#Google algorithm update April 2025

[prasaddhumal82]

Google Search Ranking volatility April 22nd and 23rd

SEO professionals and webmasters are once again witnessing significant Google Search ranking volatility over the past few days, particularly between April 21 and April 23, 2025. While there’s no official confirmation of a Google algorithm update during this period, the evidence strongly suggests another round of ranking algorithm testing or adjustments. Unofficial Yet Consistent Volatility Across…

[cindylouwho-2]

RECENT SEO & MARKETING NEWS FOR ECOMMERCE, MAY 2024

As promised, here are the important news stories from marketing recently: SEO, social media, advertising, and more.

If you want to get this news twice-weekly instead of just once a month, become a paying member of my Patreon: patreon.com/CindyLouWho2

TOP NEWS & ARTICLES 

In the biggest SEO news perhaps ever, a massive list of Google ranking elements was leaked this week. Here’s an overview, including links to the two main leak announcements and their analysis. It would seem that Google wasn’t always honest when they told us some algorithm elements did or did not exist. Google took nearly 2 days to speak publicly about it, but didn’t say much. Expect a lot more analysis in the coming weeks. 

Instagram is updating its algorithm to favour original creators and smaller accounts, and remove reposted content from recommendations. “This won’t affect “a set of publishers” identified by Instagram with licensing agreements or resharing permissions from content creators, according to the blog post.”

Google is adding AI Overviews to US search immediately, with other countries to follow in the future. "AI Overviews gives answers to queries using generative AI technology powered by Google Gemini. It provides a few snippets of an answer based on its understanding of queries and the content it found on the topic across the web.” Right now, it is only affecting a small number of queries, however. While these will sometimes cover similar topics to featured snippets, the latter still exist. Early testing indicates that it does not currently show up when a search appears to be about buying something. Which is good, because you can’t turn it off, other than filtering your search to “Web” after doing it.  Oh, and Google did not waste time figuring out how to include advertising in the AI overviews - it took just one week. As with most much-heralded AI launches, AI Overviews are fumbling badly; here’s a summary of the many news articles mocking Google, including for recommending people glue cheese onto their pizza so it stays in place. 

Chrome has yet again announced that it will not end the use of tracking cookies on schedule; the new target date for starting to wind down their use is early 2025.

Reminder that your old Google Analytics files (aka Universal Analytics) will no longer be available after July 1, so download them now! “...consider archiving back to 2018 or so to ensure you have pre-pandemic data since the pandemic really presented data anomalies for many companies.” There is a spreadsheet add-on to make this easier. 

SEO: GOOGLE & OTHER SEARCH ENGINES 

Google’s March 2024 Core Update finished rolling out April 19. “A Google spokesperson said, “The updates led to larger quality improvements than we originally thought – you’ll now see 45% less low quality, unoriginal content in search results, versus the 40% improvement we expected across this work.” Experts are struggling to analyze it, in part due to how long it lasted. Not surprisingly, Reddit was a big winner, and sites with a lot of ads and affiliate links continue to lose. 

An update on how long your titles should be for Google. “So whether your titles get cut off or rewritten in SERPs, Google still uses the HTML title tag for ranking considerations, not the titles shown in SERPs.” The author’s research is too limited to draw reliable conclusions from, and most other research in this area over the last decade shows that shorter titles tend to rank better. However, she has pulled together many recent statements on title length and how it works, which is useful reading. 

A reminder that “keyword difficulty” is a subjective score that different tools may not agree on, and that also depends on your overall site/shop and its history. This applies to all sorts of keyword tools, including those used for marketplace sites. 

It looks like Google adding its AI to search results will have a strong impact on traffic, as it will answer questions without the need to click, and “only 47% of the top 10 traditional search results are sources for SGE.” [SGE is now called AI Overviews.] That means if a page is outside the top 10 now, it may still be used to generate the answers, and could even get clicks from being displayed in SGE. 

Still with AI, Google was fined €250 million by France for using news media to train its AI, Gemini. 

Google admits to deindexing many, many pages in February, due to quality issues. 

A recent article dissects why Google search is so bad these days, and largely blames one man. While you can read the original here, you may want to start with a decent summary and the reaction from Google and the SEO community. 

Here’s a full list of Google changes and announcements from April.

Not Google

Both Microsoft and Google had excellent first quarters, with ad revenue up 12% and 13% respectively. “Bing reached over 140 million daily active users.”

OpenAI is apparently not starting their own search engine, contrary to rumours.

SOCIAL MEDIA - All Aspects, By Site

General

Here’s another of the periodic posts that tries to figure out the best times to post on different social media sites. It covers Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Twitter and Pinterest. 

Direct Messages are now available on Bluesky. 

Facebook (includes relevant general news from Meta)

In another recent AI fumble, Meta has introduced an AI assistant to its various products in several countries - but you can’t turn it off in the search bar. It may also show up in group chats, including discussions about parenting. “The Associated Press reported that an official Meta AI chatbot inserted itself into a conversation in a private Facebook group for Manhattan moms. It claimed it too had a child in school in New York City, but when confronted by the group members, it later apologized before its comments disappeared.”

Here’s more on Meta’s automated ad issue that is ramping up costs but decreasing sales for many, including small businesses. 

Meta is now offering its Verification for Business subscription package to more countries, and has added new tiers as well. 

While Meta had a strong 1st quarter financially, it projects weaker results through 2025 as it spends a ton on money trying to guide its AI offerings to profitability. 

Instagram

Instagram added some new features, including “Reveal”, which blurs Stories, and only releases the content once you DM the creator. 

Reels under 90 seconds perform better on Instagram than longer ones. 

To help avoid scammers on Instagram, learn how to identify and block fake accounts. 

Instagram’s Creator Marketplace - where businesses can search for influencers to promote their product - is now available in 10 more counties, including Germany, France and Indonesia. 

LinkedIn

You should be optimizing LinkedIn posts for the platform itself and outside search engines. The article includes tips for both personal and business pages.

LinkedIn is adding games you can play once a day, which sounds weird for a professional network. 

Pinterest

Pinterest’s summer trend report has arrived; apparently maximalism is in yet again.  

Reddit

Reddit is one of those sites that is getting worse lately as people try to get Google ranking through it (which is a whole other SEO story I have covered in these updates before).

ChatGPT will now be training on Reddit comments. The agreement meant a huge stock boost for Reddit. 

Reddit is trying to attract more French-speaking users by auto-translating the site in real-time using AI. 

After plenty of user complaints, Reddit is starting a new awards scheme. 

Snapchat

You can now edit your Snapchat messages within 5 minutes of sending, if you subscribe to Snapchat Plus. 

Threads

Meta wants more content on Threads, and is willing to pay well-known creators to create it. Invite only, of course.  

You can now filter out unwanted words on Threads. 

TikTok

While the US government has voted to ban TikTok if the company isn’t sold, there is a lot of time left before that could happen, and a legal battle to be fought. TikTok has already filed a lawsuit, as have some major creators. Meanwhile, small business owners and creators are understandably worried. From an article by the BBC: “According to March 2024 data from TikTok, more than seven million small US businesses use TikTok, and the company reported it drove $15bn (£12.04bn) in revenue for these enterprises in 2023.”

How to rank on TikTok: the Ultimate Guide. Some of the tips include hashtags, keywords, and choosing the right thumbnail. 

There are several ways to remove (or avoid) the TikTok watermark if you want to use your TikTok content on other platforms. 

Twitter

Twitter’s domain has finally switched over to X in some locations [but I will still call it Twitter].

(CONTENT) MARKETING (includes blogging, emails, and strategies) 

Time to gear up your content marketing plans for June. 

ONLINE ADVERTISING (EXCEPT INDIVIDUAL SOCIAL MEDIA AND ECOMMERCE SITES) 

Search ads are converting less while costing more, something that has been going on for a few years now. “Advertisers are paying more for leads and clicks, while Alphabet, Google’s parent company, keeps reporting record profits.” This is one of the reasons the US Department of Justice argues that Google is a monopoly. 

Not enough AI in your ads? Google is solving that through video ads and more virtual try-ons. 

Google Shopping is going to start showing how many people have bought from each site recently, although businesses can opt out. 

Google is removing keywords from Google Ads accounts if they have received zero impressions in the past 13 months. While you can reactivate them, Google discourages that. 

You may be able to run Google’s Performance Max ads through particular marketplaces now or in the near future, if your marketplace signs up. For some businesses, selling through a marketplace might be cheaper than setting up a site. 

Social media advertising is now bigger than search ads, according to a recent report. Almost ⅔ of these ads are on various Meta properties. 

BUSINESS & CONSUMER TRENDS, STATS & REPORTS; SOCIOLOGY & PSYCHOLOGY, CUSTOMER SERVICE 

Slow economic growth in the United States in the first quarter of 2024 sparked worries that the rest of 2024 will be as bad or even worse. Even McDonalds is stressing that consumers can only take so much inflation. 

US ecommerce sales were up in the first quarter, more than overall retail. 

Some consumers are finding that ecommerce is tiring, offering too many options and no easy way to shop quickly. “Despite an increased emphasis on personalized experiences in recent years, 7 in 10 customers feel either no improvement or an increase in the time and effort required to make a purchase decision.” 

MISCELLANEOUS (including humour) 

Before returning orders to Amazon, make sure your cat isn’t in the box. (It’s fine, fortunately!)

