5 important meta description trends that might influence SEO in 2021

5 important meta description trends that might influence SEO in 2021

SEO is key to outrank a competitor on search engines because it bumps up your website visibility and provides an opportunity to convert leads. Numerous ranking factors make a difference to your website’s ranking. Of these factors, meta description might have minimal weight in Google’s algorithm. However, it is an effective practice to look at every opportunity and utilize them accurately to reap the benefits.

In this blog, we will guide you through all about creating a click-worthy meta description, its ideal length, how it impacts SEO, and much more. So, let’s dive right into it!

What is meta-description?

The meta description is an HTML attribute used to provide a precise summary of your page. It appears in search results as a snippet under the title tag to provide users with an idea of what your page content is all about.

How is it important for SEO?

A meta description is undeniably essential for search engine optimization and if written improperly, might adversely affect site rankings. It is a part of on-page SEO and essential for optimization. However, this attribute is not a direct ranking factor, but a compelling meta description entices more visitors to click on your website in the SERPs.

Did you know that over half of Google searches end without a single click? The purpose of meta description is to serve as the snippet of text on the SERPs when searchers perform a search query of what your page ranks for. Meta descriptions can drive traffic, potential conversions, and click through to your site. Hence, providing a unique meta description extends the visibility of your website and should always be a part of your SEO marketing strategy!

Important rules to write a meta-description

What you compile will directly affect what visitors see. Here are five important rules to follow to create your meta descriptions effectively and easily.

tips to create an effective meta decsription

  • The meta description should complement the title tag

Write the description summarizing the content of your web page and never use the same meta description across your site.

  • Use keywords

Embrace primary and secondary keywords at the beginning of the sentence in a pure approach and without duplicating them frequently in your meta descriptions.

  • Maintain ideal length

Make sure your meta description isn’t too lengthy. The ideal length is approximately between 140 and 160 characters. The reason for length optimization is to avoid the truncation of the meta description in the SERPs and as a result, this prevents high bounce rates.

  • Employ active voice

Using active voice improves clarity in meta description because it encourages users to take action and also takes up fewer words than passive voice.

  • Be unique

Make meta descriptions unique and enticing, so that visitors would click through to your site. A good meta description would capture your content and a call to action.

TAKE AWAY

New SEO trends evolve every year to surprise us. Focus your efforts on establishing a credible online presence by adopting SEO techniques to stay relevant on search intent. Writing an effective meta description engages search visitors and indirectly impacts website rankings. So, it should be a priority when optimizing the SEO for your site.

Durga

Durga

About The Author…

Durga has a master’s degree in engineering. Technological advances in digital space interest her a lot. Digital marketing is her forte and she passionately follows latest trends in the digital marketing space. She has written many trending articles on various social media platforms. Her areas of interest include SEO Optimization, structured data, SMM, Keywords research and analysis etc. She is focused, resourceful and dedicated.

8 tips to optimize your Image SEO

8 tips to optimize your Image SEO

Do you agree that reading a descriptive article without images is not quite engaging? According to some statistics, people are more likely to read and learn from articles with images than plain text. Images are essential for a better user experience.

Images are little things that could strengthen your website’s SEO. In the current marketing trends, images have become popular that can boost your website’s SEO ranking. It will not only increase the chances of visibility of your site but also improves the user experience.

In this article, we will discuss how images are important elements of SEO and a few tips to optimize images on your website to improve traffic and speed.

IMAGE SEO AND ITS IMPORTANCE

Image SEO is about image optimization. It is the practice of improving the readability, quality and indexability of images used on a blog or website. They help to improve user experience and achieve better rankings in image search and the web. The importance of images on web pages are numerous:

  • Some reports suggest that a considerable amount of web searches happen on Google Images.
  • They help illustrate articles and break up heavy walls of text.
  • They enrich product pages, particularly eCommerce sites.
  • Google and other search engines track the needed information by a relevant image.

