Does it feel like keeping up with SEO for your WordPress site has been a wild ride this year? Struggling to decide which things to pay attention to and tackle next?
Let’s get clear on the implications of the important changes in SEO over the past year… And build some plans for
how to benefit from them!
The 2024 Next Gen Attention Study - www.livewire.group
Survive and Take Advantage of SEO Changes in 2019 - WordCamp Hamilton
1. SEO is Evolving
Faster Than Ever
How to survive and take advantage
of all the recent changes
#WCHamont #SEOSanity
@thompsonpaul
2. Paul Thompson
I’m a consultant doing SEO and web
marketing since 2002
People pay me to help turn their
websites into marketing platforms
WordPress since 2009
Find me:
paul@buzzwordstobusiness.com
@thompsonpaul
www.buzzwordstobusiness.com
3. Does it feel like keeping up
with SEO has been a wild ride
this year?
Struggling to decide which
things to pay attention to and
tackle next?
5. Don’t be this guy either
#WCHamont #SEOSanity @thompsonpaul
6. Let’s understand the important
changes in SEO over the past year…
And build some plans for
how to benefit from them!
#WCHamont #SEOSanity @thompsonpaul
9. Mobile First
Index
In the past year, Google
has moved heavily
toward understanding
and assessing our sites
through the eyes of a
mobile user.
#WCHamont #SEOSanity @thompsonpaul
10. How do I know if my site’s moved to the MFI?
● As of July 1 all new sites will be Mobile First indexed
● You’ll have a notification in your Google Search Console
● “Request Indexing” in GSC shows GoogleBot Smartphone
#WCHamont #SEOSanity @thompsonpaul
11. Content on Mobile
Don’t hide it, design for it!
● Content before design. Make your design work for your
content, not the other way around.
● Create a mobile experience that’s fast, clearly laid out, and
easy to navigate.
● Content in simple accordions and tabs is now indexed.
#WCHamont #SEOSanity @thompsonpaul
12. Font Sizes and Touch Zones
Easy to read and navigate.
● 16px minimum font size on mobile. Larger is better.
● Anchor link touch zone should be 72px square.
● Keep in mind for all anchors, including social icons and
navigation elements.
● Mobile Usability in GSC assesses all pages. Spot check
using Mobile Friendly Test page.
13. Google now
measures speed
like a mobile
visitor
Yup, even for your desktop
Since July 2018
Speed still only a small
ranking factor
Only applies to some queries
MAJOR factor for ALL humans
#WCHamont #SEOSanity @thompsonpaul
14. Page size / Bandwidth / Speed considerations
Not all mobile data is unlimited. Don’t be a punk.
● Optimise all your images. Resize and compress. Use lazy
loading. Use modern formats like .webp and .svg
● Dequeue, defer, async javascript files where possible.
● Enable gzip compression, browser caching, page caching.
● For non-developers, most easily handled with quality
caching plugins and/or host’s caching tools
#WCHamont #SEOSanity @thompsonpaul
16. PageSpeed Insights
& Lighthouse Audits
● the tools have completely changed to reflect
Google’s new focus
Hint: it’s not
total load time!
#WCHamont #SEOSanity @thompsonpaul
18. Lighthouse Audits
Built directly into the
Chrome desktop
browser.
For best results, use
Mobile device mode
and Applied 3G.
#WCHamont #SEOSanity @thompsonpaul
22. The difference...
Voice Search:
Voice instead of keyboard
Returns list of search results
Already heavily used -
mostly on mobile
Voice results:
Responses from Amazon
Alexa, Google Home etc.
Dictates single search result!
Usage ramping up - stats
include personal info requests
#WCHamont #SEOSanity @thompsonpaul
23. Voice Search - Answering questions!
● Longer, conversational queries
● How can we tell which organic traffic is from voice
search?
We can’t (yet). GSC doesn’t report separately. Boooo
● Formating answers well with subheaders, tables,
bullet points and Schema helps Google understand
better - and can deliver Rich Snippets.