[atenajos]

Mastering SEO After Google's 2025 Algorithm Changes

The blogging world is buzzing. Google’s 2025 algorithm update dropped in April. It’s shaking up search rankings like never before. If you’re a blogger, this update could make or break your traffic. But don’t panic! In this post, we will explain what the update means for your blog. We will also discuss why it matters. Finally, we will show you exactly what you can do to stay ahead of the curve.…

[kaeraemarketing]

SEO Fireside Chat (Part 3) Website SEO strategies can seem daunting, but with the right guidance, they become powerful tools to increase your online visibility and attract more targeted traffic to your business. KaeRae Education's simple walk-through demystifies these techniques, empowering you to understand and implement your own SEO strategies with confidence, ultimately helping your website climb search engine rankings and reach more potential customers. Get access to the full SEO Fireside Chat here: https://ift.tt/2t0eZhC ✅ Important Links to Follow - Google Audit: https://ift.tt/RjAN5TL - Google Ads Management: https://ift.tt/liCRYUG - SEO Website Update: https://ift.tt/hPvBE87 - Visit for digital resources: https://ift.tt/TzjcpVo - Join a free community: https://ift.tt/0lweR6F 🔔𝐃𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐮𝐛𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐲 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐥 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐮𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬. https://www.youtube.com/@kaeraemarketing/?sub_confirmation=1 🔗 Stay Connected With Me. Facebook: https://ift.tt/w6LVE7m Instagram: https://ift.tt/kqLN852 Tiktok: https://ift.tt/ThrDFdB Linkedin: https://ift.tt/RYKPXeV Pinterest: https://ift.tt/xDbWltJ Website: https://ift.tt/Tiuokzs 📩 For business inquiries: kaeraemarketing@gmail.com ============================= 🎬Suggested videos for you: ▶️ https://youtu.be/8ld3_DuQqXg ▶️ https://youtu.be/XOYPpbh3zaY ▶️ https://youtu.be/mQJoodRwM84 ▶️ https://youtu.be/xex_HqP0QWU ▶️ https://youtu.be/p_x_ubfygfM ▶️ https://youtu.be/pFkiL4fh6o0 ▶️ https://youtu.be/00tcBgRxjAI ▶️ https://youtu.be/Lc-F8HzoyFY ▶️ https://youtu.be/poLpFGWBvFM ▶️ https://youtu.be/E8mUUvMsUmU ▶️ https://youtu.be/d-o5pv-HDFw ▶️ https://youtu.be/NTdbrijJKyM ▶️ https://youtu.be/I5sxI9RaHXY ================================= ✅ About Kelsey Flannery (KaeRae Marketing). Welcome! I’m Kelsey Flannery, also known as KaeRae, a Google Ads expert helping business owners navigate Google tools with ease. Through simple, informative videos, I provide guidance on Google Analytics, Google Ads, Google Business, Search Console, Tag Manager, YouTube Ads, Local Services Ads, Merchant Center, and more. As the owner of KaeRae Marketing, Inc., I provide results-driven marketing for home service businesses and eCommerce. Certified in key Google tools, I specialize in lead generation, PPC advertising, and online growth strategies. Let’s maximize your business’s online reach and drive real results! For Business inquiries, please use the contact information below: 📩 Email: kaeraemarketing@gmail.com 🔔 Struggling with Google Analytics, Ads, or SEO? Subscribe for expert tips, effective strategies, & the best tools on PPC, lead generation, and maximizing your online reach! https://www.youtube.com/@kaeraemarketing/?sub_confirmation=1 ================================= 🔎 Related Phrases: SEO basics, keyword research, organic traffic, backlink building, on-page optimization, meta descriptions, title tags, content marketing, search engine rankings, SEO audit, link building strategies, Google algorithm updates, local SEO, mobile optimization, site speed optimization, voice search SEO, technical SEO, featured snippets, competitive analysis, search intent Hashtags #SEOBasics #KeywordResearch #OrganicTraffic #BacklinkBuilding #OnPageOptimization #MetaDescriptions #TitleTags #ContentMarketing #SearchEngineRankings #SEOAudit #LinkBuildingStrategies #GoogleAlgorithmUpdates #LocalSEO #MobileOptimization #SiteSpeedOptimization #VoiceSearchSEO #TechnicalSEO #FeaturedSnippets #CompetitiveAnalysis #SearchIntent via Kelsey Flannery (KaeRae Marketing) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCji8NuY6sx7RVYD85k_XJlQ April 25, 2025 at 02:30AM

[shaheersha]

ABOUT SHAHEER

He is the founder of FOODIE SPOT Restaurant & Blogger .

He blogs most of the time when he is not at the Restaurant  ,  born in 2002 ,Palakkad.  always blogs the new Google  updates 

Google Algorithm 

What is Google algorithm ?

       A detailed set of standards known as Google's algorithm is used to figure out how websites rank in search results.  In order to  find out what visitors are looking for, it collects details from web pages and then ranks them due to their quality and importance.  With Google making changes and algorithms improving almost daily, this technique is always improving.

Google Algorithm Updates 

In 2025 google updated the core update on March 13 and finished update on March 27. It takes 2 weeks to complete it. 

In an effort to make search results more relevant and useful, Google released its first major update of the year in March 2025.

According to an Overdrive Interactive post, this modification, which was fully implemented by March 27th, is a routine procedure that rebalances Google's evaluation and ranking of material.

In order to assess website value more comprehensively, the update also integrates Google's Helpful Content mechanism into the main algorithm.

Google Algorithm Updates History : 

March 13, 2025

March 2025 Core Update

Google launched its March core update on March 13 and finished rolling out the update on March 27, taking two weeks to complete.

December 19, 2024

December 2024 Spam Update

Google launched its December spam update on December 19 and completed the rollout on December 26.

December 12, 2024

December 2024 Core Update

The December 2024 core update started on December 12 and finished rolling out on December 18.

November 19, 2024

Site Reputation Abuse (SRA)

Google has updated its site reputation abuse policy, introduced earlier this year, to tackle ‘parasite SEO’—a tactic where websites use established domains to manipulate search rankings through third-party content. While enforcement is currently handled manually, Google plans to introduce algorithmic updates to automate detection and demotion in the future.

November 11, 2024

November 2024 Core Update

Google’s November 2024 core update began on November 11 and concluded on December 5, taking three weeks to complete.

November 11, 2024

November 2024 Core Update

Google released the November 2024 core update on November 11. The rollout may take up to two weeks to complete.

August 15, 2024

August 2024 Core Update

Google’s August 2024 core update aims to promote high-quality content while demoting low-value SEO content. The update started rolling out on August 15. The rollout was complete as of September 3, 2024.

July 31, 2024

Explicit Fake Content Update

Update to Google’s search algorithm to address non-consensual explicit content, specifically targeting artificially generated images and videos known as ‘deepfakes.’

June 20, 2024

June 2024 Spam Update

Google has started implementing the June 2024 spam update, which is expected to take a week to finish.

May 14, 2024

AI Overviews

Google introduces AI-generated summaries (previously known as SGE) to U.S. search results, utilizing the new Gemini model designed specifically for search.

May 6, 2024

Site Reputation Abuse

Google’s SearchLiaison confirmed that Google’s site reputation abuse update started on Monday May 6th with manual actions to be followed at some point in the future with algorithmic ones.

March 5, 2024

March 2024 Core Update

Google’s March 2024 Core Update addresses low-quality content and introduces new policies on spam to combat manipulative practices.

It began on March 5 and was completed on April 19, taking 45 days to roll out. The completion of the update wasn’t announced until April 26.

November 8, 2023

November 2023 Reviews Update

Google announced an algorithm update targeting review content on a page-level basis. It began on November 8 and completed on December 7

November 2, 2023

November 2023 Core Update

Google announced a core algorithm update, which began on November 2 and was completed on November 28. To learn more about core updates, see the Google Search Central Blog.

October 5, 2023

October 2023 Core Update

Google announced a core algorithm update, which began on October 5 and was completed on October 19. To learn more about core updates, 

October 4, 2023

October 2023 Spam Update

Google announced the launch of the October 2023 Spam Update, which began on October 4 and was completed on October 19. This update applies globally and improves coverage in many languages,

September 14, 2023

September 2023 Helpful Content Update

Google announced the launch of the September 2023 Helpful Content Update, which began on September 14 and was completed on September 28. Site owners who want to learn more about helpful content updates can find more information on the Google Search Central Blog.

August 22, 2023

August 2023 Core Update

Google announced a core algorithm update, which began on August 22 and concluded on September 7. To learn more about core updates, see the Google Search Central Blog.

April 12, 2023

April 2023 Reviews Update

Google announced an algorithm update targeting review content on a page-level basis. It began on April 12 and finished rolling out on April 25. To learn more about core updates, see the Google Search Central Blog.

March 15, 2023

March 2023 Core Update

Google announced a core algorithm update, which began on March 15 and finished rolling out on March 28. To learn more about core updates, see the Google Search Central Blog.

February 21, 2023

February 2023 Product Reviews Update

Google announced the launch of the February 2023 Product Reviews Update, which began on February 21 and was completed on March 18. The update applies to these languages globally: English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, and Polish. See the Google Search Central Blog to learn more about the product review system.

December 14, 2022

December 2022 Link Spam Update

Google announced the launch of the December 2022 Link Spam Update, which began on December 14 and was completed on January 12. With this update, Google is leveraging the power of “SpamBrain” to neutralize the impact of unnatural links on search results. To learn more about SpamBrain, see the Google Search Central Blog.

December 5, 2022

December 2022 Helpful Content Update

Google announced the launch of the December 2022 Helpful Content Update, which began on December 5 and was completed on January 12. Site owners who want to learn more about helpful content updates can find more information on the Google Search Central Blog.

October 19, 2022

October 2022 Spam Update

Google announced a spam update, which began rolling out on October 19 and was completed on October 21. Site owners who want to learn more about spam updates can find more information on the Google Search Central Blog.

September 20, 2022

Product Review Algorithm Update

Google confirmed the rollout of a new product review algorithm update on September 20 and was completed on September 26. Although they did not offer advice for site owners for this particular update, they shared a post on product review updates in 2021 for more information.

September 12, 2022

Core Algorithm Update

Google announced a core algorithm update, which began rolling out on September 12 and was completed on September 26. Site owners who want to learn more about core updates can find more information on the Google Search Central Blog.

August 25, 2022

Helpful Content Update

Google announced the launch of the Helpful Content Update, which began on August 25th. Content creators can learn more about how to create content for people first on the Search Central blog.

July 27, 2022

July 2022 Product Reviews Update

Google announced the release of the July 2022 Product Reviews Update on July 27th, which was completed on August 2nd. Ecommerce marketers can refer to Google Search Central’s documentation on how to write high-quality product reviews for more information.

May 22, 2022

May 2022 Core Update

Google announced via Twitter the release of a broad core update, named the May 2022 Core Update. This is part of a series of updates Google makes to the overall ranking process throughout the year. This update began on May 22, 2022, and was completed on June 9, 2022.

March 23, 2022

March 2022 Product Algorithm Update

Google announced via the Search Central Blog an update to product review rankings that would enable them to identify high-quality reviews.  The update should take a few weeks to complete.

You can learn more about the quest to provide better product reviews to search users on The Keyword and get Google’s advice on how to write high-quality product reviews.

February 22, 2022

Page Experience Update

Google announced via Twitter that the page experience update is slowly rolling out for desktop search, expected to be completed in March 2022. Google offers developers more information about the page experience update on Google Search Central.

December 1, 2021

December 2021 Product Review Update

Google announced via the Google Search Central Twitter account that the December 2021 Product Review Update began rolling out for English language pages today, and is estimated to take three weeks to complete. They shared a link to a blog post on product review updates and your website for more information.

November 30, 2021

November 2021 Local Search Update

Google announced via Twitter a November 2021 Local Search Update that began on November 30th and was completed on December 8th. Google also suggested that businesses review their guidance on how to improve local rankings.

November 17, 2021

Broad Core Update

Google Search Central announced via Twitter that a broad core update would be released later that day. They referred webmasters to their documentation on what site owners need to know about core updates, last updated in August 2019.

November 3, 2021

Google Spam Update

According to a tweet from Google Search Liaison, a spam update was rolled out from November 3 – 11, 2021 as a part of their regular work to improve search results. They suggested in their announcement that webmasters should continue following Webmaster Guidelines.