NEED FOR IMAGE OPTIMIZATION

  • Decompressed images add excess weight to your site, slow down the website load speed and make users download unnecessary data. So, optimizing your website’s images in the right format and dimension helps reduce the image file size by retaining the quality.
  • Using optimized images in content or on the website strengthens visibility on the Google image search and this increases your click-through rate(CTR).
  • Image optimization is one of the easiest ways to improve the speed of your web page and user experience.
  • Websites that use optimized images for SEO are likely to have more visitors and additional ranking opportunities.

8 TIPS TO OPTIMIZE YOUR IMAGE

Here are eight basic tips you need to consider to ensure your images are optimized properly.

8 tips to optimize your Image SEO

  1. The first step to optimize images for SEO is to reduce the image size and dimension before uploading them on your website. Compress them without sacrificing the quality. Check out the various tools available to make this process easy.
  1. Adopt the right format for the image. There are three main types of image files: JPEG, PNG, and WebP. The most suitable formats for images are JPEG and PNG. WebP, the only image format supported by Firefox and Chrome browsers.
  1. Choosing the right quality to size is very important. If you don’t compress the images right, they may be way too large or too small to add to the website. Test the images on your website for multiple devices and screen sizes to make sure they are optimized well, retain good quality and are also mobile-friendly.
  1. Use relevant and unique images on the website to make your page valuable for the users. Ensure you have not violated any copyright issues. Unique and visually pleasant images that complement well to your content will deliver a positive impact on your website’s rankings.
  1. Add appropriate alt-text, image titles associated with target keywords to the images to make Google crawlers comprehend the image better and index them.
  1. Create a separate image sitemap or add it to your sitemap. This will help Google to crawl better and increase your website’s overall findability.
  1. Adding structured data to your pages helps search engines display your images as rich snippets on SERPs.
  1. Customize your image file name and caption appropriately to make it SEO-friendly. The file names are better when they are brief, relevant, and unique.

CONCLUSION

Image optimization is the extra spark your website needs to outstand the competition.
Visual content helps users process information faster and memorize it more effectively. Therefore, images make your website content more powerful and engaging than text-based content. On the other hand, images may reduce the website load speed. So, to provide high-quality images, you need to optimize with the right dimensions and alt text.

Durga

Durga

About The Author…

Durga has a master’s degree in engineering. Technological advances in digital space interest her a lot. Digital marketing is her forte and she passionately follows latest trends in the digital marketing space. She has written many trending articles on various social media platforms. Her areas of interest include SEO Optimization, structured data, SMM, Keywords research and analysis etc. She is focused, resourceful and dedicated.

How changing a URL affects your website ranking?

How changing a URL affects your website ranking?

A URL is an address that redirects the users to a specific web page. It is a subordinate ranking factor, along with factors like title tag, backlinks, keywords, content, etc. URL helps search engine crawlers to comprehend the content of your web pages easily. In addition, using keywords in URLs provides greater visibility of your website on SERPs.

WHY DO YOU CHANGE URL?

There are a variety of reasons for changing the URLs. The most common ones include.

  • Based on the way people search, you are optimizing the page.
  • Structure changes during the rebranding
  • Building a new website
  • Change in the company name
  • Updating dead or bad links

In these cases, elements like domain names or platform changes will no longer allow you to maintain the same URLs.

WHEN SHOULD YOU CHANGE URL?

The honest answer to this question would be – avoid making changes to your URLs unless you have a good reason to do so. But if you have any of the above-mentioned reasons for changing URL or you’re certain that changing your URL structure is necessary for your website, then it would be wise to perform a full site audit so that any loss or drop in site rankings can be monitored further.

IMPACT OF URL CHANGE ON SEO RANKINGS

If you host a good website that ranks well on SERPs, changing the URL might negatively impact your website’s SEO rankings. Google’s John Mueller advises avoiding changing URLs unless it is necessary, because your website may lose current rankings when you redirect it.
He also suggests there is a lot more to be taken care of than just redirecting URLs like:

  • When URLs are changed, Google takes a lot of time to rediscover them. This results in a significant loss in rankings and traffic.
  • While moving to a new domain, you run the risk of duplicate content and messy redirects.
  • You might have built plenty of backlinks for your website, but that referring traffic would be missing.
  • Even if you publish the exact content from the old website, the link equity does not have much value in the new website.
  • Changing URLs may cause the referring links to lead to error pages. These broken links affect the site’s domain authority and traffic.

