Target Google Ads audiences based on new predicted purchase and churn metrics in Google Analytics
https://searchengineland.com/target-google-ads-audiences-based-on-new-predicted-purchase-and-churn-metrics-in-google-analytics-337511
https://searchengineland.com/target-google-ads-audiences-based-on-new-predicted-purchase-and-churn-metrics-in-google-analytics-337511
Search Engine Land
Target Google Ads audiences based on new predicted purchase and churn metrics in Google Analytics
Available in App + Web properties, automate audience creation based on predicted behavior.
Google Updates Recipe Structured Data Guidance
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-recipe-structured-data-update/374470/
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-recipe-structured-data-update/374470/
Search Engine Journal
Google Updates Recipe Structured Data Guidance - Search Engine Journal
Google updated their structured data guidelines regarding marking up multiple items. Some changes are specific to recipe structured data.
Over 25% of People Click the First Google Search Result
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-first-page-clicks/374516/
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-first-page-clicks/374516/
Search Engine Journal
Over 25% of People Click the First Google Search Result
A study of billions of search results finds over a quarter of Google searchers click on the first organic result.
GOOGLE CREATES A NEW WAY TO DRIVE TRAFFIC VIA IMAGE SEARCH
An update to Google Images creates a new way for site owners to drive traffic with their photos
Google is adding more context to photos in image search results, which presents site owners with a new opportunity to earn traffic.
Launching this week, a new feature in Google Images surfaces quick facts about what’s being shown in photos.
Information about people, places or things related to the image is pulled from Google’s Knowledge Graph and displayed underneath photos when they’re clicked on.
♨️ So Does it Mean More Context = More Clicks?
Google says this update is intended to help searchers explore topics in more detail.
One of the ways searchers can explore topics in more detail is by visiting the web page where the image is featured.
The added context is likely to make images more appealing to click on. It’s almost like Google added meta descriptions to image search results.
However, it’s not quite the same as that, because the images and the facts appearing underneath come from different sources.
Results in Google Images are sourced from sites all over the web, but the corresponding facts for each image are pulled from the Knowledge Graph.
In the examples shared by Google, you can see how the image comes from the website where it’s hosted while the additional info is taken from another source.
On one hand, that gives site owners little control over the information that is displayed under their images in search results.
On the other hand, Google is giving searchers more information about images that could potentially drive more clicks to the image source.
Perhaps the best part of this update is it requires no action on the part of site owners. Google will enhance your image search snippets all on its own.
♨️ Another Traffic Opportunity
If you’re fortunate enough to have content included in Google’s Knowledge Graph, then there’s now more opportunities to have those links surfaced in search results.
Contrary to how it may seem at times, Wikipedia is not the only source of information in Google’s Knowledge Graph. Google draws from hundreds of sites across the web to compile billions of facts.
After all, there are over 500 billion facts about five billion entities in the Knowledge Graph – they can’t all come from Wikipedia
As Google says, site owners can submit information to the Knowledge Graph by claiming a knowledge panel.
That’s not something everyone can do, however, as they either have to be an entity featured in a knowledge panel or represent one.
But this is still worth mentioning as it’s low-hanging fruit for those who have the opportunity to claim a knowledge panel and haven’t yet.
Claiming your business’s knowledge panel is a must-do if you haven’t done so already. Local businesses stand to gain the most from from this update.
That’s especially true if yours is the sort of business that would have photos of it published on the web.
This feature is rolling out to mobile search results in the US.
Source: Google
An update to Google Images creates a new way for site owners to drive traffic with their photos
Google is adding more context to photos in image search results, which presents site owners with a new opportunity to earn traffic.
Launching this week, a new feature in Google Images surfaces quick facts about what’s being shown in photos.
Information about people, places or things related to the image is pulled from Google’s Knowledge Graph and displayed underneath photos when they’re clicked on.
♨️ So Does it Mean More Context = More Clicks?
Google says this update is intended to help searchers explore topics in more detail.
One of the ways searchers can explore topics in more detail is by visiting the web page where the image is featured.
The added context is likely to make images more appealing to click on. It’s almost like Google added meta descriptions to image search results.
However, it’s not quite the same as that, because the images and the facts appearing underneath come from different sources.
Results in Google Images are sourced from sites all over the web, but the corresponding facts for each image are pulled from the Knowledge Graph.
