0 SEO 101: The Importance of Website Structure

• Website Design
• by Alex Stepman
• 04.20.2020

In the SEO world, we don't talk about the "best" content. We talk about relevant content. Relevance speaks to the quality of the information. As we've noted before: Good writing feels necessary--writing that stays with the reader. Good writing makes an impression. Good writing is meaningful. Read: "How to Build an Optimized Website: Content" However, relevant content is useless (and irrelevant) if no one can find it. Google and its users must be guided to your content. This is the function of website taxonomy--or website structure. Website Taxonomy = Website Structure The word taxonomy is often associated with biology. Taxonomy is also often used to describe website structure. Like a biological taxonomy, a good website is not merely a series of pages. A good website is a carefully-crafted structure that describes, identifies, and classifies pages by topics and sub-topics. Applied to any collection of information, a taxonomy is a simple yet powerful tool for guiding people to relevant information. SEO works with search engine algorithms to achieve the same purpose. When a website structure follows a logical taxonomy, the description, identification, and classification of content is seamless. From a search engine's perspective, a seamless structure means speedy and efficient indexing. (In case you're unfamiliar with indexing, here's an overview from Kissmetrics). A seamless structure also means your content can be easily shared. Read: "Content Marketing: How to Create Sharable Content" Finally, a seamless structure also guarantees a website's ease of use. As you might know, usability is a major component of Google's ranking. Creating an engaging user experience (UX) means your browsers will view your website positively, inspiring return visits. Your structure should be developed before you even begin building your website. As a practice, too, developing a website structure can help you refine your business offering. You can create a structure in any number of ways, but SEO Sparta often tells its clients to think about a new website in terms of a home page, category page, and product pages. Website Structure: Your Home Page A home page is the first page of your website, which contains links to all relevant categories. A home page should include the most basic information about your business or website. On your home page, you want to be specific but general about your offering. Describe your offering clearly. Just remember: You will go into detail later, with your category and product pages. If you're a hair salon in Bucks County, PA, for example, your home page will promote this simple fact. Website Structure: Category Pages A category page is a place to use longer-tail keywords (instead of single words, phrases and/or sentences). A category page refines your offering into more nuanced subsections. As Hallam notes in its article on creating a website taxonomy: These pages should be the main focus for link building and should regularly have internal links pointing towards them whenever the topic is mentioned on a new page or post, this way they will be the most likely page to be picked and promoted by search engines for the topic they cover. Being an ideal place for people to enter the website on they act as key landing pages and can be used for paid advertising. If you're a hair salon in Bucks County, your category pages might detail your services: Women's Styling or Men's Styling, for example. Website Structure: Product Pages Your most specific pages, your product pages, should focus on a sole product or service. You want to describe your products, one-page-per-product. Product pages will not necessarily rank high in search engines for general queries but they will be helpful in the context of your website, and for more specific queries. If you're a hair salon in Bucks County, your product pages will detail the specific services you offer under your category pages: Keratin treatments, for example, under the category Women's styling. An SEO Company That Understands Website Structure: SEO Sparta Much of the work of structuring a website falls upon your website designer and developer. However, the more input you have in the process, the better. And, of course, you want to make sure your developer understands the basics of website structure and how a good structure influences a site's SEO. To build an effective, fully-optimized website, you need a web development company that understands SEO. SEO Sparta is a rare company that offers a host of SEO and marketing professionals to optimize your website. We are currently working with our clients to emerge from the current pandemic stronger and more resilient. Check out our limited-time website design special for one current offering. And if you have any questions about applying digital marketing strategies, including SEO, to your website, please do not hesitate to contact us today. Cover Photo Source:Hierarchy Structure

