Mobile SEO acts as the optimization of your website to rank a lot better in search results and keep the leads that you get from mobile on your page.

You will learn about mobile SEO, why it’s important to your bottom line, and why you should consider creating a mobile SEO strategy for your business.

What Exactly is Mobile SEO?

It’s the optimization process of your website to make sure that your website looks great and works well on mobile devices. When you or a staff member performs mobile SEO, you’ll give your users a great user experience. The positive user experience comes from the fact that your site looks great on any device.

In the past few years, the use of mobile devices have increased exponentially. Over 70 percent of people shop on their mobile devices. As more and more people gain access to these devices, these numbers will only increase in the future.

A lot of business owners don’t realize the importance of having a website that’s mobile friendly. But if you don’t have a mobile friendly website, your website SEO will suffer. So will the way that potential customers perceive your business. One study even showed that over half of all customers will not visit a business again if they had a bad mobile experience. To prevent negative mobile experiences, optimize your business website so that it works well on mobile devices.

Why Is Mobile SEO Important?

1. Your Customers Spend Most of Their Internet Time on Smartphones
   Users spend over 70 percent of their online time on their mobile devices. If your customers are spending most of their internet time on their smartphones, your business website will need to be ready. A poor mobile experience could mean losing lots of valuable leads.
2. Your Customers Will Return If They Have a Good Mobile Experience
   It’s an intuitive leap to figure that your customers are more likely to return if they have a positive mobile experience the first time. When customers return again and again, these leads turn into valuable sales.
3. Your Customers Will Hold Your Business in Higher Regard
   A large part of creating a mobile friendly website is giving your customers the best experience possible. When your customers have a positive mobile experience, that makes it more likely that they will experience what you have to offer in a way that’s fruitful for both parties.

Mobile SEO is a vital part of growing your business in the online space. To help your company grow through SEO, account for customers that access your website through their mobile devices. A thorough and creative mobile SEO plan helps you reach potential customers.

SEO Locale offers full digital marketing packages that include mobile SEO naturally. Ranking you on Google is our priority, but seeing your return on investment is just as important, give us a call today!

The post How Mobile Friendly Website Impacts SEO? appeared first on SEO Locale.

Showing up on Google’s Top Stories is a huge advantage for gaining exposure. When you show up in Top Stories, your articles gain more visibility than the standard search results. Formerly, you had to have Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) to even have the chance to show up on Top Stories. Since many saw the value in Top Stories and AMPs were a requirement, a lot of people embraced AMPs. However, there is a big change coming. 

Google recently announced that they will start using Core Web Vitals as a factor in search rankings and Top Stories. The announcement also detailed that Google will lift the AMP requirement around the start of 2021. This announcement makes the future of AMP unclear. Will it be easier for developers to optimize the mobile experience without AMP or to continue using AMP versions of their pages?

AMP Definition

 AMP is Google’s open-source, HTML framework that developers can use to create faster-loading mobile web pages. You can use AMP to build websites, stories, ads, and emails in a straightforward way. The content you create with AMP “prioritizes the user experience above all else”. The top benefits of AMP include:

• Faster web page speed, which equates to better user experience. 
• Apply AMP across numerous web touchpoints. 
• SEO benefits (for now). 
• Performance increase. 

Downfalls of AMP

While AMP has some key benefits, it also has its fair share of downfalls. If AMP is not a requirement for Top Stories, will people just stop using it? Potentially. Here are some of AMP’s major cons, and the reasons people may abandon it. 

• There are alternatives. Previously AMP was a requirement for Top Stories, however, it soon won’t be. Once AMP ceases to be a requirement, people may opt for alternatives. There are other solutions for optimizing user experience and site performance, and some businesses may have just been using AMPs to remain eligible for Top Stories. 
• AMP doubles your site maintenance work. With AMPs, you must essentially maintain a second version of your site. This process is not only time consuming, but it is also expensive. 
• It will no longer provide a competitive advantage. Formerly, you could not appear on Top Stories without AMP. When that changes, will it make sense to continue using it?

Testing the Waters

After the official update, people can “opt to prioritize page experience factors to get their content into the Top Stories section, instead of maintaining AMP versions of their pages.” Google’s new algorithm intends to rank web pages and Top Stories based on user experience from the signals of Core Web Vitals. 

