Monday, September 30, 2019

It’s been 10 years… Builtvisible is celebrating our 10-year anniversary

Builtvisible (once known as SEOgadget) sprang to life in a bedroom in Mile End in 2009. Actually, there had been a blog for a year or so prior to this, but the business we know and love today was started 10 years ago this month. It seems crazy to write this: Builtvisible is celebrating its […]

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Thursday, September 26, 2019

When to execute outreach

We’ve come to the final post in our outreach series. For the full journey, download our Complete guide to outreach. It’s no good doing all the prep work we’ve mentioned in previous posts if your email ends up getting buried in your recipient’s inbox because it’s poorly timed. Although there is no sure-fire way of […]

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Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Content Marketing vs. Link Building Case Studies – What to Focus on

The battle between link building vs. content marketing continues. It is a love-hate situation. Are you a fan of content marketing, link building or both? 

 

Us, as SEO people, we’ve always asked intriguing questions and tried to dig up dirt to find out new interesting things, new facts, new discoveries, and correlations between the SEO factors and new rankings possibilities. Today is the day for a new discovery. We’ll see what the search results will provide us. We performed a lot of searches for pharma, gambling and skincare keywords. 

 

Content_vs._Links_Which_One_Helps_You_Rank_in_the_Top

 

After analyzing the results for the keyword research, content analysis and link audit, we’ve come to the realization that the top-ranking content has some various metrics where high-quality content might be more valuable than link; on the other hand, on specific keywords and niches, link counts more. 

 

The case study was performed on 31 URLs and 12 keywords from niches such as gambling, viagra & penis enlargement, weight loss and acne & blemish treatments. We looked into more sensitive topics to see exactly what is the fluctuation and what type of content ranks on the first page. You can see the main results below. 

 

  1. Analyzed Metrics for the Case Studies
  2. Optimized Content Values More Than the Number of Links for Top-Ranking Content for “Buy Viagra Online” 
  3. Search Results with Qualitative Content & Low Influence Pages for Most of the “Weight Loss” Keyword Types
  4. Lots of Results with Quality Content and No Links for “Acne Treatment” Related Keywords
  5. Content Performance Overwrites Top-Ranking Results for “Online Gambling” Queries

 

It is not a comprehensive research, but it opens some valid questions that could help us and many others on further investigation for a more in-depth study. 

 

Torture data long enough, and it will confess.

We’ve previously made a research about the impact of content on rankings since lots of SEO experts say that content values more. Results show that content does impact rankings and has a high effect. We wanted to make the research more granular and find out if that applies to niches where black hat had a glorious past, such as viagra, gambling, weight loss medication.  

 

1. Analyzed Metrics for the Case Studies

 

For all the analyzed case studies we used the cognitiveSEO’s toolset. We started by searching for keywords using the Keyword Tool and Content Assistant and then looked for links metrics on Site Explorer

 

Keyword Tool and Site explorer

 

The metrics we investigated are:

  • Webpage position on the search engine results page: using the Keyword Tool we looked at the position each website ranked for.
  • Content Performance Score (CS): The Keyword Tool displays a content score for each page by scraping and analyzing the content, where you can see on a scale from 0 [low] to 100 how relevant and optimized this content is for the analyzed keyword. 
  • Page performance shows you, on a scale from 0 (low) to 100, how authoritative a page is, based on the incoming links pointing to that page.
  • Page influence predicts the ability for a specific page to rank in search engines, using levels such as No influence, Low influence, Good influence, Average influence, and High influence.
  • Number of referring domains: Site explorer shows the number of domains that link to a certain webpage.
  • Number of links displays the number of links that a page has.

 

Based on the data gathered for each keyword research made, we were able to spot some similarities that led us to some interesting insights. For each page, we followed the content metrics versus the links metrics, which helped us understand whether content or links are more valuable or whether there is a constant connection between those two for some particular keywords and niches.

 

We made a list including the keyword, the URL and the metrics described above. We looked only at the search results from the first page of Google.

 

On top of that, we monitored the results on a period of two weeks to see if there are any changes and all the search results kept their place with minor changes. We started looking on July 2nd, 2019.

 

2. Optimized Content Values More Than the Number of Links for Top-Ranking Content for “Buy Viagra Online” 

 

One of the first keywords that we searched for was “buy Viagra online”. You’ve probably received a lot of spam with the phrase “buy Viagra online” from websites that used all sorts of tricks to get higher rankings in SERP. Looking into the search results on Keyword Tool we could see that we had 4 results with high content scores and low page performance score. A low page performance score means a few links pointing to those pages or very low-quality links. 

 

If you take a look at the screenshot below, you can see the results. We didn’t take into consideration the first result because the domain name contains the keyword “viagra”, it is a high authority page and automatically pages from that domain will push the pages to rank higher on SERP. 

 

Buy viagra online results

 

If we look at the first highlighted URLs, we can see both pages have a high content performance score of 95 and 93 and very low page performance score of 19 and 0. And the number of links is 22 for the first blog post and 0 for the second one. 

 

viagraex

zavamed

Looking at the results we could see lots of pages that had a high content performance score compared to the average CS for “buy Viagra online” since it is quite a competitive market and there are lots of searches for this keyword phrase (10K – 50K monthly volume). 

 

Beside these, you can see some results that contain limping content triggered by the page with high influence and more qualitative links. 

 

3. Search Results with Qualitative Content & Low Influence Pages for Most of the “Weight Loss” Keyword Types

 

In the same category of spammy black hat techniques were the pages optimized for keywords that contained “weight loss”. I performed keyword research for the following variants: 

  • weight loss pills;
  • weight loss plan;
  • weight loss program;
  • weight loss diet.

Below you can see the results for all these searches. We highlighted the search results that had a good Content Score and low page performance score and fewer links. 

 

Weight Loss results

 

For a deeper analysis, you can see a side-by-side comparison between the Content Score from Content Assistant tool and the number of links plus page performance from Site Explorer. 

 

weight loss program redbookmag

weight loss program webmd

 

Through the results, we could find lots of websites with almost no Link Influence (under 18) and high Content Score (most of them have ~70). It is a competitive niche if we look at the monthly volume and the keyword difficulty (more than 63):

  • weight loss pills – 73 keyword difficulty, 50K – 100K monthly volume;
  • weight loss plan – 63 keyword difficulty, 1K – 5K monthly volume;
  • weight loss program – 65 keyword difficulty, 1K – 5K monthly volume; 
  • weight loss diet – 66 keyword difficulty, 5K – 10K monthly volume. 

 

Another thing that is quite intriguing is the fact that two of the highlighted pages for the last keywords (weight loss program and weight loss diet) rank first. And all the highlighted pages have a Content Score bigger than the average score. 

 

4. Lots of Results with Quality Content and No Links for “Acne Treatment” Related Keywords

 

The following keyword research was for acne treatment and skincare treatment variables, such as:

  • coconut oil for acne;
  • blemish treatments;
  • argan oil for acne.

 

The results we had for all of these three searches were some of the most visible because, as it turns out for all of them, content had a strong impact on the rankings. For the first results, we could see a Content Score over 60 (above the average Content Score) and a low Link Influence. If you take a look at the next screenshot you can see the webpages that stood up due to content. 

 

Acne Treatment results

 

If we look at those four websites, we can see that they have lower domain performance than the rest of the websites that rank. 

 

The last keyword “argan oil for acne” has even more results where the Content Score is higher than the average and the Link Influence has a low score (under 12). There are webpages with a Content Score of almost 70, 80 and 90. Since we saw so many results, I’ve highlighted 8 out of 13 results. 