0 Natural Website Optimization

• SEO
• by Alex Stepman
• 04.15.2020

If you own an Internet company, you've probably realized: a website is essentially ineffective if it is not optimized for search engines like Google, Yahoo, or Bing. Website optimization can be accomplished in many different ways. Some search engine optimization (SEO) specialists optimize a website's visual appearance; others optimize the site's performance; still, others optimize a site by creating many out-going and in-coming links from all over the Internet. An SEO specialist might present any single method of optimization as effective, but a single-method approach typically has little impact on a site's search engine visibility. The most effective approach combines the various optimization techniques into one marketing strategy. This approach cannot guarantee that your website will appear on the first page of the major search engine's results. But your site will be privileged as optimized, and depending on the quality of your optimization; you might achieve placement on the major search engines. Website Optimization Strategy So how do you achieve top placement on Google's first page results? The key is natural website optimization (also known as organic website optimization). Below you will discover what makes this website optimization technique "natural," how it can dramatically increase your business exposure, as well as daily visitors to your site, why natural website optimization is the most effective method for achieving that elusive goal: top placement. A search engine's job is to deliver accurate information. As such, search engines rigorously investigate the content of all websites. For this reason, your website content must be relevant to your specific product or service. Certain wayward SEO specialists might suggest a practice called "keyword stuffing," where keywords are excessively loaded into a site's content. To maximize relevancy, a developer might also apply the alternative text to every image on a website with a similar set of keywords. This practice is unethical and ineffective. A sophisticated search engine, like Google, can easily identify keyword stuffing techniques. Natural Website Optimization Attracts Users And Search Engines Natural website optimization promotes a holistic view of content. A natural SEO specialist will understand that you cannot create content for search engines alone; you must create content for people too! Natural content benefits visitors and maintains visits to your website. Natural website optimization earned its name because its elegant simplicity makes sense: create "natural" and genuine content, and your site will attract visitors! But content is not the only factor in natural website optimization. A website should offer the best experience for visitors, regardless of search engines. Speed and reliability, for example, are crucial website features, and you should consider both equal in importance to your products and services. If your website loads quickly, visitors will easily navigate between pages with blasting speed, and there will be no need to visit any other website for the same product or service. Search engines also investigate this type of website performance, and even if your website has been optimized for content, you might be penalized for poor performance. In some cases, your site might not even be added to a search engine's database. From Google's perspective, your website has to be functional before it can be revealed to internet surfers. The work of website optimization consists of many small tweaks. Although some SEO specialists might try to convince you otherwise, true optimization cannot be achieved with one, or even two, techniques. A website can be promoted in many ways, but natural website optimization is the most effective approach. SEO SPARTA, a website marketing agency of Bucks County, PA, focuses on natural website optimization and organic marketing. We can get your web site ranked by all major search engines: Google, Yahoo, Bing, Super Pages, and many more. Our natural approach can even bump recently-developed websites to the first page of Google within a short period - sometimes a month or less! We are up to date with Google's algorithm requirements and can maintain the top placement for your website at most times. Should you wish to know more about natural website optimization, or would like to start optimizing your website now, please contact our SEO specialists now. SEO SPARTA sets the industry standard for natural website optimization, an effective and inexpensive SEO method. Natural optimization encourages a holistic view of SEO. To promote a website naturally, you must provide the best possible experience for browsers: engaging content, lightning-fast speed, and reliability. Using this method, we often place websites on the first page of search results within a short period - as little as a month or less.