However, not all of Googe’s algorithm updates have had much of an impact before. While it would be a good thing to update rankings and Top Stories based on positive user experience, the actual impact is unclear. Before making any major changes to get rid of AMP, people should wait and see how the updates play out and how the competition fairs. 

The big decision for publishers currently running on AMP will be the time they must majorly change their site. When it comes time for a redesign or CMS adjustment, then they should look closely at the costs of updating to AMP vs opting for another method to optimize the user experience. 

After the update, publishers and site owners need to compare the Top Stories. Are the majority of Top Stories from AMP sites or non-AMP sites? Without strong evidence that non-AMP sites are ranking in Top Stories, it doesn’t make sense to drop AMP. Additionally, “the requirements for non-AMP pages to appear in the Top Stories section may turn out to be more stringent than maintaining AMP.” In that case, it would actually be easier to maintain AMP than to meet the incredibly strict requirements for non-AMP sites. 

AMP: Should it Stay or Should it Go?

As of right now, the future of AMP is not too clear. There are some challenges associated with AMP that sit producers may be eager to get rid of once Google officially renounces it as a requirement for Top Stories. When it is no longer a requirement, site owners will be able to experiment with other methods for optimizing user-experience without creating a second version of their site. However, there may still be advantages to keeping AMP, especially if you are already using it. 

Companies should not make the choice right now on whether or not to continue using AMP in the long-term. The first thing to do is to see the impact of Google’s Core Web Vitals update and how AMP fairs when it is not a requirement. It is important to monitor your competition closely, and assess if AMP is still fairing better than other options. Currently, it is not clear if AMP will have a future once it disappears as a requirement for Top Stories. 

The post Will AMP Disappear Since It Is No Longer A Requirement For Top Stories? appeared first on SEO Locale.

Recently, Google made an announcement that will change the course of SEO. Google announced that website experience will become a ranking factor in Google Search and Top Stories on mobile. They also released the Web Vitals initiative that gives website owners cohesive metrics for creating websites with user experience and performance as priorities. Google will not change any rankings in 2020 and will provide a six months’ notice before doing so. 

Google’s Web Vitals

Google’s Web Vitals is meant to help website developers and owners “optimize for quality of user experience” by “quantifying the experience of your site and identify opportunities to improve”. Web Vitals offers quality signals that can help people improve the website experience of their website, and eventually improve their search ranking as well. Site owners do not need to be experts to understand their website’s user experience when they use Web Vitals. 

Web Vitals offers Core Web Vitals, which “ represents a distinct facet of the user experience, is measurable in the field, and reflects the real-world experience of a critical user-centric outcome.” Google will adapt the metrics in Core Web Vitals over time to reflect the user experience. Right now, the vitals for 2020 are:

• Loading. Largest Contentful Pain should happen within 2.5 seconds of when the page first starts loading. 
• Interactivity. The pages should have a First Input Delay of fewer than 100 milliseconds. 
• Visual stability. The cumulative layout shift should be less than 0.1.  

The Core web Vitals will be accessible to all people as one of Google’s tools as a Chrome extension. 

How User Experience will Impact Search Ranking

Google compares web pages to journeys and realizes the importance of a visitor’s journey. Flaws in a website’s user experience make the journey difficult, cumbersome, and frustrating. Google wants to eliminate common interruptions and create a better user experience and overall satisfaction. 

To promote a better experience for more users, Google will eventually consider Core Web Vitals and its existing search signals when determining search rank. Their overall goal is to provide a better web experience and garner higher engagement. Page experience will not be the only factor that determines rank, but Google will prioritize pages with “the best information overall, even if some aspects of page experience are subpar. A good page experience doesn’t override having great, relevant content. However, in cases where there are multiple pages that have similar content, page experience becomes much more important for visibility in Search.” 

While the timeline for a change has not yet been set, Core Web Vitals will directly impact search ranking in the near future. To help owners improve their sites, Google updated its developer tools to reflect Core Web Vitals’ information. 

