Archive for the ‘seo news’ Category
Monday, July 24th, 2023
SEO is a profession with intangible aspects, making it challenging to find concrete evidence of impact. Our work with Van der Garde revealed a strong correlation between brand interest and SEO performance on highly competitive queries.
Coincidentally, Google’s John Mueller’s perspective differs from ours, and we will explore this further in the article.
The interface between branding and known SEO factors
As mentioned, there are many intangible things within SEO, including branding. Both share many similarities. They:
- Seem unclear and intangible to many.
- Require a long-term vision.
- Have a path to success.
- Will become some of your strongest assets.
And they can reinforce each other:
- Increased SEO visibility throughout the customer journey increases brand visibility.
- A stronger brand can contribute to SEO.
That being said, there are plenty of known SEO factors, some having common ground with branding:
- E-E-A-T
- Authority (Authority, the A of E-E-A-T)
- Reliability (Trust, the T of E-E-A-T)
- Search intents
The Quality Rater Guidelines
By analyzing Google updates and documentation, we can understand their vision.
Google’s Search Quality Rater Guidelines (SQRG) is a book of more than 176 pages that offers a handle to Search Quality Raters (SQR). The SQR provides feedback to the output of the Google algorithms in order to improve the overall user experience within the search engine, as can be seen on page six of the SQRG.
We see that Google has over 16,000 external SQR at its disposal. 16,000 real people worldwide who continuously feed the algorithm with feedback based on manual checks they do on search results and web pages based on the publicly available guidelines.
Not every SEO professional knows these guidelines, but knowing them and monitoring changes contributes to developing a good long-term SEO vision.
E-E-A-T
One of the most important concepts within the guidelines is the E-E-A-T concept (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trust). The SQRG mentions the E-E-A-T abbreviation 126 times.
Trust and Authoritativeness, in particular, have a great deal in common with branding and will therefore be discussed.
Trust
According to the guidelines, Trust is the most important factor because untrustworthy pages have low E-E-A-T regardless of how Experienced, Expert, or Authoritative they may seem.. The example given in the guidelines is a financial scam. It is completely untrustworthy even if the content is authoritative or the scammer is an expert in running scams.
The assessment of Trust is done by looking carefully at the information on the website of the company itself and everything else that can be found on the internet about the website and the authors. Examples are your About Us section, media sentiment and public complaints and reviews.
The SQR seems to use a mix of qualitative and quantitative data. Search volumes are a quantitative expression of (brand) interest. A website labeled as “Trustworthy” will not necessarily enjoy great brand awareness. But the chances that a strong, well-known brand is considered Trustworthy by people are far greater than a brand that is just entering the market, and enjoys the same perception.
Therefore, theoretically, when there is a relatively large search for a specific brand, this could be a signal of Trust for Google’s algorithm.
Authority
Google tries to present the most relevant answers (search results) to each query. For Google (and probably most people), the more you are an authority in your industry, the more likely you are to be a relevant answer.
Google can measure your degree of Authority based on numerous factors such as content quality, link profile, mentions and other data.
If brand interest can be linked to Trust, then brand interest in a specific niche is a quantitative expression of Authority in that niche.
Search intents
Changes in search intent
The guidelines consist of four chapters, of which understanding users and the intentions behind their search terms is one. On page 87 of the SQRG, Google clearly explains that search intents can change over time.
Search intents can change rapidly, and search results adapt equally fast. A perfect example is the search intent for countries and cities during COVID. The intent behind very specific search terms such as “Holiday Barcelona” and “Holiday Spain” could change lightning fast whenever there was COVID turmoil. When a country received negative travel advice or the destination hit the news due to rising infections, the search results changed from travel websites to government pages almost immediately and changed back equally fast when things returned to normal.
Seasonal trends
An example of changing search behavior is the search market for health insurance in the Netherlands. In the Netherlands, health insurance is mandatory, and you can only switch healthcare providers around November and December.
Between January and September, the primary search intent of “health insurance” is more focused on information about health insurance in general. Because people have to make their choice in Q4 whether they switch from health insurance or not, you see that the search intention changes to “Compare health insurance” in Q4.
This has a clear impact on the search results. In the example below, you can see the fluctuations of a Dutch health insurer “CZ” and healthcare comparator ‘Zorgkiezer’ on the generic term “Health insurance”
We see that ‘Zorgkiezer’ starts at position nine during the beginning of Q4 and climbs to position two in the last days that people can switch, then drops back after that.
