Overview of Google’s new AI features

There were many AI announcements at Google I/O yesterday, but we think the AI Overviews will most impact our audience and customers.

AI Overviews — previously known as the Search Generative Experience (SGE) — are designed to directly summarize search results from multiple sources on the search page. By leveraging advanced generative AI, these overviews provide users with a concise and comprehensive understanding of complex queries without the need to click through multiple websites. AI Overviews won’t appear for every search, only the complex ones.

Benefits of AI Overviews

According to Google, AI Overviews significantly improve users’ efficiency and satisfaction by delivering quick, accurate, and contextually relevant answers. This can be particularly beneficial for users needing immediate information or conducting broad research.

Google understands everything contextually. The AI’s ability to understand and respond to complex, multistep queries ensures that users receive detailed and logically structured answers, which is invaluable for research and education.

AI Overviews provide students, researchers, and professionals with a structured way to access and digest information, making the learning and research process more streamlined and effective.

Challenges and concerns

One of the most significant concerns is the potential reduction in traffic to original content sites. As users find their answers directly on Google, fewer clicks are directed toward independent publishers. This negatively impacts their revenue and overall visibility.

There are also concerns about proper credit and compensation for content creators. If AI Overviews aggregate information without adequately attributing sources, it could disincentivize content creation and harm publishers in the broadest sense.

The shift towards providing answers directly on the search results page may also pose monetization challenges for Google. Less traffic directed to third-party sites could disrupt the traditional ad-based revenue model, but Google has such a stronghold on the ad market it must surely have found a way forward.

Broader implications for our ecosystem

Centralizing information within Google’s ecosystem could reduce content diversity and the number of voices available online. This monopolization of information flow is a significant concern for the web.

As Google becomes more adept at providing comprehensive answers, user reliance on its services will likely increase. This growing dependence could stifle competition and innovation.

Then, there are the privacy and data concerns plaguing AI in general. The extensive data collection required for personalized AI features raises important privacy issues. Ensuring user consent and data security will be paramount as AI evolves.

Google wants to become your Star Trek Communicator

Google’s advancements in AI are steering it towards becoming a highly personalized digital assistant, akin to the Communicator from Star Trek. It has hinted at this many times over the past. Still, with yesterday’s news, that vision is becoming clearer. This vision involves creating a seamless, always-available assistant to understand and respond to complex human queries and tasks in real time.

Google aims to offer a seamless user experience by integrating multimodal AI capabilities across its ecosystem. This includes personalized interactions that understand user preferences and provide tailored recommendations and insights.

Looking ahead, Google is likely to further integrate AI into various aspects of daily life, from home automation to personal finance and health, making it an indispensable part of users’ routines.

Balancing innovation with responsibility

Google doesn’t owe us traffic or high rankings, but the future of the web does hang in the balance of whatever Google thinks of next. The discussions about who feeds all those AI machines continue. As a site owner, quitting publishing content is not an easy decision. However, seeing the ROI of these publications slowly die might make that decision easier.

We think it is too early to write off search yet. There are plenty of opportunities to be had, and Google might devise a way to balance providing enough value for site owners vs. ad revenue. To address the impact on content creators, Google could find ways to ensure fair compensation for using their content in AI Overviews.

Ethical development of AI

Google’s AI Overviews will occasionally be flat-out wrong — as we’ve seen many times over the past year. Hallucinations are still happening, and they could put Google in a jam. Therefore, it must prioritize ethical considerations in AI development, including transparency, fairness, and user consent. This will help build trust and ensure that AI advancements benefit everyone.

To create a sustainable digital ecosystem for everyone, we need a collaborative approach involving Google, publishers, regulators, and users. Open dialogue and cooperation can help address the challenges and harness AI’s full potential.

Conclusion to Google’s AI Overviews

The introduction of AI Overviews in Google search represents a significant advancement. It has the potential to transform how we access information.

While the benefits for users are clear, the challenges for independent publishers and our ecosystem cannot be ignored. Ultimately, Google hopes to create a future where AI enhances our lives while supporting a diverse and thriving web.

Now that AI-driven search is here, Google wants you to “Let Google do the googling for you,” but we hope it has carefully considered the broader impacts on our ecosystem. Ultimately, we hope everyone benefits from these advancements — not just Google.

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Exposure, trust and brand awareness

When focusing on on-page SEO, you’re doing everything in your power to create a good website. You write great content, build a solid site structure, make your website mobile-friendly and work on improving page speed. All is well in the world and you’ve done all you can. Right? Well, there’s another part we can’t forget: off-page SEO. This helps you to bring in those hordes of visitors and potential customers. Both are important pieces of the puzzle.

By writing quality content you can rank in search engines, but by getting a few great, relevant sites to link to that content, you’re increasing the chance that you’ll end up ranking a lot higher. The same goes for building your brand and creating trust. This doesn’t just happen on your site, but mostly off-site. Take reviews, for instance, these can make or break your company. You need them, but they most often appear on external sites. These are all factors that contribute to your rankings.

It’s not only important to rank high for your search term, but also to create trust and a sense of authority. You must appear to be the best search result, not just in a technical and content sense, but also in reality. Popularity, quality, and relevance are everything. Especially now that E-E-A-T (which stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness) has become a core concept in how Google rates your online content.

A lot of it comes down to link building

Links are the threads that keep our web together. Search engines use links to determine how valuable a piece of content or a particular site is. Getting quality links will always be a great tactic if you’re serious about SEO. And who isn’t? In the past, there have been debates on the relevance of links. We firmly believe in the importance of links. That being said, you need the good ones. Don’t buy stuff, and keep a close eye on where and how you’re being linked to. We’ve written several guides on how to get quality links for your site and what you shouldn’t do when link building.

Social media helps to a certain extent

By itself, social media is not essential for ranking well in search engines. It is however growing in popularity, and more and more people are using these platforms for their online searches as well. It’s also a great way to reach more people and grow your brand as a whole.

At the end of the day, SEO is about being found online. By being active on social media, you will be deemed more trustworthy, be more easily found and have a great way to showcase your brand more. People will probably expect to find you there and you don’t want them to end up empty-handed or stumble across your competition. It also gives you a great opportunity to interact with your audience in a fun and approachable way. So make sure to invest in social media to reach your audience.

Local SEO is also off-page SEO

Local SEO is essential if your business is locally oriented. But what is it? Where normally, you would focus your efforts on reaching as many people as possible, wherever they are, local SEO focuses on reaching people in a certain area. So, for example, when you’re a bike repair shop or real estate agent.

For local businesses, part of the off-page SEO is in-person SEO. Word-of-mouth marketing plays a big role in getting people to your business. Not just that, happy customers can leave reviews online that Google – and other potential customers – can use to see how well you are doing. The experiences that people have with your business, should be similar and positive, whether they’re offline or online.

Don’t forget to showcase yourself

Coming back to the importance of showing your expertise or authority on a topic, you need to make sure this isn’t just being said on your website. Make appearances to talk about your field or expertise or service/product with others. By blogging for another website in your field, doing interviews, being a guest on podcasts, or going to events to do a talk or workshop. Share your knowledge and be active to let people know that you’re the go-to person (or website) when it comes to that specific topic.

Off-page SEO is an integral part of your SEO strategy

As we’ve shown, off-page SEO supplements on-page SEO. They go hand in hand. You need to focus on what’s going on outside your website as well. Work on proper link building, branding and your social media efforts to make the most of your SEO. You can optimize your site all you want, but if it isn’t perceived as a quality destination for people, it will be difficult to get people to your website at all.

Read more: The ultimate guide to content SEO »

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Main reasons to publish blog posts on Shopify

If we break everything down, your content is what ranks in search engines. Of course, your products can appear in the various shopping sections in Google, but your content helps you attract an audience, build a brand, and get noticed.

Simply put, blogging can improve the SEO of your store or online business. It makes your store more visible to Google as regularly updated blog content encourages search engines to crawl and index your site more frequently. By writing about relevant topics, you automatically expand the range of keywords and phrases for which your Shopify business will rank.

In addition, as you fill your site with highly relevant content, you’re improving the overall quality of it. This provides a platform to engage customers, share valuable information, and respond to their comments and questions. As a result, you’re building a community around your brand, which will help to improve customer loyalty. Blogging on an online store can also increase your reach. People might be more inclined to share your blog content on social media or other outlets where your potential customers are.

Well-written, unique, high-quality, informative articles establish your brand as an industry authority. Blog posts are an amazing outlet to showcase your expertise and share insights on your Shopify site. All of this helps to improve your brand’s reputation.

Blogs improve customer experience

Of course, blogs are excellent for promoting new products, sales, and events. Content marketing through blogging is cost-effective compared to traditional advertising. But it’s not only about sales; it’s about educating users to get them ready to buy.

Blogs can educate customers about your products and industry. Educational content can reduce customer service inquiries by providing answers to common questions. Quality content can subtly influence purchasing decisions by highlighting the benefits and applications of your products. In the end, all of this helps potential customers make informed purchasing decisions.

Shopify blog posts have a long shelf life

If done well, your Shopify blog posts can continue attracting traffic well into the future. Blog posts generate leads long after publication, offering long-term ROI on your online marketing. Ensuring your content is evergreen helps you remain relevant and continues to draw in visitors over time.

Lastly, a well-maintained blog can set your ecommerce site apart from competitors. It can become a competitive advantage if your competitors lack a decent content marketing strategy. Unique and engaging content can be a key differentiator for your brand. Blogging can be a powerful component of your Shopify store’s online marketing strategy.

Here’s how to set up a blog on Shopify.

Pitfalls to avoid when starting a Shopify blog

We’ve seen that adding a blog to your online store can significantly enhance your brand’s visibility, customer engagement, and SEO performance. However, some pitfalls can undermine its success. One challenge is keeping a consistent posting schedule. You need it to keep your audience engaged and your SEO in check, but people frequently overlook this.

Another common pitfall is producing irrelevant or low-quality content that doesn’t provide value to your audience. In the end, this could hurt your online business. Additionally, neglecting ecommerce SEO can limit your blog’s visibility and effectiveness.

Tips for writing blog posts that strike a chord

We’ve established that adding a blog to your Shopify store can bring great benefits, but only if you do it well. One of the most important points to consider is content quality. Content quality is what you say and how well you say it. Your writing talent can make or break your Shopify blog posts. These days, it’s enticing to open ChatGPT or Gemini and ask it to write a post for you, but that’s not actual writing.

Know your audience

Understanding your audience is crucial for effective writing. By knowing who you’re writing for, you can tailor your content to their needs, interests, and preferences, making your blogging more engaging and relevant. This involves using language and examples that resonate with them, fostering a deeper connection, and encouraging interactions like comments and shares. Conducting keyword research for your Shopify store is also essential, as it helps address your audience’s specific concerns and challenges, making your writing clearer and more direct.

Eliminating unnecessary jargon and focusing on clarity ensures your message is communicated efficiently. This increases the likelihood of persuading your audience to take action, whether making a purchase or engaging with your brand. Ultimately, this will boost conversions and build loyalty.

Keep your writing clean and to the point

For effective blog content, you should use simplicity, clarity, and brevity as your main guiding principles. Start by clearly understanding the primary message you want to convey. This understanding will guide your writing, helping you stay focused and avoid unnecessary digressions.

Then, plan out what you want to write before you start writing. Outline the main points you want to cover. A structured approach helps organize thoughts and ensures that each paragraph contributes directly to your overall message. Making a mindmap can help you structure your thoughts and make new connections between thinking. Planning makes the writing part so much easier.

Keep it simple

Avoid jargon and complex vocabulary that might confuse your readers. When possible, use everyday language to ensure clarity. Opt for simpler alternatives that make your message clear. As a result, your writings will be accessible to a broad audience.

Be direct and concise by using short sentences and paragraphs. Get to the point quickly by eliminating filler words and redundant phrases that don’t add value to your message.

Don’t forget to write in the active voice instead of the passive voice. Write in the active voice as much as possible. It’s more direct, lively, and clear than the passive voice, making your writing easier to understand.

Make it human and make it your own

As a beginning writer, you’re always searching for your voice. This takes a while to develop. For instance, you might want to infuse your writing with a sense of humanity and uniqueness. Try adopting a conversational tone as if you’re talking to a friend. If it makes sense, don’t shy away from sharing personal anecdotes and experiences that illuminate your points.

Expressing your opinions thoughtfully can add depth to your blogging. You can make your stories more vivid by using descriptive language that taps into the senses. This can make your content more emotionally resonant. Importantly, let your personality and unique voice shine through. Ultimately, this is the authenticity that makes your writing distinctive and relatable.

Develop a tone of voice that fits your brand

Developing a distinct tone of voice for your writing begins with deeply understanding your audience. You’ll also need a clear definition of your brand’s personality and an analytical review of your existing content.