July 26, 2021

Google Link Spam Algorithm Update

Google announced an algorithm update aimed at identifying and nullifying link spam was beginning to roll out. Google warned that any sites taking part in link spam tactics could see ranking changes – with sponsored, guest, and affiliate content most likely to be impacted. Google said the update should be fully rolled out in “at least” two weeks and will impact multiple languages.

July 12, 2021

July 2021 Core Update Completed

Google Search Liaison confirmed via Twitter that the July 2021 Core Update rollout was effectively completed on July 12th. No additional details were provided.

July 1, 2021

July 2021 Core Update

Google Search Liaison announced via Twitter the July 2021 Core Update is rolling out and will take one to two weeks to complete. Google’s guidance for core updates can be found on the Google Search Central Blog.

June 28, 2021

Spam Update Part 2

Google Search Liaison announced via Twitter that the second part of their spam update has begun on June 28th and will likely be completed on the same day. The original announcement referred to a post on the Google Search Central Blog, updated in April 2021, on how Google fought Search spam in 2020.

June 23, 2021

June 2021 Spam Update

Google’s Danny Sullivan announced via Twitter an algorithm update targeted at fighting spam was rolling out to search results. The rollout of the update was to be completed the same day. He added that a second spam update would follow within a week. Google revealed no specific details on what this update was targeting.

Key Functions of Google's Algorithm: 

Collecting and Understanding Data:

 Google's algorithm analyzes billions of pages and other types of content to determine what the user is looking for. 

 Quality and Pertinence:

 The system assigns pages a ranking according to how well-written and pertinent the content is to the search query. 

 The intent of the user:

 As Google's algorithms get more adept at interpreting user intent, they attempt to deliver search results that most closely align with the user's goals. 

 Individualization:

 The searcher's location, search history, and search preferences all influence the core algorithm, which is used for every search. 

 Continuous Evolution

 Throughout the year, Google adjusts its algorithm frequently, with some changes being more important than others.

Factors that Influence Ranking:

Usability:

The algorithm determines if a website is appealing to search engine robots and users alike.

 Keywords:

 Google now prioritizes user intent and more general concepts, even though keywords are still crucial.

 Speed of Page:

 Pages that load quickly are given preference in the rankings. 

 Friendliness on Mobile:

 Websites that are not mobile-friendly risk having their rankings decline. 

 Quality of the Link:

 The rating of a website can be affected by the caliber and relevancy of its backlinks. 

 Content Originality:

 Freshly updated content is given preference by the algorithm, though this can change based on the type of search query. 

 Authority for Domains:

 Another factor that may affect a website's ranking is the domain's age and reputation. 

 Expertise, Authority, and Trust (E-A-T):

 Google's algorithm is taking into account a website's authority, credibility, and level of experience.

[phenixcreations]

How SEO Services Sacramento CA Are Evolving with Google’s Latest Algorithm Update (April 2025)

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has always been a dynamic field, but 2025 has brought another wave of change. With Google’s latest algorithm update in April 2025, SEO service providers are once again re-evaluating and refining their strategies to stay competitive and deliver value to clients.

So, what’s new in this update, and how are SEO Services Sacramento CA adapting? Let’s break it down.

Understanding Google’s April 2025 Algorithm Update

Google’s April 2025 update, officially dubbed the “Experience First” update, emphasizes three major components:

Enhanced E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness)

AI-Driven Search Intent Recognition

Core Web Vitals 2.0

These changes aim to improve search results by prioritizing content that reflects real-world experience, a deeper understanding of user intent, and high-performing websites in terms of UX.

1. Experience Takes Centre Stage

While the original E-A-T framework focused on Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness, Google has now added “Experience” as a major ranking signal. This shift means Google is giving more weight to content created by people with real-life, hands-on knowledge.

How SEO services are evolving:

Agencies are now working closely with niche experts and encouraging first-person case studies, user-generated content, and video testimonials. Instead of generic blog posts, there's a push toward authentic storytelling, especially in healthcare, finance, travel, and education sectors.

2. AI-Driven Search Intent Matching

The update has introduced advanced AI to better understand nuanced user intent. Instead of focusing solely on keywords, Google’s AI now interprets context, tone, and sentiment more accurately.

How SEO services are evolving:

SEO professionals are moving beyond traditional keyword research. Tools powered by machine learning are being used to analyze search patterns, question structures, and long-tail conversational queries. Content is now being crafted not just to rank, but to match the user’s exact search journey — whether it’s informational, transactional, or navigational.

3. Core Web Vitals 2.0 and UX Signals

Google has also updated its Core Web Vitals metrics, placing a stronger emphasis on interaction readiness (INP) and smooth visual stability (CLS). Mobile responsiveness and loading speed remain important, but now user interaction efficiency is a bigger deal.

How SEO services are evolving:

SEO agencies are collaborating more with UI/UX designers and developers to enhance website performance. Technical SEO audits now include INP optimization, lazy loading strategies, and accessibility features. It’s all about providing a faster, smoother, and more inclusive experience.

Final Thoughts

Google’s latest update is a clear message to SEO professionals: it’s no longer just about ranking, it’s about relevance, experience, and user satisfaction.

As we move deeper into 2025, SEO services are becoming more holistic, data-driven, and user-centric. Brands that invest in high-quality, authentic content and seamless user experiences will not only survive the algorithm shifts, they’ll thrive in them.

[rajdm]

Digital Marketing Trending Trends

With the rapidly changing market, it is getting harder for businesses to keep up with trends, along with all the business work. This is why most marketers work with digital marketing agencies, to share the workload and get better results.

When you work with a top digital marketing agency, you don’t need to worry about your marketing strategies and new trends coming into the market every month.

We understand that it’s difficult to keep track of all the new trends coming around every other month. But it’s easier when you have someone to guide you. And some of these trends have come to stay.

Here’s a thoughtfully curated list of trends in every field of digital marketing, that is going to stay in the market for a while:

1. Social media trends- Social media has so many platforms and there are so many formats on all those platforms. But you don’t need to get overwhelmed. We have shortlisted a few of the most important trends on social media:

Rapid growth of TikTok- The app has reached 1 billion users and counting. It has enormous engagement. Because of its algorithm, it's easier for brands and influences to grow their audience.

Social e-commerce- During the pandemic, brands flocked to Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube to offer online services to their shops and businesses. Those who have lost their jobs started small shops on these platforms and put their heart and soul into them. Gen Z and millennial’s are predicted to be the biggest spenders as they will account for 62% of global social E-Commerce revenue by 2025.

YouTube advertising – YouTube is exploding in terms of investment and advertising. The scope for growth on YouTube is absolutely huge. Everyone can take out a competitive advantage by having a smart YouTube advertising strategy.

Social media management services have outgrown during the pandemic era. So to compete with others, one has to be on social media or should consult an agency for that, so that they can capture more users.

2. Digital marketing job trends- Every brand out there is struggling with digital skills. There is so much scope for skilled and capable employers. In the near future, social media managers and digital marketing specialists will be in high demand. But it is a shame that finding a really talented and skilled professional is hard nowadays. As there is a lack of talent and skills, this demand is good news for marketers, but not good news for brands.

3. Connecting with customers – As Instagram's recent updates have given the hint that Instagram now wants us to focus on reels more than text and messages, as reels connect with customers more. So, having conversations with the help of reels with customers on all social media platforms will be a more beneficial way to engage and attract more customers. Conversational marketing can reap huge rewards for B2C and B2B brands.

Secondly, Whats App's update where they have added an option of payment, also implies that they are making it easier for brands to communicate and complete their orders in one place. Maybe that is why WhatsApp chats between users and brands grew 500% in April 2021.

Therefore, focus on your conversational marketing.

4. Content marketing and SEO trends-For every marketer, -Google search is the place to get their content seen and discovered by the consumers. There are 5.9 billion Google searches every day. So you see, the scope for growth is unimaginable.

Though with time it is getting hard to get a high rank on Google. Answering the queries and providing relevant information about what users want is the key to ranking on the first page of the search engine result page. It means that your content should solve a query or provide some valuable content. If it seems like a tough job then either you can hire a digital marketing agency in Delhi NCR or you can follow these steps consistently and can compare the results 

Here are a few steps to create quality content:

· Provide solutions for their problems.

· Used tools to find what people are asking.

· Try to make content in a Q&A format so that it can be ranked higher.

· Create quality and relevant content.

We know! We know! We have said “quality content” many times. But it’s only because it really is that much important. Answer-based, valuable, and relevant content! You may be providing answers, but if those are not the questions your audience has been asking anymore, then they are a waste. 

So just make sure to research the real questions which customers are asking and then write content /answers around that so that you can rank as well as can provide value to the customers.

[itsfinancethings]

New story in Business from Time: Many Companies Won’t Survive the Pandemic. Amazon Will Emerge Stronger Than Ever

The pandemic has upended businesses across the world, but it has been very good for Amazon. Every lockdown “click to purchase” nudged the company a little further toward utter domination of online shopping as total e-commerce sales nearly doubled in May. But if bigger was better for everyone, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos would not be appearing before Congress on Wednesday for an antitrust hearing.

Charlene Anderson, and sellers like her, are one reason why he’ll be there. Anderson is among the many merchants who sell goods on Amazon — and who together account for more than half of sales on the site. But they pay, too: Amazon charges Anderson a $39.99 monthly fee to post her knitting and craft supplies on its site, and it takes a cut of about 30 percent on each item she sells. Anderson’s seller experience has worsened during the pandemic as Amazon exercised the power of what she calls “dictatorship” over the vast internal marketplace it alone controls.

In mid-March, for example, Amazon notified sellers that during the pandemic, its warehouses would accept only household staples, medical supplies and “other high-demand products,“ but it failed to explain how it determined what it would accept. Anderson could still send some colors of knitting bags to Amazon warehouses, but not others; she could send one size of knitting needles, but not another. Some sellers saw their sales evaporate; others paid USPS or other services to ship orders to customers, while still paying Amazon’s monthly fees.

Even after Amazon lifted that order, boxes of goods that Anderson ships to a warehouse still sit on loading docks for weeks, she says, and when Amazon unpacks them, it miscounts the items, an error that takes Anderson days to remedy. The company sends customers the wrong items, then allows them to leave negative feedback on her seller page despite the error being Amazon’s, says Anderson, who is 63 and lives in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. In the Facebook group she runs, Anderson says some sellers worry that the raft of problems will lower their internal scores on Amazon so much that the company will kick them off the site.

But where else can they go? “What are we going to do, protest and not sell on Amazon?” Anderson asks. “Right, I’m just going to kill my whole business. They have you and they know they have you—if you go, they’ll just find someone else to sell those products.”

Consumer spending on Amazon between May and July was up 60% from the same time frame last year, according to the financial data firm Facteus. The company’s extraordinary power — it has 38% of the e-commerce market, trailed by Walmart with 6% — was under scrutiny well before COVID-19. But the lockdown that boosted the company’s dominance also threw into higher relief its consequences for other businesses.