Well, if you change the URL directly, you will hurt your search rankings, then how to retain your link equity? Here are some SEO tips to follow when changing your URL to deliver a positive impact on your website’s SEO rankings. Let’s dive right into it.

SEO tips to follow when ypu change your URL

  • A 301 redirect is appropriate for the ideal transition of an old site to a new domain and will prevent links or indexing errors.
  • Map out all the redirects on a page by page basis.
  • Make Google aware of all the 301 redirects and submit a new XML sitemap in the Google search console.
  • Make sure you export the quality content of your website to the new one.
  • Leave the old sitemap temporarily.
  • Check if Google analytics is properly tracking your site on the new URL.

CONCLUSION

Although URL change is performed properly with correct measures and for the right reasons there will be some drop in rankings over a period of time because Google needs time to index the new changes. If URL change is performed with errors, then the loss will be significant and difficult to overcome. So, ensure you follow the best practices to make your Google rankings are maintained in a good position.

To watch the latest Google SEO Office Hours, please check out the video below:

Durga

Durga

About The Author…

Durga has a master’s degree in engineering. Technological advances in digital space interest her a lot. Digital marketing is her forte and she passionately follows latest trends in the digital marketing space. She has written many trending articles on various social media platforms. Her areas of interest include SEO Optimization, structured data, SMM, Keywords research and analysis etc. She is focused, resourceful and dedicated.

What is Link exchange and how does it affect SEO?

What is Link exchange and how does it affect SEO?

Links are a basic and essential part of SEO. The early ranking algorithm of the Google search engine was based on the PageRank algorithm, which works by counting the number of quality links on a page to determine the importance of the website to rank it.

A link is a clickable object on a webpage that directs from one page to another. They may appear as text, buttons or images. Based on the destination of the link, they are classified as Internal, Outbound and Inbound links.

Internal links are links that navigate you to another page of your website. These links allow users to stay longer on your site. As a result, it increases dwell time and boosts ranking. Outbound links are links that navigate you to another website, whereas Inbound links are links from other websites to your website. Therefore, more links will increase your website’s credibility and improve rankings.

Now that we have understood the links and their importance, let us move on to link exchange and how it works in SEO?

LINK EXCHANGE – PROS AND CONS

Link exchange is defined as the practice between websites to exchange links with each other to increase visitors and page ranking. It is also referred to as Swapping backlinks, Reciprocal links, or Link partnering.

Link exchange is an ancient link-building strategy to achieve improved website ranking. As we know in digital marketing, link popularity plays an important role. Webmasters and many other website owners will use link exchange for link building, which helps in promoting their websites to the major search engines.

Link exchange is not effective in all cases. They have the disadvantage of distracting prospective customers to other websites before they thoroughly explore your website.

IMPACT ON SEO

The purpose of Link exchange techniques is to gain an advantage on rankings. Receiving a high-quality backlink will allow you to acquire a trust signal that will increase your website rankings and traffic to stand over the competition.

Link exchange generates many quality links pointing to your website, therefore, it increases your link popularity, which is one of the most important ranking factors in successful search engine marketing and SEO campaigns.

There are thousands of website owners looking out for exchanging links from other webmasters and bloggers to generate impressive results in their search rankings. Moreover, major companies and publications also practice link exchanges in a low-key way by link exchanging schemes. The link exchange services and directories have gradually developed and the era of automatic link generation has begun. Since then, Google has reconsidered its opinion regarding fake links and the use of such traffic.

Excessive link exchange can be bad for rankings

Things have changed and now link exchange can adversely affect your website rankings and reputation if used excessively. Google’s John Mueller mentions that it’s a terrible idea to engage in excessive link exchanges, automated programs for link building and paid linking activity. Google highly discourages website owners taking advantage of link exchange strategy excessively for search engine rankings without making any effort on their part. It also considers it as a violation of Google’s webmaster guidelines.