#WCHamont #SEOSanity @thompsonpaul
24. Voice Results - More questions!
● For Voice Results, most smaller sites will need to
develop a plan over this year, not immediately critical
● Schema plays a major part in Google understanding
and delivering the answers, especially for local
business (Ignore Voice Schema for now)
● Be careful of Voice Results data – usage includes
generic voice assistant inputs as well
#WCHamont #SEOSanity @thompsonpaul
26. Recent major algo updates focus on Quality
For most of us, chasing the algo is pointless.
● Google now only announces algorithm updates when
there’s anything site owners can do about them.
● Best use is to get an overview of what Google focuses on.
● Risk is overreacting and making unnecessary changes.
○ E.g. meta description length, pagination
#WCHamont #SEOSanity @thompsonpaul
27. Google Quality Raters’ Guidelines
“They don’t tell you how the algorithm is
ranking results, but they fundamentally show
what the algorithm should do.”
Ben Gomes, Google VP of Search
Updated May 16, 2019
http://buzzto.biz/raters-guidelines
#WCHamont #SEOSanity @thompsonpaul
30. Specific types of pages to watch for
● Thin
● Out of date, no longer relevant
● Duplicate onsite or copied
● WordPress specific - tags, categories (maybe), events and
other taxonomies (e.g. date & author archives)
● Use your Analytics! Screaming Frog is terrific for this.
#WCHamont #SEOSanity @thompsonpaul
32. Intent
Navigational – they already know where they want to go
Informational – a question that needs an answer
Investigational – toward a more commercial outcome
Transactional – ready to buy or decide
● Look at the SERPs for type of result people are expecting.
○ E.g. “Best compact camera” doesn’t return product
pages!
33. A new approach
to content and
keyword
research
Not about keywords any more
Search engines are working
hard to understand content
like humans do.
Over 1/3 of Google search
queries are 4+ words long
#WCHamont #SEOSanity @thompsonpaul
35. Concepts
● Topics, solutions, answers
● Rankbrain/Machine Learning understand our content like a
human reader
● They understand and want to see thorough treatment of a
topic or concept
● Not just a “keyword” - synonyms, semantically-related terms
● A page can rank for many (100s!) of terms
#WCHamont #SEOSanity @thompsonpaul
44. Answer The Public
1. It allows you to get to know your
audience and what keeps them up
at night
2. Keyword research for those
conversational queries!
3. The related questions and terms
contributing to content quality.
4. It helps you answer questions that
can get you into Google’s featured
snippets
45. WordPress SEO plugins are adapting
● Better real-language processing in Yoast SEO
● Content analysis in Yoast Pro version now
accounts for semantically-related terms
● Free version better understands synonyms,
similar phrases
● Much closer to how the SE’s behave, instead of
being encouraged to manipulate how you write to
score green lights
47. Communicating
the value of our
content to search
engines
As sites get more complex,
search engines & visitors
need more help finding &
properly understanding the
value of our content.
And the relationships
between pages.
#WCHamont #SEOSanity @thompsonpaul
48. www.example.com/post-name/
● flat - shows no relationship between pages
www.example.com/main-topic/sub-topic/post-
name/
● Helps search engines and users understand
hierarchy/relationships between pages
● Use categories in your permalinks (yes, really)
Internal Linking!
● To create hubs, silos, topic areas
● Make related topics cooperate, not compete
51. Google Search Console
New Google Search Console Coverage Report
● specifically for understanding which pages
are crawled and which worthy of indexing.
● remember, the tools changes are focusing
on what Google values!
#WCHamont #SEOSanity @thompsonpaul
55. Implementing Schema
Event, Recipe, Product, Rating, People, Business, Page structure, FAQ, How-To
● Easiest is to use JSON-LD but it’s ONLY for content that is
actually visible on the page! (You’ll get a penalty if it’s not.)
