Daily SEO Tips

Katherine Watier Ong

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Episode 154: SEMrush has a new Keyword Difficulty measurement

Episode 154: SEMrush has a new Keyword Difficulty measurement

Hello and thanks for listening to SEO tips today In May, SEMRush changed its keyword difficulty. Keyword Difficulty (KD) is a metric that tells you how much SEO effort it might take to organically rank a page in the top 10 results on Google for a certain keyword. And overall with keyword difficulty, the higher the percentage is, the harder the competition will be.They launched an infographic walking through how they now calculate KD which might be worth printing and putting on your wall.The new calculation that takes into account the median # of backlinks & Authority Score PLUS the relative weight of the links and what the SERP looks like related to other SERP features.From an inbound link perspective, it looks at:Median number of referring domains pointing to the URLs that are ranking.The median authority score of the domains that are rankingMedian ratio of ratio of follow no follow links pointing to the URLs that are ranking.And then it takes into account the keyword itself. And in that case it looks at:The median number of referring domains for the ranking URLs.search volume median follow no follow ratio for ranking URLs featured snippetinstant answerWhether the keyword is branded local pack Knowledge panel top storiesPeople also ask sitelinks the word count in the keyword or whether the search result has no search features.SEMRush then weights the score based on whether or not it's in a regional database to ensure that the data is not skewed by less populated countries with lower search volume. Now I recommend that nobody takes one of these measurements and runs with it in a vacuum for every keyword where you want to create a plan to rank you should actually take a look at the SERP results. I have found that for some Industries frankly the search results are whitelisted. In my experience, you discover the true lift around what it will take to rank for particular keywords once you do a competitive analysis. That competitive analysis should include finding out how many SEOs are working for the other brands with which you compete. For example, I've had to tell Federal clients that they can't rank for particular topics because the other brands appearing in those search results have huge SEO teams.So that's your SEO tip for today - be aware that the keyword difficulty measurement in SEMRush has changed and plan accordingly to make sure your clients are aware.Thanks for listening come back tomorrow for another SEO tip.Here are the ways you can support the SEO Tips podcast. You can send me a donation at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katherinewong. Any and all levels of donations are appreciated and will help offset the cost of producing the podcast. You should also subscribe to our newsletter so that you don't miss a future episode.

Episodes

Episode 154: SEMrush has a new Keyword Difficulty measurement

Episode 154: SEMrush has a new Keyword Difficulty measurement

Hello and thanks for listening to SEO tips today In May, SEMRush changed its keyword difficulty. Keyword Difficulty (KD) is a metric that tells you how much SEO effort it might take to organically rank a page in the top 10 results on Google for a certain keyword. And overall with keyword difficulty, the higher the percentage is, the harder the competition will be.They launched an infographic walking through how they now calculate KD which might be worth printing and putting on your wall.The new calculation that takes into account the median # of backlinks & Authority Score PLUS the relative weight of the links and what the SERP looks like related to other SERP features.From an inbound link perspective, it looks at:Median number of referring domains pointing to the URLs that are ranking.The median authority score of the domains that are rankingMedian ratio of ratio of follow no follow links pointing to the URLs that are ranking.And then it takes into account the keyword itself. And in that case it looks at:The median number of referring domains for the ranking URLs.search volume median follow no follow ratio for ranking URLs featured snippetinstant answerWhether the keyword is branded local pack Knowledge panel top storiesPeople also ask sitelinks the word count in the keyword or whether the search result has no search features.SEMRush then weights the score based on whether or not it's in a regional database to ensure that the data is not skewed by less populated countries with lower search volume. Now I recommend that nobody takes one of these measurements and runs with it in a vacuum for every keyword where you want to create a plan to rank you should actually take a look at the SERP results. I have found that for some Industries frankly the search results are whitelisted. In my experience, you discover the true lift around what it will take to rank for particular keywords once you do a competitive analysis. That competitive analysis should include finding out how many SEOs are working for the other brands with which you compete. For example, I've had to tell Federal clients that they can't rank for particular topics because the other brands appearing in those search results have huge SEO teams.So that's your SEO tip for today - be aware that the keyword difficulty measurement in SEMRush has changed and plan accordingly to make sure your clients are aware.Thanks for listening come back tomorrow for another SEO tip.Here are the ways you can support the SEO Tips podcast. You can send me a donation at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katherinewong. Any and all levels of donations are appreciated and will help offset the cost of producing the podcast. You should also subscribe to our newsletter so that you don't miss a future episode.