0 Website Marketing: How to Compete in Your Industry

• SEO
• by Alex Stepman
• 03.21.2020

Do you expect to profit from your website? If so, do you know how much traffic you receive on a daily/monthly basis? Would an increase in traffic increase your profits? If you answered "yes" to these questions, your website is a good candidate for SEO. Studies differ on the specifics, but we know that the traffic drop-off between the first, second, and third result on a Google search is quite significant. This chart from Advanced Web Ranking, for example, shows that (in January 2020) the first result (on desktop searches) received 31.75% of the clicks; the second result 15.85%; and the third result  9.62%.  If your website is currently the third result or lower, what stands between you and first place (and a significant increase in traffic) is likely some form of website optimization. We note optimization here, instead of SEO specifically, because for many industries the top result is achieved with good design and development. A good SEO campaign necessarily includes good design and development, but not all websites with good design and development employ SEO. On the other hand, many top-ranked websites do not employ good design and development. They receive their ranking by happenstance or good fortune. This is especially true for local, industry-specific businesses. This might seem to be a case against SEO. If an industry-specific local business can achieve the top Google result by happenstance, what good is SEO? The truth is simple: For many industry-specific searches, no website is employing good design and development, and no single website is employing good SEO. In this case, Google is left to choose the best sites based on relevant ranking signals. For example, if one site has more content than the next--even if the content is sub-par--and all else is equal, the site with more content will likely prevail. What does this mean for local sites? A simple website redesign, with good design and development, could easily land you the top spot. A good SEO campaign can keep you there. This is why SEO Sparta so often promises quick results to our local clients in the Philadelphia region. Depending on the industry, local sites stand to gain significant ground with a few simple changes. The challenge is when the top sites are well designed and developed, and employing SEO. Then you simply need to do better. Do You Know What You Don't Know (About SEO)? The problem for many website owners is that they don't even know what they don't know. This is not a problem specific to website owners. As Art Markman writes for Harvard Business School: "You probably don’t know as much as you think you do. When put to the test, most people find they can’t explain the workings of everyday things they think they understand. Don’t believe me? Find an object you use daily (a zipper, a toilet, a stereo speaker) and try to describe the particulars of how it works. You’re likely to discover unexpected gaps in your knowledge. In psychology, we call this cognitive barrier the illusion of explanatory depth. It means you think you fully understand something that you actually don’t." If this is the case for a zipper, it's certainly the case for website design and development, and of course, SEO. At SEO Sparta, we have seen this scenario time and time again. Recently, for example, we met a local business owner from Jenkintown, PA, who wants to compete in an industry-specific field. The owner's website did not appear on the first page for an industry-specific search, though he considered his site to be "beautiful" and "informative." When asked about the website development, he said, "Top notch." The owner was surprised, then, to learn that one of the most basic components of the site, the page headers did not promote the site. The site's header simply named the company without noting the industry. Unless someone knows the name of the company, this information is worthless. A better header would've been specific to the industry--in this case "Jenkintown Immigration Law Firm." Furthermore, the website was lacking description tags for each page. This is just the beginning of the website's problems--yet it was all news to the website owner. As noted above, this situation is not unique at all. For some industries, it's the norm. Do you see the possibilities? If this is what you're competing against, you can easily trump the competition. The key is learning about website design and development, and to truly compete and stay on top of the rankings, you must learn about and employ SEO. (Photo Source)

