Post of the Week
Analysis and Findings From The August 1, 2018 Google Algorithm Update
The latest update was such as a biggie that it had to be part of our Post of the Week. I've now read a few blog posts on the update but the best of the bunch, in my opinion, is this one by Glenn Gabe at GSQi. He does a cracking job of summarising it and uses his own experiences with clients to analyse where the algorithm hit, and what you can do about it. 👍
Content
Content Marketing for SEO: 25 Proven Angles That Still Attract Links / Detailed.com
I've followed Glen Allsopp and Viperchill for years, and like all of his posts, this is another smash hit. The post outlines 25 creative content angles for building links, from free courses to rumours and scoops (that don't necessarily need to be factual).
Tech
🚒 Humbling SEO Fails from the BigSEO community
We've all been there; SEO doesn't work all of the time and sometimes you just make messy decisions. To help others not make the same mistakes, the team at ContentKing have compiled a list of the best (worst 🤔) SEO mistakes from BigSEO Redditors.
HTTP/2 FAQ: What Every SEO Professional Needs to Know
Despite the significant implications on website performance, it surprises me not to see the majority of websites now implementing HTTP/2. Perhaps it's because there's still some confusion on how it works, and more importantly how it impacts page speed? Fortunately, Sam Marsden of DeepCrawl, has put together a handy guide, answering a ton of the most popular questions about HTTP/2.
Using a Crawler to Collect Chrome Page Speed Metrics at Scale
Although you need DeepCrawl to put this post into practice, it is definitely worth a read to understand the ways in which you can start to scale up your page speed testing. Auditing performance metrics one page at a time really sucks, and rarely reflects overall website performance. Using a crawler will do away with spot testing page speed and give you a far more accurate picture of your performance.
Outreach
How to Set up Google Alerts (and Use It to Grow Your Business)
Google Alerts provides so much more opportunity than just tracking brand mentions. In another in-depth blog post from Ahrefs, Joshua Hardwick describes 9 ways to get the most of the free tool to grow you business.
Case Study
Google AMP - A 70% drop in our conversion rate
When we think of AMP (Accelerated-Mobile-Pages), we think faster websites - it's in the name! However, in prioritising page speed, are webmasters overlooking other factors that might have negative connotations on mobile performance? Nathan Kontny talks about his experience with AMP and how it led to a 70% drop in conversion rate.
In the last week, many experienced SEOs have been analysing the aftermath of the latest Google Core Algorithm Update (Medic / E-A-T Update? 🤔) There's been some brilliant posts summarising the update, which appears to have mainly impacted those in the health industry.
The industries that look to have been affected are unsurprising with the recent change to the Search Rater Guidelines. Google now wants raters to score websites with content written by those with a great reputation more highly - this is now seemingly part of the core algorithm.
Andrew Charlton