Episode 153: Can mixed content sites perform well in organic search?

Episode 153: Can mixed content sites perform well in organic search?

Do you have a site with mixed content - both YMYL (Your Money or your Life) and other types of content? Do you know if that is best for organic traffic?Hello. Thanks for listening to SEO tips today.Here’s the takeaway: for that YMYL content to rank (and that’s content where Google thinks could have an impact on the searcher’s current or future well-being (physical, financial, safety, happiness, etc.). You need to break the site in two.As you probably know, YMYL content needs to be created with a high level of expertise and authority.Yes, that’s the latest guidance from John Muller at Google - your non-YMYL content is probably dragging your site down. This came up in Google’s April SEO office hours. Thanks for listening. Come back tomorrow for another SEO tip. Here are the ways you can support the SEO Tips podcast. You can send me a donation at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katherinewong. Any and all levels of donations are appreciated and will help offset the cost of producing the podcast. You should also subscribe to our newsletter so that you don't miss a future episode.

Episode 152: Google updates its CTR Patent

Episode 152: Google updates its CTR Patent

Google updated its User CTR PatentHello. Thanks for listening to SEO tips today.Yes, they say that they don’t use click-through rates, but they just filed an update to their CTR patent. You should read Bill Slawski’s analysis to make up your mind. I’m in the camp of using user signals (and we know that Bing does), so I think it’s worth adding to your SEO processes.Thanks for listening. Come back tomorrow for another SEO tip. Here are the ways you can support the SEO Tips podcast. You can send me a donation at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katherinewong. Any and all levels of donations are appreciated and will help offset the cost of producing the podcast. You should also subscribe to our newsletter so that you don't miss a future episode.

Episode 151: Google knows writers

Episode 151: Google knows writers

Did you know that Google can figure out *who* wrote your site content?Hello. Thanks for listening to SEO tips today.John Mueller says they use something called recognition where they spot writing patterns that they know comes from a particular author, even if there isn’t a bio on the site. However, Google still recommends a biography and links to your author’s social media profiles. Now is the time to develop even deeper relationships with subject matter experts to write your content (vs. unknown ghostwriters). Search Engine Journal covers it in more detail.Thanks for listening. Come back tomorrow for another SEO tip.Here are the ways you can support the SEO Tips podcast. You can send me a donation at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katherinewong. Any and all levels of donations are appreciated and will help offset the cost of producing the podcast. You should also subscribe to our newsletter so that you don't miss a future episode.

Episode 150: Sharing Spotify Podcast for more exposure

Episode 150: Sharing Spotify Podcast for more exposure

Spotify had made sharing podcast content easierHello. Thanks for listening to SEO tips today.Spotify lets you share a specific timestamp from a podcast. When you tap the share button, you’ll see a toggle option that enables you to create a link for the particular spot in the podcast you want to share. This is also helpful as a host if you’re going to share specific mentions of resources or other people in your marketing promotions for each episode. Learn more here.Thanks for listening. Come back tomorrow for another SEO tip.Here are the ways you can support the SEO Tips podcast. You can send me a donation at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katherinewong. Any and all levels of donations are appreciated and will help offset the cost of producing the podcast. You should also subscribe to our newsletter so that you don't miss a future episode.

Episode 149: Subfolder vs Subdomain - Which is best for organic traffic?

Episode 149: Subfolder vs Subdomain - Which is best for organic traffic?