 

Argan oil for acne results

 

In this particular case, we can see exactly how much content values. Sometimes more than links. Out of curiosity, I’ve looked on those pages and all of them were blog posts with informative content and comments in some cases. Check out the side-by-side comparison below – content score vs link influence score & no. of links:

 

blemish treatments stylecraze

argan oil for acne beautybyearth

 

 

5. Content Performance Overwrites Top-Ranking Results for “Online Gambling” Queries

 

Gambling is a competitive market and there have been cases of black hat techniques for gambling websites, similar to the previous examples we’ve talked about. We’ve looked for variables such as:

  • online slots;
  • Play Vegas slots online;
  • online gambling real money.

 

Gambling results

 

Looking at the results, we can see that for the first keyword, “online slots”, we have two webpages with almost the same content score ~90 and the Link performance is almost the same (29 and 31) and both have a small number of links (5 and 10 links). While looking at the Link Influence we always searched for the number of links and their value. Compared to the other results, those two websites have one of the highest Content Score and two of the lowest link influence levels. 

 

Site explorer for online slots

 

The next keyword we searched, “play Vegas slots online”, followed the same pattern, a website with a content score over 90 and the lowest link influence.

 

The same situation applies even to the last keyword searched, “online gambling real money”, showing pages with a high content score (80-90), and a low link influence and few links, with low-quality value.

 

Site explorer gambling

si aici cred ca merg mai bine side by side exemplele; e mai vizual si mai usor de urmarit; also, cate ceva despre fiecare site/business nu ar strica

slots online ignitioncasino

play vegas slots online dbestcasino

 

Check out how the websites look: 

 

ignitioncasino

dbestcasino

 

Conclusion

 

The purpose of these case studies was to spot any incongruence between ranking webpages in Google. The opposite direction of link building vs. content marketing can be very visible for more atypical keywords for gambling, skin treatment, pharma niches. 

 

In the end, we wanted to find out which is more important, content or links and whether an optimized page with a low number of links values more or if an un-optimized page with a high number of links ranks better. 

 

In particular issues, it seems that unique content can be more valuable than links, which can be a good sign to invest more in powerful content strategies as a smart inbound marketer. This doesn’t mean you should stop getting links and forget about them. Link still matter. So, if you have a strategy for link building, try to build links in the most natural way possible; the white hat techniques are the best option. Say no to buying links, exchange links or other black hat techniques to attract links because it was never a good solution for a high-performance domain.

 

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Thursday, September 19, 2019

Quick ways to find and manage out of stock products at scale

Previously, we covered the different types of expired content that can appear on your site and how to deal with them. In this article, we’ll focus solely on how to find out of stock products as well as thin category pages and, as these often occur in large quantities, how to deal with them at […]

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Wednesday, September 11, 2019

The Improved Content Optimizer & Keyword Tool. More Features. Smarter. Simply Better

We’re proud to share with you what we’ve been working on lately: A brand new improved version of (probably) the best tool in the content optimization field: The Content Optimizer and Keyword Tool. The tool that is perfectly adapted to the digital marketing realities and designed to help you improve what matters most: rankings.

 

Here, at cognitiveSEO, we like to get things done. We start improving our features and tools soon after we launch them, we constantly fine-tune what’s already implemented and we never settle for less. That’s how we’ve become addicted to constant and never-ending self-improvement.

 

Improvement and continuous development sound fantastic, right? But so does waking up early, eating healthy or reading 2 books per month. But until you actually take the first step to do those things – wake up and don’t put your alarm on snooze, choose the salad over the french fries, read the first pages – the gap between knowing what you should do and actually doing it only gets wider.

content optimizer & keyword tool from cognitiveseo

 

In case you don’t know about the Content Optimizer & Keyword Tool, you can check out the description below. 
For those of you who are already familiar with the tool, you can skip right to the improvements

 

  1. What Is the Content Optimizer & Keyword Tool?
  2. A More Suitable Name for the Improved Content Optimization Tool

  3. New Metrics for a Better Understanding of Google Search Results

  4. Content & Links Difficulty – Find Out What You Need to Rank to the Top

    1. What Is the Content Difficulty Score?
    2. What Is the Link Difficulty Score? 
  5. Keyword Search Volume & Popularity Over Time

  6. Content Assistant Gets Multiple Features 

  7. Search Intent – Get to Know What the User Wants from the Very Beginning

  8. Mobile & Specific Local Analysis Are Now Available

  9. Improved Overall Algorithm & Better User Experience

 

1. What Is the Content Optimizer & Keyword Tool? 

 

Briefly, cognitiveSEO’s Content Optimizer & Keyword Tool is, for the moment, the fastest way to boost your Google rankings

 

For those of you who haven’t tried cognitiveSEO’s Content Tool yet (the official name of the tool is Content Optimizer & Keyword Tool but most people refer to it as the content tool), please allow us to say a few words about what the tool does.

 

We created a tool that will help you take full advantage of content as a Google ranking factor. A tool like no other, a tool that understands how the keyword research and search optimization game needs to be played these days. A tool that makes no compromise in terms of quality. A tool that delivers higher rankings & increased organic traffic. 

Below you can see an explanatory video on what our Content Optimize Tool is all about.

 

 

This tool is for any marketer, webmaster, SEO Pro, blogger or content writer who needs an app that will actually yield results on a short and long term; a tool that is fully transparent and understands how the SEO landscape has evolved in the last years.

 

This is NOT just another keyword tool or a Google Keyword Planner alternative. While all the other tools (that we are aware of) stop at giving you keyword suggestions, we go that extra mile: we let you know what to do with those keywords by giving you the exact methodology one should follow to improve their ranks.

 

You can find here everything you need to know about the tool. Yet, I’d like to present you just two unique features that the tool has:

 

1. The Content Assistant – the personalized content optimization & content analysis tool that will give you the exact recommendation you should use so that your content will rank the highest. 

 

We analyze the top ranking pages in Google for the specific keyword you are interested in and, based on a complex semantic algorithm, we let you know how to optimize your content. And which are the exact keywords your content should contain to be as relevant and as optimized as possible.

 

The tool tells me the exact keywords I should use in my content, highlights the ones I already use and lets me know if there are keywords that I should use more often. In the event of keyword stuffing, the tool will let me know what are the words I overused and which prevent my content from performing as it should.

content-optimization-tool-img-min

 

2. The Content Performance Score – The metric that shows you how well a page is optimized from a content point of view, on a scale from 0 to 100. The higher the score, the better optimized and relevant content it is. 

 

The Content Performance metric is an indicator developed entirely by us, everything from soup to nuts. A lot of Google reverse engineering was involved in this, combining algorithms, ranking signals, content statistics, and concepts such as semantic search, LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing), TF*IDF or  topical authority, just to mention a few.

 

After a keyword research, you get a content performance score for every piece of content you might be interested in, for any keyword or topic.

content-impacts-rankings

 

After we developed the Content Performance Score, we wanted to make sure that there is a connection between Content Performance and Rankings. And, without lingering for too long, we started a massive SERP research on 30,000 keywords trying to identify whether and how content performance influences Google’s top rankings. 

The higher the score on content performance, the more likely a page is to be ranked higher up.

 

You can check out the full research here

Content-Performance-vs-Top-20-Google-Positions

 

2. A More Suitable Name for the Improved Content Optimization Tool

 

When it came to our Keyword Tool & Content Assistant, I’m sure you’ve said it and heard it in different ways: the content optimization tool from cognitiveSEO, the content assistant tool or the keyword tool from cognitiveSEO. We don’t mind calling it in different ways; yet, we thought a lot about re-naming the tool so it will be more representative for its main functionality: content optimization.  

 

cognitiveSEO’s Keyword Tool & Content Assistant now becomes the Content Optimizer & Keyword Tool. 

 

The same search optimization tool, the same efficiency, now with a slightly different name.
We started with the name change as a prologue. Yet, for the advanced improvements and the brand new features, keep on reading. 