In the examples shared by Google, you can see how the image comes from the website where it’s hosted while the additional info is taken from another source.
On one hand, that gives site owners little control over the information that is displayed under their images in search results.
On the other hand, Google is giving searchers more information about images that could potentially drive more clicks to the image source.
Perhaps the best part of this update is it requires no action on the part of site owners. Google will enhance your image search snippets all on its own.
♨️ Another Traffic Opportunity
If you’re fortunate enough to have content included in Google’s Knowledge Graph, then there’s now more opportunities to have those links surfaced in search results.
Contrary to how it may seem at times, Wikipedia is not the only source of information in Google’s Knowledge Graph. Google draws from hundreds of sites across the web to compile billions of facts.
After all, there are over 500 billion facts about five billion entities in the Knowledge Graph – they can’t all come from Wikipedia
As Google says, site owners can submit information to the Knowledge Graph by claiming a knowledge panel.
That’s not something everyone can do, however, as they either have to be an entity featured in a knowledge panel or represent one.
But this is still worth mentioning as it’s low-hanging fruit for those who have the opportunity to claim a knowledge panel and haven’t yet.
Claiming your business’s knowledge panel is a must-do if you haven’t done so already. Local businesses stand to gain the most from from this update.
That’s especially true if yours is the sort of business that would have photos of it published on the web.
This feature is rolling out to mobile search results in the US.
Source: Google
HOW LONG SHOULD BLOG POSTS BE? THE ‘TRUTH’ ABOUT CONTENT LENGTH
Most blog posts should be at least 300 words in length. Any shorter than that, and you should probably question whether you have anything much to say at all.
From there, hitting a certain word count shouldn’t be your aim. Your aim should be to write a thorough, engaging, and well-researched post that’s as long as it needs to be: no less and no more.
However, the fact that you’re reading this means you’ve probably heard that Google ranks long posts higher than short ones.
In this post, we’ll explore why this is almost certainly wrong, and what you should do instead to optimize your blog posts for search engines.
Why do people think long blog posts are better for SEO?
Many studies show a correlation between content length and the things that we associate with good SEO performance.
However, correlation doesn’t prove causation.
So let’s discuss a couple of common arguments a bit further.
1. Longer content gets more backlinks
Backlinks are one of the most important Google ranking factors.
We know this because they’re the foundation of the PageRank algorithm. Google also talks about backlinks in the context of ranking useful pages here.
If you look at the relationship between word count and backlinks, there is indeed a strong positive correlation.
Why might you see this correlation?
Let’s start with the most obvious possibility: longer blog posts just seem more impressive, and that’s why more people link to them.
My theory is that the correlation at least partly comes down to the balance between thoroughness and succinctness.
Let me explain:
Generally speaking, longer content tends to include more ‘link-worthy’ talking points. But it also buries those important “need to know” points among a lot of less important “nice to know” information. The result is a piece of content that fewer people read all the way through, meaning that fewer people actually come across the included ‘link-worthy’ points. And if fewer people come across them, fewer people will link to you.
It’s also true that most people aren’t going to link to a blog post they haven’t read. And there will be fewer of those people if your post takes three hours to read.
What should you do about it?
Keep your blog posts concise and fluff-free while making sure to include important ‘link-worthy’ points.
Makes sense. But how do you know what constitutes a ‘link-worthy’ point?
One way is to paste the URL of a top-ranking post for your target keyword into Ahrefs’ Site Explorer. Then, head to the Backlinks report and look at the links anchors and surrounding text for trends.
For example, if we do this for one of the top-ranking posts for “SEO copywriting,” we see that a disproportionate amount of links come thanks to a mention of the APP intro method.
Because we know that this section is responsible for so many links, we can make sure to include something similar when we write about the same topic.
2. Longer content gets more organic traffic
There’s a moderate positive correlation between content length and organic traffic. But again, it’s unwise to assume causation.
Why might you see this correlation?
Let’s first consider the idea that Google is biased towards longer content. As a result, longer content ranks higher and gets more organic traffic.
Talking about the stats that ahrefs gave, they showed that it cuts off at 2,000 words. That’s because they found a moderate negative correlation between word count and organic traffic for posts longer than 2,000 words. In other words, the average 10,000-word post gets less search traffic than the average 2,000-word post.
Of course, it could be the case that Google favors longer content up to 2,000 words, but we don’t see much merit in that argument. It just doesn’t make any sense to penalize posts for being “too long.”