If you want your content to resonate with your readers, you must delve into who they are. You need to identify their interests, values, and the language that speaks to them. This forms your brand’s personality — whether authoritative, playful, inspiring, or something else. Describing your brand in human characteristics helps craft a personal and engaging tone.

Simultaneously, examine your current content to see what performed well. This can provide valuable insights. If you want to find aspects of your tone that resonate with your audience, you should check articles that got much engagement or positive feedback in the past.

Writing is rewriting

Embrace the concept that “writing is rewriting.” Begin by taking a break after your initial draft to gain a fresh perspective, then read your work aloud to catch any awkward phrasing or inconsistencies.

Initially, focus on the overall structure to ensure ideas flow logically. Be prepared to ruthlessly cut anything that doesn’t directly contribute to your main points. Simplify difficult sentences and get feedback from trusted sources for fresh insights.

Revising and refining your work enhances its clarity and impact, but you must know when to stop. But remember that truly great writing comes from a willingness to revisit and improve your initial ideas.

Yoast SEO for Shopify improves your blog posts

Yoast SEO for Shopify has tools to significantly enhance your content’s quality and visibility. This Shopify SEO app aims to help you make your content SEO-friendly and engaging for your customers.

Yoast SEO provides detailed analysis and actionable recommendations for optimizing your content, including product descriptions, blog posts, and web pages. It guides you on where to place your target keywords, how to structure your content for better readability, and what you might be missing regarding SEO best practices.

The readability analysis feature evaluates your content to ensure it’s clear and accessible to your target audience. It checks for sentence length, passive voice usage, and paragraph structure, offering suggestions to make your content easier to read. This improves user experience and increases engagement rates, as readers are likelier to stay on straightforward and engaging pages.

Examples of great blogs on Shopify

Exploring successful blogs on Shopify stores can provide valuable insights and inspiration for your content strategy. Here are some examples that have harnessed the power of blogging to engage their audience, enhance brand awareness, and drive traffic to their stores.

Partake Foods

• Overview: Partake Foods stands out not just for its allergy-friendly food products but also for its engaging and informative blog. The blog is a resourceful hub where readers can find many recipes, food allergy guides, parenting tips for managing allergies, and insights into an allergy-aware lifestyle. It caters to the needs of parents looking for safe, delicious options for their children with food allergies, but it goes beyond just food.
• Why it works: The success of the Partake Foods blog lies in its ability to directly address and alleviate the concerns of its core audience—parents navigating the complex world of food allergies. By providing valuable, practical content, Partake Foods positions itself as more than just a food brand; it becomes a trusted ally to families.
• Source: Partake Foods blog

Briogeo

• Overview: Briogeo, a natural hair care brand, enriches its Shopify store with a blog that serves as a cornerstone for educating and engaging its audience. This blog doesn’t just sell products; it delves into various topics relevant to natural hair care, including detailed guides on hair types, the benefits of specific ingredients, and tutorials on tackling common hair concerns.
• Why it works: The effectiveness of Briogeo’s blog lies in its educational approach, addressing its audience’s specific needs and questions with information and practical advice. By focusing on the intricacies of natural hair care and the science behind their product formulations, Briogeo establishes itself as an authority in the space.
• Source: Briogeo blog

Death Wish Coffee

• Overview: Known as producing the world’s strongest coffee, Death Wish Coffee’s blog is a treasure trove of coffee culture, brewing tips, and company news. It effectively engages coffee enthusiasts with content ranging from the science behind caffeine to stories of people living life to the fullest, embodying the brand’s adventurous and bold spirit.
• Why it works: The blog perfectly captures the brand’s essence — intense, passionate about coffee, and a bit rebellious. By sharing content that appeals directly to their target audience’s interests, they promote their products and build a strong community of coffee lovers. The blog serves as a platform to educate readers about their unique value proposition while entertaining and informing them about coffee.
• Source: Death Wish Coffee blog

BeardBrand

• Overview: BeardBrand takes the concept of beard care and elevates it to a lifestyle, which is vividly reflected in their blog. Their content ranges from grooming tips and style advice to deeper dives into the culture of beard-keeping. BeardBrand’s blog is a comprehensive guide for anyone looking to embrace their facial hair, offering insights into grooming techniques, product recommendations, and the philosophy behind growing a beard. It’s not just about selling beard oil or grooming kits; it’s about fostering a community and identity among beard enthusiasts.
• Why it works: The BeardBrand blog excels because it taps into the lifestyle and ethos of its audience rather than merely focusing on product usage. By addressing the broader culture of beard-keeping and the lifestyle that comes with it, the blog connects on a deeper level with readers who see their beards as an expression of their identity. This connection is further solidified by the blog’s clear, confident, and engaging tone of voice, which mirrors the brand’s ethos of self-care and community.
• Source: BeardBrand blog

Veloforte

• Overview: VELOFORTE, recognized for its range of natural, performance-enhancing nutrition products, extends its commitment to athlete support through its engaging and informative blog. The blog stands out as a valuable resource for athletes of all levels, offering nutritional advice, endurance training tips, and insights into optimizing performance through natural means.
• Why it works: The success of VELOFORTE’s blog lies in its precision targeting and expertly crafted content that speaks directly to the needs and interests of endurance athletes. By providing scientifically backed nutrition and training advice, the blog positions VELOFORTE as a thought leader in sports nutrition and deepens trust with its audience. This trust is crucial for a brand whose products are designed to support peak athletic performance.
• Source: Veloforte blog

Made in Cookware

• Overview: Made In Cookware distinguishes itself through its high-quality kitchen tools and richly informative blog. This platform serves as a culinary hub, offering everything from cooking tips and detailed recipes to chef interviews and insights into the manufacturing processes of their cookware. The blog aims to educate home cooks and culinary enthusiasts, providing information that spans basic cooking techniques and advanced culinary concepts.
• Why it works: The effectiveness of Made In Cookware’s blog lies in its ability to demystify the cooking process, making gourmet cooking accessible to a broader audience by sharing professional chefs’ secrets and offering guidance on using their products to achieve the best culinary results, Made In positions itself as an ally in the kitchen. This educational approach builds trust with the audience and illustrates the value of investing in quality cookware.
• Source: Made in Cookware blog

These examples illustrate how diverse Shopify stores use blogging to connect with their audience. These blogs effectively enhance their brand’s online presence and customer engagement through educational content, behind-the-scenes stories, or practical advice. These examples serve as a blueprint for success for anyone looking to boost their Shopify store’s content strategy. Consider integrating similar approaches tailored to your brand’s unique voice and audience needs.

Write awesome, helpful content that builds your brand

Blogging is great as it can help your Shopify store to stand out from the crowd. While adding a blog is easy, writing your content is harder. Make sure to write high-quality content about the topics you know your customers are interested in. Use easy-to-understand language and other writing tips to make your content come alive.

The post How to write better blog posts for your Shopify store appeared first on Yoast.

Introducing the new Optimization overview

The new Optimization overview serves as the primary access point to the Yoast SEO for Shopify app. Leveraging our signature traffic light colors, merchants can now more easily identify areas for SEO and readability enhancements across collections, products, blogs, and pages. This visually-friendly dashboard equips merchants with actionable insights, facilitating strategic decision-making for website optimization efforts. With everything readily available in one place, this will make getting started much easier.

Updates to the sidebar for clearer navigation

You are likely to quickly spot the improvements we have been busily preparing for our customers behind the scenes. The sidebar is now much easier to navigate, with more natural grouping for easier navigation with collections and products grouped together under the Products section. 

Best practice update for collection pages 

Collection pages are pivotal in driving traffic to your website, grouping your products into easily navigable sections. While these pages do impact your site’s ranking, lengthy content isn’t the way to go, especially for ecommerce collection pages. That’s why we’ve updated the in-app guidance for collections, offering more focused direction and requiring a lower word count than before. It’s a great time to revisit your collection pages, ensuring they’re optimized for maximum impact.

Check out your brand new overview page

You can expect to see some more exciting updates and enhancements from Yoast SEO for Shopify so stay tuned! Check out your new overview page by logging into your store on Shopify and heading the the Yoast app.

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What is A/B testing? 

In short, A/B testing helps you find the truth of whether you made the correct decisions. It gives you certainty and can verify you’re a smart person making smart decisions. A is your baseline, or in other words, what your website looks like before you change anything. And B is your variation to A, so a changed button, text, or anything. You will then test to see which one works best. 

So it’s about the truth, and it’s dangerous to do it wrong. Oh, and I forgot that it’s easy to make mistakes. This all sounds very vague. Let’s start with an example of an experiment:

A/B test example

“Let’s say you have an online store selling flip-flops. Your product page gets 1000 monthly visits, but only 50 persons buy a pair (5% conversion rate). That needs to be improved! You read online that adding reviews is a best practice, so you decide to add one. Although a review can improve conversion, it may not be so in this case. Do you take a chance or test? Test, of course! So what happens next?

There are two groups: 

1. Control group: the original checkout without the review (5% conversion rate).
2. Variant group: the modified checkout with the review.

With an A/B testing tool, you randomly show half your website visitors the original checkout and the other half the variant with the review. With the same A/B tool, you track the number of visitors and flip-flops you sell for each group. You will find the following:

1. Control group: 50 purchases out of 1000 visitors (5% conversion rate)
2. Variant: 70 purchases out of 1000 visitors (7% conversion rate). 

You check if the increased conversion rate happened because of the change or if it was chance by using an A/B test calculator (more about this later). Based on these results, you can declare your variant a winner. Hooray! You can safely implement the review to improve the conversion rate on the checkout.”

The benefits of A/B testing

Now that you know what A/B testing is, why would you jump through hoops and spend time and money on it? Isn’t making decisions based on expertise or a gut feeling easier? 

Reducing risk

A/B testing is like a safety net for your business decisions. Instead of relying on gut feelings or assumptions, it gives evidence of what resonates with your audience, allowing you to move forward confidently and minimize the risk of negative outcomes.

Learning

Every experiment you run teaches you something about your audience’s preferences and behaviors. In the example above (adding a review on the checkout), you learned that this review increases conversion. But why does this review convince users? Can you use that message on product pages? Your socials? Testing is a continuous learning process that empowers you to make better, more informed decisions. You learn what works best for your audience and business. 

Money!

If you have stocks or a savings account, you might’ve heard of the term ‘compound interest.’ As explained by Online Dialogue compound interest is like a snowball running downhill. Every time your conversion rate increases after an experiment, it adds extra revenue. More importantly, you’re not decreasing your conversion rate and slowing down your business. You get your business rolling like that snowball by repeatedly making the right decisions.

Here’s an example:

• Your current conversion rate is 5% (50 purchases from 1000 site visitors)
• With an increase of 10% conversion rate, you add 5 purchases.
• Another increase of 10%, you add 5.5 purchases.
• Another increase of 10%, you add 6.05 purchases. 
• And so on. 

You’re benefiting more and more from the same conversion rate uplift. 

Can I run A/B tests on my website? 

Not everyone can run A/B tests on their websites, or at least not on all pages. There are three key elements you need for testing:

1. Enough site visitors (either organic and/or paid).
2. Enough conversions (in the broadest sense, i.e., purchases, signups, form completions, clicks). 
3. Clean data: you need to know that your tracking tool is correct. If your tracking tool shows fifty purchases while, in reality, it was forty, you will draw the wrong conclusions. 

So, what is ‘enough’ regarding site visitors or conversions? That depends. If you only have a few site visitors but many purchase flip-flops, you might be able to run tests and vice versa. You can check this by measuring the ‘Minimum Detectable Effect’ (MDE).

This is the minimum conversion rate change to prove that your adjustment caused the increase or decrease.

Follow these steps:

1. Look up your current page visitors and conversions and add these to the “Visitors A” and “Conversions A” fields in the A/B test calculator. (Example: 1000 visitors and 50 conversions).
2. Add the same number of visitors in the “Visitors B” field and play around with the number of conversions. Is it significant for 60 conversions? 70? 65?
3. Find the minimum conversion rate increase and assess whether that is realistic. The benchmark is 10% or lower. Experience shows that achieving a more than 10% increase is very difficult.

Which type of conversions to measure the Minimum Detectable Effect (MDE)? 

What should you use to determine the Minimum Detectable Effect (MDE)? Always use your primary business conversion first, like purchases, form completions, or meetings booked. If you don’t have enough of those, you can also test with secondary conversions, like clicks to checkout. 

Important: Don’t use ‘hacks’ to get users from one page to another when testing to increase clicks. You’ll get visitors to the checkout with the promise your flip-flops allow people to fly, but it leads to frustration, returning products, and won’t grow your business in the long run.

What should you know about A/B testing before starting?

Your data is clean, and your flip-flop shop gets enough visitors and conversions to conclude from. But hold on a second. Let’s go over a couple of basics you need to know before starting.  

Always start your A/B tests with a hypothesis

You need to know what you’re testing. Your hypothesis is your idea. Having one is like having a plan before trying something new. Besides that, it helps you learn from the results.