 

3. New Metrics for a Better Understanding of Google Search Results

 

Being in the SEO business for a while, we know that digital marketers & SEO Pros need and love metrics. They like to compare sites and keywords to find the best cost-efficient solution, to create reports for clients, to perform in-depth researches and so on. And to perform all these activities they need metrics and numbers they can rely on. Their intuition when it comes to try ranking for a keyword for instance, needs to be backed-up by reliable metrics. And they couldn’t be more right. You cannot start an in-depth analysis without relying on a handful of strong metrics.  

 

But what metrics should you actually look after? 

 

Take baseball. Every team has the same definition of success: winning the World Series. This requires one main asset: a good team which is made out of good players. But what makes a player good? Baseball experts used to answer this question with a handful of simple metrics like batting average and runs batted in. Yet, statisticians came up with better, new metrics. They provided teams with the ability to slice their data in new ways, find better ways of defining good players, and thus win more games (I hope you all watched Moneyball).

 

While we know that all metrics are proxies for what ultimately matters, we know that some metrics are better than others. 

 

You’re most likely familiar with the metric: keyword difficulty. It is a metric used to determine how difficult it is to rank for a keyword. Assessing keyword difficulty can help you determine whether or not it’s worth investing resources to rank on that specific keyword.  While we know how important this metric is, we are also aware of the fact that sometimes, this metric alone might not be very practical. We don’t claim to have reinvented the SEO and digital marketing metrics; but what we changed is how we look at the data.

 

We made the keyword difficulty metric more granular by dividing it within two more straightforward and easier to understand metrics: the content difficulty and the link difficulty

 

4. Content & Links Difficulty – Find Out What You Need to Rank to the Top

 

What does it take to rank #1 on Google? How many times did you hear that phrase and how many times did you answer with “it depends“?

What we tried to do is to eliminate that “depends” as much as possible and to give you the exact metrics you should follow when it comes to ranking to the very top.

 

In variable proportions, the two most important Google Ranking Factors are content and links. And this is how we came up with two metrics: Content & Links Difficulty.

 

content optimizer - understanding the metrics

 

4.1 What Is the Content Difficulty Score?

 

The Content Difficulty metric estimates how hard it will be to rank with well optimized content in the top 10 organic results for a given keyword in a given location.

 

The Content Difficulty is plotted on a scale from 0 to 100. The lower the Content Difficulty score, the easier it is to create content that ranks high. A lower Content Difficulty score means that there is less content competition on this keyword, and a higher chance to improve rankings using content.

 

content difficulty

 

And if you are still wondering if content does influence rankings, here’s a quote from Google’s representative, John Mueller. 

“Without well-optimized content, even if you clean up your website, and you fix all of the issues, it still won’t rank high.”
John Mueller SEO John Mueller
Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google

Not only will the tool let you know how easy or difficult it is to rank on a specific keyword from a content point of view, but it will also let you know what content performance score you’d need to win top rankings for that keyword. 

 

4.2 What Is the Link Difficulty Score?

 

Links Difficulty estimates how hard it will be to rank in the top 10 organic results for a given keyword in a given location, based on the number & strength of the backlinks that are currently linking to the top URLs ranking for this keyword.

 

The Links Difficulty is plotted on a scale from 0 to 100. The lower the Links Difficulty score, the easier it is to rank high with backlinks. A lower Links Difficulty score means that there is less competition on this keyword, and a higher chance to improve rankings by getting the recommended number of links.

 

links difficulty

 

There is no doubt that the Link Difficulty score is super useful when analyzing the search engine ranking pages or when working on your link building campaign. You want to rank high on a specific keyword, but you need to know what it takes in terms of content and links. And the tool tells you exactly this. But what is even cooler is that the tool gives you the full list of links for any analyzed page. 

 

link site explorer

Simply click on the number of links for each page or each domain, and you’ll be redirected to the Site Explorer where you’ll get a quick and useful backlink analysis. If you want to check your internal links as well, check our onpage SEO tool

 

5. Keyword Search Volume & Popularity Over Time – How to Find What the Searchers Are Looking For

 

The Content Optimizer already gave you info on the number of monthly searches for each analyzed keyword. What we’ve added extra now is the trend of the search query, the popularity of the analyzed keywords. 

You’ll now get: 

 

  • The Monthly Search Volume – the total number of searches that are performed through Google, on a monthly basis;

 

  • The Historical Search Trend – the popularity of a keyword in Google Search; It shows the relative interest and trending searches for any given keyword from as early as 2004.

 

search volume and trends content optimizer

 

If by now you are still wondering why is this data important, please allow me to offer you an example. 

 

As you can see in the screenshots below, there are two keywords analyzed: “digital marketing agency chicago” and “marketing agencies in chicago il”.
It happens (quite often unfortunately) for people to start optimizing for different keywords without making a trend or search analysis before. Indeed, in these two cases, the search volume is not very big, yet, consistent enough. Not to mention the trend. “digital marketing agency chicago” is not only searched more on Google within a month, but it also seems to have a growing popularity. On the other hand, “marketing agencies in chicago il” has a lower number of monthly searches but also a descending popularity trend. If you’re a marketing agency from Chicago, Illinois it would be good to rank well on both keywords; yet, it would be wiser to focus on the one with more searches and a growing trend popularity. 

 

digital marketing agency chicago content optimizer

marketing agencies in chicago il content optimizer

 

6. Content Assistant Gets Multiple Features 

 

Leaving modesty aside, you need to know that the Content Assistant tool is one of a kind in the digital marketing field. 

The Content Assistant is now even easier to use, it’s super smart and does most of the job for you.

What you already knew about the tool is that to optimize your content, you just copy-paste a piece of content, start writing a new one or import the content of a page from a URL and the tool tells you the exact keywords you should use in your content, highlights the ones you already use and lets you know if there are keywords that you should use more often. In the event of keyword stuffing, the tool will let you know what are the words you overused and which prevented your content from performing as it should.

 

Aside all that, allow us to highlight some of the main improvements: 

 

  • Get the exact questions people are asking on Google, related to your query – you can see what your readers and customers are interested in, and you can answer those questions in your content. This section is also very useful for identifying new content ideas you can write about. 

 

  • Better content editing features – whether you copy-paste a piece of text, you import a URL or start from scratch, it will be easier for you to edit the content within the tool. 

 

  • HTML toolbar included – you can edit and format your content just the way you want. You can view your content’s source and you can edit the code behind it directly or you insert pictures, videos, highlight, format or anything you need in terms of content editing. 

 

  • See the content performance score you should have to rank in top Google results – you will get a content performance score target based on the analysis of the pages that are ranking for the keyword you are optimizing for. 

 

  • Know your content reading time – you can now see how long it will take your readers to go through the article written by you. 

 

content asssistant improvements

 

7. Search Intent – Get to Know What the User Wants from the Very Beginning

 

Putting it simply, search intent is the why behind a search experience. In other words, why did the person make this search? What was the reason behind it? Do they want to find out something? Do they want to buy something? Do they want to navigate on a specific website?

 

Knowing the intent of the user is of paramount importance. If the keywords you want to rank for have clear and consistent intent behind them, you can tailor your content format and structure to be the best possible match for that intent. 

 

Let’s say, for instance, that your search is related to sunglasses. Based on the exact words you use, the search engine might interpret your query as having different intents behind it:

 

  • informational (if you search for “how to clean polarized sunglasses”);
  • navigational (if you search for the name of a particular brand of sunglasses);
  • transactional (if you search for “buy polarized sunglasses” or “sunglasses on sales”);

 

But sometimes, figuring out the intent of the user is not that easy. That’s why we fine-tuned our SEO content optimizer tool so you can see from the very beginning what is the search intent for the keyword you want to optimize for. This way, you’ll know exactly what type of content to create for it. 

 

user search intent cognitiveseo

 

A search for “how to make tiramisu” will be classified by the tool as being “informational” from a search intent point of view. To rank on this keyword, it’s likely you’re going to need a “how to” type of SEO content or an user guide to draw attention and, given the context, a blog is probably the best type of page to host this content. On the other hand, with a search like “iphone 10 vs samsung galaxy 10”, you would fully expect for the first page of results to be filled with comparative review type pages from specialized review websites.