That’s increased interest in updating federal laws written more than a century ago to correct the distortions of monopolies on an economy. Bezos is appearing before a Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law, part of an investigation by the House Judiciary Committee into online platforms and market power. The hearings are asking: in the age of Big Tech, how big is too big? New York University marketing professor Scott Galloway, a longtime critic of Amazon, says it’s helpful to think of Amazon’s Prime membership service as the kind of massive competitive advantage once enjoyed by railroad barons. With its extensive logistics and delivery network, Amazon not only has the eyeballs of millions of households, it is the company that ships, packs, and delivers what they buy.

“Amazon already owns the rails into 115 million households in America,” says Galloway. “Do we really want one company to be the arbiter of all commerce?”

Roy Davidson Charlene Anderson, who has sold items on Amazon for 20 years, says relations with the online giant have suffered as its power grows.

Economic crises have a way of creating winners and losers. Procter & Gamble thrived during the Great Depression by doubling down on advertising; Target expanded after the 2001 recession and saw profits grow 50%. Before the pandemic, Amazon represented around 4% of total U.S. retail sales. But with the new habits formed during the pandemic, UBS predicts that by 2025, e-commerce will make up one-quarter of total retail sales, up from 15% last year. The firm also estimates that 100,000 brick and mortar retail outlets will close in the next five years. “Consumers are increasingly shifting towards online shopping,” analysts wrote. “Many of these shoppers may not get back to in-store shopping when the current state is over.”

Amazon, which refused to make an executive available to comment on this article, casts itself as a friendly giant in its ubiquitous messages to consumers; it spent nearly $7 billion advertising itself in 2019 (more than double what Walmart spent). According to Ad Age, that made the company the biggest ad spender in the U.S. last year. But Amazon also sells advertising — $3.9 billion worth in the first quarter of 2020, up about 44% from a year earlier. The ads appear on Kindle, on Amazon Prime TV and on Amazon.com, some of them purchased by the same small sellers already paying to be listed on Amazon but afraid of getting lost on the site without additional promotion.

Because of the way e-commerce works, advertising on Amazon is essential for just about anyone selling on the site. According to marketing surveys, when online shoppers are thinking of buying an item, about half go straight to Amazon and search for the item, rather than Googling it or visiting another website. Most don’t scroll beyond the first page of results, so for sellers, it’s essential to be featured on that first page. They can hope that positive reviews lead Amazon’s algorithm to put them there, or they can buy ads.

Amazon is now the third-biggest digital ad seller in the United States, following Facebook and Google. And as it consolidates its grip on e-commerce, it can charge more for ads on its site. Buyers now compete with each other in an auction for keywords related to their products; the more people that are competing, the higher prices go. Revenues from advertising in the first three months of this year were up 43.8% from the previous year and 359% since 2017, according to company earnings reports.“It begins to feel like they’re playing chess, and they’re thinking three to four steps ahead,” says Andrew Lipsman, a retail analyst at market research firm eMarketer. “The more I think about Amazon, the more I marvel at it.”

So do investors, who saw its stock as a haven in a treacherous equity market. Amazon has gained half a trillion dollars in market value just this year, and shares should climb even higher when earnings are reported on July 30 if, as analysts at Goldman Sachs predicted, company revenues in North America show a jump of nearly 50% from the previous year. Bezos, already the richest person in the world with a net worth of $178 billion, could become the world’s first trillionaire by 2026.

That kind of concentrated wealth invites the stark comparisons embodied by people like Susan Bengel. One of the 175,000 employees Amazon hired during a pandemic that cost 40 million American jobs, Bengel, 62, had been living in her car before she started working at an Amazon warehouse in Pennsylvania in late March. She told me she recently got an offer from UPS, but she stayed with Amazon despite difficult conditions that include being on her feet for entire night shifts. UPS couldn’t match the pay or benefits she gets at Amazon, Bengel says. “It’s a monopoly, but they provide well,” she told me after one shift, in which each worker received a Chick-fil-A boxed dinner and bottle of hand sanitizer courtesy of Amazon. As stores close in her hometown of Wayne, Pa., she turned to Amazon to buy what she needs, including new shoes and back braces to get her through her shifts.

Lindsey Wasson—Getty ImagesPeople wearing masks outside the Amazon campus in Seattle, Wash., on April 30, 2020.

For Amazon shoppers, there’s not much not to like, apart from the unease at feeding a behemoth that competitors say is gobbling up their customers. Amazon argues that it’s not a monopoly, since it competes with brick and mortar stores for sales. “There’s a single retail market of which online is one channel. People do not shop exclusively online,” an Amazon spokesman said in a statement. But stores without Amazon’s logistics network are finding it impossible to compete. While Amazon was hiring tens of thousands of new workers, Jeff Curtis was running around his Maine bookshop, Sherman’s, scrambling to fulfill online orders much as Bezos had done in the mid-90s during Amazon’s early days selling only books online. But Curtis was by himself, because his store was closed to comply with stay-at-home orders. He says the state denied his request for special dispensation to bring in workers to help, even as Amazon was allowed to have on-site employees fulfill its own rush of online orders. Curtis has already decided to permanently close one of six branches of his store and is worried he may have to close another. It is the way of the world Amazon has built. Kathy Gonzalez, who runs two retail stores in northwest Florida, says she’s tried to offer shipping for furniture and other items she sells, but the cost is so high that people turn to Amazon, where shipping is free.

“If you want to be able to reach customers online, you’re essentially compelled to be on Amazon’s platform, but Amazon’s platform is not a place that you can succeed,” says Stacy Mitchell, the co-director at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. “With this sudden surge in online shopping, all of that has been magnified.”

Its mammoth size gives Amazon advantages available only to itself: One of its companies, Amazon Web Services (AWS), is a cloud computing platform that lets companies rent space on a network of servers. Its $35 billion in sales in 2019 (up 36% from the previous year) provided a financial cushion that let Amazon subsidize grocery delivery, expand its network of warehouses, and dare to offer one-day shipping without worrying about huge losses. The company now has 1,223 buildings covering 278 million square feet in its global logistics network, up 82% since 2016, according to MWPVL International, a supply chain and logistics consulting firm, and it’s still expanding at an “unprecedented” pace,” says Marc Wulfraat, founder and president of MWPVL. It built or announced plans to build 49 million square feet of logistics space in the U.S. between March and July alone, he says.

Amazon’s deep pockets are also ensuring the company’s ability to operate during the coronavirus in a way no other company can. Bezos said in late April that Amazon was investing $4 billion in coronavirus-protection efforts, including personal protective equipment for workers, enhanced cleaning at facilities, and development of its own COVID-19 testing capabilities. Galloway calls this the first “vaccinated supply chain,” and says it will help Amazon further dominate competitors as more people choose to buy and sell products through a service that has invested in being virus-free.

Amazon also continues to invest in technologies that will further consolidate its grip on e-commerce. In June, the company said it would spend $1.2 billion to acquire Zoox, a startup that makes self-driving vehicles, which could help in its delivery services. Amazon is expanding its fleet of cargo planes as other airlines lease them for cheap, the better to lessen its reliance on FedEx and UPS. It invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Rivian, an electric car company, and ordered 100,000 electric vans from the startup. In July, Amazon said it would open more cashier-less Amazon Go stores.

“Some people—and I’m one of them—only buy something if it’s on Amazon” says Brandon Fishman, CEO of VitaCup, which sells vitamin-infused coffee and tea both in retail stores and online and which saw a 35% increase in its Amazon sales in March and April. Fishman says it’s cheaper for him to sell his products in brick and mortar stores than to sell them on Amazon, because of the cut Amazon takes for packing and shipping. But he doesn’t want to miss out on e-commerce customers, who are his most loyal. More than half the people who buy VitaCup products on Amazon return to the site to buy more.

“Third party sellers would say it’s a deal with the devil,” says Galloway, the NYU professor. “Amazon brings us a lot of revenue, and we become addicted to it, but every year our economics get worse.”

In April, the Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon had been using data from third-party sellers to determine which items were selling well, then making private-label versions of the same products to compete with the sellers’ products. (Amazon said such a practice would violate its policies, and it vowed to investigate.) Other sellers have alleged that Amazon does not take down counterfeit versions of items sold on its site; they suspect that the company does not want to lose the fees it collects from both legitimate and non-legitimate sellers. (Amazon says it invests “heavily” in prohibiting the sale of counterfeit products, using automated systems to help ferret out counterfeits, and that 99.9% of all pages visited by customers did not receive a notice of potential counterfeit infringement.)

During the pandemic, sellers say, communication has worsened and Amazon has slowed its response to flagrant problems on the site. Charlene Anderson says she can’t sell a knitting gauge because the picture is inaccurate on Amazon’s catalog page; she has been trying the problem fixed for three months. In July, Anderson says, Amazon told sellers it was going to restrict how many products they could keep in warehouses based on a performance metric. The ups and downs of the pandemic have meant that while Anderson’s sales were down in the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, they’re up about 3% now. But some sellers in the Facebook group she runs report their sales are down more than 50%. Most frustrating for all of them is the inconsistency; they have no idea when Amazon will change the rules again. “We hate having to deal with all of this, but to build our business, we have to,” Anderson says.

Amazon says its platform allows anybody to make an income in an otherwise challenging pandemic economy, and that it is working to help sellers while meeting increased demand from consumers. “Our commitment to our selling partners has never been more steadfast,” an Amazon spokesperson said in a statement. In the twelve months ending May 31, 2020, small and medium-sized businesses sold 3.4 billion products, up 25% from the same time the previous year, according to a report Amazon released July 21. Amazon says the average American small and medium-sized seller had more than $160,000 in sales during that time, though it did not provide averages for how much these sellers took home after expenses.

Amazon is now valued by the stock market at $1.5 trillion, a figure that dwarfs the GDP of Saudi Arabia. The very thing that has made it so successful during the pandemic—its size and the many layers of its businesses—is what has given it so much leverage over sellers, workers and governments. Existing antitrust laws are designed to protect the consumer from predatory pricing. That orientation has shielded Amazon, because the company in many cases saves consumers money, but it is being questioned by scholars, and now lawmakers.

Critics say that regulating or breaking up Amazon will be better for merchants on its site and also, in the long term, for the economy. The rate of start-up creation in the United States has been falling for years; there is some evidence that this is because big companies like Amazon use their size to force smaller competitors out of business, or prevent them from being created in the first place. If small manufacturers and retailers had a fighting chance in competing with Amazon, they might help reverse the decline in start-up creation. New businesses in America are much of what drives the country’s productivity and economic growth, raising its standard of living and spreading wealth and jobs.

Historically, antitrust enforcement has helped upstarts; Companies like Google arose in part because of government antitrust action against Microsoft in the 1990s; the breakup of AT&T in the 1980s helped launch a technology renaissance.

“A key component of our success as a society is this very basic notion of checks and balances,” says Galloway, of NYU. “We’ve tried to avoid dictatorships, we try to avoid monopolies. We don’t have a judge, we have a judge and jury. And we believe in the wisdom of crowds.”