Subfolders vs subdomain - which is more effective when you’re consolidating your website?Hello. Thanks for listening to SEO tips today.Here’s the tip (and is what I recommend to clients): moving to a subfolder almost always increases trafficBut don’t take my word for it. Rand Fishkin recently shared 14 case studies around how moving a subdomain to a subfolder (almost always) increases search trafficAnd how moving from a subfolder to a subdomain (almost always) decreases search traffic. I’ve added a link to his tweet thread on my site. Thanks for listening. Come back tomorrow for another SEO tip.Here are the ways you can support the SEO Tips podcast. You can send me a donation at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katherinewong. Any and all levels of donations are appreciated and will help offset the cost of producing the podcast. You should also subscribe to our newsletter so that you don't miss a future episode.

Episode 148: RSS feeds and brand follows

Let’s talk about RSS feeds.Hello. Thanks for listening to SEO tips today.Google recently announced an updated use for RSS - allowing users to follow brandsI spotted this announcement on the Chromium blog - an option to enable Android users (using Chrome Canary) to follow their favorite websites and opt into RSS feed updates via a “follow” button. Just when you thought RSS had died - here’s another reason to keep it alive and up to date. I kid, of course, as Bing LOVES RSS feeds and podcasts are based on RSS.So make sure that your RSS feeds are accessible by search engine bots and go ahead and upload them into Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.Thanks for listening. Come back tomorrow for another SEO tip.Here are the ways you can support the SEO Tips podcast. You can send me a donation at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katherinewong. Any and all levels of donations are appreciated and will help offset the cost of producing the podcast. You should also subscribe to our newsletter so that you don't miss a future episode.

Episode 147: Google I/O updates that impact SEO

Episode 147: Google I/O updates that impact SEO

Let’s talk about the Google I/O Updates that impact SEOHello. Thanks for listening to SEO tips today.Here’s a quick overview of the updates from Google I/O that impact SEO.1. Google announced their new natural language engine - that they call MUM (the Multitask Unified Model). This model will allow them to answer sophisticated queries such as: "I’ve hiked Mt. Adams and now want to hike Mt. Fuji next fall. What should I do differently to prepare?" It also gives users answers from different search verticals and harvests information from over 75+ languages. Google pulls information from various sources: Lens, Photos, YouTube, Google Search, Gmail, Maps, and Shopping. It can understand implicit meaning and context 1000x better than BERT.2. Google provided details around their handling cookies (which BTW dropping first-party cookies has now been pushed off for two years), details around APIs, PWAs, and Web Core Vitals improvement tips.3. They also talked about how in May, they started rolling out About This Result to all English results worldwide. They plan to add more details to the panel with information about how a site describes itself, what other sources are saying about it, and related articles to check out. Google states that they pull this information from Wikipedia, so if your brand’s information on Wikipedia is out of date, I can refer you to a reputable Wikipedia coach who can help you resolve the issue.4. Shopping Graph announcement. Google uses its “deep understanding of products, sellers, brands, reviews, product information, and inventory data” to power this shopping graph. Additionally, when you take a screenshot, Google Photos will prompt you to search the photo with Lens, so you can immediately shop for that item if you want. Shopping Knowledge Graph will connect to Google Lens, YouTube, Images, Photos, Chrome, and loyalty programs and display shopping carts on the Chrome homepage.5. Google has released open-source Schemarama, which hosts a variety of schema troubleshooting tools. They have also added more rich snippets that you can earn in search based on your schema markup, like online activities that they can do from home, math solvers, and practice problems. They also reminded us of how to mark up your videos for their key moments for additional rich display in Google search.So that’s the update.Thanks for listening. Come back tomorrow for another SEO tip.Here are the ways you can support the SEO Tips podcast. You can send me a donation at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katherinewong. Any and all levels of donations are appreciated and will help offset the cost of producing the podcast. You should also subscribe to our newsletter so that you don't miss a future episode.

Episode 146: Heads up on a few different terms in GA4

Episode 146: Heads up on a few different terms in GA4

Let’s talk about GA4 and its different terminologyHello. Thanks for listening to SEO tips today.Let’s talk about two different terms you’ll find in GA4 that are not in the older version of Google Analytics.Google Analytics 4 Bounce Rate (Why It Isn’t In GA 4)In GA4, Google has flipped it to engagement rate, which is “engaged,” a session must either result in a conversion, last over 10 seconds, or have multiple screens or page views. This article also goes into an explanation of the new page value metric in GA4.What are Data Streams in Google Analytics 4?GA4 is SO different from Universal Analytics, and it’s worth reading this article as a way to start to get familiar with the new ways data is filtered and viewed in GA4 vs. what you’re used to.If you’d like to learn more about GA 4, Olga Zarzenczna has created a Basic GA 4 Guide at seosly.com.Thanks for listening. Come back tomorrow for another SEO tip.Here are the ways you can support the SEO Tips podcast. You can send me a donation at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katherinewong. Any and all levels of donations are appreciated and will help offset the cost of producing the podcast. You should also subscribe to our newsletter so that you don't miss a future episode.