 

8. Mobile & Specific Local Analysis Are Now Available

 

An online presence is highly valuable for every business, no matter if you are located in a single place or have lots of offices around the globe. And search engine optimization should be applied both locally and globally.

 

Businesses that want to optimize for mobile and local SEO should have all the necessary tools and knowledge to fulfill their goal. Now more than ever, Google is focused on offering a personalized experience for each user, thus local optimization plays a crucial part in the play. Understanding this, we now offer you the possibility of creating the perfectly optimized piece of content at a mobile and local level. Choose the exact location you want to rank on, and see what it takes to rank be in top Google results. 

 

mobile local content optimizer 

 

9. Improved Overall Algorithm & Better User Experience

 

You already know it: today, publishing content is more important than ever. It is the one thing that is going to make the difference in a really hectic noisy market place.

But content marketing doesn’t happen overnight, especially with its continuous reinvention and advancement of technology. You need the right tools to keep up. 

 

And although the monthly search volume for your query, keyword suggestions filtered by relevancy, number of words, etc. are important metrics for you to follow, they are not enough. 

Do you know how the content of your website actually impacts your search engines’ rankings? Or do you know the exact key elements your content needs to have in order to rank in Google’s top results?

Wouldn’t it be great if there was a tool that would tell you the exact things your content is missing to rank in top 10 results?

Good news, we’ve invented that tool and we’ve also improved it: Content Assistant – the personalized content optimization tool that will give you the exact recommendation you should use so that your content will rank the highest.

 

What was a trendy and efficient technique a couple of months ago, now it might not work anymore as Google have changed their algorithm. This is why we know that in order to have a tool that brings real result we need to keep on improving it. The digital marketing evolves, but so does our tool. 

 

We’ve updated the complex algorithms that make the Content Optimizer work efficiently .

improved content optimizer

The content performance score is now even more accurate and the keywords suggestions offered by the tool are clutter-free.

 

Any algorithm has a false positive ratio. Yet, we try to keep that ratio at the lowest possible level. The improved version of the content assistant will offer you zero (or as close to zero as possible) unrelated keyword suggestions or keywords you should focus on. You will now be able to concentrate only on the keywords that will make your relevant content rank in top search result or even in Google’s answer box. 

 

Keep in mind that the Content Optimizer is a learning machine, based on real-time search results.  It is not just a database, but an instant Google SERP analyzer.  A lot of Google reverse engineering was involved in this, combining advanced algorithms and concepts such as semantic search, LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing), TF*IDF or topical authority, just to mention a few.

We hope you’ll enjoy the improvements just as much as we do. If you’re already using the tool, please let us know what you think about the new additions. If you’re new, take the tool for a spin and tell us how you like it. 

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Tuesday, September 10, 2019

Crafting effective outreach emails

Before diving into the nitty-gritty, let’s take a moment to remember that outreaching content via email is not the only approach. There are countless methods to employ— from picking up the phone, to sending DMs on Instagram. As is the theme throughout this content series, I strongly recommend trying out different tactics, but for now, […]

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Thursday, September 5, 2019

How to fix different types of ecommerce expired content

A missing or wrongly implemented product retirement strategy can – and will – have a negative impact on any ecommerce site’s organic performance. There are several options when it comes to dealing with expired content and many businesses make the mistake of choosing one or another without actually looking into how this could benefit or […]

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Tuesday, September 3, 2019

How Page Speed Affects SEO & Google Rankings | The 2019 Page Speed Guide

Speed is very important for a website. It’s so important that Google has made it an actual ranking factor. Over time, Google has taken action to improve the loading speed of websites by providing a set of tools for developers and webmasters. One of these tools is Google Lighthouse.

 

But how does this PageSpeed Insights Tool from Google actually work? And, more importantly, does page speed affect SEO? You’ll find everything you need to know in this article.

how_page_speed_affects_google_ranking

 

The PageSpeed Insights Tool didn’t use to be very good in the past. Most of the information there could be found relatively easy elsewhere and it didn’t quite indicate speed itself. However, Google has recently updated the tool and it’s a lot better. Unfortunately, it’s also a lot harder to understand.

 

However, this tool has became popular among SEOs through PageSpeed Insights, which is, in fact, powered by Lighthouse, but provides the information in an easy to follow format, on a web page.

 

  1. What Is Google PageSpeed Insights?
    1. Mobile vs. Desktop
    2. What is page speed actually?
  2. Does PageSpeed Insights Affect SEO? Is 100/100 Score Essential?
  3. PageSpeed Insights Metrics
    1. Field & Lab Data (Performance Metrics)
    2. Opportunities & Diagnostics
  4. How Is the PageSpeed Insights Score Calculated?
  5. Key Points in Improving the PageSpeed Insights Score
    1. Server response time
    2. Image compression
    3. HTML & CSS Structure
    4. Minification & Script Compression
    5. Cache Policy
    6. Lightweight Theme & Plugins
  6. How to Bulk Check the PageSpeed Insights Score
  7. Other Tools for Measuring & Improving Site Speed
    1. Pingdom
    2. GT-Metrix
    3. mod_pagespeed
    4. Google AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages)
 

What Is Google PageSpeed Insights?

 

PageSpeed Insights is an online tool provided by Google which is used to identify web performance issues on sites. Although mostly related to technical SEO issues, the tools also analyze the site from a User Experience and accessibility point of view.

 

You can access PageSpeed Insights by visiting https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/.

 

PageSpeed Insights Home

 

You can enter the URL there and after a few seconds the tool will return a page with some results regarding your website’s performance. At the top, there will be a general score, which is an average of multiple factors. Below you will see detailed information about what actually affects your speed.

 

However, it isn’t the only PageSpeed tool provided by Google. There also is mod_pagespeed, a server module used to solve these speed issues, and the full fledged Lighthouse (the site analysis tool that powers everything), available in Chrome itself. There are also a number of Chrome Extensions related to Google’s PageSpeed Insights.

 

We will discuss briefly about all of them throughout this article, but we will focus mainly on PageSpeed Insights as it seems to be the handiest tool most SEOs use when checking a website.

 

Mobile vs. Desktop

 

When you insert a page to test it, Google will give two scores: one for the mobile version and one for the desktop version.

 

Initially, the PageSpeed Tool only gave one score, for the Desktop version. But recently, mobile usage has became more and more popular. As of 2018, more than 50% of search engine users search on mobile devices. As Google moved to a mobile first index, it also made sense for them to test mobile versions for speed first.

 

PageSpeed Mobile vs Desktop

 

However, if you have a responsive design, you might think that these versions are mostly identical.

 

If so, why do they have different scores?

 

Mobile: When you use the PageSpeed Insights tool, the first result you’ll get is for mobile speed. This means that your website has been tested on a mobile connection, probably with a 4G connection, as it seems to be the most common speed around the US at least.

 

Mobile Network Coverage

https://www.uscellular.com/coverage-map/voice-and-data-maps.html

 

However, keep in mind that many mobile users around the world still get only 3G signal and, although they have a slower connection speed, they still expect the website to load really fast.

 

And here’s the problem. It’s not always about your site, it’s more about the connection’s speed. It might seem like your site is slow when, in reality, the connection speed is slow.

 

Desktop: On desktop, the score is higher because the connection speed is higher. That’s just the thing with light and fiber optics. Unless you live in the UK, of course, and still have cups and string internet.

 

So the website goes through the same testing, but it’s mostly the connection speed that differs.

 

That’s why mobile comes first, as mobile devices usually have slower connections. Things might change with 5G but, until then, make sure you focus on improving your site speed for mobile devices.

 

What exactly is Page Speed?

