to your page and then clicks back could be detrimental to your ranking. It is quite possible that with these ranking signal confirmations, Google is clearly telling webmasters that better content will result in better...
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One of the highlights of a new study on video ranking on both Google and YouTube was the difference between how each ranks the same videos. When comparing the same search query, the ranking between Google and YouTube was different 56% of the time. The outcome of the study is quite surprising, given that the search elements of both companies are run by the same backend. Even when the search result has only one video on Google, a different video was shown first on YouTube at least half of the time. The current theory is that the results illustrate the difference between the intentions of both services. Google exists to serve the most relevant information for the search query. The search engine’s algorithm most likely places emphasis on relevance above all else. YouTube, on the other hand, exists to entertain visitors. The end-goal is to keep a visitor on-site for as long as possible. The longer the visitor stays, the more ads they will see. These two vastly different goals probably explain the larger difference between the search results. It is also important for any organizations looking to expand their presence in video. Ranking in Google will require prioritizing relevance while ranking on YouTube will mean creating videos that are relevant and entertaining. A good video campaign should produce content for both, taking advantage of the very different audiences that visit each...
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As the returns from PPC campaigns surge thanks to increased Google Search traffic and Google’s traffic acquisition increases, it is becoming more important to hire a PPC consultant to handle your organization’s campaigns. However, unless you know the field well, it’s not easy to determine the right candidate when everyone throws the same buzzwords around. Here are some questions that you can ask for gauge their level of knowledge and if they are the right fit for your firm: Quality Score Keywords, Ad text, and landing page relevance are three components that make up the Google Quality Score. How do you improve the score? By using smaller Ad groups, that target few keywords, which are relevant to the landing page. A good PPC expert will know this, know how to improve yours, and know when the score is not important. Google Auction Knowing the Google Auction process is critical to getting the most of your campaign. Here are three stages of the process that a PPC expert should know: When a user enters a search, AdWords pulls all the ads whose keywords match that particular search. From the ads, any that aren’t eligible, such as ads that target a different country or have been disapproved, will be ignored. From the ads remaining, only those with a high enough Ad Rank will show results. Click-Thru-Rate Another simple question that stumps a lot of ‘experts’ is how Google calculated the click-through rate of an Ad. It is a basic question that everyone should know. The formula is simple: The total number of clicks divided by the total number of impressions = click-through...
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A recent study Google shows that there is little to no correlation between usage or traffic and influence. What the study shows is that even if people find your business online, it does not mean that they will choose your business for their purchase. Both consumer experience and content matter to customers. However, there is another factor that plays a large role in a consumers decision, and that is distance. In a study by the national consumer study on how consumers were willing to travel for shopping, the vast majority of shoppers (93.2%) would not travel more than 20 minutes for everyday items. The distance drops further when you look at urban shoppers. 92% would not travel more than 15 minutes. Shoppers also prioritize distance over factors like price and quality. 32% of respondents cited quality and price for both factors, only when the distance is no longer part of the equation. The distance consumers are willing to travel gets much shorter when the nature of the items change. Consumers will travel a maximum of six minutes for gas, eight to nine minutes for fast food and groceries, while home and garden increase time to 15 minutes. All of these facts show the importance of creating and maintaining a local presence online. When a consumer searches online, when your site comes up in a search result, it must be the local listing, with proper directions, descriptions, and...
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Article Written by : WM SEO How do you build and run the perfect website the way Google sees it? This has always been a tough question to answer. Until now. Thanks in large part to the various announcements that Google makes about changes to search, we can now build an image of what type of site will rank well in Google. Here is what they have said in the recent past: From the announcement post for Google Penguin, we get: “focus on creating amazing, compelling web sites”. Then from the link schemes page: “The best way to get other sites to create high-quality, relevant links to yours is to create unique, relevant content that can naturally gain popularity in the Internet community. Creating good content pays off: Links are usually editorial votes given by choice, and the more useful content you have, the greater the chances someone else will find that content valuable to their readers and link to it.”. Finally, from the webmaster guidelines, we get: “Think about what makes your website unique, valuable, or engaging. Make your website stand out from others in your field.” The message here is loud and clear. Google wants Quality in every aspect of the website. From the design to the content, it demands quality. This is not limited to the website itself. It wants you to get quality links, from quality websites to your quality content. The problem is most websites are built backward. People go looking for links before they have anything of quality. The message here is to build a site full of great content and then do your outreach. There are sites that update once every month or two but still rank high because they have hundreds of links. This is the type of quality Google is looking...
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