0 Dynamic Websites = Increased Conversions

• SEO
• by Alex Stepman
• 03.14.2020

Building a speedy, attractive site with relevant content is the first step to a successful digital marketing campaign. However, too many small businesses stop at the beginning. Over time, a website that does not update or refresh content and design risks losing traffic and rankings. In the world of search, a "finished" website is a dead website. To meet the demands of today's information-hungry browser, you must change and improve. A static site will falter. A dynamic site will maintain rankings and increase traffic. As we noted last week, major e-commerce brands like J.Crew refresh their websites often--every month, week, or even day--with seasonally-appropriate content. The best local websites follow the lead of the major e-commerce brands, creating fresh content targeted to a specific population.  In the end, the goal for any business, large or small, is the same: a dynamic website.  Is a Dynamic Website Worth Your Time?  In our post last week about website refreshes, we noted that for most local business owners, the problem is time: "The smallest companies believe they just don't have the time for a simple homepage refresh, let alone a blog post." Of course, time can be made--if a business owner believes the time is well spent. So more to the point: Will the added time expense be worthwhile? To answer this question, you must first understand precisely how your current website converts visitors. The difference between your daily visitors and converted visitors defines the success of your website. In SEO circles, this difference is called the conversion rate: the percentage of visitors who perform a desired action. SEO Sparta emphasizes conversion rate optimization (CRO) as a crucial part of any SEO campaign, especially for our local Delaware Valley clients, and for each client, the "desired action" is inevitably different.  "When most people hear 'conversion', they think revenue," writes Glenn Gabe of Search Engine Journal. But, Gabe adds: "Using an ecommerce site as an example, you might have several other success events, including email marketing subscriptions, contact form completions, clicks to social accounts, engagement goals like time on site or pages per visit, events like watching product videos, downloads like product specs or product guides, [and] clicks to trigger live chat with your customer service reps." Unfortunately, most local sites have not yet defined a "success event." And obviously the same sites are not tracking conversions of any kind. Gabe has written an insightful beginner's guide for and defining and tracking conversions: "A Beginner's Guide to Conversion Goals in Google Analytics." Once you see clearly how your site converts customers, you can understand the value of your traffic. If you do not currently convert customers or do not believe your website should serve that purpose, your added time expense might not be worthwhile. (In this case, though, we have one question: What is the purpose of your site?) If your website currently does convert customers, or you believe that your website could convert customers by better defining your conversion goals, you stand to increase your success with a dynamic site. In this case, the added time expense is worthwhile. Want Conversions? Post New (or Refreshed) Content Often The key to a successful web marketing campaign is to never rest on your laurels. By maintaining a dynamic website, you give visitors a reason to visit and return. Frequent updates translate to search benefits. With each new update, the search engines crawl your site, looking for the new material. As the blog SEO Site Check Up notes in its article on fresh content: "The more frequently you update your website with articles, downloads, and new web pages, the more frequently a search engine will stop by to visit your website. When search engines look at your site more frequently, you have the opportunity to achieve higher rankings based on the content you provide." For larger sites, this process happens quite quickly, so posting relevant, timely content is a good way to attract attention. In a post asking "How Often Does Google Update Search Results?" the blog SEO Mechanic tells an interesting story about speedy indexing: "Often, we could drop a new article, and see traffic from search in less than 5 minutes, if it was a timely article. One time, during an earthquake, I tested the indexing speed of our website with Google. Seconds after the earthquake I posted a simple update featuring a snapshot of the seismic activity and the location. Within seconds our story was the number one search result tied to the Chino Hills Earthquake. We received close to 5,000 visits, in under 10 minutes, because we were the most authoritative article until the L.A Times published their piece." SEO Mechanic is a larger site with good volume; smaller, local sites might not see the same, immediate results: "If you have a local business with low search volume," SEO Mechanic writes, "your indexing rate will be slower – sometimes painfully slow." Remember, painfully slow does not translate to never. The key is to update frequently, to gain visitor momentum relative to your site's traffic, and to increase your traffic--and, hopefully, your conversions. In the next few weeks, we will explore both website updates for content and design in more detail. For now, if you have any immediate questions, please feel free to call SEO Sparta for any relevant SEO-related questions: 215-900-9398. (Cover Photo Source). 