In summary
So we know that:
- The search volumes from Google Ads are measured and made available by Google itself.
- Google’s search results are created by the most advanced machine learning algorithms, of which RankBrain is an algorithm that has been active since 2015 (more than eight years) and is specifically intended to understand our search intents.
- A change in search intent has a direct impact on search results.
- The algorithms are fed by over 16,000 people, specifically briefed to check whether the website behind a search result is trustworthy and has enough Authority.
When a brand becomes increasingly popular in a niche, the search intent within that niche can change so much (because users want to buy a product in a specific category from the website) that Google’s algorithms will consider the website as more relevant within that niche.
Measuring the impact of branded searches in SEO
In our experience, branding definitely has an impact on SEO, at least to some degree. During our work at Van der Garde it became undeniably clear that the highly competitive queries were very sensitive to this: The short-tail dropped towards the high season, the mid-long-tail did not.
Impact on short-tail terms
Impact on mid-long-tail terms
We were able to perform this analysis because we have excellent GSC data retention and segmentation via Rytes’ Search Success (check out our other tips for daily use of Search Success).
Change of (branded) search intents
The demand increase between low and high seasons is extreme in this market, so we probably see more impact here than in other industries.
To map the change in search behavior within the outdoor furniture industry, we benchmarked brand interest towards Van der Garde against 15 competitors and the non-branded search market. The benchmark concerns the development of the average monthly search query between February – May (high season) compared to October – January (off-season)
We have distinguished between outdoor furniture specialists that sell nothing but outdoor furniture and companies that do not necessarily have outdoor furniture as their core business.
- Outdoor furniture specialists (core business)
- Van der Garde
- Tuinmeubelshop
- Tuinmeubelland
- AVH Outdoor
- Buitenhof Tuinmeubelen
- Kees Smit
- Home furnishing store chains
- Hardware stores
- Garden store chains
For the furniture store chains, DIY stores, and garden chains, we only used the keyword combinations between brand and outdoor furniture-related search terms (Karwei outdoor furniture, Karwei parasol 300 cm, etc.).
We used all queries with the outdoor furniture specialists because the entire brand has an outdoor furniture search intention.
By definition, the specialists should have more Expertise and Authority within their industry than many of the much larger national chains with a broader focus.
Additionally, they often have much lower budgets than the larger companies. As a result, they see a much more significant increase in search demand for outdoor furniture than the “real” outdoor furniture specialists and the non-branded search market itself.
So, given our theory, search intent is shifting more towards these companies in this period.
Example A
Outdoor furniture specialist Van der Garde drops annually on “tuinset” (Outdoor furniture set) towards the high season and rises towards the off-season. Simultaneously, hardware store Praxis performs the opposite. Their search demand increases over 665% towards the high season, whereas Van der Garde’s increase is “only” 200%. It’s not inconceivable that:
- Google concludes that people who search for “tuinset” are more likely intending to visit Praxis than Van der Garde.
- Van der Garde, therefore gradually drops from the top three to position 12 while praxis rises from position seven to the top three.
- This returns to “normal” when the difference in brand interest decreases.
Example B
Again, when comparing outdoor furniture specialist Tuinmeubelshop and home furnishing chain Jysk, the specialists’ brand demand “only” increases 300% while Jysks’ increases 717%. What’s more extreme is that on the query “loungeset.” Jysk never had top 10 positions during the off-season in the past two years. But during peak season, when brand demand peaks, they even tap the top three.
Conclusion
Can branded searches influence SEO results? Absolutely. It is logical, and our data shows it. Does that mean companies should shift their SEO budget to branding? Definitely not. Branding impacts SEO but is still a smaller factor than an SEO-optimized website.
However, the lower your brand interest is in a competitive industry, the harder you’ll have to work on your SEO. But with Van der Garde, we showed proof that even then, David can beat Goliath.
Want to work with our SEO team? Contact marketing@valantic.nl. Want to work in our SEO team? See our SEO Consultant vacancies.
The post The most underrated SEO factor appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Friday, July 21st, 2023
Google has updated its Misrepresentation policy with detailed information on how marketers can build trust.
The document advises what steps and precautions brands should take to make sure their products and offers are eligible to be served in Search.