Charlene Anderson agrees. She says she and other sellers don’t want Amazon to disappear. If that happened, they would lose their income source and their access to millions of shoppers. They just want better communication with Amazon, more democracy, less dictatorship. “Amazon is not transparent at all,” she says. “Amazon will not tell you anything.”

Wednesday’s hearing before the House subcommittee on antitrust law will test that allegation, and more, as Congress peaks behind the curtain of one of America’s most successful companies. The next question is whether it has the tools to do anything about what it sees.

from Blogger https://ift.tt/2DeVkUp via IFTTT

[seomiamiseo]

Why Site Speed Still Matters (Revisited)

Posted by mwiegand

The marketing stack dictates infrastructure before content

Success in an earned media channel like organic search hinges on content. Specifically, on producing helpful content that has the ability to rank. Google has focused its recent algorithmic updates largely on promoting great content and natural links, and penalizing weak content with unscrupulous links (see also: Medic, BERT, and its legacy predecessors like Panda, Penguin, and Hummingbird).

But as SEO professionals prioritize content recommendations, keyword research, and link acquisition strategies (the more immediate factors in obtaining rankings), they risk devaluing technical changes — including site speed — that absolutely make clients more money on their existing organic audiences.

No content or channel initiative works without infrastructure (i.e. fast websites) and analytics. They are foundational to digital marketing success.

Content marketing is undeniably effective at getting sites to rank in search engines, which might satiate a client’s curiosity about what SEO can do for their visibility. And you might even be able to get slow sites to rank consistently, but the lack of attention to infrastructure will eventually come back to haunt you in conversion rates.

Site speed study

Sending prospective customers generated by good content to websites with slow experiences erodes trust literally by the second.

Our latest site speed study refresh looked at 10 websites spanning a number of industries and 26,000 different landing pages, ranging in performance from extremely slow pages (upwards of 9 seconds) to extremely fast (under one second).

The results showed that every second you can shave off your page load speed has intense conversion rate benefits that defy differences in verticals or selling approaches.

Pages that loaded in under one second converted at a rate around 2.5 times higher than pages that loaded slower than five seconds or more.

But the gains weren’t limited to fast vs. slow pages. The difference in conversion rates between “fast” pages (two-second load times) and “really fast” pages (under one second) was also more than double. This brings me to my next point.

Users will demand even faster sites

We first ran this survey in 2014 and, compared to today, the difference between “really fast” sites and “fast” sites wasn’t as stark as it is now. When we run it again in five years, expect the difference to be even more dramatic. Why? 5G adoption.

Ericsson’s mobility report, run back in November of last year, predicted 5G coverage would cover 65% of the world’s population in 2025.

Another study run by Parks Associates last April shows that, while gigabit internet adoption has slowed in the US, worldwide broadband adoption is expected to reach one billion households worldwide by 2023.

When you factor in both those trends, the only thing throttling a mobile or desktop user’s experience will be poor web infrastructure.

Prioritizing site speed

If you’ve read this far, then you’ll agree the conversion rate benefits of a fast site are significant and the marketplace demand for fast user experiences is widening quickly. But what practical steps should you take toward a faster page speed and which of those steps should you prioritize?

Moz, of course, has a great guide on page speed best practices. From that list, you have the following recommendations:

Enable compression

Minify JavaScript, CSS, and HTML

Rede redirects

Remove render-blocking JavaScript

Leverage browser caching

Improve server response time

Use a content distribution network (CDN)

Optimize images and video

If you were to reorder those recommendations in terms of difficulty to implement for the average search marketer and impact on site speed, it would probably go something like this:

Low difficulty, low impact

Optimize images and video

Marketers at any skill level can install a WordPress plugin like Smush and automatically reduce the size of any image uploaded in a piece of new or existing content. It saves a surprising amount of time when every image on a page is appropriately sized and compressed.

Minify JavaScript, CSS, and HTML

Minifying code is another quick win. There are plenty of tools out there that minify code, like minifycode.com. These tools essentially strip out all the spaces in the code, which can save a few kilobytes of size here and there. Those add up across an entire experience. It may take a developer to put these changes into place, but anybody can copy and paste code into the tools and send the minified version to the team doing the work.

Remove render-blocking JavaScript

Migrating to a tag management platform like Google Tag Manager can take the JavaScript weight off of your pages and put them in a container where they can load as fast or as slow as they need to without impairing the rest of the content or functionality on the page. Tag Managers are really easy to use for non-technical folks, too!

Medium difficulty, medium impact

The three recommendations below can be a little harder depending on who manages your CMS or existing web server. It could be as easy as clicking a checkbox, or as difficult as writing custom redirect rules on your setup. You’ll probably need to consult with either an IT and/or web developer to get these done.

Reduce redirects

Most SEOs can relay a URL redirect map to a client or internal stakeholder to determine server-side redirects with ease. But some sites include more complicated client-side redirect schemes using JavaScript. Working with a front end developer to tackle changes to script-based redirects can be tricky if those JS files impact the site functionality in other material ways.

Enable compression

Enabling compression in Apache or IIS is a pretty straightforward process, but requires access to servers and htaccess files that IT organizations are reluctant to hand marketers control over.

Leverage browser caching

Similarly, browser caching of website resources that don’t change very often is easy to do if you have control of the htaccess file. If you don’t, there are caching plugins or extensions for various CMS platforms that marketers can install to manage these settings.

High difficulty, high impact

Improve server response time

Common ways to improve response times include finding a more reliable web hosting service, optimizing databases that deliver functionality to the site, and monitoring PHP usages. Again, all these things fall under IT purview and require additional decision-makers and costs to execute.

Use a content distribution network (CDN)

Adopting a CDN can be time-consuming, expensive (hundreds or thousands of dollars per month per domain depending on site traffic), and require expertise that the average marketer or consultant doesn’t have to enable. But if you can do it, studies suggest Google is measuring time to first byte as a ranking factor and the payoffs can be huge.

Godspeed, everyone!

Hopefully, this inspires you to go out and make progress on site speed initiatives in your organization or for your clients. Not only is it worth the undertaking from a business perspective, but it’s actively making the internet a better place to be for the average person. Those are both things every search marketer can be proud of.

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

via Blogger https://ift.tt/2XRPm3U

[deannanaylor]

Why Site Speed Still Matters (Revisited)

Posted by mwiegand

The marketing stack dictates infrastructure before content

Success in an earned media channel like organic search hinges on content. Specifically, on producing helpful content that has the ability to rank. Google has focused its recent algorithmic updates largely on promoting great content and natural links, and penalizing weak content with unscrupulous links (see also: Medic, BERT, and its legacy predecessors like Panda, Penguin, and Hummingbird).

But as SEO professionals prioritize content recommendations, keyword research, and link acquisition strategies (the more immediate factors in obtaining rankings), they risk devaluing technical changes — including site speed — that absolutely make clients more money on their existing organic audiences.

No content or channel initiative works without infrastructure (i.e. fast websites) and analytics. They are foundational to digital marketing success.

Content marketing is undeniably effective at getting sites to rank in search engines, which might satiate a client’s curiosity about what SEO can do for their visibility. And you might even be able to get slow sites to rank consistently, but the lack of attention to infrastructure will eventually come back to haunt you in conversion rates.

Site speed study

Sending prospective customers generated by good content to websites with slow experiences erodes trust literally by the second.

Our latest site speed study refresh looked at 10 websites spanning a number of industries and 26,000 different landing pages, ranging in performance from extremely slow pages (upwards of 9 seconds) to extremely fast (under one second).

The results showed that every second you can shave off your page load speed has intense conversion rate benefits that defy differences in verticals or selling approaches.

Pages that loaded in under one second converted at a rate around 2.5 times higher than pages that loaded slower than five seconds or more.

But the gains weren’t limited to fast vs. slow pages. The difference in conversion rates between “fast” pages (two-second load times) and “really fast” pages (under one second) was also more than double. This brings me to my next point.

Users will demand even faster sites

We first ran this survey in 2014 and, compared to today, the difference between “really fast” sites and “fast” sites wasn’t as stark as it is now. When we run it again in five years, expect the difference to be even more dramatic. Why? 5G adoption.

Ericsson’s mobility report, run back in November of last year, predicted 5G coverage would cover 65% of the world’s population in 2025.

Another study run by Parks Associates last April shows that, while gigabit internet adoption has slowed in the US, worldwide broadband adoption is expected to reach one billion households worldwide by 2023.

When you factor in both those trends, the only thing throttling a mobile or desktop user’s experience will be poor web infrastructure.

Prioritizing site speed

If you’ve read this far, then you’ll agree the conversion rate benefits of a fast site are significant and the marketplace demand for fast user experiences is widening quickly. But what practical steps should you take toward a faster page speed and which of those steps should you prioritize?

Moz, of course, has a great guide on page speed best practices. From that list, you have the following recommendations:

Enable compression

Minify JavaScript, CSS, and HTML

Rede redirects

Remove render-blocking JavaScript

Leverage browser caching

Improve server response time

Use a content distribution network (CDN)

Optimize images and video

If you were to reorder those recommendations in terms of difficulty to implement for the average search marketer and impact on site speed, it would probably go something like this:

Low difficulty, low impact

Optimize images and video

Marketers at any skill level can install a WordPress plugin like Smush and automatically reduce the size of any image uploaded in a piece of new or existing content. It saves a surprising amount of time when every image on a page is appropriately sized and compressed.

Minify JavaScript, CSS, and HTML

Minifying code is another quick win. There are plenty of tools out there that minify code, like minifycode.com. These tools essentially strip out all the spaces in the code, which can save a few kilobytes of size here and there. Those add up across an entire experience. It may take a developer to put these changes into place, but anybody can copy and paste code into the tools and send the minified version to the team doing the work.

Remove render-blocking JavaScript

Migrating to a tag management platform like Google Tag Manager can take the JavaScript weight off of your pages and put them in a container where they can load as fast or as slow as they need to without impairing the rest of the content or functionality on the page. Tag Managers are really easy to use for non-technical folks, too!

Medium difficulty, medium impact

The three recommendations below can be a little harder depending on who manages your CMS or existing web server. It could be as easy as clicking a checkbox, or as difficult as writing custom redirect rules on your setup. You’ll probably need to consult with either an IT and/or web developer to get these done.

Reduce redirects

Most SEOs can relay a URL redirect map to a client or internal stakeholder to determine server-side redirects with ease. But some sites include more complicated client-side redirect schemes using JavaScript. Working with a front end developer to tackle changes to script-based redirects can be tricky if those JS files impact the site functionality in other material ways.

Enable compression

Enabling compression in Apache or IIS is a pretty straightforward process, but requires access to servers and htaccess files that IT organizations are reluctant to hand marketers control over.

Leverage browser caching

Similarly, browser caching of website resources that don’t change very often is easy to do if you have control of the htaccess file. If you don’t, there are caching plugins or extensions for various CMS platforms that marketers can install to manage these settings.