0 You Probably Need to Refresh Your Website

• Website Design
• by Alex Stepman
• 03.03.2020

It's almost springtime in the Northern hemisphere. In this season of renewal, is now the time to "refresh your website? (Photo source).  Most major e-commerce brands refresh their websites with seasonally-appropriate images and content quite often--monthly, weekly, or even daily. The J. Crew of today looks a lot different than the J.Crew of last December. If the big guys are doing it, why shouldn't the little guys do it, too?  Even smaller, local websites can benefit from seasonally (or daily) refreshed content. The presumed problem for most website owners is time--the smallest companies believe they just don't have the time for a simple homepage refresh, let alone a blog post.  However, even small content changes can reap large benefits. Brian Dean of Backlinko, for example, has detailed how he made only a few changes to a blog post to generate a 50% increase in traffic in seven days (check out strategy #2 here). Will you generate a 50% increase in traffic in a week? To be fair, SEO Sparta tells our own local SEO Philadelphia-area clients that a website refresh may or may not double your traffic. On the other hand, a website refresh will inevitably boost traffic to some degree, and if you have a great website conversion strategy, that boost may lead to more profits.  So we often tell our clients to let go of the tired excuse, "I don't have the time!"  Make the time!  Once you do make the time to refresh your website, you might wonder: Now what? First things first: Decide how much you want to change. Do you merely need a "refresh"? Or is your website calling for a major "update"? Website Update vs. Website Refresh: What's the Difference?  Website Update If you own a small website, it's important to understand the difference between a "website update" and a "website refresh." These terms are often used interchangeably, and many SEO writers take them to mean the same thing. At SEO Sparta, we think it's helpful to distinguish between the two.  A website update is a major change. Ideally, working with an SEO-friendly website developer, you will update your website as often you update your brand and build your offering. This sort of update could happen yearly or bi-annually. You want to make sure you don't perform major changes too often. For better or worse, an update can have a major impact on your SEO. Here's what Jayson DeMers has to say about major website updates:  "There are many good reasons for updating a website, and because of the rapid evolution of technology, you’ll need to update multiple times over the course of your company’s development. When you update your website, you’re bound to experience some SEO shakeups — even if you’re extra careful, at least a handful of keyword ranking movements will be inevitable. "The evolution of technology" is essentially the algorithms. So it can be a good idea to track the algorithm changes and evolve with the search engines, if necessary.  In any case, if you're planning to perform a major update soon, we suggest contacting your SEO firm--or at the very least, reading Jayson's article. Website Refresh A website refresh might simply include new seasonally-appropriate graphics, new contact information, or new content. Ideally, you will refresh your website quite often--weekly or even daily. However, make sure you save the complicated work for your website developer. To perform a simple "refresh"  on your own, you might update your blog (as outlined by Brian Dean above) with new content and tags. If you're handy with basic coding,  you might work with your website developer and/or designer to change the graphics on your home page--to, say, seasonally-appropriate imagery.  In the next few weeks, we will explore both website updates and website refreshes in more detail. For now, if you have any immediate questions, please feel free to call SEO Sparta: 215-900-9398

0 How to Keep Pace with Google's Algorithm

• SEO
• by Alex Stepman
• 02.23.2020

What is Google looking for? This question is fundamental to the success of a small website. The answer is defined by the algorithms. And many SEOs presume that the evolutions of the algorithms imply Google's willingness to do better and better.  But is this true? Can Google do better and better? Or perhaps more to the point: Does Google want to do better? Does Google Want to do Better? Algorithms are imperfect. Some feel that this imperfection is intentional. A few years ago, Eric Lonstein, writing for The Harvard Business Review, stated the case plainly: "Although industry-leading and innovative, Google’s organic search algorithm is inefficient and imperfect because it creates large barriers to entry and incumbency advantages. Google likely recognizes these inefficiencies, but chooses not to significantly alter its technological approach due to legacy processes and economic motivations." Note: the text of Lonstein's article, "The imperfection and Injustice of Google Organic Search," is no longer available online. Lonstein's article argued that Google would not change (appreciably) for the better because of PageRank™, a system that ranks websites by counting inbound and outbound links. Writing before some of Google's most significant recent changes--like the Hummingbird algorithm--Lonstein nevertheless did make a good point about Google's reasons for staying the PageRank™ course--in part because of a willingness to appease its biggest customers: "Google’s largest advertising partners, such as Amazon and Overstock, will likely oppose significant changes to Google’s organic search engine. These companies have invested hundreds of millions of dollars on SEO optimization by generating thousands of inbound links to their sites. As compensation for these investments, Google’s large advertisers expect Google to keep its organic search algorithm consistent so that the companies can continue to achieve favorable ROI for their advertisements." One can debate whether this is 100% true. Google's recent refinements, specifically to the Penguin algorithm, which targets bad links, have changed the nature and purpose of links, and some believe the importance of links has been devalued. So many SEO thinkers, like Paddy Moogan, predict links will matter less and less.  However, Google's forever changing algorithms do change the nature of search, sometimes in small ways yet often in large ways. The challenge for smaller websites, then, may not be keeping pace with Amazon and Overstock but keeping pace with the algorithms.  How to Keep Pace with the Algorithms  How can we create content that attracts visitors year after year, even as the algorithms change?  For a good answer, look to the successful companies of the present and future: Apple, for example, or GE. Both companies have offered exceptional products backed by exceptional marketing campaigns. Our startlingly simple answer, then, is this: make a great product and create a great marketing campaign. To this point, we believe Paddy Moogan (cited above) offers a helpful marketing template. SEO Sparta often provides our local Philadelphia tri-state content marketing clients similar advice to Moogan's: "Marketing is hard. If you or your client wants to compete and win customers, then you need to be prepared to ask really hard questions about the company. Here are just a few that I've found difficult when talking to clients: Why does the company exist? (The answer has nothing to do with making money) Why do you deserve to rank well in Google? What makes you different from your competitors? If you disappeared from Google tomorrow, would anyone notice? Why do you deserve to be linked to? What value do you provide for users?" Answering these questions, you can create a campaign that will ensure success--independent of the algorithms. (Photo source).