Episode 145: The marketing value of Facebook Groups

Episode 145: The marketing value of Facebook Groups

Let’s talk about Facebook GroupsHello. Thanks for listening to SEO tips today.1.8 Billion People Use Facebook Groups Every MonthThis is a HUGE amount of potentially untrackable visits to your site - Facebook groups are a part of that “dark web” you heard talked about - unless, of course, you’re in the group, and you’ve shared a link with UTM tracking. So how do you take advantage of this audience?Well, If your audience is active in Facebook groups, you can often reach out to an admin to see if your brand can hold an AMA of value to the group. Or if the group is relevant to you personally, you can join the group. I’m a member of a variety of podcasting groups which allow for you to share your most recent episode once a month. One of those groups is using a text to email confirmation method that I’ve seen speakers use. They trigger it at the sign-up questions for their group and you’re automatically added to their Facebook group. Thanks for listening. Come back tomorrow for another SEO tip.Here are the ways you can support the SEO Tips podcast. You can send me a donation at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katherinewong. Any and all levels of donations are appreciated and will help offset the cost of producing the podcast. You should also subscribe to our newsletter so that you don't miss a future episode.

Episode 144: Creating a Hub to build topical authority

Episode 144: Creating a Hub to build topical authority

How to Create a plan to build a Page or Hub that sets you up as a Topical AuthorityHello. Thanks for listening to SEO tips today.This article from OnCrawl was an intense read, but the most helpful part I picked up is the following tips around creating a topical map before creating a content hub, which includes: Crawl your competitors’ sitemaps to understand their topical maps.Pull Google Trends - the related queries and related topics.Collect data from autocomplete and search suggestions.Notice how your competitors are connecting content hubs.Use Google Knowledge Graph to pull relevant entities.Use non-web resources to view the properties of entities and their hierarchies and connections.Check competitor’s anchor texts for a specific article internally and externally.And my tips: Use Wiki Topic Grapher to graph the topic based on the entities in Wikipedia pages.Use social media forums like Quora or Reddit to understand the additional questions users post on your topic and add those to your content brief. Read the comments on the top pages ranking in search to spot additional insights around your topic.Thanks for listening. Come back tomorrow for another SEO tip.Here are the ways you can support the SEO Tips podcast. You can send me a donation at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katherinewong. Any and all levels of donations are appreciated and will help offset the cost of producing the podcast. You should also subscribe to our newsletter so that you don't miss a future episode.

Episode 143: The potential impact of mobile only indexing

Episode 143: The potential impact of mobile only indexing

Let’s talk about whether Mobile Only Indexing might be impacting your site.Hello. Thanks for listening to SEO tips today.If you were not aware, Google announced that they would crawl all sites (desktop or mobile) with the mobile-only crawler. This announcement means that if you have anything on your desktop site that is not on the mobile view (content, comments, reviews, etc.) - those will not be in the new index. They started dropping desktop-only sites (March 2021) out of their index, but the last batch of sites is being moved over to mobile indexing in April/May 2021. I think most people think because they have a responsive site that they will be fine, but that’s why I find Mike King’s analysis of the impact of mobile-only indexing so interesting. His article was probably the most impactful I read last month. Mike looked at the disparity between mobile sites and their desktop counterparts, and he predicts that those missing elements will significantly impact SEO rankings. He also offers up a free tool to help you troubleshoot on your own, called PARTITO. It lets you check to see if your desktop and mobile experiences for search engines are the same or if you’re missing items on mobile from a technical perspective.So that’s your tip for the day.Double-check that the relevant parts of your site that are on your desktop site are also visible to Googlebot’s Smartphone crawler.Thanks for listening. Come back tomorrow for another SEO tip.Here are the ways you can support the SEO Tips podcast. You can send me a donation at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katherinewong. Any and all levels of donations are appreciated and will help offset the cost of producing the podcast. You should also subscribe to our newsletter so that you don't miss a future episode.