A basic template for hypotheses is:

Because [the reason for the change, preferably based on research or data], we expect that [the change you make], will result in [change in behavior of site visitor]. We measure by [KPI you aim to influence].

So:

“Because in ecommerce, adding reviews on the product page is a best practice. We expect that adding a review about the quality of the flip-flops above the fold on the product page will result in more trust in the product. We measure by an increase in purchases.”

Basic understanding of statistics

There are tons of tools that evaluate the results of A/B tests, like the A/B Test Calculator. Even with these tools, it’s important to understand what you’re measuring to know when your data looks off. We’re not going to dive into statistics here, but it’s important to understand two main concepts:

1. Statistical significance: This indicates whether the conversion rate changed due to your doing or is a random chance. If an experiment is significant, you can assume your change affected the conversion rate. Significance is reflected by the ‘p-value.’ You don’t need to know how this is calculated, but remember that the advised benchmark for this number is 0.1 or lower. In most A/B testing tools, the p-value is reflected as the ‘confidence rate,’ which should be 90% or higher. 
2. Observed power: Power tells if a test correctly identifies the change in conversion, giving you confidence in the results. It’s like a radar scanning the data landscape, ensuring that significant findings are not missed due to small sample sizes or other limitations.  The power must be at least 80%+.

You can calculate the p-value and observed power with an A/B Test Calculator.

Choosing the right A/B testing tool

As mentioned before, there are a lot of tools out there. We’re using Convert at Yoast, which we’re quite happy with. But it starts at $350 per month, which might not fit your budget. I won’t recommend a specific tool, but keep these four points in mind when choosing: 

1. Ease of use: If you don’t have (many) developers, choose a tool that is easy to implement and has a visual editor. 
2. Reliable data: Cheap tools are available, but make sure the way they track your data is reliable. You can find this in the reviews of Trustpilot, Capterra, or G2. 
3. Support: It’s easy to break your website when you’re experimenting. Knowledgeable support has often saved my life, especially since I’m not a developer. Good support helps troubleshoot, pick the right testing method, and set up the experiment.
4. Integrations: good integrations make your life easier. For instance, Convert integrates with Hotjar and GA4, which makes it easy to segment data on those platforms and evaluate your experiments.
5. Security: Verify that the tool adheres to industry data privacy and security standards, especially if you collect sensitive user information during experiments.

Assure you have clean data

As mentioned, you must have clean data to evaluate your experiments. If you’re collecting faulty data and it’s reporting more purchases than you’re getting, you can make the wrong decisions. Here are a couple of tips:

• Cross-check the number of purchases from your data tools with your actual conversions from your CRM system. 
• Don’t use GA4 data to calculate whether your experiment is a winner. You need the exact numbers and as GA4 samples all data, it’s unreliable.
• Check if you can set up your A/B testing tool to track all the main metrics, such as site visitors, signups, form completions, and purchases. 

Don’t run tests longer than four weeks

Tests shouldn’t run longer than four weeks because of the potential expiration of cookies. The most popular browsers reset cookies after four weeks, which could lead to inconsistencies in data collection and potentially skew the results. Keeping tests within a shorter timeframe helps ensure the reliability and accuracy of the data you collect.

Pitfalls of A/B testing for SEO

At Yoast, we advise looking holistically at your website. When optimizing for conversion, you should also keep SEO in mind. Let’s go over a couple of pitfalls:

Hindering site performance

If your A/B testing tool is not optimized or tests are not properly configured, they can introduce latency and slow the overall site speed. Therefore, it’s crucial to carefully manage scripts, prioritize performance, and regularly monitor site speed metrics during A/B testing to mitigate these risks.

Forget to look at search intent

It’s essential to understand the search intent of your users before optimizing your website. Pushing users towards the wrong actions, like purchasing, when seeking informational content leads to a disjointed user experience. You can use Semrush to explore the search intent of keywords and ensure your content stays relevant to your audience’s needs. Align your optimization efforts with user intent. This ensures a smoother user journey and increases the relevance of your content to your target audience’s needs.

Over-optimize for conversion rate

One common pitfall is over-optimizing for conversion rate at the expense of user experience. Focusing solely on driving users towards conversions bypasses the primary goal: having high-quality content and helping users. Tunnel vision on conversion rate optimization can lead to a poor user experience, ultimately harming your website’s rankings and credibility.

Alternatives to A/B testing

So, what do you do if you don’t have enough traffic to experiment? Are you obligated to do everything by gut feeling? Luckily not. There are multiple things you can do. 

Invest in SEO

The most sustainable approach is to invest in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). By optimizing your website for search engines, you can increase organic traffic over time. With more visitors to your site, you’ll have a larger pool of users to conduct A/B tests, allowing for more reliable results and informed decision-making. Prioritizing SEO enhances visibility and lays a solid foundation for future experimentation and growth. If you want to learn how to effectively increase your organic traffic, sign up and get our weekly SEO tips.

Use paid traffic

The quickest — but most expensive — way to start with A/B testing is to boost your traffic with advertisement. I wouldn’t recommend this for a longer period, but it can help validate a hypothesis more quickly. Keep in mind that it’s not the same audience. What works for paid doesn’t necessarily work for organic traffic.

Use different validation methods

There are other ways to improve conversion when you can’t get enough traffic, but these only have a slightly higher decision risk. This can be best explained based on the pyramid of evidence. This model comes from science and was introduced to conversion rate optimization by Ton Wesseling, founder of Online Dialogue.

The higher the pyramid, the less bias and the lower the risk of decision. A/B testing is high up there, as making decisions based on A/B tests poses a low risk. Still, if you don’t have the data for the A/B test, it is better to use data (like GA4) or user research (surveys). It’s not as waterproof, but it beats that gut feeling. 

The important thing is to start with A/B testing

I’m going to quote Nike here: Just do it! Like with SEO, you need to start small. Yes, your data needs to be clean. Yes, you need enough conversions. But you also need to start and learn from your mistakes. Let Yoast SEO help you get enough organic site traffic to test and start A/B testing. You’ll grow your business and/or show your manager you’re as smart as you think.

Good luck!

The post How to get more value from site visitors with A/B testing appeared first on Yoast.

Performance enhancements

We’ve upgraded the processing of user metadata in this release, leading to improved performance, especially in generating author sitemaps. Specifically, we now prevent storing non-integral user metadata, making your database leaner and smaller, especially for websites with many backend users. This also means faster, more efficient sitemap output, making your content quicker to index by search engines. It’s a behind-the-scenes enhancement with front-line benefits: better SEO visibility and quicker content discovery for all your author pages.

A better understanding of Arabic and Hebrew

Detecting your keyphrases intelligently in your content is essential to how Yoast SEO functions. We’re always looking for ways to enhance this critical process. 

In Yoast SEO 22.6, we’ve improved the keyphrase detection in SEO titles for Arabic and Hebrew. For example, when the keyphrase is باندا حمراء and the SEO title starts with الباندا الحمراء, we now recognize this as an exact match and give a good result for the keyphrase in SEO title assessment. This will make it easier for you to write better content in those languages. 

Update your PHP versions!

WordPress is changing the minimum requirements for PHP, and Yoast SEO is following suit. To remind users still working with soon-to-be outdated versions of PHP, we’ll notify them in the dashboard. Upgrading your PHP versions comes with many benefits — not to mention a safer, modern environment. We are dropping support for PHP < 7.4 starting November 1st, 2024, so you have time to update in your own time. 

Update to Yoast SEO 22.6

That’s Yoast SEO 22.6 for you. It’s a small but able update that will make the plugin perform better and bring more stability. Don’t forget to update. And don’t forget to upgrade your PHP versions while doing it. See you at the next update!

The post Yoast SEO 22.6 brings more enhancements appeared first on Yoast.

Google updates are nothing new

Algorithm updates are not new. Updates are part of Google’s ongoing efforts to improve users’ experience. Google tries to find new ways of promoting high-quality, relevant, and trustworthy content. However, the March 2024 Google core update stands out. This is because it directly addresses the wave of AI content hitting the search engine. 

Generative AI is now widely accessible. As a result, the web has seen an influx of content lacking the depth and accuracy of content written by real people. While Google is clear that using AI to generate content is not prohibited, it does value and reward true quality.

Understanding Google algorithm updates

Google’s algorithm is a list of rules for ranking sites in search results. As with most things, these rules aren’t static. The rules change often to adapt to new technologies and user behaviors. Today, one of those changes is the tidal wave of new content. This prompts Google to update its algorithm. As a result, it should help users find the most relevant, high-quality content.

Why do algorithm updates happen?

Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. For this, Google must continuously adjust its algorithms to understand and categorize content. Updates can target specific issues, like reducing spam. Others aim to prioritize expert content in medical searches. For instance, the 2018 “Medic” update focused on health and medical sites. Its goal was to uncover more authoritative content in areas where it matters most.

Content quality and user experience

Over the years, Google has increasingly prioritized content quality and user experience. Google algorithm updates such as “Panda” (2011) and “Penguin” (2012) were early examples, penalizing poor-quality content and manipulative link practices. Today, we see updates focusing on page experience (Core Web Vitals) and the helpfulness of content (Helpful Content Update). All of this shows Google is moving towards user-centric metrics.

It can be very insightful to learn about Google’s algorithm updates. The insights help you align your content strategy. It’s about understanding the need for content quality and user satisfaction. To survive, you must create highly relevant content that serves the user’s intent. Only then will your site remain a valuable resource for your audience.

Why the March 2024 Google Core Update?

We all notice the surge in content powered by generative AI. This technological leap has made it easy to produce content at scale. However, not all content meets the quality standards that Google seeks. The March 2024 core update is Google’s move to address this challenge. It hopes that users will once again find valuable and trustworthy content.

With this update, Google aims to reduce spammy content in search drastically by over 40%:

“We believe these updates will reduce the amount of low-quality content on Search and send more traffic to helpful and high-quality sites. Based on our evaluations, we expect that the combination of this update and our previous efforts will collectively reduce low-quality, unoriginal content in search results by 40%.”

The challenge of low-quality content

The core issue with AI-generated content isn’t the use of AI but the quality of that content. Pre-March 2024, search results started showing content that offered little value to users seeking information or solutions. This is a bad user experience and makes it harder for high-quality, human-crafted content to get the visibility it deserves.

This goes specifically for what Google calls scaled content abuse:

“Scaled content abuse is when many pages are generated for the primary purpose of manipulating search rankings and not helping users. This abusive practice is typically focused on creating large amounts of unoriginal content that provides little to no value to users, no matter how it’s created.”

Content quality and relevance

With the March 2024 core update, Google wants to highlight high-quality content. Of course, the update doesn’t penalize the use of AI in content creation. However, it aims to ensure that content meets the same standards as real authors. This means AI-generated content should be informative, accurate, and engaging. Also, it should offer unique perspectives or insights that benefit the user.

Google even said as much:

“There’s nothing new or special that creators need to do for this update as long as they’ve been making satisfying content meant for people. For those that might not be ranking as well, we strongly encourage reading our creating helpful, reliable, people-first content help page.”

The March 2024 Google core update is very interesting for content creators. We should use it as a call to action to raise our content standards. As a result, we’d publish unique content that truly enriches users’ online experiences. This update gives you the chance to review your content strategies. Try to embrace AI’s potential but prioritize the quality and authenticity only people provide. It’s all about balance! Together, we’ll ensure the web is informative, trustworthy, and user-friendly.

Hit by the March 2024 Google core update?

Identifying the impact of a Google core algorithm update is the first step toward recovery. The March 2024 Google core update might lead to changes in your site performance. However, you should distinguish this from online traffic’s usual ebb and flow. This requires carefully analyzing your site’s metrics.

Monitoring traffic and rankings

First things first: don’t panic. A sudden drop in traffic or a decline in rankings can be alarming. These things happen, so you must try to remain calm. As you know, these shifts can signal that an update has affected your site. Use analytics tools to monitor your site’s traffic patterns. Look for abrupt changes that coincide with the timing of Google’s announced updates.

Analyzing different traffic sources

It’s crucial to differentiate between organic search, referral, and direct traffic. A decline in organic search traffic suggests your site’s visibility in SERPs might be waning. This could be due to the latest algorithm update. Conversely, changes in referral or direct traffic might indicate other factors at play that are unrelated to an update.

Use Google Search Console

Use Search Console to understand your site’s performance in Google’s SERPs. After an update, check for any notifications or warnings that could indicate specific issues Google has identified with your site. 

In GSC, look for sudden and unexpected losses. Losses in impressions and click-throughs would be the main things to check. If there are losses in impressions, try to identify the specific pages and queries that were hit. Was everything hit? Just certain queries? Certain pages? Confirm that the dates of the drops match the dates of the updates. This data can help pinpoint which aspects of your site were most affected.

Investigating the impact of a core update

Once you’ve identified potential clues, the next step involves digging deeper. This phase is about pinpointing the impacted elements and understanding why.