High difficulty, high impact

Improve server response time

Common ways to improve response times include finding a more reliable web hosting service, optimizing databases that deliver functionality to the site, and monitoring PHP usages. Again, all these things fall under IT purview and require additional decision-makers and costs to execute.

Use a content distribution network (CDN)

Adopting a CDN can be time-consuming, expensive (hundreds or thousands of dollars per month per domain depending on site traffic), and require expertise that the average marketer or consultant doesn’t have to enable. But if you can do it, studies suggest Google is measuring time to first byte as a ranking factor and the payoffs can be huge.

Godspeed, everyone!

Hopefully, this inspires you to go out and make progress on site speed initiatives in your organization or for your clients. Not only is it worth the undertaking from a business perspective, but it’s actively making the internet a better place to be for the average person. Those are both things every search marketer can be proud of.

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don’t have time to hunt down but want to read!

Why Site Speed Still Matters (Revisited) published first on http://goproski.com/

[kaeraemarketing]

SEO Fireside Chat (Part 2) Website SEO strategies can seem daunting, but with the right guidance, they become powerful tools to increase your online visibility and attract more targeted traffic to your business. KaeRae Education's simple walk-through demystifies these techniques, empowering you to understand and implement your own SEO strategies with confidence, ultimately helping your website climb search engine rankings and reach more potential customers. Get access to the full SEO Fireside Chat here: https://ift.tt/qTJ5GDj ✅ Important Links to Follow - Google Audit: https://ift.tt/UPY2TnM - Google Ads Management: https://ift.tt/1HgOoJb - SEO Website Update: https://ift.tt/mJSPQzK - Visit for digital resources: https://ift.tt/TE8jgJ3 - Join a free community: https://ift.tt/YAWgPdw 🔔𝐃𝐨𝐧'𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐮𝐛𝐬𝐜𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐲 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐥 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐮𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬. https://www.youtube.com/@kaeraemarketing/?sub_confirmation=1 🔗 Stay Connected With Me. Facebook: https://ift.tt/5JpNvPD Instagram: https://ift.tt/p1BfmwA Tiktok: https://ift.tt/nRkySVF Linkedin: https://ift.tt/tpi780w Pinterest: https://ift.tt/vBhQmwo Website: https://ift.tt/byLAmPW 📩 For business inquiries: kaeraemarketing@gmail.com ============================= 🎬Suggested videos for you: ▶️ https://youtu.be/8ld3_DuQqXg ▶️ https://youtu.be/XOYPpbh3zaY ▶️ https://youtu.be/mQJoodRwM84 ▶️ https://youtu.be/xex_HqP0QWU ▶️ https://youtu.be/p_x_ubfygfM ▶️ https://youtu.be/pFkiL4fh6o0 ▶️ https://youtu.be/00tcBgRxjAI ▶️ https://youtu.be/Lc-F8HzoyFY ▶️ https://youtu.be/poLpFGWBvFM ▶️ https://youtu.be/E8mUUvMsUmU ▶️ https://youtu.be/d-o5pv-HDFw ▶️ https://youtu.be/NTdbrijJKyM ▶️ https://youtu.be/I5sxI9RaHXY ================================= ✅ About Kelsey Flannery (KaeRae Marketing). Welcome! I’m Kelsey Flannery, also known as KaeRae, a Google Ads expert helping business owners navigate Google tools with ease. Through simple, informative videos, I provide guidance on Google Analytics, Google Ads, Google Business, Search Console, Tag Manager, YouTube Ads, Local Services Ads, Merchant Center, and more. As the owner of KaeRae Marketing, Inc., I provide results-driven marketing for home service businesses and eCommerce. Certified in key Google tools, I specialize in lead generation, PPC advertising, and online growth strategies. Let’s maximize your business’s online reach and drive real results! For Business inquiries, please use the contact information below: 📩 Email: kaeraemarketing@gmail.com 🔔 Struggling with Google Analytics, Ads, or SEO? Subscribe for expert tips, effective strategies, & the best tools on PPC, lead generation, and maximizing your online reach! https://www.youtube.com/@kaeraemarketing/?sub_confirmation=1 ================================= 🔎 Related Phrases: SEO basics, keyword research, organic traffic, backlink building, on-page optimization, meta descriptions, title tags, content marketing, search engine rankings, SEO audit, link building strategies, Google algorithm updates, local SEO, mobile optimization, site speed optimization, voice search SEO, technical SEO, featured snippets, competitive analysis, search intent Hashtags #SEOBasics #KeywordResearch #OrganicTraffic #BacklinkBuilding #OnPageOptimization #MetaDescriptions #TitleTags #ContentMarketing #SearchEngineRankings #SEOAudit #LinkBuildingStrategies #GoogleAlgorithmUpdates #LocalSEO #MobileOptimization #SiteSpeedOptimization #VoiceSearchSEO #TechnicalSEO #FeaturedSnippets #CompetitiveAnalysis #SearchIntent via Kelsey Flannery (KaeRae Marketing) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCji8NuY6sx7RVYD85k_XJlQ April 22, 2025 at 09:00PM

[localbizlift]

Why Site Speed Still Matters (Revisited)

Posted by mwiegand

The marketing stack dictates infrastructure before content

Success in an earned media channel like organic search hinges on content. Specifically, on producing helpful content that has the ability to rank. Google has focused its recent algorithmic updates largely on promoting great content and natural links, and penalizing weak content with unscrupulous links (see also: Medic, BERT, and its legacy predecessors like Panda, Penguin, and Hummingbird).

But as SEO professionals prioritize content recommendations, keyword research, and link acquisition strategies (the more immediate factors in obtaining rankings), they risk devaluing technical changes — including site speed — that absolutely make clients more money on their existing organic audiences.

No content or channel initiative works without infrastructure (i.e. fast websites) and analytics. They are foundational to digital marketing success.

Content marketing is undeniably effective at getting sites to rank in search engines, which might satiate a client’s curiosity about what SEO can do for their visibility. And you might even be able to get slow sites to rank consistently, but the lack of attention to infrastructure will eventually come back to haunt you in conversion rates.

Site speed study

Sending prospective customers generated by good content to websites with slow experiences erodes trust literally by the second.

Our latest site speed study refresh looked at 10 websites spanning a number of industries and 26,000 different landing pages, ranging in performance from extremely slow pages (upwards of 9 seconds) to extremely fast (under one second).

The results showed that every second you can shave off your page load speed has intense conversion rate benefits that defy differences in verticals or selling approaches.

Pages that loaded in under one second converted at a rate around 2.5 times higher than pages that loaded slower than five seconds or more.

But the gains weren’t limited to fast vs. slow pages. The difference in conversion rates between “fast” pages (two-second load times) and “really fast” pages (under one second) was also more than double. This brings me to my next point.

Users will demand even faster sites

We first ran this survey in 2014 and, compared to today, the difference between “really fast” sites and “fast” sites wasn’t as stark as it is now. When we run it again in five years, expect the difference to be even more dramatic. Why? 5G adoption.

Ericsson’s mobility report, run back in November of last year, predicted 5G coverage would cover 65% of the world’s population in 2025.

Another study run by Parks Associates last April shows that, while gigabit internet adoption has slowed in the US, worldwide broadband adoption is expected to reach one billion households worldwide by 2023.

When you factor in both those trends, the only thing throttling a mobile or desktop user’s experience will be poor web infrastructure.

Prioritizing site speed

If you’ve read this far, then you’ll agree the conversion rate benefits of a fast site are significant and the marketplace demand for fast user experiences is widening quickly. But what practical steps should you take toward a faster page speed and which of those steps should you prioritize?

Moz, of course, has a great guide on page speed best practices. From that list, you have the following recommendations:

Enable compression

Minify JavaScript, CSS, and HTML

Rede redirects

Remove render-blocking JavaScript

Leverage browser caching

Improve server response time

Use a content distribution network (CDN)

Optimize images and video

If you were to reorder those recommendations in terms of difficulty to implement for the average search marketer and impact on site speed, it would probably go something like this:

Low difficulty, low impact

Optimize images and video

Marketers at any skill level can install a WordPress plugin like Smush and automatically reduce the size of any image uploaded in a piece of new or existing content. It saves a surprising amount of time when every image on a page is appropriately sized and compressed.

Minify JavaScript, CSS, and HTML

Minifying code is another quick win. There are plenty of tools out there that minify code, like minifycode.com. These tools essentially strip out all the spaces in the code, which can save a few kilobytes of size here and there. Those add up across an entire experience. It may take a developer to put these changes into place, but anybody can copy and paste code into the tools and send the minified version to the team doing the work.

Remove render-blocking JavaScript

Migrating to a tag management platform like Google Tag Manager can take the JavaScript weight off of your pages and put them in a container where they can load as fast or as slow as they need to without impairing the rest of the content or functionality on the page. Tag Managers are really easy to use for non-technical folks, too!

Medium difficulty, medium impact

The three recommendations below can be a little harder depending on who manages your CMS or existing web server. It could be as easy as clicking a checkbox, or as difficult as writing custom redirect rules on your setup. You’ll probably need to consult with either an IT and/or web developer to get these done.

Reduce redirects

Most SEOs can relay a URL redirect map to a client or internal stakeholder to determine server-side redirects with ease. But some sites include more complicated client-side redirect schemes using JavaScript. Working with a front end developer to tackle changes to script-based redirects can be tricky if those JS files impact the site functionality in other material ways.

Enable compression

Enabling compression in Apache or IIS is a pretty straightforward process, but requires access to servers and htaccess files that IT organizations are reluctant to hand marketers control over.

Leverage browser caching

Similarly, browser caching of website resources that don’t change very often is easy to do if you have control of the htaccess file. If you don’t, there are caching plugins or extensions for various CMS platforms that marketers can install to manage these settings.

High difficulty, high impact

Improve server response time

Common ways to improve response times include finding a more reliable web hosting service, optimizing databases that deliver functionality to the site, and monitoring PHP usages. Again, all these things fall under IT purview and require additional decision-makers and costs to execute.

Use a content distribution network (CDN)

Adopting a CDN can be time-consuming, expensive (hundreds or thousands of dollars per month per domain depending on site traffic), and require expertise that the average marketer or consultant doesn’t have to enable. But if you can do it, studies suggest Google is measuring time to first byte as a ranking factor and the payoffs can be huge.

Godspeed, everyone!

Hopefully, this inspires you to go out and make progress on site speed initiatives in your organization or for your clients. Not only is it worth the undertaking from a business perspective, but it’s actively making the internet a better place to be for the average person. Those are both things every search marketer can be proud of.

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

[dentalimplant0]

Why Site Speed Still Matters (Revisited)

Posted by mwiegand

The marketing stack dictates infrastructure before content

Success in an earned media channel like organic search hinges on content. Specifically, on producing helpful content that has the ability to rank. Google has focused its recent algorithmic updates largely on promoting great content and natural links, and penalizing weak content with unscrupulous links (see also: Medic, BERT, and its legacy predecessors like Panda, Penguin, and Hummingbird).