Here are the best ways to handle link exchange to deliver a positive impact on your website’s SEO rankings.

#1. Partner up with websites that are rich in traffic.

#2. Pick websites that have top-quality content related to your business that can be useful to your visitors and will make an amazing link exchanging partner.

#3. Choose websites that aren’t your closest competitors and maintain high-quality websites with good SEO scores.

#4. Connect with the websites that rank for similar keywords as you do.

CONCLUSION

Link exchange is like a double-edged sword, if practiced correctly, it can be a powerful tool to boost your SEO scores. It is an immense opportunity to quickly acquire new customers to your website, but with certain limitations. Legitimate link exchange is a long-term effort, gained naturally with the merit of your content.

To watch the latest Google SEO Office Hours, please check out the video below:

Durga

Durga

About The Author…

Durga has a master’s degree in engineering. Technological advances in digital space interest her a lot. Digital marketing is her forte and she passionately follows latest trends in the digital marketing space. She has written many trending articles on various social media platforms. Her areas of interest include SEO Optimization, structured data, SMM, Keywords research and analysis etc. She is focused, resourceful and dedicated.

Does website redesigning affect its traffic or rankings?

Does website redesigning affect its traffic or rankings?

A website provides a foundation for your digital presence and supports digital marketing. The website design not only refers to the appearance, layout or the way fonts, colours, and other elements are used on a page, but it also impacts the way visitors recognize your brand through your website.

Website design can have a significant influence on SEO rankings. When a user visits a website from SERPs and finds that the website is not appealing enough, they bounce away within a few seconds. In this case, the search engine assumes that the user’s query is not resolved by the visited page, and if this happens over a period of time for many users, the website’s ranking drastically drops as a result of poor user experience. However, this can be easily sorted out by redesigning your website.

A website redesign is a process of renovating your site, which includes refreshing layouts, enhancing site performance, and improving navigation for better conversions. There are various advantages and disadvantages when redesigning a website.

website redesigning

Below are some of them to be aware of before you start.

Advantages :

Easy navigation – Redesign if your existing website doesn’t include proper navigation. The ease of finding links will support the Google bots to easily crawl and index your pages.

Creative look – A fresh design using different fonts, colours, graphics, logo or image change makes your website eye-catching for users.

Compatibility – Equipping your website with the latest tools, browsers, and making it mobile-friendly will lead to the improvement of organic traffic.

Accessibility – Improved connectivity, upgraded server, faster uploading and browsing speed makes the site easily accessible.

Disadvantages:

When redesigning a website, the page URLs will often alter and you need to make search engines aware of this change.

It takes time for the frequent visitors to comprehend and discover using the new look.

Redesigning involves a significant change in elements like URLs, code, structure, and content of your current website.

A great website redesign will significantly improve your SEO rankings. However, if you already host a good website and your pages rank well for certain search keywords, redesigning might negatively impact your website’s SEO rankings if you don’t do it properly. Therefore, let’s check the various factors that may affect SEO and the proper way to redesign to preserve your SEO rankings.

#1. Meta tags and header tags are an important part of on-page SEO. While migrating the meta tags like title, meta description, page title, etc make sure they are the same as your old website.

#2. Set up 301 and 302 redirects. After the redesign process, the pages of your website will have different URLs. Hence, you must inform the search engines about URL changes. It is the preferred way of implementing redirects on your new site so that users enjoy a smooth experience.

#3. Whether you update to HTTPS or migrate to another CMS, review the elements like website’s backlinks, sitemap, internal linking, URL structure, etc. to see if they are technically aligned or not. Also, you can audit whether all the SEO factors are perfect or not in the new design before replacing the old design.

#4. It is always better to start redesigning on a temporary or subdomain than on the existing website.

#5. Minimize changes to high-quality ranking content while revamping your website. Make sure you export these crucial components to the new website.

