SEO Tips and Resources

Abhi

Google has been promoting mobile-first indexing since some time. Google now says that there is some significant info changed regarding what webmasters and developers should know about mobile-first indexing.

https://developers.google.com/search/mobile-sites/mobile-first-indexing

I know you are already on responsive design, but read the above official resource from Google, just in case. I hope you are mobile ready and no errors left behind.

admin

They have been pushing it since years now. For Google, mobile also mean Android. They would like compatibility and efficiency with their most promoted platform. So no doubt that they will keep mobile-ready articles flowing downstream.

Abhi

Search console update brings

enables site owners to temporarily hide a page from appearing in Google Search results. The new report also provides info on pages on your site that have been reported via other Google public tools.

There are 2 types of page removals that you can try

Temporary remove URL will hide the URL from Google Search results for about six months and clear the cached copy of the page.

Clear cache URL clears the cached page and wipes out the page description snippet in Search results until the page is crawled again.

There is an option to remove outdated content through the revamped search console. This is something that anyone can do/indicate, not just the website owners.

There is also a listing of safe search filtering by Google for contents that are not for all.

admin

This is good. But reporting outdated content going official ? I think something big is coming.

Abhi

There is so much obscure content on web. Maybe Google wants itself notified. I am sure that it is going to be misused though. A lot of shady people will definitely mark genuine pages as outdated.

Abhi

Google talking about how to use images on mobile-first indexing, talk about search console, structured data etc

https://youtu.be/Z8S-vZTwhYA

What you should do with images ?

Embed properly
Proper use of alt text
Use high resolution image
Properly placed

admin

Nice one. They had some talk on structured data as well. I will keep an eye for the updates.

Abhi

More on search console. Official video from Google

https://youtu.be/Vmfvf8nG09k

admin

They are putting a lot of emphasise on search console. Not sure why. But it is good to tread the path. Google likes it.

Abhi

My website is marked as spam, what to do ? Is that a question worrying your ? Google has an answer for you. You can get instructions from members of Google's Webmaster Forum and they file a review request. Pray that it gets accepted.

https://youtu.be/Zmc9KTY8LXs

admin

They won't make anything about most appeals. Too much load from whoever is handling them.

Abhi

Planning to hire an SEO expert, make sure he/she is good enough ? How ? Google tells you here

https://youtu.be/NWsyr-D06Ck

Abhi

AMP and News search. How Google see it and how you can optimise your website for the same

https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2020/02/best-practices-for-news-coverage-with.html

Official resource from Google.

admin

I think I should add a .amp version when we go full swing. Really hard to live without AMP these days.

Abhi

By the end of this year, Google will introduce " Read It " a text to speech method for web pages in Google app, Google News app and Google Chrome. Make sure that you are ready for Read It as it might change how a lot of people read your website.

Jason

Abhi Hmm so we need to keep fine tuning our site for Google's sake 🙁

Abhi

Abhi There is a video on the same by Google - Read It

https://youtu.be/psEX5jPkYiw

The most interesting part is that it will be available in different languages.

Abhi

I think using Reader's mode in your browser and determining the readability will be fine for now.

I hope by that time, there will some tool ( perhaps official ) which will scan pages and tell about the " Read it " compatibility.

Abhi

Did you see ? Google is saying goodbye to the desktop version.

Mobile-First Indexing at Google is becoming the default later this year. Googlebot is leaving its desktop behind, and using a phone, like most of our users.

Why ?

Most websites are mobile ready

70 % of websites in search results have a mobile version

Google will switch to mobile first from September 2020

Google will occasionally scan your website with desktop Google bot. But don't get your hopes high

If a domain moves to mobile indexing ( if not already ), the crawling process will take some time for mobile first crawling

Search console and URL inspection tool will help you move to mobile first indexing

Google recommends responsive design for new websites

Mobile URLs are not welcome. Because they create confusion for users and search engines ( according to Google )

Source

admin

Looks like all those CMS without a responsive themes are going to take the heat.

Abhi

The latest news is that Google mobile search for videos is showing bits of your video to users. You can call it Key moments which is actually a small intro of your long video to the users. More or less like an excerpt in a WordPress blog post.

The impact is that if your video is boring along the timeline, after this excerpt, viewers might actually skip it. On the other hand, they will click on your video if it looks amazing in the short format.

I would say that this is really Google's ability to read videos and summarise it in a few frames.