Why we care. The updated policy provides specific criteria for brands. This level of detail will also prove useful for anyone struggling with a misrepresentation suspension or warning.
Building trust. In its updated policy, Google explained that there are four issues you need to address to build trust. For each issue specified, Google provided specific instructions that brands should follow:
- Business Identity
- Ensure that the official business name is provided and that there is consistency across the registered business name and domain name.
- Make sure a brand’s website features an ‘About Us’ page as this establishes authenticity and helps customers to understand their unique journey.
- Link out to the brand’s social media profiles from the website so that customers can follow those accounts should they so wish.
- Transparency
- Make sure website content and messaging is completely clear and include details regarding shipping, returns and privacy policies.
- Ensure honesty and transparency about the brand’s business model and how the company operates.
- Online reputation
- Display honest reviews and testimonials about a brand’s products and services to help customers understand how to use them.
- Feature any badges or seals of approval from official third-party sources.
- Clearly display how customers can get in touch.
- Be sure to tell customers if the brand publishes a blog post.
- Make sure customers know if the brand was mentioned in a third-party article.
- Professional design
- Make sure that the brand’s website has an SSL certificate to reassure customers that their sensitive data is stored securely.
- The brand’s website should be easy to navigate and shouldn’t contain any unnecessary redirects or redirects to broken links.
- Try to avoid placeholders where possible as this gives Google and the customer the impression that the website is still under construction and not yet ready for SERPs.
Assisting Google. Google explained that there are several steps brands can take to help it to understand their business faster and more accurately:
- Create and verify a Google Business Profile.
- Share up-to-date information in the Merchant Center under the Business information settings.
- Link relevant third-party platforms to Merchant Center.
- Follow Google’s SEO guidelines to ensure a strong customer experience is provided.
- Opt into the Google Customer Reviews or other third-party review services to improve eligibility for seller ratings.
- Match product data in the product feed with your website to make sure that customers are seeing the same information across both platforms.
What has Google said? Google said via a statement posted on its Merchant Center:
- “We want Google to be a safe and trustworthy place for both our customers and retailers.”
- “Customers should feel confident about the offers they are browsing and the businesses they are purchasing from.”
- “Sometimes it can take some time before a sufficient level of trust is established and before we consider it safe to display your offers to customers.”
- “This assessment is an ongoing process and since we know that customers are likely to do research about your products and business, we may review multiple signals from across the web.”
- “The more we know about your business, the better we are able to represent you.”
Deep dive. Read Google’s Building Trust with your Customers guide for more information on its Misrepresentation policy.
The post Google updates Misrepresentation policy with key information on building trust appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Thursday, July 20th, 2023
TikTok has launched a Commercial Content Library to provide transparency around its paid advertising.
Marketers will be able to use the database to research information about TikTok’s paid ads – as well as other content that’s commercial in nature, such as:
- The advertising creative.
- Dates the ad ran.
- Main parameters used for targeting (e.g. age, gender).
- Number of people who were served the ad.
Why we care. Having access to this data can give marketers a better understanding of campaign performance and the TikTok algorithm. This key information will help reveal what creatives work, what ideas don’t work and more. Having this data at hand will enable marketers to make more informed decisions, potentially maximizing reach and ROI.
The rules. Access to TikTok’s Commercial Content Library is available to everyone globally. However, only data from Europe is available.
- TikTok said that its team is already working on ways to include advertising data from more countries, such as the U.S., in the future. But a date for this release is yet to be confirmed.
Added bonus. In addition to the launch of the ads transparency library, TikTok is also giving marketers access to a Commercial Content API.
- In order to use the Commercial Content API, marketers will be required to create a TikTok Developers account and submit an application for access, which will then be reviewed by the platform’s team in an effort to clamp down on the misuse of data.
Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.
<input type=”hidden” name=”utmMedium” value=”“>
<input type=”hidden” name=”utmCampaign” value=”“>
<input type=”hidden” name=”utmSource” value=”“>
<input type=”hidden” name=”utmContent” value=”“>
<input type=”hidden” name=”pageLink” value=”“>
<input type=”hidden” name=”ipAddress” value=”“>
What TikTok said. TikTok announced the launch of its ads transparency library on its official blog. A spokesperson said:
- “We tested an early version of the Commercial Content Library with researchers and civil society to gather feedback over the last few months before making it more broadly available.”
- “From our tests and input from experts, we’ve added the ability to perform precise searches, included more targeting parameters, and improved data quality - among other updates.”