0 Black Hat Social Media: Are You Spamming Your Followers?

• Social Media Marketing
• by Seth Pollins
• 02.20.2020

In the world of digital marketing, the term "black hat" generally refers to the use of deceptive or manipulative practices to attract an audience. Black hat marketing is often intentional but many well-meaning marketers often inadvertently use black hat practices, too. Of course, "white hat" marketing practices like organic SEO will always trump the purported "value" of black hat practices. But this fact is often obscured by the nature of the online world: black Hat practices produce quick results, and we're conditioned to act quickly and to expect quick results. Perhaps this is why black hat practices persist: they give the semblance of quick results. Yet quick results do not necessarily translate to true value. Black Hat Social Media  The inadvertent use of black hat SEO explains why so many sites can be seemingly "hurt" by Google's algorithm changes. The changes are often Google's attempt to penalize bad players--and this is how many well-meaning sites discover their own SEO mistakes.  However, the inadvertent use of black hat practices is especially common on social media. Several years ago, Tina Courtney Brown over at SiteProNews wrote about black hat social media, and how so much of it amounts to "buying an audience" to artificially inflate followers:  "When you stop and consider this tactic, it’s borderline ridiculous, and clearly doesn’t work. Social media is not about the number of followers you have; it’s the level of engagement that audience has with your content. If you buy a list full of fake profiles, those 'people' will never buy, support, or even like one single product or post." The point here is often ignored by many prolific social media profiles--it's not the numbers that matter but the engagement. At SEO Sparta, we often encourage our local Philly-area social media marketing clients to post less often and engage more often. Too many profiles engage in low-effort posts that may attract a slew of comments and likes --yet these comments and likes often have no real value for anyone. Often these comments and likes are simply a result of a quid pro quo--seemingly "popular" profiles trading comments and likes without true engagement. This essentially amounts to a form of black hat social media as it encourages a false view of "popularity" entirely determined by follower counts and likes and comments. In a sense, this is akin to outright spam, what Tina Courtney Brown refers to as "the bane of the Internet":  "Spammers who comment en masse on articles and posts are the bane of the internet. They clutter up otherwise legitimate comments with horrible, lying posts like 'Oh, great content here, check out my stuff and buy something!' They pretend to care about the topics discussed, then quickly attempt to drive traffic to whatever horrendous site they represent." Of course, spam, by virtue of its sheer volume, manages to attract some attention. If you spam a million sites, you're bound to get a few clicks. Spammers play a numbers game, hoping for bare minimum conversions: 1% or less. Sounds inefficient? Well, it is, in a sense. Yet a 1% conversion for one million bits of spam is still 10,000." White Hat Marketing All of these black hat practices stand in stark contrast to "white hat" practices, like organic SEO. The true value of organic SEO is the very time and effort required to launch an effective campaign. Of course, the very word "guarantee" smacks of spammy promises, but the guarantee of organic SEO is evident in the work itself: if you take the time to craft a quality SEO campaign, you will likely succeed. Any quality marketing campaign will take some time to truly produce results. Marketing is like radioactivity in the soil--its effects are felt in the long term. This is why, if your goal is a successful and sustainable business, black hat SEO is not the answer. When you engage in these practices, your image is degraded. You might attract 10,000 customers, but you repel 990,000 others. This is why we prefer quality over quantity.  Do you fight Black Hat practices? Take a look at Tina Courtney Brown's article: "Black Hat Social Media: An In-Depth Look." You might just discover that you're inadvertently practicing Black Hat Social Media.