● Good plugins for specific types of content should also
generate the necessary Schema – recipes, event calendars,
ratings/reviews, FAQs
● SEO plugins like Yoast SEO & Rankmath starting to include
wide range of Schema capabilities
● Properly configured Local Business Schema is ESSENTIAL for
local businesses!
59. Google My
Business
For local businesses,
Google is pushing GMB to
become your
homepage/showroom
Proximity is everything in
Local ranking- “the 3-pack”
Especially on mobile
#WCHamont #SEOSanity @thompsonpaul
61. Use All Elements of your GMB Profile
Don’t bring a knife to a gun fight!
● Set up your localBusiness Schema
● Description - use all 750 characters
● Posts/Events/Offers - critical SERP real estate
<sneaky>Format images to look like call-to-action buttons</sneaky>
● Reviews - you need a plan to solicit them
● Adjust your Service Area if you’re a Service Area Business
62. More GMB Profile Focus
Get that localBusiness Schema added to your website
● Questions and Answers - ask and answer your own!
<sneaky> Get friends to upvote the important ones </sneaky>
● Photos - keep a steady stream of new, relevant images
● Regularly build new citations and clean up existing ones
Your NAP (name, address, phone) must be consistent
● Continue to build content with local intent on your website
- case studies!
64. Mobile
Switch to mobile-focused tools for testing and
analysing our sites
Optimise content and usability for mobile visitors
Get your TimetoContentfulFirstPaint to 2s or less
65. Voice Search
Optimise for the longer, more conversational
questions voice searchers typically use
Use Schema and page headings structure to help
search engines understand your answers better
66. Content Quality
Use ideas from the Quality Raters’ Guidelines to
improve quality of new pages
Create a process for regularly improving/updating
or removing existing content - thin/duplicate etc.
Match the content to the INTENT of the visitor
Shift to researching concepts/topics not keywords
67. Site Architecture
Use directory structure and internal linking to
build clearly defined relationships between pages
- creating topic clusters or hubs
Use the GSC Coverage Report to discover pages
that need help getting indexed, or that should be
removed for the index
68. Schema
Start adding Schema markup to your page types
and structure - breadcrumbs, logos, articles etc.
Set up Schema for your specific content types
such as products, reviews, events, and the new
FAQ and How To options - and test it!
Fully configure your Organisation, localBusiness
69. Local Search
Fully configure ALL the features of your GMB
Build a plan to ask for & respond to new reviews
Create regular Posts/Events/Photos content and
build out your top Questions and Answers
Regularly clean up and add new quality citations
Make sure you have a favicon! (as of this week)
70. Links to Resources
Google PageSpeed Insights http://buzzto.biz/psi
Chrome Lighthouse audits
Click F12 in Chrome browser, select Audit tab in
dev tools
Webpagetest https://webpagetest.org
Google Search Console http://buzzto.biz/gsc
Google Quality Raters Guidelines
http://buzzto.biz/raters-guidelines
Screaming Frog Crawler (free for approx 100 pgs)
http://buzzto.biz/screaming-frog
Keywords Everywhere Browser Extension
Chrome http://buzzto.biz/k-e-chrome
Firefox http://buzzto.biz/k-e-ff
Answer the Public https://answerthepublic.com/
Yoast SEO plugin http://buzzto.biz/yoast
Rankmath SEO plugin http://buzzto.biz/rankmath
Structured Data Testing http://buzzto.biz/schema-test
Rich Snippet testing tool http://buzzto.biz/rich-snippet
Basic localBusiness Schema generator
https://bit.ly/local-biz-schema
Advanced generator
https://bit.ly/advanced-schema
71. Don’t Freak Out!
Work the Plan
Online version of this presentation
http://buzzto.biz/wchamont2019
SEO | Site Audits | Analytics | Conversion Optimisation | Web Marketing | Coaching
Paul Thompson
Buzzwords to Business
SEO & Web Marketing
paul@buzzwordstobusiness.com
@thompsonpaul