Episode 142: Impacts of Web Core Vitals update on your site

Episode 142: Impacts of Web Core Vitals update on your site

How much of an impact will Web Core Vitals have on your organic traffic? Learn more in today's SEO tip.View podcast show notes at:https://wostrategies.com/podcast/seo-tips-flash-briefing/web-core-vitals-impact-on-websiteHere are the ways you can support the SEO Tips podcast. You can send me a donation at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katherinewong. Any and all levels of donations are appreciated and will help offset the cost of producing the podcast. You should also subscribe to our newsletter so that you don't miss a future episode.

Episode 141: Optimizing your podcast for multiple players

Episode 141: Optimizing your podcast for multiple players

Let’s talk about optimizing your podcastHello! And thanks for listening to SEO tips today.First of all, did you know that (based on the State of Podcasting Listening 2021 report) the number of Americans listening to a podcast (80 million) is more than the number of Americans who reported ever using Twitter, TikTok, or Snapchat? And Spotify’s US podcast listenership is on track to be larger than Apple’s! According to a new market forecast, Spotify’s U.S. podcast listenership will surpass Apple Podcasts for the first time this year. Sarah Perez of TechCrunch has the numbers: Spotify is expected to reach 28.2 million listeners per month, a slim margin over Apple Podcasts’ 2 million. So here’s your tip:If you’re running a podcast and not distributing to every podcasting platform on the planet, stop reading this email and do that now. I use Buzzsprout for my show.AND if even if you don’t have a podcast of your own, you should add becoming a guest on a podcast to your marketing list. Or, perhaps use the Podcast Audience Grap tool, which will tell you, for most shows, which other podcasts share a similar audience. It visualizes connections between podcast ‘neighbors’ as a 3D graph, informing choices around ads and promo swaps, or in this case, guest spots.Thanks for listening. Come back tomorrow for another SEO tip.Here are the ways you can support the SEO Tips podcast. You can send me a donation at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katherinewong. Any and all levels of donations are appreciated and will help offset the cost of producing the podcast. You should also subscribe to our newsletter so that you don't miss a future episode.

Episode 140: Google is now measuring heart and respiratory rate

Episode 140: Google is now measuring heart and respiratory rate

Google’s newest data setHello! And thanks for listening to SEO tips today.Let’s talk about Google’s newest data set and how I think they might apply it to search.Google is going to offer heart and respiratory rate measurements using just your smartphone’s camera. I think this is creepy. I wonder what they will do with this data? They already have patents filed around keeping the user’s voice and emotional state in mind when providing search (or voice) results. If you are not taking into account your customer’s emotional state when creating personas, you should.Thanks for listening. Come back tomorrow for another SEO tip.Here are the ways you can support the SEO Tips podcast. You can send me a donation at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katherinewong. Any and all levels of donations are appreciated and will help offset the cost of producing the podcast. You should also subscribe to our newsletter so that you don't miss a future episode.

Episode 139: New episode on Digital Marketing Victories Podcast - Public speaking in 2021

Episode 139: New episode on Digital Marketing Victories Podcast - Public speaking in 2021

Free public speaking tipsHello! And thanks for listening to SEO tips today.Last month I also released a new podcast episode on the Digital Marketing Victories podcast. If you're interested in public speaking tips, or how to speak persuasively on Zoom meetings, or need suggestions about how to improve your soft skills but are introverted, this episode is for you! https://digitalmarketingvictories.com/podcast/episode-8-brenden-kumarasamy/Thanks for listening. Come back tomorrow for another SEO tip.Here are the ways you can support the SEO Tips podcast. You can send me a donation at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katherinewong. Any and all levels of donations are appreciated and will help offset the cost of producing the podcast. You should also subscribe to our newsletter so that you don't miss a future episode.