Aligning traffic changes with update timelines

Start by aligning the observed traffic and ranking changes with the update’s rollout dates. Google’s Search Central Blog and X account are reliable sources for announcements and timelines. Plotting your traffic data against these dates helps confirm if the changes correlate with the updates.

Also, ensure that nothing else might have happened on your website that could have caused the traffic loss. Eliminate the other possibilities to make sure you’re solving the right riddle. It’s important to attribute shifts in performance to the update rather than other variables like seasonal trends or external site changes.

Dive into Google Search Console data

Google Search Console offers a wealth of data for your work. Pay special attention to the Performance report. This report provides insights into impressions, CTR, and rankings for your pages and queries. A drop in impressions might mean your pages appear less frequently in search results, possibly due to the update. Google has a helpful guide on debugging drops in search traffic that helps you get started.

Identifying content and technical shortfalls

After pinpointing the issues, assess whether these are related to content quality and relevance, technical SEO, or both. For content, consider factors like originality, depth, and user engagement. Does the content provide unique value beyond what’s already out there? 

Review your site holistically. Check the site structure, internal linking, mobile performance, page speed, and the Core Web Vitals for technical aspects. Google’s PageSpeed Insights and Lighthouse are helpful tools for this analysis.

Recovering from the Google’s March 2024 core update

After identifying how the update affected your site, the focus shifts to recovery. Recovering involves addressing content quality and technical SEO aspects, depending on where the issues lie. Here’s how to approach recovery, ensuring your site aligns more closely with Google’s standards.

Enhancing content quality

If the traffic loss results from rankings drop for queries you used to rank well for, that is probably an issue with your content. Start by looking at the content ranking for those terms now. Look for clues as to why that content might be preferable over yours, and adjust your content accordingly. Try to make your content more relevant to the user.

Helpful content questions

Google developed a set of guidelines to help you assess your content’s relevance and quality:

1. Does the content provide original information, reporting, research, or analysis? Assess whether your content offers new insights, unique viewpoints, or comprehensive research that adds value beyond what’s already available online.
2. Does the content provide a substantial, complete, or comprehensive topic description? Evaluate if your content thoroughly covers the topic, comprehensively addressing the audience’s questions, concerns, and related interests.
3. Is the content written by an expert or enthusiast who demonstrably knows the topic well? Consider whether the author has the necessary expertise, experience, or passion for the subject matter, evident in the content’s depth and accuracy.
4. Does the content have a clear purpose or goal that it successfully fulfills? Identify the primary objective of your content (to inform, entertain, persuade, etc.) and assess if it effectively achieves this goal.
5. Would someone reading your content leave feeling they’ve learned enough about a topic to help achieve their goal? Reflect on whether the reader would come away with actionable knowledge, solutions, or a deeper understanding of the subject.
6. Does the content present information that makes you trust it, such as clear sourcing, evidence of the author’s expertise, and a lack of factual errors? Verify the reliability and credibility of your content through accurate sourcing, showcasing the author’s qualifications, and ensuring factual correctness.
7. Is the content free from spelling or stylistic issues? Ensure your content is professionally presented, with attention to grammar, spelling, and style, making it accessible and enjoyable to read. 
8. Would you feel comfortable trusting this content for issues relating to YMYL? For content that impacts significant decisions (health, finance, etc.), consider if it meets the highest standards of accuracy and trustworthiness.
9. Is the content designed to meet the needs of a human audience rather than search engines? Create content that serves your audience’s interests and queries instead of search engines.
10. Does your site have a primary purpose or focus, and does your content support that purpose? Ensure your content aligns with and supports your website’s overarching theme or mission, providing a cohesive user experience.

Addressing technical issues

How you recover depends on the problem; the issues are usually related to your content. If you have a technical problem severe enough to cause a sudden loss in traffic, it probably was not caused by the core update. However, if you find a technical issue, you should fix it. Consider this: If your check engine light is on, washing your car and hanging a new air freshener isn’t helping the long-term outlook for the car’s driveability. 

Some areas to focus on:

• Fix the performance of your mobile site: Having a well-performing mobile site is non-negotiable. Use Google’s Lighthouse to identify and rectify any usability issues. Keep ads at bay.
• Page speed and Core Web Vitals: Fast-loading pages create a positive user experience. Use PageSpeed Insights to identify and fix issues impacting load times, such as large image files or slow server response times.  
• Site structure and navigation: A well-organized site helps users and search engines find content efficiently. Review your site’s structure for logical hierarchy and navigation ease.

Best practices for future updates

Usually, Google algorithm updates don’t hit sites that follow the rules and play nice. Still, the last core update reminds us to work hard to improve our sites where possible. Looking ahead, there are several best practices you can adopt to stay ahead of the impact of future updates.

Stay informed about SEO news and updates

Keep track of SEO news and updates. Sometimes, Google offers insights into what site owners can do to prepare for updates. Follow reputable SEO blogs like ours — and the SEO update by Yoast — , forums, and other channels, like the Google Search Central Blog and the @searchliaison X account.

Continuously review and improve content

The quality of your content is never done. Regularly review your site’s content. It should always remain relevant, accurate, and valuable to your audience. Keep working on it by updating statistics, refreshing outdated references, and adding new insights to keep content engaging. Consider user feedback as an opportunity to enhance your content’s scope and depth.

Diversify your traffic sources

Try to prevent relying solely on organic search traffic. Explore other opportunities by diversifying your traffic sources with social media and email marketing. This makes your traffic more stable and allows you to reach new audiences.

All about the Google core update of March 2024

Adaptability, quality, and user focus are what you need to succeed. It’s hard work to recover if an algorithm update has hit you. The whole process offers valuable lessons to improve your site. In addition, you might find new growth opportunities.

Google’s algorithms will continue to evolve. The March 2024 core update aims to combat low-quality content. It underscores a shift towards a future that hopefully values genuine, insightful, and user-centric content.

The post Surviving the March 2024 Google core update appeared first on Yoast.

Understand TikTok as a platform

It’s good to understand TikTok as a platform before you start using it for your business. Why? Because you need to understand what appeals to people and what type of content is popular if you want more engagement.

TikTok is typically used for short-form videos that range between 5 seconds and 3 minutes long. The app has a huge music library and in-app editing features, which means it’s easy to create your own content. 

The TikTok algorithm

Another reason why TikTok has grown so popular is because it has a very clever algorithm. Their For You page seems to effortlessly and endlessly share content that you like. And it only gets better! Which makes it hard for people to leave the app, since it keeps showing them great content. Before they know it, just one more video has turned into twenty videos! 

Should you get a TikTok business account?

TikTok offers businesses this neat thing called a business account. It’s not hard to set up, and gives your brand the credibility of being a verified business. It also allows you to set up a TikTok shop and use a link in your profile. Plus, you can download all the analytics, which makes it easier to use the data in reports.

The only downside? You won’t get access to all the commercial sounds. But there are still lots of good sounds that you can use, so a TikTok business account is worth it in our opinion.  

5 tips on how to use TikTok for your business

1. Showcase the value of your product within 3 seconds

Users want to quickly see the value of your video. So, try to show your USP (unique selling point) at the very start. Ideally, in the first three seconds of your video. Otherwise, people will just scroll away. 

For example, let’s say you sell ultra-strong iPhone cases. You could film a scene where you drop the phone from the second floor, then show your viewers that it didn’t get scratched. Of course, there are tons of ways to showcase the unique value of your business. It all depends on your product. Just remember to keep it to the point!

2. Try not to sell 

Unlike other platforms, you should build a connection with your audience on TikTok before you try to sell them anything. In fact, it’s better not to be sales-y at all! That type of content typically doesn’t do well. 

Instead, treat TikTok as a way to be authentic with your audience. For example, you could share your journey as a small business owner or showcase your products in fun ways. It will take time to build an audience, but it will be worth it once you’ve found your target audience!

3. Be vulnerable

TikTok users appreciate authenticity and “realness”. That’s why videos where people share their struggles with their small business tend to get a lot of engagement, since people find those stories relatable. 

Some ideas: 

• A “story time” video about how you started your business. A popular trend that fits this topic would be: how it started vs. how it’s going 
• Things you learned during your small business journey
• A mistake you made and what you learned from it

4. Engage with trends

If you want to take TikTok seriously, you shouldn’t post just once a week. Instead, try to post everyday. This will allow you to keep up with TikTok’s algorithm. 

Of course, creating and editing new videos everyday sounds daunting! But there’s tons of ways to create new content. For example, you can hop on trends, make videos of your products, or relate your business to a trending sound. The key is not to take things too seriously. Just have fun! 

Note: Of course, you shouldn’t just be posting trends. Try to have a good balance between planned videos and trendy/fun videos.

5. Utilize UGC for your TikTok ads

If you’re a small business, TikTok ads are a great way to get your name out there. Still, it’s good not to be too sales-y. A great way to avoid this is by boosting videos made by users, otherwise known as user generated content (UGC). These videos will come across as more genuine and authentic than a polished video ad.

Just make sure you ask the creator’s permission before you use their video! 

Why social media is important for your SEO

Whether it’s TikTok or Instagram or another social media platform, it’s good for your SEO to be active on social media. After all, SEO is all about being found. When people search for you, it’s nice if they’re be able to find you on multiple platforms. In fact, with social media being so popular as it is, your audience probably expects you to be on social media!

Plus, Google now shows TikTok videos in the search results too. So if your videos show up there, you will get a nice bit of extra visibility.

Find what works for you

Since TikTok is all about authenticity, you should only create content that you feel comfortable with. Don’t try to shape yourself and your business into something it’s not. People will notice. Instead, find a video style and posting schedule that works for you, and have fun!

The post 5 tips on how to use TikTok for your business appeared first on Yoast.

It might sound like writing for SEO and writing to attract and engage your audience are two conflicting goals. But that’s actually not true. Sure, if you want to write an SEO-friendly post, you should feature the words you want to be found in a prominent place. But over-using keywords severely damages the readability of your text. In fact, a high keyphrase density can even be a signal to Google that you might be stuffing keywords in your text, which can negatively affect your rankings.

This post provides tips on writing blog posts that are SEO-friendly and readable. These two goals should always go hand in hand. Because we believe that writing in understandable language gets you more visitors and keeps them on your site!

Master SEO copywriting and other vital SEO skills by getting Yoast SEO academy Premium. This gives you access to all our courses and the Yoast SEO Premium plugin!

Before you start: do keyword research

Before you start writing, you have to do keyword research. If you want to dominate the search results, you’ll have to figure out which words your audience actually searches for. These are the topics you should write about and the keywords you should use in your text.

When you’ve done your keyword research and have a list of focus keywords to write about, it’s time to get on with writing. Here are 10 tips to help you end up with an awesome blog post!

Writing tips for SEO-friendly blog posts

Above all, your blog post has to be a good piece of writing. When starting a new post, many bloggers just start writing. While this may work for some people, others need more guidance. Personally, I always follow these ‘rules’ when I write a new blog.

1. Think before you write!

Before you start, think carefully about the message of your piece. It helps to answer the following questions:

• What do you want to tell your readers, or which central question do you want to answer?
• What’s the purpose of your article?
• What do you want your readers to do at the end of the page?

It’s also good to think about the search intent someone may have. An easy way to get an insight into this is by looking at the search results for the search term you want to rank with.

2. Devise a structure for your post

To write a readable and SEO-friendly blog post, you need to create a clear structure. This means that every post should have:

• some sort of introduction (in which you introduce your topic).
• a body (in which the main message is written).
• a conclusion (in which you summarize the main ideas or draw a conclusion).

In a few sentences, write down what you want to say in all three sections. You’ve now created a summary of your post. This will help you create a structured and readable blog post. Now the real writing can begin.

3. Use paragraphs and headings

Everybody uses paragraphs, but not everybody uses them well. For example, it might be tempting to start each new sentence on a new line because it looks nice. But you shouldn’t do that! You also shouldn’t make your paragraphs too lengthy, as each paragraph should have its own idea or subject. So, ask yourself what the main idea of each paragraph is. You should be able to summarize that main idea in one sentence. If that’s not possible and you need more sentences to explain the main idea, you simply need to use more paragraphs.

Proper headings also help your readers understand what a specific part of your text is about. If you want people to find their way through your articles, use subheadings to lead them. Subheadings help readers scan your page, and clarify the structure of your articles. They’re not just important for readability, but for SEO as well. That’s why we also advise to use your keyword in some of your subheadings. Don’t use your keyword in every heading! It will make your text read clunky and unnatural. Plus, it will put people off from reading further.

4. Use transition words

Transition words help people scan through your text and understand the relationship between sentences and paragraphs. For example, let’s say there are three reasons for people to buy your product. You should use signal words like: ‘first of all’; ‘secondly’ and ‘finally’. Also, words like ‘however’, ‘similarly’ and ‘for example’ give a clear signal to your readers. Readers will instantly get that a conclusion will follow after words like ‘to sum up’ or ‘in short’. Transition words are therefore very important to add structure to your text.