- “We value feedback on where we can improve both APIs. We’ll continue to respond with updates to better support independent research and transparency into TikTok.”
Deep dive. Read TikTok’s official blog post to find out more about its ads transparency library.
The post TikTok launches ads transparency library appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Thursday, July 20th, 2023
Agency owners and employees face significant challenges in managing clients, projects, and attracting new business. Without a clear guide, it can be overwhelming to navigate these tasks. In addition, rising costs and labor shortages make it crucial to prioritize growth while maintaining sustainability and profitability.
In this guide, Vendasta has brought together the best of the best. It features insights from 12 industry-leading agencies with extensive experience. Within its pages, these market leaders share their top 28 strategies for achieving sustainable growth and maximizing profitability.
With a focus on managing high-performing teams, addressing current economic challenges, and identifying a successful growth trajectory, this guide equips agency owners with the necessary tools to drive growth and profitability.
Don’t miss out on this chance to gain insights from key industry players and accelerate your agency’s growth. Visit Digital Marketing Depot to download 28 growth strategies from 12 leading agencies.
The post 28 growth strategies from 12 leading agencies appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Thursday, July 20th, 2023
The Washington Post has published a document outlining its internal SEO and web performance best practices that anybody in news SEO will want to read.
The document, Web Performance and SEO Best Practices and Guidelines, outlines what the Post calls “proven strategies and guidelines for optimizing web performance and search engine optimization (SEO).”
SEO and web performance best practices. The Post’s document breaks down all of its guidelines into what is essentially a checklist, consisting of four buckets: on-page SEO, content optimization, technical SEO and off-page SEO.
The web performance guidelines focus on loading, rendering and responsiveness. It also shares many of the tools it uses to monitor performance – including Lighthouse, WebPageTest, Google Search Console and Google Analytics.
The purpose of the guidelines. The Post wants to make sure it:
- Provides a positive user experience.
- Increases website visibility.
- Drives organic traffic.
- Improves the site’s overall success.
What they’re saying. The document was officially announced today, although it appears the document was published May 31. The Post said it is publicly sharing its guidelines and tools to help others ensure their “own site practices are optimal”:
- “We identified a need for a Web Performance and SEO engineering team to build technical solutions that support the discovery of our journalism, as the majority of news consumers today read the news digitally. Without proper SEO and web performance, our stories aren’t as accessible to our readers,” according to Arturo Silva, engineering lead.
Read the document. Web Performance and SEO Best Practices and Guidelines
The post Washington Post shares SEO and web performance guidelines appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Thursday, July 20th, 2023
Many campaigns on TikTok, YouTube, Facebook and others fail simply because marketing teams need the right tools to maximize conversions. When increasing sales on Amazon and other marketplaces, you may be missing the mark on targeting, tracking and attribution.
In this webinar, learn how to increase revenue with practical tips your marketing team can put into practice for immediate, measurable impact. You’ll learn how to unleash the full power of social media advertising and organic engagement to amplify your brand visibility and capture the attention of your ideal customers.
Register and attend “A Revenue-Boosting Blueprint to Ignite Marketplace Sales and Dominate Paid & Organic Campaigns,” presented by URLgenius.
Click here to view more Search Engine Land webinars.
The post A blueprint for boosting sales and dominating paid and organic campaigns appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Wednesday, July 19th, 2023
Google is removing support for the related search operator, a special search command where Google can tell you what other websites are related to another site.
Danny Sullivan, Google’s Search Liaison, confirmed via Twitter the related search operator is going away, saying:
- “It hasn’t really worked that well for some time, as in some cases, the information was dated.”
What is the related search operator. The related search operator allowed you to type in the Google search box, for example, [related:https://www.google.com/] and Google would return related websites to that URL. Google’s old help documentation said:
“Google determines the relatedness of URLs by comparing multiple factors, such as the entities mentioned on the page and the general category of the page.”
It’s going away. I noticed this morning that Google removed the operator from its help documentation and then asked Google if the related search operator was going away. Google confirmed it is indeed going away, although, it currently seems to return results.
Sullivan added that it was rarely used anyway.
Alternatives may come back. Sullivan added:
- “Potentially we might revisit another way to show this type of info in the future.”
What and when that might be is unknown.
It begs the question, Google’s SGE can and does provide an AI snapshot answer to answer that question. So is the related search command needed?
