Monthly SEO Report Covering February 2018
Stuart Cole
Welcome to this month’s SEO report, lots of varied news to tell you about, hope you enjoy!
If you think someone you know would be interested in being kept up to date with SEO news and very useful TIPS then send them our way! Thanks!
If you have missed any of the other reports, which will still be relevant, then we definitely recommend you catch up, here is a link to the SEO Report Updates.
Canonical
The HTML canonical tag lets search engines know which version of the content should be used in their index (among other jobs). So, if you create a canonical tag for pageB from pageA then Google will not take notice of the content on pageA.
Make sure you set these up correctly!
Sitemaps
This month a webmaster asked a question “Is it ok to have dynamic sitemap filenames?”. So, basically something like: sitemap-02-03-18.xml
I have no idea why they would do this, he said that he has a large site which new content is added very regularly so he date stamps the sitemap file. Why doesn’t he just update the sitemap.xml file?
Anyway, Google confirmed that this was not a good idea (shock!) but to use the same sitemap filename.
Glossary
If you are new to search engine optimisation or just need a little refresh on the phrases used in our report head over to our SEO Glossary page, everything you need to know in one place.
Tip
Instead of writing content to target one of a few keywords, write what the reader wants to read. Kind of makes sense I know but too many people write content to target their keywords. Google is very clever and will pick up on supporting words to your keywords, so unless you write about the subject and how the reader expects to read about it you won’t include those supporting words.
Hard to explain but try and think about the reader and what they want.
Security
We have touched on this before in previous SEO reports that in July Google will be releasing a new version of Chrome which will mark ALL HTTP websites as NOT-SECURE. If you didn’t know, now you do! 😃
My advise, buy a SSL certificate before this date as NOT-SECURE will not fill your readers/customers with confidence.
More: This update will not affect your search results ranking positions.
Also Search For…
Google have made an update to the featured snippet area in their search results that when you click on a link and then bounce back to Google from that website it will show a new section called: “People also search for”.
It will, as you would expect, show other search terms people used to get what they are looking for.
TIP: This is a good little signal for your keyword research, Google will basically tell you other keywords people are typing in to get to a product like yours!
You are welcome! 😃
New Websites
When creating a brand new website launch with HTTPS and not HTTP, it will save you a headache later on!
Google News META Keyword tag
I never thought I would be writing something about the keyword tag again, didn’t think anyone stilled used it. Anyway, I have been corrected as plenty of people do it seems. Google this month informed the SEO community that they are not supporting this tag for Google News.
TIP: Don’t ever use the META keyword tag, it doesn’t help your website rank better and only tells your competitors which keywords you are targeting.
Location
If you are new to SEO you may not be aware that where your content is located on your page makes a difference and can in fact affect how your page ranks. With the up and coming Mobile First Index being launched it might affect how your web page performs in the mobile search results.
TIP: Once you know your website is now part of Mobile First Index (keep an eye out on your log files) then monitor your mobile rankings and make changes if needed.