Google’s John Mueller agrees. In 2019, he stated that word count isn’t a ranking factor.
What should you do about this?
Instead of writing tirelessly until there’s no possibility that you missed anything important, start by researc
Most blog posts should be at least 300 words in length. Any shorter than that, and you should probably question whether you have anything much to say at all.
From there, hitting a certain word count shouldn’t be your aim. Your aim should be to write a thorough, engaging, and well-researched post that’s as long as it needs to be: no less and no more.
However, the fact that you’re reading this means you’ve probably heard that Google ranks long posts higher than short ones.
In this post, we’ll explore why this is almost certainly wrong, and what you should do instead to optimize your blog posts for search engines.
Why do people think long blog posts are better for SEO?
Many studies show a correlation between content length and the things that we associate with good SEO performance.
However, correlation doesn’t prove causation.
So let’s discuss a couple of common arguments a bit further.
1. Longer content gets more backlinks
Backlinks are one of the most important Google ranking factors.
We know this because they’re the foundation of the PageRank algorithm. Google also talks about backlinks in the context of ranking useful pages here.
If you look at the relationship between word count and backlinks, there is indeed a strong positive correlation.
Why might you see this correlation?
Let’s start with the most obvious possibility: longer blog posts just seem more impressive, and that’s why more people link to them.
My theory is that the correlation at least partly comes down to the balance between thoroughness and succinctness.
Let me explain:
Generally speaking, longer content tends to include more ‘link-worthy’ talking points. But it also buries those important “need to know” points among a lot of less important “nice to know” information. The result is a piece of content that fewer people read all the way through, meaning that fewer people actually come across the included ‘link-worthy’ points. And if fewer people come across them, fewer people will link to you.
It’s also true that most people aren’t going to link to a blog post they haven’t read. And there will be fewer of those people if your post takes three hours to read.
What should you do about it?
Keep your blog posts concise and fluff-free while making sure to include important ‘link-worthy’ points.
Makes sense. But how do you know what constitutes a ‘link-worthy’ point?
One way is to paste the URL of a top-ranking post for your target keyword into Ahrefs’ Site Explorer. Then, head to the Backlinks report and look at the links anchors and surrounding text for trends.
For example, if we do this for one of the top-ranking posts for “SEO copywriting,” we see that a disproportionate amount of links come thanks to a mention of the APP intro method.
Because we know that this section is responsible for so many links, we can make sure to include something similar when we write about the same topic.
2. Longer content gets more organic traffic
There’s a moderate positive correlation between content length and organic traffic. But again, it’s unwise to assume causation.
Why might you see this correlation?
Let’s first consider the idea that Google is biased towards longer content. As a result, longer content ranks higher and gets more organic traffic.
Talking about the stats that ahrefs gave, they showed that it cuts off at 2,000 words. That’s because they found a moderate negative correlation between word count and organic traffic for posts longer than 2,000 words. In other words, the average 10,000-word post gets less search traffic than the average 2,000-word post.
Of course, it could be the case that Google favors longer content up to 2,000 words, but we don’t see much merit in that argument. It just doesn’t make any sense to penalize posts for being “too long.”
Google’s John Mueller agrees. In 2019, he stated that word count isn’t a ranking factor.
What should you do about this?
Instead of writing tirelessly until there’s no possibility that you missed anything important, start by researc
hing what’s important. That way, you can keep your posts succinct by including the important and negating the unimportant.
An easy way to do this is to eyeball the top-ranking pages for commonalities.
The fact that multiple top-ranking pages are talking about these things tells you that they’re probably important points.
You can also run a content gap analysis to find the keywords that multiple top-ranking pages rank for, then eyeball the report for subtopics and important points. To do this, paste the URLs of a few top-ranking pages for your main keyword into Ahrefs’ Content Gap tool or SEMrush and leave the bottom field empty.
Run the report and look for subtopics.
Why blog posts should be as succinct as possible
Besides the correlational data showing that the average blog post gets fewer backlinks and less traffic after a certain length, is there any other reason why you should keep things as succinct as possible?
The simple answer is yes, because nobody wants to read any more than they have to. Nobody likes to read. They just want the information. If they could download it to their brain, they would.
But is there really any evidence for this besides the anecdotal?