5. Use related keywords

Stuffing your article with your focus keyword makes it less attractive to read, and it can hurt your rankings. Google is getting smarter, after all. It wants you to write content that users will love. It doesn’t want you to use your focus keyword in every other sentence, because Google now has other ways to analyze what your text is about. For example, one of the ways Google understands the topic of your text is by recognizing synonyms and other keywords that are related to your focus keyphrase. That’s why you should use synonyms and related keywords throughout your copy.

Synonyms are relatively easy to think of, but finding the right related keywords is a bit more challenging. That’s why the Yoast SEO plugin comes with a feature that helps you find related keyphrases right away. Based on your focus keyword, our plugin can generate a number of related keyphrases with the click of a button! Along with how many times that keyword is searched for and what the search trend looks like. This feature is powered by SEMrush and can be used in both our free and Premium plugins. So use this related keyphrase feature!

6. Optimize the length of your article

Make sure your blog posts have a minimum of 300 words but keep the length of your article balanced. Google likes long articles. However, if your article is too long, you might scare users away. So, what should you do? Our advice is to write short to medium-length articles. When you know you’re a skilled writer, you can also try your hand at longer articles. Check out this article if you’re not quite sure how long a blog post should be.

And remember to keep using your focus keyphrase throughout your text to make sure you end up with an SEO-friendly blog post!

7. Link to existing content

If you’ve already written content on the same topic as your current post, don’t forget to link to and from these posts. We call this internal linking. Both your readers and Google will thank you for it, because it helps them manage your content and understand relationships between different content on your site. So, take some time to link to and from your previous content. Our internal linking tool can help you by suggesting relevant pages and posts on your site that you can link to.

To summarize, internal linking is useful because:

• Your link structure is also important for your rankings in Google.
• Linking to other content about a subject is great for your readers, as they may be interested in reading these related posts too. It helps them navigate your site!
• It will make your new blog post (and the existing posts) stronger, because you show your authority on the subject.

8. Let other people read your post

Before publishing your post, make sure to let someone else read it first. Ask them whether they understand the main concept of your post, and invite them to correct any typos and grammatical errors. They can help you by providing an objective view of the readability and attractiveness of your text. If you have someone in your team who happens to be an expert on the topic you’re writing about, make sure to run your post past them. That way, they can check whether you’re covering everything you need to and give suggestions to make your post even better.

9. Add content regularly

Regularly adding new blog posts to your website tells Google that your website is alive. This is important! Because if your site isn’t active, Google will crawl it less often and this might negatively affect your rankings. But don’t just post for the sake of posting. Make sure that everything you post is high-quality content: informative, well-written articles that entertain readers and fit their search intent.

If you have difficulty posting on a regular basis, it might be a great idea to create an editorial calendar for your blog. This allows you to structure the process in a way that fits you and your team. It’s also a good idea to update your old blog posts once in a while to avoid them getting stale.

10. Use our Yoast SEO plugin

The analysis tool in our Yoast SEO plugin helps you write readable and SEO-friendly blog posts. Start by choosing the most important search term you want people to find this particular page for. This will be your focus keyphrase. After you fill this in, our plugin runs all kinds of checks to see whether your post is optimized or still needs improving. Such as:

• Our plugin checks your post to see whether you’ve used the keyphrase in the right places, like your copy, SEO title, meta description, alt text and URL. Yoast SEO Premium also recognizes different word forms of your keyphrase.
• It gives you suggestions for related keyphrases that you can add to boost the quality and relevance of your content.
• It checks the readability of your text: Are your sentences or paragraphs too long? Do you use transition words?
• It checks the internal and external links in your article. Yoast SEO Premium even provides suggestions for links to related articles on your site.
• It calculates how often you use your keyphrase throughout your text: not enough or too often? When you have Premium it also checks if you’ve distributed your keyphrase evenly throughout your post.
• It checks if you’ve used potentially non-inclusive words or phrases, so you can make your content relatable for everyone.
• It also checks if other pages on your website use the same focus keyword, to prevent you from competing with yourself.

If you write a relatively SEO-friendly blog post (based on the aspects discussed above) the plugin will indicate this with a green light. Posts and pages with green lights will help you improve the ranking of the pages on your website.

An example

It’s good to remember that not every light has to be green for your overall SEO score to be good. For example, these are the results of this blog post. As you can see, it does have an overall green light for the focus keyphrase “SEO-friendly blog post”:

Kind of a cool way to get feedback on your content, right? When you use the Yoast SEO plugin you’ll find this feedback in the Yoast SEO sidebar next to your post and in the Yoast meta box under your post (while editing). If you’re interested in learning more about all the aspects this analysis tool looks at, read our article on how to use the Yoast SEO content analysis tool.

Conclusion

The days when a few SEO tricks were enough to get your website to rank well in Google are long gone. Nowadays, quality content is king. And good content also leads to more links, shares, tweets and returning visitors to your website. Of course, there are always other things you can do to maximize the SEO friendliness of your post, but the most important thing is to just write very, very good posts! Still not sure if your blog post is ready to publish? Take a look at this checklist for your blog post to make sure you’re good to go!

Read on: SEO copywriting: the ultimate guide »

The post 10 tips for an awesome and SEO-friendly blog post appeared first on Yoast.

Fine-tuning for taxonomy pages

Taxonomy pages, including categories and tags, are crucial in structuring website content, especially for e-commerce platforms. These pages help users navigate your site and allow search engines to understand the relationship between different pieces of content. However, there has been an ongoing debate about the optimal content for these pages.

Historically, the consensus leaned towards long-form content to provide comprehensive insights and improve SEO rankings. However, based on recent research from our teams, we’ve taken a step back to reevaluate this approach.

Insights from our research

While content is crucial, we found no one-size-fits-all answer to how much content category pages should have. The emphasis was clear: it’s not about the quantity but the quality and relevance of the content that truly matters.

In our in-depth analysis and research, we discovered that excessively long content on taxonomy pages might not always contribute positively to SEO performance. It can sometimes detract from the user experience and dilute the page’s focus.

What’s changing?

For this reason, we have updated the in-plugin guidance for taxonomies to provide better guidance when updating them. This is the perfect opportunity to give these pages a bit of love on your website. If you missed our Yoast SEO Premium 22.3 update, our Premium customers can now use AI to write SEO titles and meta descriptions for taxonomies.

TOC block fixes in Yoast SEO Premium 22.5

We’ve also fine-tuned our blocks for a better editing experience. Sometimes, the Yoast SEO Table of Content block would show an error when changing the heading level of the block’s title. This error popped up when re-opening the post after saving, but we’ve fixed it in this release — making the process error-free again.

In case you missed it, we released a new Yoast Academy course!

Last week, we released our new AI for SEO course. This course is designed for busy small business owners who want to integrate the power of AI into their workflow. The course reveals how AI works and how it will impact SEO best practices. It also discusses the types of AI that are useful when crafting content strategies. All of this can then be transformed into actionable insights.

Update now to Yoast SEO 22.5

Even these smaller updates are pivotal in helping you optimize your website for more traffic. To make the most of the updates available in Yoast SEO 22.5, update to the latest version now!

The post Yoast SEO 22.5 delivers improvements and fixes appeared first on Yoast.

When is a site mobile-friendly?

A site is mobile-friendly when it:

• helps users get their tasks done quickly and joyfully.
• loads correctly on a mobile device like a smartphone or tablet.
• loads lightning-fast.
• presents content in a readable fashion, without users having to pinch and zoom.
• offers enough space to navigate by touch.
• offers added value for mobile users.
• is instantly understandable for search engines.

Why is mobile SEO important?

Mobile SEO makes sure your mobile site offers the best possible presentation of your content to a mobile device user. Since our world is increasingly mobile-oriented, it’s important that your site is mobile-friendly. If your site isn’t (properly) available for mobile users, you’ll miss out on a decent ranking in the search engines, and thus miss the income. Therefore, you should do everything in your power to optimize the mobile view of your site and make it as good as possible. In fact, it should be excellent!

Important to Google

Since 2016, Google uses the mobile version of a site to determine the site’s rankings. So if your site isn’t up to scratch or shows less content on your mobile site, you’ll find it difficult to get good rankings. That’s why it’s so important to create a fully functioning and responsive design for your (mobile) site.

Luckily, Google has a great getting started guide to help you improve your mobile site. Plus, they’ve also set up a Page Experience initiative that gives you metrics — the so-called Core Web Vitals — on how humans and machines perceive your site’s performance. So, use these metrics to help you figure out what to focus on while improving your mobile site.

Treat it as one website

Don’t forget to see your site as being a single thing. You shouldn’t have a ‘mobile site’ that’s distinct from your ‘desktop site.’ You should have one site that adapts to whatever screen it’s being viewed on. That also means that the content of the different views should be the same.

How to improve your mobile website

To improve your mobile SEO, you need to focus on a couple of things:

• Make a joyful user experience.
• Make sure your site is responsive.
• Improve your site speed.
• Use structured data.
• Don’t block JavaScript, HTML and CSS code.
• Don’t use too many redirects.
• Choose the correct viewport.
• Don’t use interstitials or pop-ups.
• Verify mobile-friendliness.
• Tell Google about your site.

Let’s go over these topics in more detail.

Focus on making your site easy and joyful to use with mobile SEO

Offer a great user experience to your users, and you’ll notice that Google will enjoy it too. So, how do you do that? First, figure out what you want users to do on your site. Then, make sure that it’s easy for people to do. Do you want people to call you? Make sure you put your phone number front and center, so it’s easy to find. Want to enhance conversions? Make that buy button stand out and function properly! In other words: bring focus to your site, and helpfully guide your visitors through the steps you want them to take.

But don’t just focus on your intent. Look at your users too! Figure out why they visit and which tasks they mostly do on your site. Then make sure it’s easy for them. Because If something frustrates your user, it hurts you and your results. That’s why you should test, improve, and fully optimize your mobile site.

Responsive design

There are multiple ways to improve your site so it’s available for mobile users. The most important one is to create a responsive design. This is also the the technology that Google advocates. With a responsive design, your site lives on one URL, which makes it easier for Google to understand and index it.

If you use WordPress, chances are your theme is already responsive and can adapt to all screens. Still, it’s good to check how your site scales in Google Chrome’s Developer Tools. Because if it doesn’t scale correctly, you should talk to your web developer about fixing it – or choose a different theme.

Improve your site speed

One of the most important things you can do to improve your site’s mobile SEO is to improve the site’s loading speed. Time after time, studies have shown that people leave sites that load slowly, and probably never return. That’s why site speed has been a ranking factor for years, and why Google is increasingly focusing on fixing this common issue. See the Page Experience update and the Core Web Vitals metrics’ introduction for more proof.

If you need more tips, we have a post on how to improve your site speed and which tools that might help you.

Get better web hosting for your site

The number one tip to optimize the speed of your mobile site is to invest in better web hosting. Many sites run on budget hosts that share a lot of the server space with other websites, which can cause their sites to slow down. That’s why it really is essential to stay away from cheap hosting and get a good plan at a renowned host — it truly pays for itself!

Don’t know where to start? We have a page with WordPress web hosting companies that we vouch for, as we vetted them personally.

Optimize images

If there is one quick win to improve your site speed, it’s this: optimize your images. Don’t load those 3000 x 2000 pixel HD images on your site. Scale them to the correct size, then make them smaller with tools like ImageOptim, Squoosh, or WordPress plugins like WP Smush. You can also look into serving those images in next-gen image formats like WebP.

Minify code

Every request your site has to make has an impact on your site speed. That’s why you have to work on reducing these requests to improve your mobile site. One way to do this is by minifying code.

Minifying code means that you group and link together assets like JavaScript and CSS. As a result, the browser has to load fewer files, which leads to a faster site. This sounds hard to implement, but a plugin like WP Rocket can take care of all your caching needs. Or you can use Cloudflare’s Automatic Platform Optimization for WordPress to get a load of enhancements in one go.

Browser caching

By using browser caching, you’re telling the browser that page elements that don’t change often can be saved inside its cache. This way, the browser only has to download new and dynamic content whenever it visits again. Again, this is something that a plugin like WP Rocket can help you with. Or you can also do it yourself if you like.

Reduce redirects

A redirect leads a visitor from one requested page to another, because the requested page was moved or deleted. While this leads to a good user experience if done well, the more redirects you use, the slower your site will be. Don’t make endless redirects. Also, try not to keep links around that point to deleted posts redirected to new ones. Always make direct links.

Use structured data to improve your mobile site

Structured data is essential for every site. With structured data, you can describe your content in a way that search engines can understand. It gives you a direct line of communication with search engines, so to say. In return, search engines might reward you with awesome rich results.