 

OK, so we know what the tool does: it gives a score based on how fast it thinks your site is. But what exactly is page speed?

 

Page Speed is the speed at which an individual page loads on your website. Different pages can have different speeds due to factors such as images and scripts.

 

But speed is relative. It depends on so many factors such as the website’s performance, the server’s performance, the particular web page you’re on, the connection type, the user’s internet service provider, the internet package, the device’s processing power, the Browser, what the user is doing at that point, how many apps are running and so on.

 

However, we can only work with what we can work, which is our website and our server. We don’t really have control over the rest.

 

Just to get things straight, page speed isn’t a score, like PageSpeed Insights presents. It’s a web page’s loading time and it is measured in seconds. That’s what matters.

 

That’s why Google PageSpeed Insights wasn’t so good in the past. It didn’t quite give you information about how fast your website is actually loading. Just scores.

 

And that’s why this new version is just so good. It tells you everything you need to know about actual loading speed while also keeping the good stuff from the old version.

 

There are, of course, different points of interest in the loading time. For example, you may want to run some scripts towards the end because they don’t need to be used initially.

 

They might take a lot to finish loading, so the total loading time could be higher. But if the site is usable until then, it isn’t such a big problem.

 

Fast Website Loading Speed

 

For example, let’s say you want to run an exit intent pop-up script. That script takes a hypothetical 5-10 seconds to load. However, you want to show it to the user only after about 20-30 seconds.

 

If you start running your script immediately, you might postpone loading other important elements, such as the first thing the user should see: the above the fold content. This would be very bad, especially since you’re not going to use that script until about 20-30 seconds in the future.

 

So you can postpone loading the script after everything else that is vital loads in order to give the user a better experience.

 

However, if you have a script that makes the menu work or something vital to the usability of the website, you might not want to load it towards the end. This would ruin the experience as the user would not be able to access that function before everything else is loaded.

 

Does Page Speed Affect SEO? Is 100/100 Insights Score Essential?

 

The simple answer is that page speed does affect SEO. Page speed is a direct ranking factor, a fact known even better since Google’s Algorithm Speed Update. However, speed can also affect rankings indirectly, by increasing the bounce rate and reducing dwell time

 

 

At Google, users come first. Studies by Google show that average 3G loading speed is very slow. They also show that users leave the site after about 3 seconds. This means that their experience is bad and Google doesn’t like ranking sites which provide bad user experience.

 

 

 

What you must remember is that speed is measured in seconds, not in points from 0 to 100. While PageSpeed Insights is a tool that helps you improve speed, the score there doesn’t necessarily mean anything in the real world.

 

Even so, it is important to improve the Page Speed Score.

 

Why?

 

Because with Google we don’t know for sure whether the score there is or is not used as a ranking factor. Does Google use seconds? Does it use the score? Who knows…

 

However, I’ve seen sites with perfect pagespeed score ranking poorly and websites with a score lower than 50 that rank very well (#youtube).

 

However, you have to take into account how Google makes these tests. We don’t know where the tests are performed from. Is your server from Romania and Google tests it with a 3G connection in the US? Well then, you can obviously expect low speeds.

 

 

But just for the user’s sake, put the loading time first. And don’t use only PageSpeed Insights to test that. Stick to the end and I’ll show you a couple of tools which you can use to test the speed at which your website loads from different locations.

 

Sometimes, Google contradicts itself!

 

For example, Google PageSpeed Insights considers the Google Analytics script render blocking, which means you should load it later, in the footer. However, Google Analytics specifies it pretty clearly that the script must be placed in the <head> section of your website, otherwise it won’t work properly and won’t initially be accepted as a valid install.

 

So you get a small score hit in PageSpeed Insights… by doing what Google says… just to be told that you shouldn’t do it like that… by Google. You get the point.

 

Also, you can’t cache the script properly unless you store the analytics.js file on your server. That’s obviously something Google Analytics doesn’t recommend. It’s also a hell for maintenance, as every time Google Analytics JavaScript file gets an update, you would have to update it on your site as well.

 

This, of course, doesn’t happen only with Google tools and scripts but with any 3rd party script you don’t have control over.

 

In our defense, even YouTube, which is owned by Google and should theoretically set an example, has a pretty slow PageSpeed Insights score, at least at the time of writing this article.

 

Slow YouTube PageSpeed

 

But that doesn’t mean that the site loads slow. You can see that the field data (for which there is plenty of, as it’s YouTube) says the site loads in pretty much 4 seconds, which isn’t actually bad, considering that recently YouTube provides video previews in the thumbnails.

 

You can also test your site with https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/intl/en-gb/feature/testmysite/ to get a more simple explanation of how fast your site loads!

 

ThinkWithGoogle Test Mobile Speed

 

Our other business’s website, BrandMentions loads in under 2 seconds on a 4G connection, as you can see above. We would see it as pretty good. Sure, there’s always room for improvement. By Google standards… it’s average.

 

However, Google seems to consider cognitiveSEO’s website speed slow, even though it loads in a little over 3 seconds, which is still pretty fast considering the amount of 3rd party tools we’re using.

 

CognitiveSEO

Note that you’ll have to go under 1 second to be considered fast! To do so, you’ll probably need a very simple site with no 3rd party plugins or fancy pop-ups. Not easy if you actually want to do some digital marketing.

 

So yes, loading speed is important for SEO, but a perfect PageSpeed Insights score is not. As long as your website loads in around 3 seconds, you should be fine with most users.

 

PageSpeed Insights Metrics

 

Since so many things can affect site speed, Google breaks everything up in different categories in the PageSpeed Insights Tool, for a better understanding of the issues.

 

This is helpful as Google also provides some sort of prioritization, showing you what exactly affects speed the most.

 

Field & Lab Data

 

These are the new metrics that are actually useful. They are split into two categories: field and lab data.

 

Field data is what’s important in the real world, as it’s the data extracted by Google from real users, either through Chrome or other data providers.

 

Sure, it’s an average and if Google doesn’t yet have enough data it will let you know.

 

Origin Summary shows an average of the site’s speed as a whole. This way you can have an idea on how your page compares to the site and how the site compares to other sites in the Chrome User Experience Report.

 

Lab data, although still useful, could be considered less important as it is collected from a controlled environment. This means that it’s tested through a single connection and it doesn’t aggregate data from multiple users.

 

The lab data is what actually generates the Google page speed score.

 

Due to the fact that Google doesn’t always have field data, it uses the lab data which is performed on the spot to analyze your site.

 

First Contentful Paint represents the moment when the users sees something on your web page for the first time. If you look at the series of images you can actually spot how it looks:

 

First Contentful Paint

 

As you can see, the page has not fully rendered, something has displayed there.

 

First Meaningful Paint is the second step, let’s say, if we take the results above as an example. It represents the point at which the user can actually understand the first piece of content. For example, some readable text or an image displays, instead of just colors and backgrounds.

 

Speed Index is a more complex metric. It measures how quickly elements on your website are visibly populated. The faster they start to appear, the better. You’re looking for a lower score here, as it’s also measured in seconds.

 

First CPU Idle represents the point at which the site has loaded enough of the information for it to be able to handle a user’s first input. For example, if the site has not loaded enough relevant information, the user might tap elements or scroll down but nothing will happen.

 

Time to Interactive is the next level, the one at which the website is fully interactive. This means that everything has loaded in the device’s memory and is now ready to be used.

 

Max Potential First Input Delay is the delay a user experiences from the point at which they interact with the browsers to the point at which the browser responds. This is the only performance metric which doesn’t affect the page speed score.

 
 

Opportunities & Diagnostics

 

The opportunities section provides information on what you can improve on your site. It also tells you an estimate of how much each issue affects your load time and how you should prioritize your tasks.

 

Going through each and everyone of them would be overkill. However, under each metric you’ll have a small arrow which you can use to expand the section.