Google’s John Mueller states that if these essential factors are unaligned and not redirected properly to the new website, then Google will start over-crawling and indexing it as a new website because it perceives it as a completely different website. Therefore, this will negatively impact your rankings.

CONCLUSION

A good website that is up to date with the latest services will draw in more customers and increased sales. Redesigning your website to be more user-friendly will improve your SEO rankings if properly done. Make sure you follow these best practices to maintain your SEO positions.

To watch the latest Google SEO Office Hours, please check out the video below:

Durga

Durga

About The Author…

Durga has a master’s degree in engineering. Technological advances in digital space interest her a lot. Digital marketing is her forte and she passionately follows latest trends in the digital marketing space. She has written many trending articles on various social media platforms. Her areas of interest include SEO Optimization, structured data, SMM, Keywords research and analysis etc. She is focused, resourceful and dedicated.

Having too many internal links on a page is good or bad for SEO?

Having too many internal links on a page is good or bad for SEO?

Google uses web crawlers to find and index the important pages of a website. However, if you have lots of pages (or a limited crawl budget), Google might only crawl a certain percentage of the pages. That’s where internal links come into the picture. Internal linking is a part of an on-page SEO strategy that makes it easy for Google crawlers to discover important content on your site. Browse through the blog to learn in detail some insights about internal links.

Internal linking strategy is a powerful technique for content marketing because they help Google to better understand site structure and which pages on the website are most significant. Thus facilitating the flow of PageRank around your site.

Internal links and their purpose

internal links and their purpose

An internal link is a hyperlink that connects one page of a website to a different page on the same website. These are different from external links, which are links to the pages on other domains or websites. The purpose of Internal linking is to help Google find, index and understand all of the pages on your website. They help in

  1. Easy navigation around the web pages
  1. A better understanding of the hierarchy and architecture of the website.
  1. Spread page authority to relatively important pages of your site.

The basic theory is that internal links provide clear paths for crawlers and users, thereby strengthening the overall value of the website. They are very useful for establishing SEO-friendly site architecture and spreading link equity around the website.

Impact of too many internal links on SEO rankings

Generally, the more internal links a web page has, the higher the chance that users and Google crawlers will find it. However, this is the time to think smarter, because it is the quality of the links, not the quantity, that plays a vital role.

Too many internal links can negatively impact the rankings of the website. Google’s John Mueller also says that excessive use of internal links throughout the website is bad for SEO rankings.

Let’s say there are too many links that are linked across every single page on the website, then Google will not be able to comprehend the structure of the site and cannot figure out which page is the most essential one. Another problem is using excessive internal links will dilute their value and make your page look spammy. Don’t simply link for the sake of linking.

Therefore, too many internal links do more harm than good and reduce the opportunities to be present on the search engine results page, which directly impacts the site rankings.

Right number of internal links

As a general rule, it is good to add four internal links on a page of 1500 words. Famous SEO bloggers aim for 3-4 internal links in their blogs of 1,500 words or more. Adding 10-20 to a page for a 1,500-word-blog is also a good number. There is no limitation on the number of links on a page. As long as you’re citing links that are of value and relevant to the context, it isn’t bad for your site’s SEO rankings.

Strengthen the overall SEO of your site by distributing the internal links throughout the site, which improve dwell time rather than simply pointing more links at the homepage.
Audit existing internal links before adding more to your site. Putting main internal links high up on your page makes users click and spend more time on your site. This provides a good user experience by improving user engagement.

CONCLUSION

Internal linking is basic, yet crucial for any website to rank higher on Google SERPs because they help crawlers reach important pages of your website. At the same time, if there are too many internal links, Google might not understand which page is essential and will not be able to give the same priority.

To watch the latest Google SEO Office Hours, please check out the video below:

Durga

Durga

About The Author…

Durga has a master’s degree in engineering. Technological advances in digital space interest her a lot. Digital marketing is her forte and she passionately follows latest trends in the digital marketing space. She has written many trending articles on various social media platforms. Her areas of interest include SEO Optimization, structured data, SMM, Keywords research and analysis etc. She is focused, resourceful and dedicated.

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