The Importance of Web Hosting for Core Web Vitals 

Moving forward, web hosting will be vital for websites looking to achieve optimal core web vitals. To ensure that you provide the best experience and meet all of the key metrics, you need the correct website hosting service. Qualities to look for in a website host include:

• Fast page loading, with the speed of a system’s response comparable to the delays humans experience.  
• Stability to load multiple elements progressively. For example, elements that are already visible should not shift as others load. 
• Responsiveness. Free of frictions during interactions with your website. 
• Reliability, sites that stay up gain more visitors and earn a better user experience. 
• Space and capabilities to accommodate your content needs as you grow. 
• Bandwidth. You should have enough bandwidth to accommodate your visitors and be able to easily purchase additional bandwidth when you need it. 
• Support. In the event that something doesn’t go quite right, you want adequate support to help you quickly resolve it. 
• Security. You want your website information to be secure on your servers. This is critical or your visitors and you. 

Prepare for Google’s Core Web Vitals 

Core Web Vitals will not immediately impact your search ranking in Google, but that doesn’t mean that you should wait to take action. To prepare, you should start viewing your own Core Web Vitals and understanding the areas you need to improve in. According to the Search Engine Journal, the six ways you can measure your core web vitals include:

• Lighthouse
• Search Console 
• Web Vitals Extension 
• PageSpeed Insights
• Chrome DevTools
• Chrome UX Report

Stay ahead of the curve and prepare for the switch by beginning to measure and analyze your Core Web Vitals now. This way, you can anticipate and plan for any major changes you may need to make, including your web host. 

The post Web Hosting Plays An Important Role for Future Google Update appeared first on SEO Locale.

According to the “Impact of COVID-19 Scenario on European and the US Apparel Market” released by Wazir Advisors, apparel consumption in Europe and the US is likely to be 40-45% lower than the 2020 projected consumptions. 

As businesses begin to slowly reopen, one thing is clear: the apparel industry will show lasting changes due to COVID-19. 

• Will retailers survive?
• What does the future of the apparel industry look like?
• Will retailers convert more marketing efforts online vs traditional?

In this post, we explore what will happen to apparel stores following COVID-19.

Converting to eCommerce

Brick-and-mortar stores suffered as a result of the COVID pandemic. Those who relied on digital selling have faired better. While apparel spending is down by 50%, an online strategy is paramount for any apparel stores looking to rebound after the pandemic.  Our client Cut The Shirt decided to shift to all online sales during the pandemic and sales are doing very well regardless of the industry being down. Pivoting your eCommerce digital marketing will be more important than ever,

Even after stores reopen, consumers will be hesitant to enter physical stores and touch clothing in-person. While a digital strategy and eCommerce SEO is not a guarantee for success, brands that sell online will lose less revenue. Prior to the pandemic, the transformation to online retail was already underway. While many apparel retailers were already in the process of creating a digital experience, the pandemic serves as a catalyst to quickly digitize sales to online channels. 

Fewer Small Businesses Surviving Post Pandemic

Small apparel retailers face the biggest risk of closing following the pandemic. Small businesses do not have the same resources and reserves as many larger corporations and are failing to survive the effects of COVID-19. As a result of the pandemic, over 100,000 small businesses have closed for good, and many more face corporate mergings post-pandemic. 

Small businesses are essential for the economy and provide competition against large corporations, but small apparel companies are facing difficulties similar to those from the 2008 financial crisis. During the pandemic, shoppers were sticking to essentials and turning more to online retail than in-person stores. Smaller boutiques and retailers struggled to get local support and may not survive post-pandemic 

There is no doubt that COVID-19 will leave a lasting mark on the apparel industry. Few small businesses will survive the economic downturn from the pandemic and many apparel businesses will shift harder to online sales for direct-to-consumer relationships. The future of apparel stores is not clear, but we can expect a few major changes. 

The post What Will Happen to Apparel Stores Since Covid-19 Hit? appeared first on SEO Locale.

Recently, Google announced that it was going to be implementing a new change on search ranking. Called Core Web Vitals, these new criteria push website developers to ensure that their websites create a friendly experience for users. Although Google doesn’t intend to implement the changes until 2021 at the earliest, it’s important that web developers take note of the changes that they’re going to need to make soon. Here are some aspects that you should know about Core Web Vitals.

What Makes a Great Page Experience?

