Google PageSpeed Insights Now Supports HTTP/2 – Scores Might Go Up
Google announced that its PageSpeed Insights tool as of March 3, 2021, uses http/2 to make network requests, that is if the server supports it. If your site is on HTTP/2, you may see your PageSpeed Insights scores go up as a result.
Internal Link Optimization: 11 Tips for Smarter Enterprise Strategy
- Don’t Forget About Breadcrumbs
- Fix Your (Broken) Internal Links First
- Identify & Re-Redirect Your Chains – for example, one product goes out of inventory, you redirect to its replacement, and the cycle goes on ad nauseum until you have a redirect chain 10 products deep.
- Put Your Links Into an Organized Map
- Fix Your Click Depth
- Play Navigational Defense
- Half Your Links, Double Your Authority
- Push Content Live With a Quick Checklist
- Automate Internal Link Building Where You Can
- Designate Links When You Publish Content
- Get Cross-Departmental Buy-In
Google brings Full Coverage news to search results
Full Coverage is a real-time, “360-degree view” of news stories and topics. And, unlike the personalized feeds elsewhere, everyone sees the same content in full coverage. As of March 8, in the US and English results on mobile, you may start to see Full Coverage in web search. Google said “when you’re searching for information on a timely topic, you see a carousel of articles at the top of your Search results highlighting relevant news. Now for big, developing news stories, you can tap into a Full Coverage page after scrolling to the end of the top stories carousel or by selecting ‘More news on…’ right below the carousel. “
Google said it uses BERT to power a lot of the Full Coverage news. Google BERT is used in full coverage news stories to better match fact checks with stories. Full coverage may be able to surface more of your content in different ways, not just in Google News but now also through Google Search. This launched on March 8 on mobile devices, beginning with English in the U.S. and will roll out more widely from there. If you notice changes in your traffic and you are in the news publishing world, this may be why.
According to the Experts: 5 Technical SEO Trends to Watch in 2021
#1. Focus on the fundamentals
#2. Gear up for Core Web Vitals
#3. Use schema and structured data strategically
#4. Leverage automation to get things done
#5. Don’t forget about analytics and reporting
Google Search Console rich results report updated
Google tweaked some of the job posting structured data requirements and also how it checks the validity of FAQ and Q&A structured data. They have made two changes to the rich results report in Google Search Console. One of the changes was related to the job posting report and the other change was related to the FAQ and Q&A rich results report.
Microsoft Bing updates search results interface to make it more visually immersive
- Infographic-like search panel experience
- Local answers show more information
- Expandable search carousels
- Similar looking items image search feature
- Recipe results with more information
Is Google moving towards greater search equity?
Search equity allows for your average business owner to compete on the SERP without being impeded by a lack of SEO-knowledge. A more equitable SERP is a necessity for Google from a business and overall web-health perspective. Google is pushing for equity on the SERP to a far greater extent. The democratization of the SERP represents an enormous paradigm shift that brings certain SEO skills to the forefront.
Large Unconfirmed Google Local Search Algorithm Update Yesterday
BrightLocal said on Twitter that its “LocalRankFlux is reporting its biggest number to date.” It is not just one specific industry but all of them, they said “All industries are trending above their norm with real estate being particularly volatile…But don’t panic and don’t make any big changes yet! it’s always possible this could be a Google bug.”
On-page SEO: a handy checklist to tick off in 2021 and beyond
- Review URLs
- Images — Image filename and alt text/Image file size
- Titles and meta descriptions
- Page load speed
- Links — internal and external
- Content — Structure and readability/Comprehensiveness