Here is what the related search operator looks like for this site:
Why we care. If you use the related search operator for SEO and search marketing research, you may need to find an alternative solution going forward. Maybe AI search engines like Google SGE, Bard, Bing Chat, ChatGPT or others might be able to help.
The post Google confirms related search operator is going away appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Wednesday, July 19th, 2023
Instagram is rolling out new features on Reels that will make it easier for brands to jump on trends, increase reach and edit videos.
For the first time, you can search the Template Browser via category, making the Meta-owned platform far simpler to navigate.
You will also now have access to more editing capabilities than ever before as the platform has made it less time-consuming to customise templates.
Why we care. Finding out what videos are trending and adding to that conversation is a great way to maximize reach by capturing the attention of people who might not have otherwise been aware of your brand. These new features not only make it easier to see what videos are popular, but the new editing capabilities make content creation simpler and faster. In addition, if you want to cash in on a trend but are struggling to come up with an original concept, Reels’ new simpler browsing system means they can now explore how other people have recreated templates for much-needed inspiration.
Template Browser revamp. You can browse through different Instagram templates via category in the updated Template Browser. These categories will be organized into Recommended and Trending – as well as whatever templates or audio that you have saved to your account.
How it works. Users be able to access the Template Browser whenever they go to create a reel. Simply:
- Tap on the create button from the home page.
- Tap on REEL.
- Tap the image in the lower left corner of the screen to open your camera gallery.
- Tap on Templates.
You can also access the Template Browser via the Reels Tab. Tap on the camera icon and then select Templates.
Save your favorite template. If you see a template you would love to use, you can save that video and return to it later. Simply tap the Use Template button located on the Reel. That footage will then be accessible in the Template Browser.
Get inspired. Whenever you stumble across a template that you would love to use but and need some inspiration, you now have the option to check out the competition. By tapping on the Template by icon in their chosen reel, brands will be shown examples of how others have used the template and gotten creative to make that video their own.
New editing capabilities. When you create templates, the audio, number of clips, duration of the clips, and AR effects will automatically be added to your reel. This means they no longer have to manually add or recreate these features themselves, saving a lot of time.
Instagram has also announced that it will start adding text and transitions that were used in the original reel to templates, which will again help save you time. However, the templates will still be fully customizable so that you can add or remove clips, adjust timings and edit preloaded elements. This new feature is expected to be rolled out in the coming weeks.
Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.
<input type=”hidden” name=”utmMedium” value=”“>
<input type=”hidden” name=”utmCampaign” value=”“>
<input type=”hidden” name=”utmSource” value=”“>
<input type=”hidden” name=”utmContent” value=”“>
<input type=”hidden” name=”pageLink” value=”“>
<input type=”hidden” name=”ipAddress” value=”“>
Added bonus. Meta also confirmed this week that Instagram Reels will now also be served on Facebook. People will also have the opportunity to write comments on these clips without switching between the apps. This means that brands now have the potential to reach more people than ever before across the Meta network.
What has Instagram said? The platform said via its announcement:
- “Reels templates allow you to easily create a reel by reusing elements from another reel you love. Just drop in your own videos and photos to save time and put your own creative spin on a reel.
- “We’re excited to share some upgrades to Reels templates that will help you more easily find inspiration and create engaging reels.
- “Whether you’re joining in on a trend or want to create a fun reel to express your creativity, Reels templates can get you started in just a few taps.
- “We’re always working on ways to improve your Reels experience. We’ll continue to build on the Reels templates feature to make it easier and more fun to create and share on Instagram.”
The post Instagram updates Reels to simplify content creation appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Wednesday, July 19th, 2023
Microsoft’s Performance Max is now in open beta. Select marketers can now access its full inventory and serve ads across its network.
Why we care. Microsoft’s Performance Max offers new features which aim to simplify marketers’ workloads and give them back time to focus on the creative and help them to reach untapped audiences. Being able to work directly with Microsoft on Performance Max campaigns will also give advertisers more transparency and detail into that asset level of reporting.
How to get started. Creating a campaign with Microsoft Performance Max consists of five steps:
- Set up Microsoft conversion tracking: While Google import is a great way to get started if you’re already using Performance Max there, you must ensure that conversion tracking is set up with Microsoft too as it’s a requirement. This can be done via UET or with offline conversion goals. This should always be the first set up and Microsoft advises making sure that you’ve set up the appropriate goals.
