With a new year comes new SEO updates from Marketing Miner! And there is plenty to cover… Let's take a look at the latest updates and insights you should take note of this month.
#1 Google introduced a new robots tag - indexifembedded
Google introduced a new robots tag that gives sites more control over indexed content in search results. With indexifembedded tag, you can tell Google to get your content indexed when it's embedded through iframes and similar HTML tags in other pages, even when the content page has the noindex tag. When and how can you use this new robots tag? With the indexifembedded tag, publishers now have more control over what gets indexed.
There are two ways to use the new robots tag. To allow your content to be indexed only when it's embedded on other pages, simply add the indexifembedded tag together with the noindex tag as in the example by Google below:
You can also specify the tag in the HTTP header:
#2 New URL Inspection API in Google Search Console
In January, Google also released a new URL Inspection API to help developers and SEOs debug and optimize their web pages through external tools. With the new URL Inspection API, you can now request the data Search Console has about the indexed status of a URL to monitor important pages regularly. The API also has its limitations, a 2,000 queries per day and 600 queries per minute limit. So don't expect to use it daily for websites with large amounts of pages. If you want to check your pages' index status in bulk quickly, you can also use our Index Checker tool instead.
#3 Actionable steps to transform your marketing funnel
Most campaigns fail due to a lack of optimization in content funnels. Andrea Cruz recommends mapping out the types of content your brand owns first and then matching them to each marketing funnel stage (awareness, consideration, and decision).
“The key is to adapt the content formats that are both optimized for the medium in question and match the relevant funnel stage.”
Source: Andrea Cruz
This graph is only an example, and each marketer’s content funnel will look different, but Cruz believes this framework is the best way to meet customers where they are and drive more revenue.
#4 Do URL structure changes affect SEO?
URL changes can be terrifying for SEOs, especially when migrating a site. Google released this short video on what happens when you change your URLs.
In the video, John Mueller summarized five key points to make the changes properly.
- Do your research before migrating to a site.
- Create a list of the old and new URLs for mapping purposes.
- Implement the migration with 301 redirects and internal updates (such as navigation, XML sitemaps, etc.)
- Monitor the migration with Google Analytics and Search Console.
- URL changes should remain in place for at least one year.
URL changes might be a headache, but it will all pay off when done properly!
#5 22 Smart Google SEO Tips for 2022
Check out the 22 smart SEO tips for 2022 by Cyrus Shepard and find out all about links, A/B testing, and other SEO top tips to stay ahead of your competitors. Titles can have a significant impact on click-through rates and website traffic. For this reason, they are carefully crafted. We found this fantastic SEO case study that analyzed over 80,000 title tags and found that Google rewrote 61.6% of them.
#6 New desktop page experience report in Google Search Console
To support the upcoming rollout of page experience update for desktop in February, Google Search Console added a desktop section in its Page Experience report. This ranking update will be complete by the end of March 2022, and it will use the same page experience signals (Core Web Vitals metrics) as on mobile.
#7 Google provides best practices to target multiple locations with one website
John Mueller shared valuable insights on optimizing a website that targets multiple locations. While targeting numerous areas with one website, keep in mind that Google crawls only from one location. He also advised not to redirect to a noindexed page. Instead of doing this, John Mueller recommends offering visitors links to relevant pages with a dynamic banner that will allow the user to go to different pages based on their location. Ideally, these pages should also be indexed as it will let everyone who searches for your company name and the location name find your landing page. Another alternative is to dynamically switch content on the homepage depending on the visitors' location. Rather than having multiple landing pages for different locations, you can create various texts on the homepage for visitors, depending on where the visitor is situated.
'The important part is to have enough generic content so that it doesn’t come across as like everything is for California, but rather it’s like this is lots of information about your business, and since it looks like you’re in California here’s specific information for California, or whatever state that you’re in.'
Mueller also pointed out that there is nothing wrong with creating individual state landing pages, but it is not a great idea to create landing pages for every city in every US state. Find out more information in the video below:
#8 How to perform an effective SEO audit in 2022?
How to start with your SEO strategy in 2022? Before jumping the gun and making random changes to your site, you need first to identify issues that could prevent your website from getting higher rankings. We put together this ultimate guide to help with your SEO audit.
Marketing Miner news
#1 New MM feature alert! You can now work with Keyword Difficulty and SERP features data within our Keyword Profiler. This update can bring you unique insights into your keyword research and improve the efficiency of your keyword targeting efforts. Try it now: https://www.marketingminer.com/en/profiler/keyword/laptop/pl/suggestions
#2 TIP: Use filters for high-volume keywords in Keyword Profiler with a low keyword difficulty level to discover impactful keywords for your business and find new content opportunities.