Episode 138: Business at CoWorking Locations and Google My Business

Episode 138: Business at CoWorking Locations and Google My Business

Google Has Updated My Business Guidelines For Co-Working SpacesHello! And thanks for listening to SEO tips today.The update mentions that if your business location is out of a co-working space, it must have signage, accept customers, and have staff at the site eligible to have a Google My Business listing with a coworking address. This change is an improvement over the outright ban on coworking spaces as business locations.Thanks for listening. Come back tomorrow for another SEO tip.Here are the ways you can support the SEO Tips podcast. You can send me a donation at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katherinewong. Any and all levels of donations are appreciated and will help offset the cost of producing the podcast. You should also subscribe to our newsletter so that you don't miss a future episode.

Episode 137: March new SEO tools and resources

Episode 137: March new SEO tools and resources

Let’s talk about the SEO tools and resources that I discovered last month.Hello! And thanks for listening to SEO tips today.Today’s tip is just going to be a quick rundown of the new tools and resources that I’ve discovered and bookmarked. Let’s get into it.Here are the newly released SEO tools that are worth checking out:SEOAsked.com - This is a directory of quotes from Googlers from SEO’s questions. This site makes my homegrown Trello board, where I save these quotes for audit documents (and client questions). I’m so stoked that someone built this. FYI: Chrome is now hiding all URL paths and showing the domain name for all URLs unless you hover over your address bar. See Lily Ray’s tweet.Here’s a timeline of changes to Structured DataQuick Google Search Console Insights [free Google Sheet]Google Data Studio Templates and Learning ResourcesHamlet's Batista's SEO contributionsSEO Forecasting: A Google Sheets TemplateFree PowerPoint templates and Google Slides themesCumulative Layout Shift GIF GeneratorLearning Python for SEO: https://i.codeseo.dev and https://searchenginejournal.com/author/ruth-everett/#close and https://jcchouinard.com/python-for-seo/ and https://www.jcchouinard.com/python-for-seo/ and Automate the Boring Stuff with Python http://automatetheboringstuff.com/ That’s your roundup of new tools and resources. Thanks for listening. Come back tomorrow for another SEO tip.Here are the ways you can support the SEO Tips podcast. You can send me a donation at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katherinewong. Any and all levels of donations are appreciated and will help offset the cost of producing the podcast. You should also subscribe to our newsletter so that you don't miss a future episode.

Episode 136: Do audio files provide a ranking boost?

Episode 136: Do audio files provide a ranking boost?

Today’s tip is going to focus on whether any benefit to adding audio files to your website.Hello! And thanks for listening to SEO tips today.And the latest from Google, No. There is no SEO benefit to audio versions of text posts.Unlike photo and video, Google doesn’t do anything special with audio content that is not part of a podcast, and it’s not processed separately by Google. However, IF you have audio in a podcast format and surface it via an RSS feed, Google can index it via your podcast feed and surface it in Google’s podcast search and the podcast one box. So the takeaway here is to no just randomly upload audio files to your landing pages, but instead launch a podcast to take advantage of potentially a new traffic source to your content.Thanks for listening. Come back tomorrow for another SEO tip.Here are the ways you can support the SEO Tips podcast. You can send me a donation at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katherinewong. Any and all levels of donations are appreciated and will help offset the cost of producing the podcast. You should also subscribe to our newsletter so that you don't miss a future episode.

Episode 135: Brand Associations in Google Search Console

Curious about the new brand associations in Google Search Console? We are going to talk about what they are in today’s tip.Hello! And thanks for listening to SEO tips today.This new feature lets you link your Google Search Console account to any other Google property (Analytics, YouTube, etc.) and “ can unlock more functionality for your site.” This feature helps Google associate your entities together. Every webmaster should go ahead and associate all of your Google properties together. There’s more about the new feature in the Google Search Console help files.Thanks for listening. Come back tomorrow for another SEO tip.Here are the ways you can support the SEO Tips podcast. You can send me a donation at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katherinewong. Any and all levels of donations are appreciated and will help offset the cost of producing the podcast. You should also subscribe to our newsletter so that you don't miss a future episode.