But as SEO professionals prioritize content recommendations, keyword research, and link acquisition strategies (the more immediate factors in obtaining rankings), they risk devaluing technical changes — including site speed — that absolutely make clients more money on their existing organic audiences.

No content or channel initiative works without infrastructure (i.e. fast websites) and analytics. They are foundational to digital marketing success.

Content marketing is undeniably effective at getting sites to rank in search engines, which might satiate a client’s curiosity about what SEO can do for their visibility. And you might even be able to get slow sites to rank consistently, but the lack of attention to infrastructure will eventually come back to haunt you in conversion rates.

Site speed study

Sending prospective customers generated by good content to websites with slow experiences erodes trust literally by the second.

Our latest site speed study refresh looked at 10 websites spanning a number of industries and 26,000 different landing pages, ranging in performance from extremely slow pages (upwards of 9 seconds) to extremely fast (under one second).

The results showed that every second you can shave off your page load speed has intense conversion rate benefits that defy differences in verticals or selling approaches.

Pages that loaded in under one second converted at a rate around 2.5 times higher than pages that loaded slower than five seconds or more.

But the gains weren’t limited to fast vs. slow pages. The difference in conversion rates between “fast” pages (two-second load times) and “really fast” pages (under one second) was also more than double. This brings me to my next point.

Users will demand even faster sites

We first ran this survey in 2014 and, compared to today, the difference between “really fast” sites and “fast” sites wasn’t as stark as it is now. When we run it again in five years, expect the difference to be even more dramatic. Why? 5G adoption.

Ericsson’s mobility report, run back in November of last year, predicted 5G coverage would cover 65% of the world’s population in 2025.

Another study run by Parks Associates last April shows that, while gigabit internet adoption has slowed in the US, worldwide broadband adoption is expected to reach one billion households worldwide by 2023.

When you factor in both those trends, the only thing throttling a mobile or desktop user’s experience will be poor web infrastructure.

Prioritizing site speed

If you’ve read this far, then you’ll agree the conversion rate benefits of a fast site are significant and the marketplace demand for fast user experiences is widening quickly. But what practical steps should you take toward a faster page speed and which of those steps should you prioritize?

Moz, of course, has a great guide on page speed best practices. From that list, you have the following recommendations:

Enable compression

Minify JavaScript, CSS, and HTML

Rede redirects

Remove render-blocking JavaScript

Leverage browser caching

Improve server response time

Use a content distribution network (CDN)

Optimize images and video

If you were to reorder those recommendations in terms of difficulty to implement for the average search marketer and impact on site speed, it would probably go something like this:

Low difficulty, low impact

Optimize images and video

Marketers at any skill level can install a WordPress plugin like Smush and automatically reduce the size of any image uploaded in a piece of new or existing content. It saves a surprising amount of time when every image on a page is appropriately sized and compressed.

Minify JavaScript, CSS, and HTML

Minifying code is another quick win. There are plenty of tools out there that minify code, like minifycode.com. These tools essentially strip out all the spaces in the code, which can save a few kilobytes of size here and there. Those add up across an entire experience. It may take a developer to put these changes into place, but anybody can copy and paste code into the tools and send the minified version to the team doing the work.

Remove render-blocking JavaScript

Migrating to a tag management platform like Google Tag Manager can take the JavaScript weight off of your pages and put them in a container where they can load as fast or as slow as they need to without impairing the rest of the content or functionality on the page. Tag Managers are really easy to use for non-technical folks, too!

Medium difficulty, medium impact

The three recommendations below can be a little harder depending on who manages your CMS or existing web server. It could be as easy as clicking a checkbox, or as difficult as writing custom redirect rules on your setup. You’ll probably need to consult with either an IT and/or web developer to get these done.

Reduce redirects

Most SEOs can relay a URL redirect map to a client or internal stakeholder to determine server-side redirects with ease. But some sites include more complicated client-side redirect schemes using JavaScript. Working with a front end developer to tackle changes to script-based redirects can be tricky if those JS files impact the site functionality in other material ways.

Enable compression

Enabling compression in Apache or IIS is a pretty straightforward process, but requires access to servers and htaccess files that IT organizations are reluctant to hand marketers control over.

Leverage browser caching

Similarly, browser caching of website resources that don’t change very often is easy to do if you have control of the htaccess file. If you don’t, there are caching plugins or extensions for various CMS platforms that marketers can install to manage these settings.

High difficulty, high impact

Improve server response time

Common ways to improve response times include finding a more reliable web hosting service, optimizing databases that deliver functionality to the site, and monitoring PHP usages. Again, all these things fall under IT purview and require additional decision-makers and costs to execute.

Use a content distribution network (CDN)

Adopting a CDN can be time-consuming, expensive (hundreds or thousands of dollars per month per domain depending on site traffic), and require expertise that the average marketer or consultant doesn’t have to enable. But if you can do it, studies suggest Google is measuring time to first byte as a ranking factor and the payoffs can be huge.

Godspeed, everyone!

Hopefully, this inspires you to go out and make progress on site speed initiatives in your organization or for your clients. Not only is it worth the undertaking from a business perspective, but it’s actively making the internet a better place to be for the average person. Those are both things every search marketer can be proud of.

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

from https://dentistry01.blogspot.com/2020/04/why-site-speed-still-matters-revisited.html

[goproski]

Why Site Speed Still Matters (Revisited)

Posted by mwiegand

The marketing stack dictates infrastructure before content

Success in an earned media channel like organic search hinges on content. Specifically, on producing helpful content that has the ability to rank. Google has focused its recent algorithmic updates largely on promoting great content and natural links, and penalizing weak content with unscrupulous links (see also: Medic, BERT, and its legacy predecessors like Panda, Penguin, and Hummingbird).

But as SEO professionals prioritize content recommendations, keyword research, and link acquisition strategies (the more immediate factors in obtaining rankings), they risk devaluing technical changes — including site speed — that absolutely make clients more money on their existing organic audiences.

No content or channel initiative works without infrastructure (i.e. fast websites) and analytics. They are foundational to digital marketing success.

Content marketing is undeniably effective at getting sites to rank in search engines, which might satiate a client’s curiosity about what SEO can do for their visibility. And you might even be able to get slow sites to rank consistently, but the lack of attention to infrastructure will eventually come back to haunt you in conversion rates.

Site speed study

Sending prospective customers generated by good content to websites with slow experiences erodes trust literally by the second.

Our latest site speed study refresh looked at 10 websites spanning a number of industries and 26,000 different landing pages, ranging in performance from extremely slow pages (upwards of 9 seconds) to extremely fast (under one second).

The results showed that every second you can shave off your page load speed has intense conversion rate benefits that defy differences in verticals or selling approaches.

Pages that loaded in under one second converted at a rate around 2.5 times higher than pages that loaded slower than five seconds or more.

But the gains weren’t limited to fast vs. slow pages. The difference in conversion rates between “fast” pages (two-second load times) and “really fast” pages (under one second) was also more than double. This brings me to my next point.

Users will demand even faster sites

We first ran this survey in 2014 and, compared to today, the difference between “really fast” sites and “fast” sites wasn’t as stark as it is now. When we run it again in five years, expect the difference to be even more dramatic. Why? 5G adoption.

Ericsson’s mobility report, run back in November of last year, predicted 5G coverage would cover 65% of the world’s population in 2025.

Another study run by Parks Associates last April shows that, while gigabit internet adoption has slowed in the US, worldwide broadband adoption is expected to reach one billion households worldwide by 2023.

When you factor in both those trends, the only thing throttling a mobile or desktop user’s experience will be poor web infrastructure.

Prioritizing site speed

If you’ve read this far, then you’ll agree the conversion rate benefits of a fast site are significant and the marketplace demand for fast user experiences is widening quickly. But what practical steps should you take toward a faster page speed and which of those steps should you prioritize?

Moz, of course, has a great guide on page speed best practices. From that list, you have the following recommendations:

Enable compression

Minify JavaScript, CSS, and HTML

Rede redirects

Remove render-blocking JavaScript

Leverage browser caching

Improve server response time

Use a content distribution network (CDN)

Optimize images and video

If you were to reorder those recommendations in terms of difficulty to implement for the average search marketer and impact on site speed, it would probably go something like this:

Low difficulty, low impact

Optimize images and video

Marketers at any skill level can install a WordPress plugin like Smush and automatically reduce the size of any image uploaded in a piece of new or existing content. It saves a surprising amount of time when every image on a page is appropriately sized and compressed.

Minify JavaScript, CSS, and HTML

Minifying code is another quick win. There are plenty of tools out there that minify code, like minifycode.com. These tools essentially strip out all the spaces in the code, which can save a few kilobytes of size here and there. Those add up across an entire experience. It may take a developer to put these changes into place, but anybody can copy and paste code into the tools and send the minified version to the team doing the work.

Remove render-blocking JavaScript

Migrating to a tag management platform like Google Tag Manager can take the JavaScript weight off of your pages and put them in a container where they can load as fast or as slow as they need to without impairing the rest of the content or functionality on the page. Tag Managers are really easy to use for non-technical folks, too!

Medium difficulty, medium impact

The three recommendations below can be a little harder depending on who manages your CMS or existing web server. It could be as easy as clicking a checkbox, or as difficult as writing custom redirect rules on your setup. You’ll probably need to consult with either an IT and/or web developer to get these done.

Reduce redirects

Most SEOs can relay a URL redirect map to a client or internal stakeholder to determine server-side redirects with ease. But some sites include more complicated client-side redirect schemes using JavaScript. Working with a front end developer to tackle changes to script-based redirects can be tricky if those JS files impact the site functionality in other material ways.

Enable compression

Enabling compression in Apache or IIS is a pretty straightforward process, but requires access to servers and htaccess files that IT organizations are reluctant to hand marketers control over.

Leverage browser caching

Similarly, browser caching of website resources that don’t change very often is easy to do if you have control of the htaccess file. If you don’t, there are caching plugins or extensions for various CMS platforms that marketers can install to manage these settings.

High difficulty, high impact

Improve server response time

Common ways to improve response times include finding a more reliable web hosting service, optimizing databases that deliver functionality to the site, and monitoring PHP usages. Again, all these things fall under IT purview and require additional decision-makers and costs to execute.

Use a content distribution network (CDN)

Adopting a CDN can be time-consuming, expensive (hundreds or thousands of dollars per month per domain depending on site traffic), and require expertise that the average marketer or consultant doesn’t have to enable. But if you can do it, studies suggest Google is measuring time to first byte as a ranking factor and the payoffs can be huge.

Godspeed, everyone!

Hopefully, this inspires you to go out and make progress on site speed initiatives in your organization or for your clients. Not only is it worth the undertaking from a business perspective, but it’s actively making the internet a better place to be for the average person. Those are both things every search marketer can be proud of.

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

[theh0ustonplacestobe]

Why Site Speed Still Matters (Revisited)

Posted by mwiegand

The marketing stack dictates infrastructure before content

Success in an earned media channel like organic search hinges on content. Specifically, on producing helpful content that has the ability to rank. Google has focused its recent algorithmic updates largely on promoting great content and natural links, and penalizing weak content with unscrupulous links (see also: Medic, BERT, and its legacy predecessors like Panda, Penguin, and Hummingbird).