 

PageSpeed Opportunities & Diagnostics

 

There you will find information about each and every recommendation and how to fix the issue to improve your site’s speed. You will notice that the elements which cause the biggest issues are, in general, images and 3rd party scripts.

 

The Passed Audits section is the list of things that you already do well on your web page. Basically, it will show elements from both the Opportunities and Diagnostics sections that fit within Google’s parameters.

 

The more you have in this list, the better!

 

How Is the PageSpeed Insights Score Calculated?

 

Although you might see so many things in the PageSpeed Insights Tool, the score is actually calculated using only the seconds in the Lab Data section. If you read closely, you’ll actually be able to see the message “These metrics don’t directly affect the Performance score.” under Opportunities & Diagnostics.

 

The metrics in the Lab Data are called performance metrics. There are 6 of them and we’ve presented them above. Each metric gets a score from 0 to 100. Each metric has a different weight in calculating the score.

 

3 – First contentful paint
1 – First meaningful paint
2 – First cpu idle
5 – Time to interactive
4 – Speed index
0 – Estimated input latency

 

By order of importance, they are listed as such: Time to Interactive, Speed Index, First Contentful Paint, First CPU Idle, First Meaningful Paint and Estimated Input Latency, which actually has no effect on the score.

 

The scores are based on Log-normal distribution algorithms so let’s not get too deep down the rabbit hole. If you want to learn more you can read this page.

 

Google has also put a Sheet file which you can use to see how the score is actually generated. If you know Excel functions, you can reverse engineer how everything works. You can download this file here, but you have to make your own copy (File -> Make your own copy) before you can edit it. There’s also a version for Lighthouse v5.

 

PageSpeed Score Calculator

 

To put it in simple terms, the First Contentful Paint impacts the score more than the First Meaningful Paint, and so on.

 

Why? Well, probably because if nothing displays on the screen, the user is more likely to leave your website. If you display… something, you’ll win some time to get the rest of the thing delivered.

 

The scores are ultimately divided into 3 categories, Slow (0-49), Average (50-89) and Good (90-100). Then an average is generated as a final score for your website.

 

Generally, if you’re under 50, you do have some issues that need fixing! But again, don’t sweat it if your site loads in about 3 seconds.

 

Key Points in Improving the PageSpeed Insights Score

 

Everything up there might be a little big hard to digest. We get it. Most probably, you won’t be able to solve everything! We’ve ruled out that it’s not important to get a 100% score. However, here are the key elements that will noticeably make your site load faster.

 

Warning: perform a backup of both your files and your database before engaging in these improvements. They can mess up your website and you have to make sure you can return to a previous version!

 

Server response time

 

The server is something you can’t really improve yourself. You either have a good one or a bad one. To improve it, you would either have to reduce load on it significantly, or improve its hardware, both of which you don’t have control over, unless you own the physical machine.

 

So it’s important to have a good server in the first place. But how do you choose a good server?

 

Well, any hosting company that ranks well on Google should provide decent services. However, it’s up to you to test. Best advice? If you’re mostly focused on local SEO, choose a local server. For example, if most of your audience lives in Italy, choose a server with the datacenter in Italy.

 

If the datacenter is all the way in the US, the information will have to travel a big distance before reaching your target audience.

 

You can always test the hosting provider’s own website with PageSpeed Insights and look for their TTFB (Time To First Byte) or Server Response Time. If it’s in the Passed Audits section, you know you have yourself a good hosting provider.

 

Fast Server TTFB

 

However, it’s better if you know someone that is an actual client of the hosting provider so you can test the speed there.

 

Realistically, the host’s own website will probably be on a dedicated server, while your site will be on a shared hosting package. This means that you will share the computer’s CPU and internet bandwidth with other websites.

 

If you can test a real site from a client, that’s great. You might be able to look through the reviews and find clients or ask the support team to provide one.

 

Image compression

 

In general, images are the biggest problem with websites. They are big and take up a lot to download. 

 

There are two types of issues with the images. The first one is the screen size vs. the actual image size in pixels and the second one is the disk size.

 

Disk Size: The more physical space an image takes on a hard disk or SSD, the more it will take to download. 100 KB will download a lot faster than 1000 KB (1MB). If you have 10 images like that on your blog post, expect your site to load very slow.

 

You can use WP Smush to optimize your images. It’s a plugin that will compress the images without losing any quality. This means that you can shrink a 1000×1000 pixels image from 200 KB to 150 KB without noticing the difference in quality, therefore making it load 25% faster.

 

WP Smush

 

Screen Size: Screen size is the size at which an image is displayed. For example, the image below is being displayed at 300×300 pixels.

 

300x300

 

To make images load faster, you first have to make sure you’re not using an image bigger than it’s going to be displayed. For example, if you have an HTML section that styled with CSS at 300×300 pixels, but you load an 1000×1000 pixels image in the source, you’re losing load time for that 700×700 pixels.

 

That’s because the Browser has to download the 1000×1000 pixels image and then shrink it to 300×300 pixels. This takes more time for both the download and the shrinking process. You can fix this by uploading your images with the same width and height that they will be displayed at.

 

WordPress does this automatically by creating multiple instances of the image when you upload it. That’s why you’ll see that 300×300 or 150×150 suffix at the end of an image file path. That’s why you can choose sizes (Large, Medium, Thumbnail). Although it’s not perfect, especially if you manually resize the image with click and drag, and it takes up more space on your server on the long run, it does help with load speed.

 

Deferring the images is another thing that you can do to improve the load time. This means that you can download them later as the user scrolls down on the web page. There will be a brief moment when the images won’t be visible but they will eventually show up, one after another.

 

This helps the Browsers focus on the important part, the one which the users is viewing at that point.

 

 

There are a multitude of plugins that can help you do that. However, many have bugs or only defer images in certain situations, for example if they are created by WordPress or WooCommerce, but not when created or inserted by less popular plugins.

 

There are certainly plugins for other CMS, such as Joomla or Magento. Just perform a Google search for them. If you’re not on a popular CMS, such as WordPress, deferring images can be done with jQuery, but you’ll most certainly need a developer for it, if you’re not one yourself.

 

Next gen image formats are recommended by Google. They are very useful, especially when loading a website from a mobile device. However, there’s a reason not many people use them yet.

 

Next gen image formats are not yet supported by all major browsers. This means that you’ll need to dynamically serve different formats for different browsers.

 

If you can use a plugin on your CMS that might be easy, but if you’re on a custom platform, you’ll need to develop everything from scratch, which costs a lot. Here’s a list of which browsers support the WebP format.

 

WebP Next Gen Image Format

 

If you size and optimize your images properly, the savings you’ll get by also converting them to next gen image formats such as JPEG2000 or WebP might not be worth the cost in time and money.

 

However, if you have the time and budget, by all means, go do it. You can use this tool to check if the browsers your users spend most time on are supported. Search for either WebP or JPEG2000.

 

HTML & CSS Structure

 

The HTML structure of your web page dictates the way it loads. Browsers read a page from the top to the bottom and they load the elements the same way. This means that if you want something to load first, you have to put it higher in your page.

 

Generally, the issues are not with HTML but with CSS. If you write your CSS chaotically, it will result in a slower loading time and a bad user experience.

 

Let’s take an example. Most websites, if not all, follow this HTML structure: head > body > footer.

 

If my CSS file styles the footer first, then the footer will receive the styling, although it is before the fold. Meanwhile, the header and body might remain plain.

 

It’s also a good idea to add your mobile styling first, as mobile devices are the slowest ones.

 

The same goes with renderblocking JavaScript. Postpone scripts that are not vital. Add them to the footer so that they will be loaded last.

 

However, if you have important scripts such as Analytics which should run as soon as possible, then by all means keep them in the header and make sure they fire and run properly, even though this might result in a lower PageSpeed score.

 

Minification & Script Compression

 

Minification is a process of making a file smaller by removing unnecessary information from it.