Your mobile site needs to have the same structured data as your desktop variant — otherwise, Google might get confused. Yoast SEO automatically adds structured data for the most important parts of your site, which you can fine-tune it to your liking.

Don’t block assets like JavaScript, HTML and CSS

We’ve said it before, and we’re going to keep saying it: Don’t block assets like JavaScript, HTML and CSS. Doing so makes it harder for Google to access your site and that could lead to bad rankings. Check your Google Search Console to see if you’re blocking resources. If so, we advise that you take away all blockades if you want to truly optimize your mobile site.

Improve legibility

Make sure that your mobile site is readable on mobile devices. Use different devices to check if your typography is in order and make changes when necessary. Typography can make or break the user experience of your site.

Improve tap target sizes

People hate it when their fingers can’t hit a button, link, or menu item without fault. They can feel frustrated when navigation is hard or unnatural. Please fix it to improve your mobile site.

Choose the correct viewport

The viewport determines the width of the page for the device used to view it. By specifying a correct viewport, you make sure that visitors with specific devices get the right version of your site. Fail to do this, and you might show your desktop site to a small-screen smartphone user — a big no-no.

Don’t use interstitials or pop-ups

Google will penalize sites that use large pop-ups or interstitials to promote newsletters, sign-up forms, or ads. These often get in the way of the user quickly accessing the content they requested. Don’t use these. If you must though, make sure you abide by Google’s rules.

Test your site and tell Google about it

Before you start working on your mobile SEO, you should run a mobile usability test on Google to see where you should start. As you work, you should keep testing to see if you’re making progress. If your mobile site is optimized, you need to tell Google so your site will be checked and indexed. Use Search Console to stay on top of the performance of your site.

Investigate other technologies

There are other ways to improve the performance of your mobile site. One of these technologies is the Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) framework. This is an initiative by Google and others to get web pages to load super fast on mobile devices. By wrapping your content in special HTML code, you can optimize the pages in a way that Google can use to improve the performance. Keep in mind that AMP is not without its drawbacks, and not every project will benefit from it.

AMP is not the only technology that helps you optimize your mobile site. Other companies offer similar solutions, like Cloudflare’s various optimized delivery technologies. There are so many options these days!

Conclusion

Mobile is the new baseline, the new default. Do everything you can to fix your mobile site and make it perfect, not just in Google’s eyes, but, more importantly, your visitors. Mobile SEO is not just about great content and a flawless technical presentation. It’s more about creating an excellent user experience. Once you’ve achieved that, you’re on your way to the top!

Read more: Mobile SEO: the ultimate guide »

The post How do you improve your mobile site? appeared first on Yoast.

Did you get a red or orange traffic light because your word count isn’t high enough? Read about the text length check here, or jump to the paragraph on how to write high-quality lengthy posts or informative taxonomy archive pages.

Why does word count matter?

Defining word count is easy: it’s how many words are used in a specific text, on a page or in another place. It’s an easy way to measure text length. But why does it matter you ask? Well, making sure that your text is long enough helps Google better understand what your text is about. We’ve experienced this ourselves; we have written quite some articles that are over 2500 words, such as our SEO essentials. They are cornerstone content, and they help our organic traffic grow. Here’s how longer articles contribute to SEO:

When your text is longer, Google has more indicators to determine what it is about. The longer your text, the more often your focus keyphrase will probably appear. This is no excuse for keyphrase stuffing, though! If you optimize your copy naturally, your focus keyphrase will pop up here and there throughout your text. You can also fit in more synonyms and related keyphrases. What’s more, in a longer post, you can add more headings, links, and images, where you will mention the keyphrase or related phrases. So more content gives you more room to provide users with high-quality and nuanced information.

A longer text can also help you rank for multiple long-tail variants of the keyphrase you’ve optimized your text for. That’s because you have more opportunities to address various topics in a lengthy text. Your article, or your other posts that take a deep dive into the subtopic, will have a chance to turn up in search results for the long-tail variants of your keyphrase. If you do some well-thought-out internal linking you can even boost the traffic to the extensive post you’ve written. This helps you drive more organic traffic to your site.

Avoid having thin content

Also, if a page doesn’t have a lot of text (a low word count), Google is more likely to think of it as thin content. All search engines want to provide the best answers to online searches people do. Thin content is less likely to offer a complete answer and satisfy the needs of the public. Consequently, it will probably not rank very high.

The same goes for product pages and descriptions in your online store. While these don’t have to be as long as blog posts, it is a good idea to make sure the text is long enough. Don’t underestimate the importance of having the proper information on your products. This can make the difference between making a purchase or not, as more text helps them make an informed decision and helps them trust your website.

What does Yoast SEO check?

The text length check in Yoast SEO

Yoast SEO helps you by checking the length of your texts. This check is part of the SEO analysis, and you will find it in the SEO tab of the Yoast SEO meta box or in the Yoast SEO sidebar. It calculates how many words you’ve added to a page and whether that’s enough to help you rank. This check is also available in our Yoast SEO for Shopify app.

• Text length in WordPress
• Text length in Shopify

Every page on your site needs to contain a certain number of words to be helpful for your site visitors and Google. How long your text should minimally be, depends on the type of page. Taxonomy pages (or Collections if you use Shopify) require less content than blog posts, whereas cornerstone content is often your most important content and therefore needs to contain a significant number of words.

In the table below, you can see how we assess the different pages. If you have less than the minimum number of words on a page, you’ll get a red traffic light in the Yoast SEO analysis. Where you get a green traffic light when you’ve hit the minimum word count we advise.

Not enough content

Yoast SEO will also give you a red or orange traffic light if your post or page consists of less than 50 characters in the readability analysis. To properly evaluate the readability of your content, the Yoast SEO plugin needs a minimum number of characters. If your post or page contains less than 50 characters, the plugin’s readability checks won’t give you the best results. And, in most cases, you can’t provide the best answer to your audience in such a short span of words.

Word count in the Yoast SEO insights tab

You can also find the exact word count of your content in the Yoast SEO Insights tab in the sidebar. The Insights tab also contains other useful features, like the Flesch reading ease, estimated reading time, and prominent words.

How to write a high-quality lengthy post

So, longer articles might have some advantages over short posts. But while you’re writing posts with a high word count, it is important to keep the quality of the text at a high level. Good quality texts are readable, well structured, and always contain original content. 

Writing high-quality content for your site or online store is hard. Especially when your goal is to write articles with a high word count to grow your organic traffic. When you’re writing, and especially elaborating on what you already have, make sure you keep the following aspects in mind:

Write readable texts

The most important thing when writing long (or any kind of) posts is to write for your audience. That may sound obvious, but it is surprisingly easy to get distracted and start adding irrelevant information. Start by thinking about questions a reader could have about the topic you’re covering. Then, provide clear answers to those questions. Of course, the answers should be well-written and readable.

What can you do to make your text readable? Your text needs to follow a logical line of thought. To accomplish that, we advise you to start every paragraph with a topic sentence, i.e., a sentence that explains the main idea of that paragraph. Use the rest of the paragraph to elaborate on that sentence. Be sure to keep your sentences and paragraphs short and snappy. If you find any unnecessary words or sentences – delete them. Minimize your use of passive voice. But do connect your paragraphs to make the text easy to read, a good way to do this is by using transition words.

Use headings

One way of structuring your text is by using headings. Headings within a text serve two purposes. First: they show a top-down hierarchy. You immediately see that a subject has, for instance, three subheadings that elaborate on it further. Another function is for scanning. You can let your readers know what a paragraph is about by using headings. It also makes your text pleasant to read, as a heading tells you what the next piece of text is about.

Write original content

This is the hardest one. It is not easy being original with so much content out there. But, it might help if you reflect on what makes you unique. Think about how what you offer is different and better than what your competitors offer. Then do some keyword research to see what your audience searches for online. Preparing with research can give you plenty of ideas on what to write about and how to make yourself stand out from the crowd. In case you get stuck, we have a whole blog post on how to find inspiration.

Want to learn more on how to write high-quality posts that users and search engines will love? Our SEO Copywriting course and other SEO courses can help you with that. You can get access to these courses with Yoast SEO Premium or Yoast SEO for Shopify, which also gives you access to extra features in the Yoast SEO plugin.

Go Premium and get free access to our SEO courses!

Learn how to write great content for SEO and unlock lots of features with Yoast SEO Premium:

Get Yoast SEO Premium »Only €99 EUR / year (ex VAT)

How to create high-quality archive pages 

Let’s start by explaining what archive pages are. WordPress uses so-called taxonomies to group content. The word ‘taxonomy’ is a fancy term for a group of things (website pages, in this case) that have something in common. WordPress has two default taxonomies: categories and tags. The difference between a category and a tag mostly has to do with structure. Categories are hierarchical: you can have subcategories and even sub-subcategories. Tags, however, don’t have that hierarchy.

WordPress automatically generates a page for each category or tag you create. So, do be mindful of them, and don’t create new tags for each post you write! We call these pages archive pages because that’s what they do: they archive posts (or products) that have something in common. Besides categories and tags, there are also other types of archive pages. You can even create a custom taxonomy or use a plugin that creates one.

Why are archive pages important for your SEO?

Taxonomy archive pages are very valuable when it comes to structuring your site. A clear site structure helps both Google and your visitors to understand and navigate your site and help you rank higher. To get the best out of your taxonomy archive pages, you will need to work on them. The pages that WordPress automatically generates tend to only consist of a list of posts without any further introduction. So, if visitors land on one of your archive pages, they don’t get much information. This increases the chance that they won’t find what they’re looking and leave the page.

How to optimize taxonomy archive pages

To make your taxonomy archives awesome, you often don’t even have to do that much. Start by adding a clear heading and an introduction, where you highlight the content on that archive page. In addition, you can add some links to that introductory content pointing to the best posts or pages on that archive page. This will go a long way in making sure that the users understand what the page is about.

For descriptions on archive pages, we recommend a minimum of 250 words. That’s less than what we recommend for blog posts, but that’s because the description of an archive page has a different purpose than a blog post. Rather than exploring a topic, these descriptions serve as an introduction to the rest of the content on that page. These texts don’t have to be lengthy. You want to rank with these pages though, and that means category and tag pages need content.

How to write high-quality product descriptions

A lot of online stores use the default text that the manufacturer provides when it comes to the products they sell. This is not something we would recommend (at all). Not only will this show Google that there are already five other websites out there that are providing the same content as you are (which hurts your rankings), but it also shows users that you don’t take the time to properly optimize your product pages. This hurts your credibility. Of course, if you have an online store with lots of products we understand that this isn’t done in a few minutes. In that case, we recommend starting with your most important products or best-sellers.

Make sure your product descriptions contain the information people will want about these products. Make this information easy to read and to the point. As you probably saw in the table, these pages often ask for less content than blog posts or other pages. But do make sure that all the information that someone would want about that product, is on the product page. As I mentioned before, a great product description can be the difference between making a sale or not.

Conclusion on word count and SEO

This post taught you that the word count of your posts and pages can influence your rankings. However, and this is very important, you should not compromise the quality of your text for the sake of writing longer pieces. So, always use your common sense and write readable, and well-structured texts that are helpful for your site visitors. Eventually, this is what Google wants as well and therefore will get you higher up the rankings!

Read on: SEO copywriting and writing for sales »

The post Word count and SEO: how long should a post or page be? appeared first on Yoast.

AI is becoming more important every day

People have adopted AI eagerly, generating content in increasing numbers. Whether its automating processes, curating preferences or simply providing texts and images, AI is everywhere and it’s here to stay. Every day, new apps, models and updates are announced! But because it is so popular, it can be difficult to know where you should start and what you should focus on for the best results.

In our new AI for SEO training course, you’ll discover not only how to use AI, but also when to use it. By understanding both the possibilities and the limits of AI, you can use it more effectively for your site. Combining AI with your own expertise, experience and skills will allow you to rank above your competition. And with the help of our AI for SEO training course, you’ll optimize your processes much quicker!

What will you learn in the AI for SEO course?

This new online training course on AI for SEO will teach you the basics of AI and generative AI, as well as their impact on SEO and the web. In addition, you will receive practical information about incorporating AI in your SEO, from keyword strategy to publishing content.

Module 1: What is AI

First, you’ll learn about AI and generative AI. It can be a huge topic (and we could build a separate academy full of lessons for it!) so we’ll stick to the basics. You’ll discover the technology that powers AI, so that you understand how it works. in addition, we’ll explain how generative AI is able to generate content, giving you a better idea of how you can start using it!

Module 2: The impact of AI

After you understand what AI is, we’ll explore what that means for you and your experience online. Now that search engines are trying to keep up with the latest developments, SEO practices have to change as well. And what happens to the web if AI changes how users interact with your content?

We also discuss the ethical challenges of using AI. After all, you still want to be unique and stay loyal to your site mission and vision, and ensure that everyone can access your content. Let’s be prepared to use AI responsibly!