0 HTTPS: Google's Ranking Signal for Security

• Website Design
• by Alex Stepman
• 02.12.2020

You might be familiar with HTTP, a fundamental part of web addresses since the beginning of the World Wide Web. HTTP stands for "Hyper Text Transfer Protocol." It is the primary technology that links users to websites. In a way, HTTP is the "web" in the World Wide Web. If you're not a webmaster, however, you may not know what HTTPS means. HTTPS stands for "Hyper Text Transfer Protocol" with an added element of security--Secure Sockets Layers (SSL). Netscape invented HTTPS in 1994 in response to the growing e-commerce market. Before this time (and after), consumers were hesitant to offer credit card numbers online. As eHow writes: "The Hypertext Transfer Protocol carries most of the traffic for the World Wide Web. However, it is a plain text format protocol and third parties can read details of HTTP transmissions through wire tapping. This knowledge discouraged consumers from giving their credit card details over the Internet. The HTTP Secure protocol, or HTTPS, was invented to address the security shortfall of HTTP." Depending on your age, you might remember a time when most consumers were hesitant to shop online. Amazon and eBay didn't arrive until 1995, and PayPal didn't enter the marketplace until 1998. (Google also arrived in 1998). Even then, it wasn't until the mid-2000s that e-commerce exploded and with it a pressing need for additional security.  Security as a Ranking Signal  Since then, of course, security has become an increasing concern for businesses and consumers alike. We only need to refer to any number of the recent data breaches to understand why Google has identified HTTPS as a ranking signal. As you might know, Google uses over 200 of these ranking signals to surface search results. The fact that Google has stated its preference for HTTPS as a ranking signal means, of course, that the search giant is focused on security. In blog post from 2014, Google wrote: "Security is a top priority for Google. We invest a lot in making sure that our services use industry-leading security, like strong HTTPS encryption by default. That means that people using Search, Gmail and Google Drive, for example, automatically have a secure connection to Google. Beyond our own stuff, we’re also working to make the Internet safer more broadly. A big part of that is making sure that websites people access from Google are secure." In our view from Philadelphia, Google's preference for HTTPS also signals a commerce-centered view of the Internet. After all, HTTPS was invented to secure transactions. By citing its preference for HTTPS, Google has essentially confirmed that the most relevant sites are often transactional. So what does this mean for your website?  The Internet is a place for transactions. If you have a good product, however, it's not so simple as building a website. As we often say at SEO Sparta, you need stellar website development, great content, and a secure connection. And those ranking signals? Knowing and utilizing the 200 or signals is the work of your SEO firm. Yes, SEO is about quality design and development as well as content. Yet, SEO is also about understanding the ranking signals. To truly succeed you need an SEO specialist who understands the signals--and the security.  (Credits: Banner Photo Source)