 

For example, when writing JavaScript and CSS, most, if not all coders, like to use spaces in order to keep their code clean and easy to read. However, those extra spaces add up, especially if you have a long piece of code.

 

CSS Minification

cssminifier.com

 

Another way of minifying code would be by combining similar elements.

 

For example, if my head and footer sections were identical, instead of writing them like this:

 

body {
font-size: 16px;
}
footer {
font-size: 16px;
}

 

I could write:

 

body, footer {
font-size: 16px;
}

 

Compression is the process of shrinking files by replacing recurring sequences of information with a single reference to that particular sequence.

 

So, for example, if I have the following code: 123 4 123 123 123 4 123 123, I could replace 123 with a 1 and get a compressed version like this one: 1 4 1 1 1 4 1 1. Of course, it’s far more complex than what I’ve presented.

 

This generally happens on the server side and the most common one is called Gzip compression. The server sends a compressed version. After the browser receives the compressed file, it decompresses it by reversing the process, to read its actual contents.

 

This works pretty much like WinRAR; we probably all know it, because we’ve been using it for free since forever!

 

If you’re on a popular CMS, you will definitely find a plugin for both compression and minification. For example, the W3 Total Cache plugin does a lot of things including both of these, if you set it up properly.

 

Remember that compression is dependent on server setup. If your server does not support Gzip, you won’t be able to compress files. If you have an Apache server, make sure you have mod_deflate installed.

 

You can ask your server provider if your hosting supports it. 99.9% of the time they will say yes. If it’s not already installed, they should do it free of charge, as it’s something pretty basic.

 

If you’re not on a popular CMS you can also enable Gzip compression via the .htaccess file (Apache servers) by adding the following code, as long as mod_deflate is installed.

 

<span class="token operator">&lt;</span>IfModule mod_deflate<span class="token punctuation">.</span>c<span class="token operator">&gt;</span>
  <span class="token shell-comment comment"># Compress HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Text, XML and fonts</span>
  AddOutputFilterByType <span class="token constant">DEFLATE</span> application<span class="token operator">/</span>javascript
  AddOutputFilterByType <span class="token constant">DEFLATE</span> application<span class="token operator">/</span>rss<span class="token operator">+</span>xml
  AddOutputFilterByType <span class="token constant">DEFLATE</span> application<span class="token operator">/</span>vnd<span class="token punctuation">.</span>ms<span class="token operator">-</span>fontobject
  AddOutputFilterByType <span class="token constant">DEFLATE</span> application<span class="token operator">/</span>x<span class="token operator">-</span>font
  AddOutputFilterByType <span class="token constant">DEFLATE</span> application<span class="token operator">/</span>x<span class="token operator">-</span>font<span class="token operator">-</span>opentype
  AddOutputFilterByType <span class="token constant">DEFLATE</span> application<span class="token operator">/</span>x<span class="token operator">-</span>font<span class="token operator">-</span>otf
  AddOutputFilterByType <span class="token constant">DEFLATE</span> application<span class="token operator">/</span>x<span class="token operator">-</span>font<span class="token operator">-</span>truetype
  AddOutputFilterByType <span class="token constant">DEFLATE</span> application<span class="token operator">/</span>x<span class="token operator">-</span>font<span class="token operator">-</span>ttf
  AddOutputFilterByType <span class="token constant">DEFLATE</span> application<span class="token operator">/</span>x<span class="token operator">-</span>javascript
  AddOutputFilterByType <span class="token constant">DEFLATE</span> application<span class="token operator">/</span>xhtml<span class="token operator">+</span>xml
  AddOutputFilterByType <span class="token constant">DEFLATE</span> application<span class="token operator">/</span>xml
  AddOutputFilterByType <span class="token constant">DEFLATE</span> font<span class="token operator">/</span>opentype
  AddOutputFilterByType <span class="token constant">DEFLATE</span> font<span class="token operator">/</span>otf
  AddOutputFilterByType <span class="token constant">DEFLATE</span> font<span class="token operator">/</span>ttf
  AddOutputFilterByType <span class="token constant">DEFLATE</span> image<span class="token operator">/</span>svg<span class="token operator">+</span>xml
  AddOutputFilterByType <span class="token constant">DEFLATE</span> image<span class="token operator">/</span>x<span class="token operator">-</span>icon
  AddOutputFilterByType <span class="token constant">DEFLATE</span> text<span class="token operator">/</span>css
  AddOutputFilterByType <span class="token constant">DEFLATE</span> text<span class="token operator">/</span>html
  AddOutputFilterByType <span class="token constant">DEFLATE</span> text<span class="token operator">/</span>javascript
  AddOutputFilterByType <span class="token constant">DEFLATE</span> text<span class="token operator">/</span>plain
  AddOutputFilterByType <span class="token constant">DEFLATE</span> text<span class="token operator">/</span>xml

  <span class="token shell-comment comment"># Remove browser bugs (only needed for really old browsers)</span>
  BrowserMatch <span class="token operator">^</span>Mozilla<span class="token operator">/</span><span class="token number">4</span> gzip<span class="token operator">-</span>only<span class="token operator">-</span>text<span class="token operator">/</span>html
  BrowserMatch <span class="token operator">^</span>Mozilla<span class="token operator">/</span><span class="token number">4</span>\<span class="token punctuation">.</span><span class="token number">0</span><span class="token punctuation">[</span><span class="token number">678</span><span class="token punctuation">]</span> no<span class="token operator">-</span>gzip
  BrowserMatch \<span class="token package">bMSIE</span> <span class="token operator">!</span>no<span class="token operator">-</span>gzip <span class="token operator">!</span>gzip<span class="token operator">-</span>only<span class="token operator">-</span>text<span class="token operator">/</span>html
  Header append Vary User<span class="token operator">-</span>Agent
<span class="token operator">&lt;</span><span class="token operator">/</span>IfModule<span class="token operator">&gt;</span>

 

Sometimes, you can also combine the scripts. There are plugins that do this, such as Autoptimize, which I’ve presented before. Combining scripts is exactly what it says. Instead of having two files, you combine them into one. This way there’s only one request made to the server, instead of multiple ones.

 

However, combining scripts can many times causes bugs, so make sure you back up everything before.

 

Cache Policy

 

Caching is the process of storing files in a client’s browser in order to be able to quickly access them at a later time.

 

For example, if a user comes to your website for the first time, your logo will have to be downloaded. However, if you have an effective caching policy, that file will be stored in the user’s browser. When the user accesses your site a second time, it won’t have to download that file again as it will be instantly loaded from their computer.

 

Dynamic Elements (short cache policy): Dynamic elements are elements on your website that change frequently. For example, you might keep adding new posts in a slider on the Homepage.

 

In this case, the HTML is the dynamic element, so set a short caching policy if this fits you. 30 minutes might be enough, just in case the user returns to that page in the same session.

 

In some cases, you might not want to cache those elements at all, if promptitude is what matters for your users, such as on news websites.

 

Static Resources (long cache policy): Static resources are files that rarely change. These are usually images and CSS or JS files, but they can also be audio files, video files, etc.

 

You can set a longer cache time for images and CSS files since you know you will not be changing them very frequently. You can even go up to one year, but 3 months is usually enough.

 

Third Party Tools: You don’t really have control over 3rd party tools, so if you feel like a tool that is hosted elsewhere makes your website run very slow, better find an alternative or give up on it.

 

A solution would be to host the files on your own server and cache them. However, this might not be very productive and it’s not recommended, as you’ll have to constantly update those files as soon as new versions come out, otherwise the tool or app won’t work properly.

 

Cache Plugins: There are a lot of plugins that will properly handle the cache protocols required for a good user experience. If you’re on WordPress, one of these plugins is W3 Total Cache. However, if you want to go for a better option, WP Rocket is also pretty popular, but it will set you back a couple hundred bucks.

