1. Prioritize mobile-first indexing
You’ve probably heard about Google’s mobile-first indexing.
Hopefully, you’ve avoided the many misconceptions about mobile-first indexing and how it affects ranking.
You don’t need a perfect mobile site for mobile-first indexing (or the SERPs).
Mobile-first indexing shouldn’t make you abandon SEO for your desktop site
This change requires the following:
Indexing is mobile-first.
The mobile version of your site will be indexed and ranked higher than the desktop version. If not, it soon will. No “opt-out” option SEO service Delhi.
Never has building a responsive site been easier.
If your audience uses mobile, go mobile.
Interstitials shouldn’t be intrusive.
Never. They’re not user-friendly, and Google may soon crack down.
Mobile-optimized content (without sacrificing value).
That means avoiding formats that have trouble loading on mobile devices and preserving all the desktop site’s ranking-boosting content (shorter mobile sites may look nicer, but they don’t rank as well).
Build a mobile-friendly site.
If your site hasn’t gone responsive yet, now is the time.
Use “overwhelm-proof” strategies.
Hamburger and accordion menus don’t hinder indexing and improve UX (especially on mobile devices).
Googlebot prefers sites with fewer obstacles.
Check your server logs for crawling errors regularly.
2. Speed-optimize
Mobile page speed affects SEO.
How does this impact SEO?
My team ran an experiment before and after the Page Speed Update to determine what factors affect Google rankings.
Page speed doesn’t affect rankings, but optimization does.
PageSpeed Insights checks website speed and optimization.
This tool now measures:
In Minutes, Scan Your Website
Get reports on your site’s crawlability, internal linking, speed & performance, and more.
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Quality optimization (Lighthouse-backed lab data).
Real users’ load times (“field data” from CrUX report data)
Insights PageSpeed
Author’s November 2021 Screenshot
Google is probably testing all the factors, so we’ll see changes soon.
For now, optimise your site:
Regularly audit and fix technical issues.
Google recommends optimizations. PageSpeed Insights has them.
Possible Optimizations
Author’s November 2021 Screenshot
3. Use CrUX Report
The Google Chrome User Experience Report gathers data as people browse popular websites. PageSpeed Insights, Google BigQuery, and Data Studio’s CrUX Dashboard offer data.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Google relied more on “field data” than “lab data” in SERPs.
First contentful paint and input delay data
Author’s November 2021 Screenshot
Using local tests to uncover this data is nearly impossible if the industry shifts to RUMs, making it difficult to optimise for.
The CrUX report is public, so you can explore all the data: device and connection type, page loading time, etc.
You need a Google Cloud Platform project with access to CrUX’s public page.
With some SQL knowledge, you can get Google’s raw site data and change your strategy.
Get More SERP Space
Who knows what the future holds for Google’s front page, local packs, ads, knowledge panels, answer boxes, etc.
Organic search results are the only constant.
Hotel Pack has a new filtering system and four results instead of three.
Google Hotels
Author’s November 2021 Screenshot
How do you stand out in the search landscape?
Start with:
Highlights
Featured snippets have been around a while, but they’re still valuable.
Featured snippets still appear above search results (but they’re hard to get and keep).
How do you get one?
You create content with question-based keywords (questions you know your audience wants answered).
You snippet-format content (in paragraphs, tables, lists, etc.)
Stone Temple found that different formatting techniques have different success rates by market.
Answer FAQs in your niche using short paragraphs (40-60 words)
It’s not a surefire way to rank #1, but it works well for many definitions (just watch out for answer boxes on queries that provide actual dictionary definitions).
Schema.org
Schema markup can get you one (or more) SERP features, but not a featured snippet.
Go to Google and try to rank for the queries you want.
Examine the query SERP types.
Check which spaces feature your content and ask if you’re satisfied.
Look for content gaps to fill.
Videos are content king
Video may have killed radio, but now it’s targeting the written word.
Please don’t stop writing altogether.
Our lessons:
YouTube has billions of daily views.
Second-largest search engine is YouTube.
Since 2020, 96% of consumers watch more online videos.
Videos also boost engagement.
Here’s how to make and optimise audience-targeted videos:
Create rand and product videos.
Make how-to videos for your products or services.
Live-stream webinars and interviews.
Google can better understand videos’ intent with relevant metadata (shorter titles, rich descriptions) and transcripts (s).
Match keywords exactly (this is still a thing on YouTube).
Tags help recommend videos.
YouTube, Wistia, Facebook, Vimeo, Instagram, etc.
Submit a video sitemap.
Demand for how-to videos on YouTube is growing 70% annually.