- Set budget and bid strategy: With maximize conversions within optional target return on ad spend goal, you can set and maximize conversion values with optional target CPA goals.
- Final URL expansion: Microsoft recommends turning this setting on because it helps drive consumers to the most relevant landing page. It also lets Microsoft create additional assets based on what’s working well on landing pages.
- Add assets: Next up, you should add text, images and ensure that their brand’s store is set up with Microsoft when using the Merchant Center.
- Audience signals: This helps Microsoft with regard to predictive targeting, which in turn can help you reach your target audience.
What has Microsoft said? Lauren Tallody, Sr. Product Marketing Manager and Automation Lead for Microsoft, told Search Engine Land:
- “Since Google launched their Performance Max product in 2021, we took our time to understand if there was a need across advertisers for this kind of product on our side.
- “We wanted to understand your needs, where we could differentiate and where we could focus. And this will continue to be a long journey.”
Timeline. Microsoft has been working on the creation of its Performance Max program since the fall of last year and has already seen positive results:
- September 2022: Import Google PMAX campaigns using Merchant Center – As more advertisers started embracing the PMAX product in Google, Microsoft wanted to capture that demand and have a parity experience and so started importing Google Max campaigns as either smart shopping or local inventory ads.
- October 2022: Import Google PMAX campaigns not using Merchant Center – Microsoft changes its approach slightly by importing Google Max campaigns as DSA campaigns.
- May 2023: Closed beta launch of Microsoft’s Performance Max – The close beta launch went “very well” for Microsoft and the results encouraged it to continue building the product and import those campaigns in.
- July 2023: Open beta launch – Microsoft’s Performance Max officially went into open beta a couple of weeks ago.
Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.
<input type=”hidden” name=”utmMedium” value=”“>
<input type=”hidden” name=”utmCampaign” value=”“>
<input type=”hidden” name=”utmSource” value=”“>
<input type=”hidden” name=”utmContent” value=”“>
<input type=”hidden” name=”pageLink” value=”“>
<input type=”hidden” name=”ipAddress” value=”“>
Next steps. Microsoft is now looking to bring its Performance Max product to general availability and continue to build on more features. This includes:
- API support.
- Microsoft Advertising Editor support.
- Expanded reporting like search term and domain reports.
- Smart shopping campaign upgrade tool.
The post Microsoft’s Performance Max is now in open beta appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
Wednesday, July 19th, 2023
Are you looking for new ways to save time doing research and competitive analysis?
Then these five handy SEO tools and plugins – which are completely free to use – should help:
- Competitor research: Wayback Machine
- Data analysis: Copy Selected Links
- Design and layout: GoFullPage
- Research and data formatting: Docs Online Viewer
- Reformat content from an image: OneNote
1. Competitor research: Wayback Machine
The Internet Archive Wayback Machine is one of the most underrated free tools for SEO. Not only can you use it to view past versions of your own website, but you can also use it to view competitor changes.
There are probably hundreds of tools and approaches for competitive SEO analysis, like Fluxguard and Visualping. But the Wayback Machine is free and can be used on any site. And it can’t easily be blocked by a competitor’s firewall (yes, your competitor can block IPs coming through your company’s VPN).
You can view past versions of competitor pages to see what they’ve updated, tested and reverted, like:
- Design and layout elements
- Calls to action (CTAs)
- Content and headline changes
- Keyword focus
Web Archives also has extensions for all the major browsers that let you instantly view versions of any page you’re on.
When to use it
- Spot and track trends over time, or come up with ideas to test on your own site.
- Use the Changes tab to see how much a page has changed over time. It can give you clues if competitors seem to update certain pages on a regular timeline.
- For sites that use a category or folder structure, the Sitemap tab lets you see a visual map of the structure of the site. This is especially useful for sites without an obvious or public sitemap.
- Share before and after screenshots if you can’t access previous versions of your page.
When you can’t use it
The Wayback Machine has one major downside: You can’t view a page that hasn’t been archived before.
The Wayback Machine doesn’t have a record of every webpage, though it does come pretty darn close.
The Archive claims it has 813 billion web pages in its collection. With an estimated 4.5 billion indexed webpages in existence, that’s about 18% of the whole internet.
Fortunately, you can add any page to the archive that you can view later. If you search for a URL and it’s not in the archive, click the option to save it to add it to the collection. But there won’t be historical data before that point.