Module 3: Using AI tools

The final module is all about getting practical – and adding tools and skills to your AI knowledge. You’ll get useful tips to choose the right tools for you before diving into the SEO process.

You can use AI to optimize your keyword research and finetune your strategy. But AI is especially useful in generating content. We’ll tell you about more than just having a first draft: you’ll also receive information on how to turn your AI-generated text into excellent content. And we’ll show you how to use the Yoast SEO AI features in more detail.

How is the course set up?

This AI for SEO training course takes you by the hand and guides you through the possibilities of AI, with videos, reading materials, and quizzes. You can choose what lessons you want to take, watch videos or read the transcripts instead: you can pick your own learning path.

Once you’ve finished the entire course and passed the quizzes, you’ll receive a Yoast certificate and a badge that you can display on your website.

How do I access the AI for SEO course?

The AI for SEO training course is an online and on-demand course, like every other Yoast SEO academy training course. So, you can learn about AI whenever and wherever you want.

Want to get started right now? If you have Yoast SEO Premium, Yoast SEO for Shopify or any other paid Yoast SEO product, you’ll find the new course in your Yoast SEO academy courses overview!

The post Out now: AI for SEO training course! appeared first on Yoast.

Improvements for Yoast SEO 22.4

Across the plugin, customers can expect to see improved performance as a whole. We’ve removed unnecessary queries and fixed bugs, enhancing the user experience. In essence, we have been doing some spring cleaning.

Slug override fix for the Elementor community

One particularly noticeable fix is personalized for the vast Elementor community within our user base. You might have noticed that when saving a post with Elementor for the first time, the slug would stubbornly add on the word ‘elementor’ at the start. Well, no more! We’ve put an end to that annoyance. Say goodbye to those unnecessary redirects when you update to Yoast SEO 22.4!

Schema updates for product variants

In February 2024, Google updated its guidelines on structured data specifically for product variants, a complex issue for many ecommerce sites. They aim to match customer intent to results online more effectively. If you’ve ever searched for a t-shirt in a specific color and had a different colored t-shirt pop up in the search results, you can relate to the shopper’s experience.

We’ve updated our product schema in Yoast WooCommerce SEO 16.2 to align with best practices to communicate your product attributes to search engines more effectively. This will ensure your products match potential shoppers’ search criteria as closely as possible. So, now is a great time to ensure that all your site’s product variant data is correct on your website. Check our configuration guide for Yoast WooCommerce SEO for more guidance on how to do this.

Yoast SEO workouts to guide you through optimizing your website

In the spirit of seasonal change, now is the perfect time to complete spring cleaning on your site by completing one or more SEO workouts. For Yoast SEO Premium customers, consider these workouts your personal trainers, guiding you through optimizations in just three simple steps each, ensuring your favorite content gets seen by your customers.

Update now to Yoast SEO 22.4

We’re here to empower your digital journey with bug fixes, enhancements, and tailored solutions like our exclusive SEO workouts. Happy optimizing with Yoast SEO 22.4! 

The post Yoast SEO 22.4: Better performance and product schema update appeared first on Yoast.

Introducing the Font Library

The WordPress 6.5 release includes a new Font Library for the block editor. This library gives you more control over the typography you use throughout your pages. What’s cool about it is that it allows you to install and activate local fonts and Google Fonts on your website. By allowing us to add the fonts of our choice, regardless of the chosen theme, this library gives you more freedom when it comes to design. So try it now so you can manage the fonts you use.

New features in the block editor

There are loads of tweaks made to the block editor, so we’ll highlight a few cool ones here. First, WordPress 6.5 will make renaming your blocks in the list view possible. This is already possible for your group blocks, but the new release also allows you to rename individual blocks. Especially with longer pages or pages that consist of lots of different types of blocks, this can be very helpful in keeping an overview while you’re working on that page.

The release also brings us a few new design options. The drop shadow effect is available for more blocks, such as the image block and columns. This helps you give more depth to your pages, make elements stand out, and play with the design of your pages. Another design feature is getting more control over the look of your cover blocks. You will be able to set aspect ratios and add color overlays that are based on colors in your chosen image. This helps you customize these cover blocks to fit into your website’s overall look and feel.

Renewed overview of style revisions

WordPress 6.5 has an improved style revision that shows you more information about the changes made during each revision. Go to the editor and click Styles, where you’ll see an option to view past revisions. These are also accessible while you’re working on the design of your templates. The fun thing about this overview of revisions is that it’s much more visual than the revision overview you get when editing a page or post.

This overview is shown next to the page and allows you to view past designs and apply them again. Overall it feels easier to use and more efficient as it shows you the effect on the page right away. It’s good to know that this is only available for themes that use the block editor.

The Interactivity API

This release also comes with something called the Interactivity API. This feature provides developers with a framework to build interactive front-end experiences while using blocks. The idea is that interacting with these elements doesn’t come with a new page load, making them more interactive than regular pages. This framework is intended to simplify the process without using external tools. To give you an idea of what the Interactivity API can be used for, the WordPress team created a WP Movies demo website you can visit.

Improvements in performance and accessibility

The WordPress 6.5 release includes loads of performance updates. One of the main things that comes out of this is a huge speed improvement when using the Block Editor and Site Editor. In addition, translated websites will see a much quicker load time due to a new, lightweight library.

This new version of WordPress also comes with many accessibility improvements (more than 65, to be exact). To name a few changes, there have been fixes to contrast settings, positioning of elements, and cursor focus. Staying true to the WordPress promise of working towards an accessible platform for everyone. If you want to dive into the features of WordPress 6.5 a bit more, we recommend going through their Field Guide to read up on all the changes in this release.

Read more: WordPress 6.4: A more intuitive building experience »

The post WordPress 6.5: The features you want to know about appeared first on Yoast.

What is holistic SEO?

To keep it short: if you fulfill your users’ needs on every level, you’re practicing holistic SEO. This means your site is easy and safe to use, and provides the right information at the right time.

Holistic SEO is not just doing keyword research and writing content that people are looking for. It’s also user experience, technical SEO, and making sure your website is secure. 

What is trending content?

When a topic or joke is trending, it has high visibility on social media platforms. This means people are talking and making content about this topic. And they’re also searching for it!

Depending on the topic that’s trending, people might search for more information on social media platforms or search engines. Sometimes even both! Which is why it can be useful for your business’s visibility to also create content about a trending topic. 

Trending content might be necessary

How people search online is changing. In fact, many SEO experts predict that we’ll get less traffic from search engines. So, where will traffic come from? A large part will probably come from social media like TikTok, X (formerly known as Twitter), and Instagram – especially now that more people use them as search engines.

And how do you become more visible on social media? By posting trending content.

Trending or quality content?

As we just discussed, a large part of holistic SEO is writing quality content. But how can you create quality content when you only have a day or two before the world moves on to the next trend? 

Take TikTok, for example. Generally, by the time you notice something is a trend, you’re already too late. The ship has sailed, and people are moving on to the next thing. With this in mind, it can feel like you have to choose between staying relevant or creating quality content.

What does your audience appreciate? 

It’s good to know that the answer to how much trending content you should create also largely depends on your audience. If your audience consists of older people, then chances are you don’t need to follow social media trends as vigorously. On the contrary, you might even scare them away! 

If your audience is younger, however, you might need to come up with a certified ‘trend strategy’. Because you can’t join them all. And if you try to stay relevant by jumping on every trend, you’ll look like you’re trying too hard. Plus, you’ll probably have to compromise on quality.

A trend strategy

As we said, you shouldn’t want to join in on every trend. So what should you do instead? We suggest you create your own ‘trend strategy’. Here’s a few things you should consider:

• Which trends are you going to engage with?
  • Will you only engage with trends within your area of expertise, or will you branch out? 
  • Will you only join in on funny trends, or will you create content for more serious trends too?
  • Will you only join trends that your audience is interested in? Or will you introduce your audience to new trends that could be interesting to them as well?
• Will you drop everything to create content related to a new trend?
• Does it need to be a blog post, or is a social media post better? Or both?
• How often will you post ‘trendy’ content? Keep in mind that if you join in often, your brand image will change. Your business will probably feel younger, which might alienate part of your audience.

You’re still working on your holistic SEO

With a trend strategy, you should be able to make better decisions about when to post trendy content. Which will hopefully help you to keep creating quality content – one of the pillars of holistic SEO. 

What’s more, if you follow trends that your audience likes, you’ll be adhering to another holistic SEO pillar: creating content for your audience! After all, they’re the ones reading (and hopefully engaging with) your content. 

Keep an eye on brand image

Just don’t forget that your brand image could change, depending on the type of trending content you post online. If you engage with and participate in a lot of meme-y  content and trends (a meme can be a funny video, image, or piece of text that’s rapidly copied and spread online – usually, with slight variations), your brand might come across as more playful and less serious. 

However, never posting meme-y content also sends a clear message. Your business will come across as serious, and perhaps a little impersonal. It’s fine if that’s what you’re going for, but it’s also good to keep in mind that authentic content (so more personal content) does really well online. 

Conclusion

There’s no telling what the future will bring, but it’s clear that trends won’t go away. Plus, they’re constantly changing! That’s why it might be helpful to create a trend strategy, so you can provide your audience with content they’re currently interested in. Without having to skimp on quality and your holistic SEO strategy. Good luck! 

Read on: Is conversational commerce really the future? »

The post Can holistic SEO and trending content coexist? appeared first on Yoast.

Essence of Interaction to Next Paint (INP)

Interaction to Next Paint measures the responsiveness of a web page to user inputs, such as clicks, taps, and keypresses. It represents the time from when a user interacts with your page to when they see a response on the screen. Unlike its predecessor, First Input Delay, which only accounted for the first input, INP provides a broader view by capturing the responsiveness throughout the life of the page.

Google is very dedicated to enhance the user experiences offered by sites. To validate these, it introduces a more nuanced and comprehensive metrics. It now introduces Interaction to Next Paint into the Core Web Vitals. INP measures a critical aspect of the user’s experience — the responsiveness of a page to user interaction.

By integrating INP into Core Web Vitals, Google aims to provide developers with a complete picture of their page’s performance. In addition, it encourages improvements that genuinely enhance the user experience.

Why INP matters

A seamless user experience is the cornerstone of successful SEO. Interaction to Next Paint directly influences how users perceive the efficiency and usability of a webpage. Pages that respond swiftly to user interactions are more likely to engage visitors. Better performance can reduce bounce rates, and, ultimately, higher rankings in search results.

As the transition from FID to INP unfolds, webmasters and SEO experts must embrace this broader metric. Understanding and optimizing for INP will be crucial for maintaining and improving search rankings.

Real-world improvements for yoast.com

Despite the challenges in optimizing for INP, our team at Yoast has remarkably improved responsiveness. By focusing on efficient code execution and minimizing render-blocking resources, we have significantly enhanced our site’s performance.

Google Search Console already provides INP reports, splitting into mobile and desktop issues. At Yoast, we’ve used these to guide our optimizations. In addition, Screaming Frog now includes INP pass/fail within their crawl reports, which helps as well.

Below shows how the work we did in December and January has reduced the number of issues dramatically:

But remember, while it’s always great to have zero errors, don’t obsess about cutting off milliseconds to get there. If there are significant performance issues, then solve these as soon as you can. Always keep in mind, though, don’t spend dollars to save pennies! Focus on the general page experience; things will naturally progress from there.

Improving Interaction to Next Paint

The shift to INP necessitates a fresh approach to measuring and enhancing web performance. Tools like Google’s Lighthouse, PageSpeed Insights, and the Chrome User Experience Report offer valuable insights into INP scores and opportunities for optimization.

Practical strategies to enhance your INP score

Improving your Interaction to Next Paint INP score benefits your site’s user experience. It’s an important part of staying competitive in SEO. Here are actionable tips to help you enhance your INP score:

1. Optimize event callbacks

Event callbacks are at the heart of user interactions. Reducing the time these callbacks take to process can significantly improve your INP score. Assess the complexity of your event handlers and streamline their code to ensure quick execution.

2. Avoid blocking the main thread

The main thread is where the browser processes user events, executes JavaScript, and renders updates to the screen. Keeping it unblocked ensures that the page can respond to user inputs promptly. Avoid heavy computations or long-running tasks on the main thread to prevent delays in responsiveness.

3. Break up long tasks

Tasks taking more than 50 milliseconds can interfere with the page’s ability to respond to user inputs effectively. Breaking these long tasks into smaller chunks allows the browser to intersperse input handling between these tasks, improving the overall responsiveness.

4. Optimize JavaScript execution

JavaScript can significantly impact your page’s responsiveness. Optimizing how JavaScript is loaded and executed on your page can improve INP scores. Techniques include deferring non-critical JavaScript, using async scripts, and removing unused code.

5. Minimize unnecessary tasks

Evaluate the tasks on your page and identify any that are not essential to the immediate user experience. Postponing or eliminating unnecessary tasks can free up resources, allowing the browser to prioritize user interactions.