More than anything, Google wants its users to have a great page experience. This means, for web developers, that they need to cut down on loading times. A user’s experience can become poor quickly if they have to wait around for a page to load. Fine-tuning the load speed on certain pages–and the website as a whole can improve the site’s ranking on Google.

Another aspect that gives a website a great page experience is its mobile friendliness. Google has taken a lot of interest in the mobile experience users have when browsing the internet on their phones. It promotes businesses that create mobile-friendly sites. This is a trend that will continue with the Core Web Vitals update.

One important part of a great page experience is safety. With hacking becoming more frequent, users want to know that the information they put into a website is safe. Businesses and websites need to have protection. This includes implementing HTTPS, which is far safer than the mere HTTP.

Finally, Core Web Vitals also measures how interactive a web page is and how well that interactivity functions. For example, a website that causes a page shift to occur and messes up what the user was attempting to do will rank poorly on Google. An example of this might be if a user was attempting to cancel an order, but the page shifts and they suddenly click on a submit order button instead.

This is poor user experience. The website would receive a poor ranking in return.

Web developers have some time to fine-tune their designs and ensure that each aspect of their website pushes for better user experience.

Preparing for Core Web Vitals Update

Google told us it can be 6+ months before this update rolls out. For all of our current clients at SEO Locale we’re fixing all of the issues that Core Web Vitals update may look for. We’re being pro-active in the SEO industry because we’ve seen in the past how a ranking factor that may only have 5% weight to it can make an impact on traffic and rankings.

Start Your Coding Engines

Although developers have until 2021 to start showcasing their new websites, it’s important to get a head start. Contact SEO Locale for help. We offer a free digital marketing analysis for anyone interested.

The post Future Core Web Vitals Update by Google appeared first on SEO Locale.

What is Search Engine Optimization?

For those who are new to the game, SEO, or search engine optimization, is the careful use of keywords and other content to score well on Google’s search engine algorithm. An example might be if someone were to search for “HVAC companies near me.” When inputted into Google’s search query, a list appears that best fits the results that the user is looking for.

That list wasn’t generated randomly. It was compiled from a careful set of algorithms that Google keeps secret. However, content creators and SEO specialists have uncovered most of the secrets in determining how to better your SEO score.

Why Does SEO Matter in a Pandemic?

As a business owner, your first thought may be to shore up expenses and wait through the pandemic. However, you could actually be injuring yourself further. Instead of saving money, it’s a better idea to invest in the right kind of resource. SEO is that resource. Business may have stopped in the physical realm, but it’s still alive and kicking in the virtual world.

By creating a website for your business and implementing SEO, you can not only drive new customers to your business during a pandemic, but you can also increase your traffic during a normal market. SEO can help save your business by bringing it the attention of more people. The pandemic hasn’t stopped people from wanting to shop and purchase services. It’s merely limited the ways in which they can make those purchases and order those services.

By using SEO, you can bring your business to their attention. You may experience more growth than you’ve seen in years.

How to Get Started with SEO in a Pandemic

It’s never been easier to begin SEO practices while the pandemic is brewing. People are looking for more information about the virus. If you want to get started with creating content that will drive your business forward, then use the pandemic as a source to bring attention to your business. 

Contact the Professionals

SEO can be the key to surviving any pandemic. Utilize SEO professionals to capitalize today. Our SEO experts in Philadelphia & Jenkintown are ready to help your business shift with the times to keep the customers coming.

The post Does SEO Matter During a Pandemic? appeared first on SEO Locale.

Google regularly unleashes new pieces of software that impact how its search engine performs. One of the most exciting, for many software engineers, is BERT. Short for Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers, it encompasses many different functions. Primarily, it helps search engines understand complex word searches that rely heavily on word context. For those who write SEO or have SEO involved with their website, you might wonder how BERT is going to impact your SEO score. Here’s what you need to know.

How BERT Helps Searches

Because BERT can read a search query in two different directions – as opposed to other search algorithms – it is more capable of reading and comprehending what the sentence actually reads. For example, there are many words in the English language that have two meanings. Those words can even adopt different meanings when used with other certain words.

Machines have a difficult time understanding this because they don’t always have the full context. Unidirectional search engine algorithms are only capable of reading a search query in one direction. This doesn’t allow them to comprehend context because they’re unable to refer to an earlier part of the sentence after completing the entire sentence.