Absolutely. When Medium studied the correlation between post length and average reading time, they noticed that engagement starts to drop for posts with a reading time longer than seven minutes.
According to The University of Chicago, most people read at approximately 250 words per minute. That puts a 7‑minute blog post at around 1,750 words.
Does that mean your blog posts should never be any longer or shorter than that?
Of course not. It will take more than 1,750 words to tackle some topics thoroughly and less for others. That’s why our guide to YouTube SEO runs over 7,000 words, and our list of Chrome extensions for SEOs runs just 1,275. There’s more ground to cover about YouTube SEO.
That said, even if there’s a lot of ground to cover, you should still make an effort to cut unnecessary fluff from your posts.
One of the tools that can help with that is Hemingway. It helps to improve your writing by letting you know about unnecessary words and fluff. In my experience, it’s easy to cut your word count down by at least 10% using this tool. But then again, it might just be that my writing style is unusually convoluted.
It’s also worth getting a friend or colleague to read your blog post. Why? Because other people are usually better at spotting when a point is unnecessary and only serves to complicate the post. This is something we do for all the posts we publish.
It’s time to stop the obsession with word count. Instead, focus on creating concise but thorough blog posts that engage readers and follow SEO best practices.
@bloggingdirections
An easy way to do this is to eyeball the top-ranking pages for commonalities.
The fact that multiple top-ranking pages are talking about these things tells you that they’re probably important points.
You can also run a content gap analysis to find the keywords that multiple top-ranking pages rank for, then eyeball the report for subtopics and important points. To do this, paste the URLs of a few top-ranking pages for your main keyword into Ahrefs’ Content Gap tool or SEMrush and leave the bottom field empty.
Run the report and look for subtopics.
Why blog posts should be as succinct as possible
Besides the correlational data showing that the average blog post gets fewer backlinks and less traffic after a certain length, is there any other reason why you should keep things as succinct as possible?
The simple answer is yes, because nobody wants to read any more than they have to. Nobody likes to read. They just want the information. If they could download it to their brain, they would.
But is there really any evidence for this besides the anecdotal?
Absolutely. When Medium studied the correlation between post length and average reading time, they noticed that engagement starts to drop for posts with a reading time longer than seven minutes.
According to The University of Chicago, most people read at approximately 250 words per minute. That puts a 7‑minute blog post at around 1,750 words.
Does that mean your blog posts should never be any longer or shorter than that?
Of course not. It will take more than 1,750 words to tackle some topics thoroughly and less for others. That’s why our guide to YouTube SEO runs over 7,000 words, and our list of Chrome extensions for SEOs runs just 1,275. There’s more ground to cover about YouTube SEO.
That said, even if there’s a lot of ground to cover, you should still make an effort to cut unnecessary fluff from your posts.
One of the tools that can help with that is Hemingway. It helps to improve your writing by letting you know about unnecessary words and fluff. In my experience, it’s easy to cut your word count down by at least 10% using this tool. But then again, it might just be that my writing style is unusually convoluted.
It’s also worth getting a friend or colleague to read your blog post. Why? Because other people are usually better at spotting when a point is unnecessary and only serves to complicate the post. This is something we do for all the posts we publish.
It’s time to stop the obsession with word count. Instead, focus on creating concise but thorough blog posts that engage readers and follow SEO best practices.
@bloggingdirections
FREE SEO TOOLS FOR YOUR WEBSITE 💪
♨️ web.dev Measure
♨️ Google Search Console
♨️ Ubersuggest
♨️ Matomo
♨️ Keyword Surfer (Browser Extension)
♨️ Google Trends
♨️ SEORCH
Only at:-
@bloggingdirections
♨️ web.dev Measure
♨️ Google Search Console
♨️ Ubersuggest
♨️ Matomo
♨️ Keyword Surfer (Browser Extension)
♨️ Google Trends
♨️ SEORCH
Only at:-
@bloggingdirections
OFF-TOPIC
😱😱Amazon Bug - Try To Send Rs.100 Multiple Times From Amazon Send Money Option
Cashback is Coming Multiple Times
Don't Miss Huge Cashback Crediting
Just Send Rs.100 to Any UPI Multiple Times and You will Get Cashback.
*NO NEED TO COLLECT ANY OFFER*
😱😱Amazon Bug - Try To Send Rs.100 Multiple Times From Amazon Send Money Option
Cashback is Coming Multiple Times
Don't Miss Huge Cashback Crediting
Just Send Rs.100 to Any UPI Multiple Times and You will Get Cashback.