0 Algorithms 101: Google's Hummingbird Algorithm

• SEO Algorithms
• by Alex Stepman
• 02.06.2020

The Hummingbird algorithm changed search forever (photo source). Does your SEO firm speak exclusively about keywords? If so, they may not be serving your best interests. Like Google's algorithm, SEO firms must evolve with the times. Unfortunately, too many SEO firms work in outdated paradigms.  Since the inception of SEO, strategic keyword use has been a pillar of optimization. And of course, keywords are still relevant. The ever-present social media #hashtag is the very essence of keyword optimization.  However, the nature of search is always evolving. Keywords will likely always be an important element of website optimization, but SEO must also evolve with the algorithms. Google's Hummingbird Algorithm  The most significant recent keyword evolution may have been Google's Hummingbird algorithm. To meet the evolving demands of today's browsers, Google strives to deliver the most relevant results. Back in 2013, Google announced its first entirely new algorithm in twelve years: Hummingbird. This new algorithm, which affected up to 90% of Google's results, accommodated an increase of voice-based searches as well as more complex searches In this new algorithm, the importance of specific "short-tail" keywords of a single word or a few words was minimized in favor of more comprehensive phrases and sentences. In this way, Google acknowledged the changing nature of how people searched as well as the importance of mobile search, which often emphasizes "long-tail" keyword phrases or sentences.  Instead of searching for "jeans", for example, today's browser is more likely to compose a more specific, and perhaps more esoteric search, like "raw sanforized denim." Perhaps more importantly, Google's new algorithm acknowledged another new browser tendency: Instead of specific phrases, many users are asking specific questions.  Instead of searching "raw sanforized denim," for example, many browsers may ask: "Where can I find the best raw sanforized denim?" The New Keyword: Questions By focusing on the specificity of your product or service, you can improve your visibility on Google.  As a digital marketing firm, for example, SEO Sparta strives to create content that answers common questions about all things digital marketing, including SEO. As a local firm serving the Philadelphia area, we might not be able to compete on keywords alone. However, we can strive to answer specific questions--especially specific location-based questions for the Philadelphia area.  To meet the demands of today's evolving algorithms, then, stop focusing on keywords. Instead, think about questions. What questions does your product or service answer? Your content should answer these questions. 

0 Algorithms 101: Google's Panda Algorithm

• SEO Algorithms
• by Alex Stepman
• 01.27.2020

SEO Sparta's Algorithm 101 series teaches website owners the basics of search engine algorithms, specifically Google's algorithm, with its many iterations. This week we discuss the Panda algorithm, first released in 2011, and how it affected small local sites (image source). The web used to look a lot like New York City in the 1980s when "homicides were at near-record highs, the crack epidemic was raging, and NYC had not yet experienced the wave of gentrification that has marked it in modern times" (source). Like NYC, the early web was beautiful in many ways but also crowded with seedy sites of ill-repute.  Over the years, however, the great savior of the web, Google, instituted a series of algorithm updates meant to clean things up. One notable algorithm, the Panda algorithm, was released in February 2011 with the purpose of penalizing "low-quality" sites with excessive ads and minimal content. Panda battled "content farms," websites that hired freelance workers to produce articles with the explicit purpose of manipulating search rankings. These websites often included copious ads and offered little relevance for a browser seeking answers. Of course, the web is much better without these sites. For Google, these sites lacked the necessary "authority" to deserve a top ranking on the SERP (search engine results page). Incidentally, learning about authority is a great way to see how consistent effort of a period of weeks, months, and years can reap tremendous rewards for a website.  Unfortunately, while battling content farms, Google also inadvertently penalized other sites without perceived "authority"--defined in many ways, but most notably by well-written, quality content.  Notably, Panda penalized small businesses in favor of brand name sites, placing undue emphasis on Amazon and the like for many product searches. Smaller sites couldn't compete, even if they offered equal/or better products at equal/or better prices. Most troublesome, however, was the effect of the update on local sites, like beauty salons or car repair shops. At the time, many browsers experienced the frustration of searching for a good local haircut only to discover a SERP packed with national brands, like Supercuts. People live near Supercuts, of course, but undoubtedly a majority of browsers also prefer to learn about local salons. Google's Panda wasn't doing a great job of revealing this information. Of course, a specific local search could help refine the results. We might search "Philadelphia Hair Salon" instead of "hair salon." But we expect Google to be smarter, don't we? And the reality is that many people still do not specify places when searching--and luckily, for the most part, they don't have to. After two years of complaints, Google acknowledged this problem in 2013.  Since then, Google has made big changes to Panda explicitly to help small businesses. Today, for the most part, the mainstays of good SEO and digital marketing define the local search experience: Good design. Good development. And good content.  Are you nailing all three of these key areas in your digital marketing efforts? If not, Google may penalize your site.