BERT can. While BERT is still learning context and ambiguous words, it stands at a much greater chance of being able to accumulate answers for sentences that use natural conversational speech.

Transformers is another crucial part of BERT’s design. Transformers deal with keeping track of the ‘who’s somebody’ in conversation. When having a normal conversation with someone, you may refer to a friend of a friend. That ‘who’s somebody’ can be difficult for humans to keep track of throughout the flow of conversation. For a machine, it’s even more complex.

However, because BERT’s software revolves around keeping track of transformers, it’s better at understanding exactly what the conversation is about.

It May Impact International SEO

One benefit of BERT is that it can actually correlate certain words in a different language while compiling a search for another language. Even though BERT may not understand the foreign language, per se, its system and deep-learning allow it to make those connections.

This is great for websites that use international SEO. They can use certain keywords that will help them rank higher on sites in different countries.

SEO Overall Impact

Is BERT going to impact SEO as a whole? Yes and no. While your overall SEO score may not change drastically, the more that BERT learns, the more you’ll have to pay attention to your SEO. This is because BERT may be able to better tell if a source that you link to is relevant or not.

Because it understands context better, it may start to realize that the sites you’re using for your links are actually not relevant at all. This may mean that you just need to hone your skills in nuance SEO writing or just make sure that you’re always linking to credible sources that Google enjoys the most.

Otherwise, you shouldn’t expect BERT to impact your score too much. As the software becomes more intelligent, however, it may eventually have a larger impact on SEO scores. As such, it’s a good idea to keep an eye on how BERT develops.

Contact SEO Locale for expert SEO services today. Having issues with the BERT update? Need a white label SEO partner, we can help!

The post What You Need to Know About Google BERT! appeared first on SEO Locale.

Start with an Auditing Tool

First, start with an auditing tool like SEMRush. There are several auditing tools out there to get you started. It is a simple process of getting initiated without any expert assistance. This will be able to crawl your entire website quickly without you missing thousands of issues. We’re constantly fixing website issues month over month, so make sure you provide your fixes in priority order during your audit process. An example of an SEO audit below is from SEMRush for one of our clients. As you can see there are false positives. We tackle items by priority starting with errors and work our way into warnings and notices over time.

Manually Inspect & Browse Your Website

There are several items we manually inspect while an SEO auditing tool is running in the background. Look for the XML sitemap. Find pages, posts and demo content that may have been left in there from the development of the website. Run through the website and see if you can find an HTML sitemap as well, is this website easily crawl-able? Are you having a hard time finding pages? If you are you will want to increase the crawl-ability of the website. Right-click on Google Chrome “inspect”, click on the console tab, do you see any errors or warnings? Fix them. We run into this problem and usually have issues with websites not being fully secure because they are calling http:// rather than https:// on an element on the website.

You could click on the not secure notice next to the website address, on top of your browser, and it will explain why the website is not fully secure. Example below:

Search Google for Your Main Keyword or Brand

During the SEO auditing process, we want to spot any inconsistencies or issues when websites are being crawled. Manually searching for a keyword you may rank for, or search your brand, and check if you see the intended meta description. If you do not, go and check your robots.txt file or see if there is a NoIndex tag implemented on the website.

Run Site: in Google Search

Sometimes our manual process or tools will not pick up some pages so running site: urlofyourwebsite.com in Google search could result in some other findings that can be holding back your website’s SEO.

SEO Auditing Process

Now I only covered only about 1/10th of the entire SEO auditing process, but our workflows and SEO auditing process shifts based on the website and platform. Auditing a website on Shopify versus WordPress can differ due to the structure. If you are interested in a free website audit you can contact us today, no catch! If you own an agency and want to start a white label SEO package with us, you can!

The post How to do an SEO Audit? appeared first on SEO Locale.

Luckily in our industry the internet is still turned on. Online shopping is increasing and businesses are starting to thrive more with our digital marketing product. We’ve had clients that had to shift their marketing and SEO to be geared towards the virus. The SEO Locale team is moving fast on these shifts for all of our clients.