 

Just search for cache plugin / extension / module + your platform on Google to find what you need. Look at the reviews to pick the best one.

 

.htaccess file cache: You can also set a cache control header from your .htaccess file on an Apache server, if you don’t run your website on a popular CMS.

 

There are multiple ways:

 

## EXPIRES CACHING ##
<IfModule mod_expires.c>
ExpiresActive On
ExpiresByType image/jpg "access 1 year"
ExpiresByType image/jpeg "access 1 year"
ExpiresByType image/gif "access 1 year"
ExpiresByType image/png "access 1 year"
ExpiresByType text/css "access 1 month"
ExpiresByType text/html "access 1 hour"
ExpiresByType application/pdf "access 1 month"
ExpiresByType text/x-javascript "access 1 month"
ExpiresByType application/x-shockwave-flash "access 1 month"
ExpiresByType image/x-icon "access 1 year"
ExpiresDefault "access 1 month"
</IfModule>
## EXPIRES CACHING ##

 

Or you can also use this code:

 

# One year for image files
<filesMatch ".(jpg|jpeg|png|gif|ico)$">
Header set Cache-Control "max-age=31536000, public"
</filesMatch>

# One month for css and js
<filesMatch ".(css|js)$">
Header set Cache-Control "max-age=2628000, public"
</filesMatch>

 

The numbers in the max-age attribute are in seconds, so 3600 would mean one hour, 86400 one day and so on.

 

Resetting the cache: When you make modifications to a web page, you want to reset the cache if an older version has been cached previously. However, you can only reset the cache on your server.

 

This means that users who have downloaded a previous version of a certain file will still load that old version from their computer when they access the website again. The file will be refreshed after the set amount of time in your caching policy or if the user manually resets their browser cache.

 

If you have a critical error in your web design or code, you can change the filename of your file. This way you can be sure that the cache for that particular file will be reset.

 

Sometimes, Chrome’s cache can be difficult to reset. Sometimes, routers and datacenters between the client and the server might also cache files so, if you don’t see the modifications, give it a couple of hours.

 

Lightweight Theme & Plugins

 

The more you load your website with plugins, the heavier it gets and the slower it runs.

 

A website’s theme is the biggest ‘plugin’ the site has. Most themes out there come with heavy 3rd party builders and huge libraries of plugins which all make the site run slower.

 

Lightweight Theme & Plugin

 

For example, slider plugins generally add the slider JS code to all pages, although it will probably be used only on the homepage or a landing page. That’s some heavy code to be loading on every page! Not to mention that nobody likes them and they lower the conversion rate.

 

So when you’re looking for a theme, try to find one without too much animations, sliders, functions and so on. If you look at the big websites you’ll see that, in general, they’re pretty simple.

 

A good theme which I recommend is GeneratePress. It’s lightweight and will load very fast. You can enable or disable elements to keep your site as clean as possible.

 

Combining it with an optimization plugin such as WP Rocket (paid) or a combo of free plugins such as Autoptimize + Fastest Cache will make it blazing fast! You can also use W3 Total Cache, a plugin which does almost everything listed above pretty well.

 

When you install new plugins, think about how important they are to your website. After you install them, test your score and loading speed. Does the plugin make your site run slower? If yes, is it critical to keep the plugin? Maybe look for a better alternative or remove it completely.

 

How to Bulk Check the PageSpeed Insights Score

 

The annoying part about PageSpeed Insights is that it checks only one web page at a time. It would take an eternity to check all the pages on your website, depending on its size.

 

However, there’s a way of bulk checking the PageSpeed Insights Score. Have you guessed it yet?

 

It’s the CognitiveSEO Tool Site Audit. Once you set up the technical SEO analysis with the Site Audit, go to your Campaign -> Site Audit -> Performance -> PageSpeed.

 

Bulk Check Google PageSpeed Insights Score

 

Of course, you can do a lot more with the tool, from improving your technical SEO and content to monitoring your rankings and link building efforts.

 

There’s also a somewhat free alternative which is a Chrome Extension. However, what it will actually do is ask for a list of URLs and then just open them as new tabs in the online PageSpeed Insights tool.

 

Bulk Check PageSpeed Extension Chrome

 

This means that the process is OK for about 10-20 tabs, if you have a medium to high end computer CPU. Anymore than that and the browser could crash or you’ll grow old waiting. It’s still pretty inconvenient.

 

Other SEO Tools for Measuring & Improving Site Speed

 

Of course, Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool isn’t the only tool to check and improve page speed. For once, we don’t really know where the tests are being performed from. If your site is hosted on a server in Europe and Google performs its tests from the US, it’s natural that the site will be slower.

 

However, there are tools which specify where the test is being performed from.

 

Pingdom

 

Pingdom Speed Test is a great tool which measures the speed at which your web page loads. Once the test is done, you’ll get some results which are similar to the ones on Google’s tool, at least visually.

 

Pingdom Speed Test

 

What’s interesting about it is that you can select where the test is going to be performed from. Sure, the options are limited, but it’s still better than not even knowing it.

 

If you focus on local SEO, choose the location closest to your server. If you don’t know where it’s actually hosted, ask your hosting provider and you’ll find out.

 

Pingdom Data Center Location

 

It’s also a good idea to make multiple tests from different locations, just in case you have an international audience.

 

GT-Metrix

 

GT Metrix has been one of my favorite speed testing tools out there. Although it tests only from Vancouver, Canada, the insights it gives are very useful.

 

GT Metrix Speed Tool

 

Quick tip: If you create a free account with them, you won’t have to wait so much for the test to be performed. To reduce load on their servers, they add you in a queue when there are too many requests. However, registered users have priority.

 

mod_pagespeed

 

The mod_pagespeed is a server addon from Google. Its purpose is to fix any page speed related issues at a core level, directly on the server side. This means that even if you add unoptimized images, mod_pagespeed will automatically compress, optimize and convert them to next gen image formats.

 

However, installing mod_pagespeed is definitely more technical than just dealing with everything in WordPress.

 

If your server already has it or you know what you’re doing go ahead and install it. However, it’s always a better idea to have a fast site in the first place instead of trying to cover things up.

 

Any way, this mod will increase load on your server as every time you upload an unoptimized image, it will have to use processing power to convert it.

 

Google AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages)

 

If you want your site to be really fast on mobile searches, you can always implement Google AMP.

 

Google AMP or Accelerated Mobile Pages is a special type of HTML, stripped of heavy, slower loading elements.

 

More than that, AMP pages will preload in Chrome mobile browser as the user scrolls through the search results, resulting in an instant load of the page when the user taps the title.

 

Google AMP

 

There are also disadvantages, of course. You’re limited from every direction, although things are getting better and better every day. Also, your site’s design has to suffer and will pretty much look like any other site that uses AMP. Bummer.

 

The URL isn’t yours either, because Google loads a cached version of your site, on their URLs. However, Google developers have promised to bring native URLs into AMP.

 

On WordPress and other CMS, you can add AMP to your website through a plugin. For custom websites, you’ll need to get in touch with your developer and give them this link.

 

Conclusion

 

Improving your site speed is important for better search rankings. PageSpeed Insights provides a set of best practices and possible improvements, prioritized by their impact on your site’s speed.

 

While the score itself shouldn’t concern you too much, it’s a good idea to try and get it at least over 50. However, focus on load time, which is measured in seconds. A good website should load in about 3 seconds. A really, really fast one should load in about 1.

 

Having a good server, compressing images and keeping things clean and simple in your code will benefit you the most when it comes to website speed.

 

What’s your PageSpeed Insights Score? Have you seen better rankings after improving the loading speed of your website? Share your experience with us in the comments section below!

The post How Page Speed Affects SEO & Google Rankings | The 2019 Page Speed Guide appeared first on SEO Blog | cognitiveSEO Blog on SEO Tactics & Strategies.


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