But as SEO professionals prioritize content recommendations, keyword research, and link acquisition strategies (the more immediate factors in obtaining rankings), they risk devaluing technical changes — including site speed — that absolutely make clients more money on their existing organic audiences.

No content or channel initiative works without infrastructure (i.e. fast websites) and analytics. They are foundational to digital marketing success.

Content marketing is undeniably effective at getting sites to rank in search engines, which might satiate a client’s curiosity about what SEO can do for their visibility. And you might even be able to get slow sites to rank consistently, but the lack of attention to infrastructure will eventually come back to haunt you in conversion rates.

Site speed study

Sending prospective customers generated by good content to websites with slow experiences erodes trust literally by the second.

Our latest site speed study refresh looked at 10 websites spanning a number of industries and 26,000 different landing pages, ranging in performance from extremely slow pages (upwards of 9 seconds) to extremely fast (under one second).

The results showed that every second you can shave off your page load speed has intense conversion rate benefits that defy differences in verticals or selling approaches.

Pages that loaded in under one second converted at a rate around 2.5 times higher than pages that loaded slower than five seconds or more.

But the gains weren’t limited to fast vs. slow pages. The difference in conversion rates between “fast” pages (two-second load times) and “really fast” pages (under one second) was also more than double. This brings me to my next point.

Users will demand even faster sites

We first ran this survey in 2014 and, compared to today, the difference between “really fast” sites and “fast” sites wasn’t as stark as it is now. When we run it again in five years, expect the difference to be even more dramatic. Why? 5G adoption.

Ericsson’s mobility report, run back in November of last year, predicted 5G coverage would cover 65% of the world’s population in 2025.

Another study run by Parks Associates last April shows that, while gigabit internet adoption has slowed in the US, worldwide broadband adoption is expected to reach one billion households worldwide by 2023.

When you factor in both those trends, the only thing throttling a mobile or desktop user’s experience will be poor web infrastructure.

Prioritizing site speed

If you’ve read this far, then you’ll agree the conversion rate benefits of a fast site are significant and the marketplace demand for fast user experiences is widening quickly. But what practical steps should you take toward a faster page speed and which of those steps should you prioritize?

Moz, of course, has a great guide on page speed best practices. From that list, you have the following recommendations:

Enable compression

Minify JavaScript, CSS, and HTML

Rede redirects

Remove render-blocking JavaScript

Leverage browser caching

Improve server response time

Use a content distribution network (CDN)

Optimize images and video

If you were to reorder those recommendations in terms of difficulty to implement for the average search marketer and impact on site speed, it would probably go something like this:

Low difficulty, low impact

Optimize images and video

Marketers at any skill level can install a WordPress plugin like Smush and automatically reduce the size of any image uploaded in a piece of new or existing content. It saves a surprising amount of time when every image on a page is appropriately sized and compressed.

Minify JavaScript, CSS, and HTML

Minifying code is another quick win. There are plenty of tools out there that minify code, like minifycode.com. These tools essentially strip out all the spaces in the code, which can save a few kilobytes of size here and there. Those add up across an entire experience. It may take a developer to put these changes into place, but anybody can copy and paste code into the tools and send the minified version to the team doing the work.

Remove render-blocking JavaScript

Migrating to a tag management platform like Google Tag Manager can take the JavaScript weight off of your pages and put them in a container where they can load as fast or as slow as they need to without impairing the rest of the content or functionality on the page. Tag Managers are really easy to use for non-technical folks, too!

Medium difficulty, medium impact

The three recommendations below can be a little harder depending on who manages your CMS or existing web server. It could be as easy as clicking a checkbox, or as difficult as writing custom redirect rules on your setup. You’ll probably need to consult with either an IT and/or web developer to get these done.

Reduce redirects

Most SEOs can relay a URL redirect map to a client or internal stakeholder to determine server-side redirects with ease. But some sites include more complicated client-side redirect schemes using JavaScript. Working with a front end developer to tackle changes to script-based redirects can be tricky if those JS files impact the site functionality in other material ways.

Enable compression

Enabling compression in Apache or IIS is a pretty straightforward process, but requires access to servers and htaccess files that IT organizations are reluctant to hand marketers control over.

Leverage browser caching

Similarly, browser caching of website resources that don’t change very often is easy to do if you have control of the htaccess file. If you don’t, there are caching plugins or extensions for various CMS platforms that marketers can install to manage these settings.

High difficulty, high impact

Improve server response time

Common ways to improve response times include finding a more reliable web hosting service, optimizing databases that deliver functionality to the site, and monitoring PHP usages. Again, all these things fall under IT purview and require additional decision-makers and costs to execute.

Use a content distribution network (CDN)

Adopting a CDN can be time-consuming, expensive (hundreds or thousands of dollars per month per domain depending on site traffic), and require expertise that the average marketer or consultant doesn’t have to enable. But if you can do it, studies suggest Google is measuring time to first byte as a ranking factor and the payoffs can be huge.

Godspeed, everyone!

Hopefully, this inspires you to go out and make progress on site speed initiatives in your organization or for your clients. Not only is it worth the undertaking from a business perspective, but it’s actively making the internet a better place to be for the average person. Those are both things every search marketer can be proud of.

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don’t have time to hunt down but want to read!

[ryangonzales928]

Why Site Speed Still Matters (Revisited)

Posted by mwiegand

The marketing stack dictates infrastructure before content

Success in an earned media channel like organic search hinges on content. Specifically, on producing helpful content that has the ability to rank. Google has focused its recent algorithmic updates largely on promoting great content and natural links, and penalizing weak content with unscrupulous links (see also: Medic, BERT, and its legacy predecessors like Panda, Penguin, and Hummingbird).

But as SEO professionals prioritize content recommendations, keyword research, and link acquisition strategies (the more immediate factors in obtaining rankings), they risk devaluing technical changes — including site speed — that absolutely make clients more money on their existing organic audiences.

No content or channel initiative works without infrastructure (i.e. fast websites) and analytics. They are foundational to digital marketing success.

Content marketing is undeniably effective at getting sites to rank in search engines, which might satiate a client’s curiosity about what SEO can do for their visibility. And you might even be able to get slow sites to rank consistently, but the lack of attention to infrastructure will eventually come back to haunt you in conversion rates.

Site speed study

Sending prospective customers generated by good content to websites with slow experiences erodes trust literally by the second.

Our latest site speed study refresh looked at 10 websites spanning a number of industries and 26,000 different landing pages, ranging in performance from extremely slow pages (upwards of 9 seconds) to extremely fast (under one second).

The results showed that every second you can shave off your page load speed has intense conversion rate benefits that defy differences in verticals or selling approaches.

Pages that loaded in under one second converted at a rate around 2.5 times higher than pages that loaded slower than five seconds or more.

But the gains weren’t limited to fast vs. slow pages. The difference in conversion rates between “fast” pages (two-second load times) and “really fast” pages (under one second) was also more than double. This brings me to my next point.

Users will demand even faster sites

We first ran this survey in 2014 and, compared to today, the difference between “really fast” sites and “fast” sites wasn’t as stark as it is now. When we run it again in five years, expect the difference to be even more dramatic. Why? 5G adoption.

Ericsson’s mobility report, run back in November of last year, predicted 5G coverage would cover 65% of the world’s population in 2025.

Another study run by Parks Associates last April shows that, while gigabit internet adoption has slowed in the US, worldwide broadband adoption is expected to reach one billion households worldwide by 2023.

When you factor in both those trends, the only thing throttling a mobile or desktop user’s experience will be poor web infrastructure.

Prioritizing site speed

If you’ve read this far, then you’ll agree the conversion rate benefits of a fast site are significant and the marketplace demand for fast user experiences is widening quickly. But what practical steps should you take toward a faster page speed and which of those steps should you prioritize?

Moz, of course, has a great guide on page speed best practices. From that list, you have the following recommendations:

Enable compression

Minify JavaScript, CSS, and HTML

Rede redirects

Remove render-blocking JavaScript

Leverage browser caching

Improve server response time

Use a content distribution network (CDN)

Optimize images and video

If you were to reorder those recommendations in terms of difficulty to implement for the average search marketer and impact on site speed, it would probably go something like this:

Low difficulty, low impact

Optimize images and video

Marketers at any skill level can install a WordPress plugin like Smush and automatically reduce the size of any image uploaded in a piece of new or existing content. It saves a surprising amount of time when every image on a page is appropriately sized and compressed.

Minify JavaScript, CSS, and HTML

Minifying code is another quick win. There are plenty of tools out there that minify code, like minifycode.com. These tools essentially strip out all the spaces in the code, which can save a few kilobytes of size here and there. Those add up across an entire experience. It may take a developer to put these changes into place, but anybody can copy and paste code into the tools and send the minified version to the team doing the work.

Remove render-blocking JavaScript

Migrating to a tag management platform like Google Tag Manager can take the JavaScript weight off of your pages and put them in a container where they can load as fast or as slow as they need to without impairing the rest of the content or functionality on the page. Tag Managers are really easy to use for non-technical folks, too!

Medium difficulty, medium impact

The three recommendations below can be a little harder depending on who manages your CMS or existing web server. It could be as easy as clicking a checkbox, or as difficult as writing custom redirect rules on your setup. You’ll probably need to consult with either an IT and/or web developer to get these done.

Reduce redirects

Most SEOs can relay a URL redirect map to a client or internal stakeholder to determine server-side redirects with ease. But some sites include more complicated client-side redirect schemes using JavaScript. Working with a front end developer to tackle changes to script-based redirects can be tricky if those JS files impact the site functionality in other material ways.

Enable compression

Enabling compression in Apache or IIS is a pretty straightforward process, but requires access to servers and htaccess files that IT organizations are reluctant to hand marketers control over.

Leverage browser caching

Similarly, browser caching of website resources that don’t change very often is easy to do if you have control of the htaccess file. If you don’t, there are caching plugins or extensions for various CMS platforms that marketers can install to manage these settings.

High difficulty, high impact

Improve server response time

Common ways to improve response times include finding a more reliable web hosting service, optimizing databases that deliver functionality to the site, and monitoring PHP usages. Again, all these things fall under IT purview and require additional decision-makers and costs to execute.

Use a content distribution network (CDN)

Adopting a CDN can be time-consuming, expensive (hundreds or thousands of dollars per month per domain depending on site traffic), and require expertise that the average marketer or consultant doesn’t have to enable. But if you can do it, studies suggest Google is measuring time to first byte as a ranking factor and the payoffs can be huge.

Godspeed, everyone!

Hopefully, this inspires you to go out and make progress on site speed initiatives in your organization or for your clients. Not only is it worth the undertaking from a business perspective, but it’s actively making the internet a better place to be for the average person. Those are both things every search marketer can be proud of.

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