6. Prioritize important actions

Not all tasks are created equal. By prioritizing important actions — such as those directly related to user interactions — you ensure that these tasks are executed first, leading to a smoother and more responsive experience.

7. Leverage requestIdleCallback

The requestIdleCallback API allows you to schedule background tasks to run when the browser is idle. This is particularly useful for tasks not critical to the immediate user experience. By using requestIdleCallback, you ensure these tasks do not interfere with the page’s responsiveness to user inputs.

Continuous improvements

Implementing these strategies requires a thoughtful approach to web development and an understanding of how user interactions are processed. Tools like Lighthouse and PageSpeed Insights can provide insights into your Interaction to Next Paint score. In addition, these can identify specific areas for improvement.

You can significantly enhance your site’s responsiveness by optimizing event callbacks, minimizing main thread blockage, breaking up long tasks, and prioritizing user-centric actions. This leads to a better user experience. It also aligns with Google’s emphasis on page responsiveness as a critical SEO component in the Core Web Vitals era.

Improving INP is a continuous process that can lead to substantial gains in user satisfaction and engagement. As you implement these changes, monitor your site’s performance. Check the impact on your INP scores and refine your strategies for even better results.

Looking ahead

The introduction of INP signals Google’s ongoing commitment to refining its page experience signals. Staying informed and proactive in optimizing for INP and other Core Web Vitals is imperative for you to excel in SEO.

Interaction to Next Paint is a pivotal metric for assessing and enhancing web page responsiveness. Understand its nuances, embrace the available tools, and implement data-driven optimization strategies. Esure that your website meets the ever-changing standards of user experience and SEO.

Let’s continue the conversation in the comments below. Share your experiences, challenges, and successes in working to improve INP. Together, let’s prepare those sites for lift-off!

The post All about Core Web Vitals: INP (Interaction to Next Paint) appeared first on Yoast.

Modify breadcrumb output

A popular front-end output is the breadcrumb trail that themes can use at the top of content items, like posts and pages. Yoast SEO includes common path options, but customization can benefit some content types. The code snippet below adds a custom link between the Home and Post Name that appears by default. Thus, Home » Hello world! becomes Home » Blog » Hello world!. You can find more examples here.

add_filter( 'wpseo_breadcrumb_links', 'yoast_seo_breadcrumb_append_link' );

function yoast_seo_breadcrumb_append_link( $links ) {
    global $post;
    $post_id_to_change = 1;
    $url_to_add = site_url( '/blog/' );
    $anchor_text_for_url_to_add = 'Blog';

    if ( is_single ( $post_id_to_change ) ) {
        $breadcrumb[] = array(
            'url' => $url_to_add,
            'text' => $anchor_text_for_url_to_add,
        );

        array_splice( $links, 1, -2, $breadcrumb );
    }

    return $links;
}

Update image URLs for CDN

Some sites use a CDN to help images load faster by serving them from many servers worldwide. A CDN provides you with a different domain for images.

To ensure social media platforms use the CDN permalink for social media images, you need to add this small Yoast SEO code snippet after replacing current_example.com and new_example.com with your WordPress and CDN domains, respectively. Thus, https://current_example.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/image.png becomes https://new_example.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/image.png. You can find more examples here.

add_filter( 'wpseo_opengraph_image', 'change_opengraph_image_url' );

function change_opengraph_image_url( $url ) {
    return str_replace('current_example.com', 'new_example.com', $url);
}

To update the sitemap image URLs, the following code will replace https://www.example.com with https://cdn.example.com.

add_filter( 'wpseo_xml_sitemap_img_src', 'wpseo_cdn_filter' );

function wpseo_cdn_filter( $uri ) {
  return str_replace( 'https://www.example.com', 'https://cdn.example.com', $uri );
}

Add custom template variables

Yoast SEO includes a variety of variables to build dynamic titles and descriptions. However, these may not provide the exact information you want to include in the title or description. The following snippet creates a custom variable %%myname%% that outputs a sentence My name is Moses in the front-end output.

add_action('wpseo_register_extra_replacements', 'register_custom_yoast_variables');

function get_myname() {
    return 'My name is Moses';
}

function register_custom_yoast_variables() {
    wpseo_register_var_replacement( '%%myname%%', 'get_myname', 'advanced', 'some help text' );
}

Alter the number of sitemap entries

Yoast SEO sitemaps include up to 1000 entries the individual sitemaps. The limit is acceptable for most server configurations, but your server may have more or less resources available. The filter helps you be in control of your server resources.

add_filter( 'wpseo_sitemap_entries_per_page', 'max_entries_per_sitemap' );

function max_entries_per_sitemap() {
    return 100;
}

Conclusion

While Yoast SEO does a lot of the heavy lifting, sometimes you may need to tweak something. Perhaps a different breadcrumb output would fit better with your brand. Luckily, Yoast SEO offers a range of filters so that you can fine-tune our plugin. In this post, we’ve looked at a few, but there are many more filters in our developer portal that you can try! Good luck!

The post Yoast SEO snippets to customize your site appeared first on Yoast.

Generated titles and descriptions for taxonomies for Yoast SEO Premium

Building on the enthusiastic reception of AI generated titles and meta descriptions for our customers’ content and product pages over the last year, we are taking it one step further. Yoast SEO 22.3 introduces AI-generated titles and descriptions tailored for your category and tag pages! 

Just input your chosen keyphrase and you will receive SEO-optimized suggestions for you to choose from. As with our other generative AI features, you stay in control of what the end result looks like as it is easy to tweak the results to fit your requirements or generate five more at the click of a button, as shown below. 

Why it matters:

At Yoast, we recognize that content creators often overlook category and tag pages amidst the hustle of new content creation and site optimization. Many times, creators build these pages and then neglect to revisit them as frequently as necessary. After all, although establishing the right site structure and taxonomy system is crucial, it may not offer the most enjoyable aspect of content creation. Now, with our AI-generated titles and descriptions, you can effortlessly enhance these pages without sacrificing your precious time and resources.

Benefits:

Save time and resources:

• Cover SEO fundamentals as part of your workflow, without adding the extra effort or time.
• Focus on creating new content while our AI makes the optimization of your category and tag pages a breeze.
• Worry-free title and descriptions. Our suggestions will be there to guide you, even when you are tired or lacking inspiration.

Boost search engine ranking:

• Seamlessly complete another task which contributes to improving your site’s SEO performance.
• Stay ahead in search results by effortlessly fine-tuning your taxonomies.

Other refinements and fixes

Yoast SEO 22.3 introduces additional refinements and fixes, enhancing the user experience for all our customers. We’ve also configured the social profile settings to enable x.com websites to be added. We’ve streamlined processes and eliminated unnecessary queries, ensuring a smoother overall interaction with the plugin. 

Update now to Yoast SEO 22.3 

Upgrade to Yoast SEO 22.3 now to enhance your workflow and productivity. We’re eager to learn how this update contributes to your online success, and your valuable feedback could inspire future features like the one introduced today. Your journey to improved SEO starts with this update!

The post Yoast SEO 22.3: Introducing AI for category and tag pages appeared first on Yoast.

What is a crawl budget?

Crawl budget is the number of pages Google will crawl on your site on any given day. This number varies slightly daily, but overall, it’s relatively stable. Google might crawl six pages on your site each day; it might crawl 5,000 pages; it might even crawl 4,000,000 pages every single day. The number of pages Google crawls, your ‘budget,’ is generally determined by the size of your site, the ‘health’ of your site (how many errors Google encounters), and the number of links to your site. Some of these factors are things you can influence; we’ll get to that in a bit.

How does a crawler work?

A crawler like Googlebot gets a list of URLs to crawl on a site. It goes through that list systematically. It grabs your robots.txt file occasionally to ensure it’s still allowed to crawl each URL and then crawls the URLs individually. Once a spider has crawled a URL and parsed the contents, it adds new URLs found on that page that it has to crawl back on the to-do list.

Several events can make Google feel a URL has to be crawled. It might have found new links pointing at content, or someone has tweeted it, or it might have been updated in the XML sitemap, etc., etc… There’s no way to make a list of all the reasons why Google would crawl a URL, but when it determines it has to, it adds it to the to-do list.

Read more: Bot traffic: What it is and why you should care about it »

When is crawl budget an issue?

Crawl budget is not a problem if Google has to crawl many URLs on your site and has allotted a lot of crawls. But, say your site has 250,000 pages, and Google crawls 2,500 pages on this particular site each day. It will crawl some (like the homepage) more than others. It could take up to 200 days before Google notices particular changes to your pages if you don’t act. Crawl budget is an issue now. On the other hand, if it crawls 50,000 a day, there’s no issue at all.

Follow the steps below to determine whether your site has a crawl budget issue. This does assume your site has a relatively small number of URLs that Google crawls but doesn’t index (for instance, because you added meta noindex).

1. Determine how many pages your site has; the number of URLs in your XML sitemaps might be a good start.
2. Go into Google Search Console.
3. Go to “Settings” -> “Crawl stats” and calculate the average pages crawled per day.
4. Divide the number of pages by the “Average crawled per day” number.
5. You should probably optimize your crawl budget if you end up with a number higher than ~10 (so you have 10x more pages than what Google crawls daily). You can read something else if you end up with a number lower than 3.

What URLs is Google crawling?

You really should know which URLs Google is crawling on your site. Your site’s server logs are the only ‘real’ way of knowing. For larger sites, you can use something like Logstash + Kibana. For smaller sites, the guys at Screaming Frog have released an SEO Log File Analyser tool.

Get your server logs and look at them

Depending on your type of hosting, you might not always be able to grab your log files. However, if you even think you need to work on crawl budget optimization because your site is big, you should get them. If your host doesn’t allow you to get them, it’s time to change hosts.

Fixing your site’s crawl budget is a lot like fixing a car. You can’t fix it by looking at the outside; you’ll have to open that engine. Looking at logs is going to be scary at first. You’ll quickly find that there is a lot of noise in logs. You’ll find many commonly occurring 404s that you think are nonsense. But you have to fix them. You must wade through the noise and ensure your site is not drowned in tons of old 404s.

Keep reading: Website maintenance: Check and fix 404 error pages »

Increase your crawl budget

Let’s look at the things that improve how many pages Google can crawl on your site.

Website maintenance: reduce errors

Step one in getting more pages crawled is making sure that the pages that are crawled return one of two possible return codes: 200 (for “OK”) or 301 (for “Go here instead”). All other return codes are not OK. To figure this out, look at your site’s server logs. Google Analytics and most other analytics packages will only track pages that served a 200. So you won’t find many errors on your site in there.

Once you’ve got your server logs, find and fix common errors. The most straightforward way is by grabbing all the URLs that didn’t return 200 or 301 and then ordering by how often they were accessed. Fixing an error might mean that you have to fix code. Or you might have to redirect a URL elsewhere. If you know what caused the error, you can also try to fix the source.

Another good source for finding errors is Google Search Console. Read our Search Console guide for more info on that. If you’ve got Yoast SEO Premium, you can easily redirect them away using the redirects manager.

Block parts of your site

If you have sections of your site that don’t need to be in Google, block them using robots.txt. Only do this if you know what you’re doing, of course. One of the common problems we see on larger eCommerce sites is when they have a gazillion ways to filter products. Every filter might add new URLs for Google. In cases like these, you want to ensure that you’re letting Google spider only one or two of those filters and not all of them.

Reduce redirect chains

When you 301 redirect a URL, something weird happens. Google will see that new URL and add that URL to the to-do list. It doesn’t always follow it immediately; it adds it to its to-do list and goes on. When you chain redirects, for instance, when you redirect non-www to www, then http to https, you have two redirects everywhere, so everything takes longer to crawl.

Get more links

This is easy to say but hard to do. Getting more links is not just a matter of being awesome but also of making sure others know you’re awesome. It’s a matter of good PR and good engagement on social media. We’ve written extensively about link building; we’d suggest reading these three posts:

1. Link building from a holistic SEO perspective
2. Link building: what not to do?
3. 6 steps to a successful link building strategy

When you have an acute indexing problem, you should first look at your crawl errors, block parts of your site, and fix redirect chains. Link building is a very slow method to increase your crawl budget. On the other hand, link building must be part of your process if you intend to build a large site.

TL;DR: crawl budget optimization is hard

Crawl budget optimization is not for the faint of heart. If you’re doing your site’s maintenance well, or your site is relatively small, it’s probably not needed. If your site is medium-sized and well-maintained, it’s fairly easy to do based on the above tricks.

Assess your technical SEO fitness

Optimizing your crawl budget is part of your technical SEO. Are you curious how your site’s overall technical SEO fits? We’ve created a technical SEO fitness quiz that helps you figure out what you need to work on!

Read on: Robots.txt: the ultimate guide »

The post How to optimize your crawl budget appeared first on Yoast.