SEO Bits & Pieces w/e 18 August 2017

This is an extract from TWIS SEO News & Updates w/e 18 August 2017.

Read the SEO Bits and Pieces for w/e 18 August 2017. They are jam-packed with snippets of SEO juice and wholesome goodness.

Contact me to discuss any of the issues raised in these Bits & Pieces.

#SEO #URLs #MobileFriendly #SearchRankings #XMLSitemaps

• URL structure is not important for SEO – says Google. It’s not terribly important, and people spend far too long fussing over it, but I’d still rather have a decently organised URL structure. Especially if it is used to drive the Information Architecture, and other taxonomies.
  • H/T John Mu – Twitter – URL Importance
• Allergy sufferers may be relieved to know that Google is about to attempt to surface local pollen levels in its search results / local information panel. This is not to be sneezed at.
  • H/T SE Journal
• Want to know if your page is mobile friendly, but really can’t be bothered to set up a Google Search Console account? Now all you need to do it query “mobile friendly” and Google will pop up a little test box to run a URL through. Of course, it could be a competitor URL.
  • H/T Gianluca Fiorelli
• Google dislikes algorithm monitors, calling them “blackhat scrapers”. Which is a little strong in my opinion, but there you go. I sometimes wonder how much traffic in the Keyword Volume data is actually tool monitoring traffic. I don’t think Google purposely runs interference on these tools yet, but it would probably like to.
  • John Mu Twitter – Blackhat Scrapers
•  In exciting XML Sitemap news, Google says it cares about URLs and Last Modification date in them. Not a surprise, and neither is the fact that they ignore Update Frequency and Priority – most of which have been spammed to death. Pro tip: don’t bother updating your Last Modified if you haven’t actually updated it. All you’ll do is remove Google’s trust in the information and cause them to crawl your site less often.
  • Joh Mu – Twitter – XML Sitemaps – Last Modification

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We recently released the super-exciting The State of SEO in mid-2017. Read it now.

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• URL structure is not terribly important for SEO.
• Allergy sufferers soon to discover how bad the pollen is from Google.
• New in-SERP mobile-firendly test.
• Confirmation re XML Sitemaps & Last Mod dates.
• Read The State of SEO in mid-2017.
• Read about how Google’s Mobile First Index is not Mobile Friendly.

Thanks for reading. If you would like to discuss what these changes mean for your web property, or would like to know how to implement them, please feel free to contact me.

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