Marc and myself sat down and evaluated some campaigns since the shutdown period. The statistics below are prime examples of how SEO still works during these stressful and tough times for business owners.

Results measured starting March 15, 2020 – April 2, 2020 vs March 15, 2019 – April 2, 2019

✔️ eCommerce Client +467.51% Increase in Revenue
✔️ Another eCommerce Client +2,298.77% Increase in Revenue
✔️ Local Franchise Gym +181.24% Increase in Leads
✔️ Service Industry Business (B2B) +492% Increase in New Users
✔️ Local Law Firm +389.62% Increase in New Users
✔️ B2C Client +129.57% Increase in New Users

🏆 Beat your competition with SEO. Our clients are seeing massive results during these tough times.

Here are a few marketing tips we compiled for a pandemic like this and how you can stay ahead of your competition:

1. Is your product or service in high demand for your customers. If so look at your approach to see if you can make adjustments to increase your SEO visibility.
2. Create a notification pop to alert your customers you are still operating.
3. Start creating posts on social media that help your customers understand they can still use your services. Most people are bored at home and browsing the internet and social media.
4. Increase your brand awareness. This is the perfect time to jump in front of your potential customers with your brand.
5. Start a community involvement initiative. Provide help of those in need. Don’t use this as a sales tactic, but getting involved will help the community come together.
6. Start increasing your conversion rate with new marketing tactics. Focus on your business during these times and beat your local competition.

The post SEO Works During Coronavirus Shutdown appeared first on SEO Locale.

Your Company Offers Essential Services

If your company offers essential services like HVAC, plumbing, or cleaning, you should increase your SEO presence. You want your customers to know that they can reach out to you even though the pandemic is still a real threat. When you work with us, we will help you find the customers that need you most. Businesses are turning off their paid advertising and SEO during this time, so it is a perfect opportunity for you to gain more business and beat your competition during the Coronavirus chaos. SEO Locale are experts that will help you target businesses that are working from home and need your services.

Your Company is Shutdown? No problem…

If your business was forced to shutdown, this is the perfect opportunity to advertise your business. You may think it’s crazy because everyone is at home, but the consumers will be bored on their phones and surfing the web. It’s the perfect opportunity to get your brand out there, and when they are ready to make that purchase, you will be in the forefront of their minds. We understand it is a scary time, as no small business owner has an end game during this time. Our COO Nick Quirk spoke to The Intelligencer about the unknown for small business owners.

How Can You Help Companies Get Back To Work?

If your company can help people get back to work, you should market yourself using this angle. You will see a change in the way that your website gets traffic because customers are searching for emergency services. We will help you add emergency or urgent services to your online marketing strategy. We will help you create a new list of keywords that should be used during the pandemic. The COVID-19 will be around the world for some time. Your business needs to stay on track with online marketing while people are isolating themselves. Keyword search volumes will be increasing, and your brand needs to be in front of those people.

Cleanup And Recovery Services

If you are a business that helps companies recover from disasters, we will help add the Coronavirus or the pandemic to your marketing strategy. Customers are looking for businesses like yours that can help them recover.

Helping Companies Operate Today

You might manage a company that helps companies create software or apps to manage their business. It is easy for you to add the pandemic and other emergency-oriented keywords into your digital strategy. Your customers will learn that you can help them change the way they do business, and they can continue to operate as they normally would.

Add More Information To Your Website

While we can help you with your online content strategy, we must add all this information into your website. Your website can become a hub for emergency information during the Coronavirus pandemic, and we will help you add a special notice to the website that tells your customers how you are responding to the pandemic. If you have crafted a quality response to this emergency, customers will trust you more.

Conclusion – Don’t Put Your Guard Down, It Is Time To Beat Your Competition

We will help you change your SEO plan during the Coronavirus pandemic. You can show your customers how you offer emergency services, and we will implement that strategy, utilizing keywords that will reach customers in need. Even if your business has a mandatory shutdown, we can still help you market yourself both during and after the pandemic. We’re here to help businesses get out of this chaotic situation that no business owner could have foreseen or planned for. We’re a premier digital marketing agency in Philadelphia with a plethora awards and accolades to prove our success to the business world.

The post Do You Still Need SEO During the Coronavirus Pandemic? appeared first on SEO Locale.