Dig deeper. 5 ways to use the Wayback Machine for SEO
2. Data analysis: Copy Selected Links
Let’s say you have a list of linked article titles in a spreadsheet. But you need to add the actual URLs in a column too.
Instead of right-clicking and copying each URL into a new cell, you can use the Copy Selected Links extension for Chrome and Firefox.
Copy the linked text, then right-click and paste. Now you have a list of the URLs for the content you copied.
When to use it
If you’re making edits across many pages on your site, typically, you’d have to log into your CMS, open each page and then click Edit. Or you might search for each page in the CMS dashboard and click Edit on each one.
If you use a CMS like WordPress, you can often copy the list of pages straight from your CMS dashboard, along with the Edit links, into the same spreadsheet.
- Create a spreadsheet.
- In your CMS, select all the pages to edit and copy with Ctrl/Cmd + C.
- In your spreadsheet, paste the list of linked pages.
- Right-click the page titles and paste the live URLs in one column.
- Right-click the Edit links and paste in another column.
Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.
<input type=”hidden” name=”utmMedium” value=”“>
<input type=”hidden” name=”utmCampaign” value=”“>
<input type=”hidden” name=”utmSource” value=”“>
<input type=”hidden” name=”utmContent” value=”“>
<input type=”hidden” name=”pageLink” value=”“>
<input type=”hidden” name=”ipAddress” value=”“>
3. Design and layout: GoFullPage
Now you have a spreadsheet with a list of the page links and edit links. You can right-click and open all the Edit links in new tabs instead of opening each page individually.
GoFullPage is a Chrome browser extension that lets you take a screenshot of an entire page at once.
You can take a picture of an entire page on desktop and mobile without needing to scroll and take multiple screenshots.
Save your screenshot as a PDF or PNG, or mark up your image with notes before you save it or share it.
When to use it
- Save search results for specific keywords to see how the SERP changes over time.
- Compare SERP results side-by-side for users in different locations or using different devices.
- Share before and after screenshots of page changes.
- User test different versions of the same page without the need for a designer.
4. Research and data formatting: Docs Online Viewer
Doing an advanced web search for filetype:pdf is enormously helpful for finding specific data types, like sample files and reports.
But some sites require you to download the PDF instead of letting you view it directly in your browser. You can always open a PDF in Chrome from your Privacy and Security settings. But this isn’t foolproof.
Docs Online Viewer, a Chrome or Firefox browser extension, puts a linked cloud icon next to any PDF. Click it to view the PDF in your browser.
When to use it
- The obvious use case is so you never have to download a PDF first before you find out if the PDF is useful.
- Sometimes this plugin lets you view a PDF that’s behind an email signup button – without giving away your email address.
- Viewing the PDF in your browser also means you can combine this with other extensions, too. Use this plugin with Copy Selected Links to copy all the URLs in a database of links, for example.
5. Reformat content from an image: OneNote
OneNote is a go-to program for organizing notes and your work life. It also has a lesser-known feature: copying text from images.
- Copy any image into a OneNote page.
- Right-click on the image.
- Select Copy Text from Picture.
- Paste it into your Note with Ctrl/Cmd + V or right-click + paste.
It’s not perfect at copying text by any means. But for images that are structured around copy, it can be up to 80% accurate.
You’ll often need to check certain letters and numbers manually. OneNote might mix up a 1 and an L, for example.
When to use it
This is helpful for pulling out content from an image so you can analyze the data or turn it into on-page content.
Google can’t read content from images like it reads on-page copy, even if it does have proper alt text. Neither can screen readers.
Whenever you have an image on a page, it’s useful to include the same info from the image in another, more readable format. Use this tool to take a diagram and turn it into copy, or include both an image of a table and an HTML table on your page.
The image-to-text feature is available with free or premium versions of OneNote. OneNote is available for both PC and Mac.
Get the most out of your SEO tools
To get the most out of your SEO tools, share the best tools and tips you’ve found with your team, clients and peers.
SEOs love to try new things, so try new tools and feature whenever you can, then spread your wealth of knowledge to others.
The post 5 free SEO tools and plugins to try appeared first on Search Engine Land.
Courtesy of Search Engine Land: News & Info About SEO, PPC, SEM, Search Engines & Search Marketing
(Source: Page 26 SQRG)