*NO NEED TO COLLECT ANY OFFER*
Blogging Directions
OFF-TOPIC 😱😱Amazon Bug - Try To Send Rs.100 Multiple Times From Amazon Send Money Option Cashback is Coming Multiple Times Don't Miss Huge Cashback Crediting Just Send Rs.100 to Any UPI Multiple Times and You will Get Cashback. *NO NEED TO COLLECT…
Shall I make a channel related to such type of deals? I usually discover these type of hidden deals daily! So will you support me there? because I'll get nothing by opening that, it'll only consume my time....? So plz answer the pole wisely 🙂
Anonymous Poll
78%
Yes make this channel fast, I want to grab these deals
22%
No don't make this channel, I'm born with a silver spoon🥄
Blogging Directions pinned «Shall I make a channel related to such type of deals? I usually discover these type of hidden deals daily! So will you support me there? because I'll get nothing by opening that, it'll only consume my time....? So plz answer the pole wisely 🙂»
Biggest scam and cyberattack happened on twitter! All the high-profile accounts got hacked and posted the same thing related to crypto currency scam! All the Twitter users change your passwords, we never know what else could happen.
@bloggingdirections
@bloggingdirections
One of the most significant powers of WordPress is plugins, and some of you are so obsessed with it, that you are using more than 30-40 plugins on your blog. Well, not all plugin is bad, and I have covered a great write-up on how many WordPress plugins you should use.
Try to minimize the number of plugins on your blog and regularly clean up your database. Advanced database cleaner plugin can help you do that in no time.
Ensure that you are using at least one cache plugin on your blog, and I’m suggesting WP-Rocket plugin. One thumb rule, get rid of outdated plugins.
A lot of our users also asked “How do I speed up WordPress plugin”?
The best way to do that is by using less WordPress plugins. Whenever possible, get the custom codes to add a feature, that you need.
Another way is to use a plugin called Asset cleanup plugin, and block loading of scripts on specific pages.
via~ shoutmeloud
@bloggingdirections
Try to minimize the number of plugins on your blog and regularly clean up your database. Advanced database cleaner plugin can help you do that in no time.
Ensure that you are using at least one cache plugin on your blog, and I’m suggesting WP-Rocket plugin. One thumb rule, get rid of outdated plugins.
A lot of our users also asked “How do I speed up WordPress plugin”?
The best way to do that is by using less WordPress plugins. Whenever possible, get the custom codes to add a feature, that you need.
Another way is to use a plugin called Asset cleanup plugin, and block loading of scripts on specific pages.
via~ shoutmeloud
@bloggingdirections
Google Search drops tweet carousels after Twitter hack
https://searchengineland.com/google-search-drops-tweet-carousels-after-twitter-hack-337686
https://searchengineland.com/google-search-drops-tweet-carousels-after-twitter-hack-337686
Search Engine Land
Google Search drops tweet carousels after Twitter hack
Twitter had a serious and concerning security event Wednesday. Google has since removed tweets from its search results.
Google Pruning The Rich Results & FAQ/How To Schema Results?
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-fewer-rich-results-faq-how-to-29787.html
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-fewer-rich-results-faq-how-to-29787.html
Search Engine Roundtable
Google Showing Fewer Rich Results & FAQ/How To Schema Results?
There has been chatter recently, with some data backing it up from the data tool provider RankRanger, that Google has stopped showing a nice percentage of rich results and how-to / FAQ schema rich results in the search results.
How to Check for Duplicate Content During an SEO Audit
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-audit/duplicate-content/?amp
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-audit/duplicate-content/?amp
Search Engine Journal
How to Check for Duplicate Content During an SEO Audit
Identifying duplicate content issues is a crucial part of your SEO audit. Here's what you need to check for and how to do it.
Google launches free Kotlin developer course for beginners
https://content.techgig.com/google-launches-free-kotlin-developer-course-for-beginners/articleshow/77032857.cms
https://content.techgig.com/google-launches-free-kotlin-developer-course-for-beginners/articleshow/77032857.cms
TechGig
Google launches free Kotlin developer course for beginners
The Android Basics in Kotlin gives step-by-step instructions to developers on how to use the Android Studio IDE and tips on running the apps on Android de