What Exactly Is Semantic Search (& How Does it Affect SEO) Ten years ago, SEO strategists across the world followed a relatively similar process. Step one, conduct keyword research. Step two, randomly write those keywords into the text on a page approximately five billion times. And step three — rank number one for that keyword. I hate to break to you, but that isn't the case anymore. Several algorithm updates like Hummingbird and RankBrain brought about a new concept: semantic search. While this may remove jobs for black-hat keyword stuffers, SEOs who prioritize the importance of providing a good customer experience can sigh in relief that Google is now on their side. Google and other search engines are continuously striving to satisfy the searcher with the most accurate results — which is precisely where semantic search comes in. In other words, it connects search intent with the context of your content to provide the most relevant and helpful results. With these updates in place, how does this affect search traffic? And what do SEOs need to consider moving forward? That's what I'll cover in this article. What is semantic search? To start, let's dive deeper into how semantic search works. Semantic search is the process search engines use to try to understand the intent and contextual meaning of your search query in order to give you results that match what you had in mind. In other words, semantic search aims to know why you are searching for these...

The What, Why, and How of Canonical Tags & URLs "That's canon!"  You might've heard this phrase used to describe a creative piece that stays true to an original piece of work or fictional universe. If you're familiar with canon, you are well on your way to understanding canonicalization and how it impacts web pages. Here, let's explore what canonicalization is, why it matters for SEO, and how to add the tag to your own website. What is canonicalization? Canonicalization declares an original or preferred web page, which helps consolidate duplicate pages for crawling. Without naming a canonical URL, web crawlers could crawl and index multiple versions of your web page. Google indicates that it will crawl non-canonical pages less frequently to reduce the crawl load on your website. Less frequent crawling of low-quality, duplicate pages means more important pages can be prioritized for crawling, instead. Okay, but why would we purposely have duplicate content? Well … ever post your content on your website and also on Medium? Or, perhaps after guest posting you place a version of the blog post on your website, as well. To do so, you should reference the original version as the canonical URL. Canonical URLs can reference different domains — meaning the canonical can be on another website. Even if you aren't actively creating duplicate pages for cross-channel promotion, duplication happens naturally due to the different parts of a web address. Does your website use a secure protocol, like HTTPS? Then...

Your Cheat Sheet to Google's 200 (Known) Ranking Factors If you're an SEO, I know you can relate to the following scenario. You do thorough keyword research and create super awesome content that ends up performing well — score! You are riding the waves of growth in SERPs and feel like you're on top of the world. And the next day, there's an algorithm update that comes along ... and just like that, your rankings have tanked. Regardless of whether an algorithm update rocks or destroys your world, they're an inevitable occurrence. So it's time to face the facts, and take the changes in stride. As difficult as ranking in the coveted number one spot may seem, there is a list that'll help you get there: Google's 200 known ranking factors. This list serves as our guide in a field that's constantly evolving. In 2006, Google declared that it was using over 200 ranking factors. While that's certainly the most comprehensive perspective, I've pulled all the known ranking factors together in one post and shared my personal top 10 to make it a bit more tactical. But before you jump in, understand that everything is arguable in SEO, and there have been some controversies concerning these "200 known ranking factors". SEO's often differ in their perspective on which ranking factors matter the most — or whether they're important at all. Nevertheless, user experience is one thing Google continually improves for their users. If you want to create more helpful content for...

How to Effectively Disavow Links & Protect Organic Ranking If you're confused about when, why, and how to disavow links — you aren't alone. We all know that backlinks are critical to your SEO success, but the quality of those backlinks can make all the difference in that success. This post will help you understand when and how to submit a Google disavow file, which is important for protecting your domain. Let's dive in — but first, what is the disavow tool? What is the disavow tool? The disavow tool gives you the opportunity to ask Google to ignore low-quality backlinks to your website. When you submit a disavow file to Google, you are asking them to ignore certain links that are pointing to your domain. There is no obligation for them to respect your request, but if they do, those links won't be used in determining your ranking in search results. It's important to understand, however, that disavowing backlinks doesn't remove them from your backlink profile. Do you actually need to use the disavow tool? Google has made it clear that they only want you to use the disavow tool if you need to. They recommend using it if you have a manual spam penalty, or if you knowingly took part in link-building practices that might be harming you. In 2019, Google Senior Webmaster Trends Analyst John Mueller talked about the disavow tool during Google Webmaster Central office hours. He says, "I think for most websites out there, pretty...

The Modern, Inside Scoop on Google PageRank In 2021 If you have been in SEO for a while, you may remember the days of working hard to increase the PageRank of websites — it was the metric every SEO cared about and wanted to improve. Improving PageRank meant improving your authority (usually with backlinks), which in turn could result in higher rankings and more traffic.  But what happened to PageRank? It's rarely talked about anymore.  Believe it or not, PageRank is still used as a ranking signal for Google, even if you haven't heard it mentioned in a while. Here, we'll explore what you need to know about Google PageRank in 2021. What is Google PageRank? Google PageRank is a very complex concept, but we are going to try and break it down to make it easy to understand. PageRank uses a mathematical formula to score the value of a page based on the quality and quantity of the pages linking it to it.  The PageRank formula will look at the number of inbound links, external links, and the PageRank of those links to determine authority. The formula will create a score using a logarithmic scale with values ranging from 0-10.  The higher the PageRank score of a page, the more authoritative that page is. You can get more in-depth information about the PageRank formula in the original paper that was published back in 1997. The PageRank Toolbar Years ago, there used to be a toolbar that could show...

302 Status Code: What It Is + Its Impact on SEO If you've spent any time on the internet, chances are you've encountered an HTTP status code. In simple terms, HTTP status codes are standard response codes that show the relationship between all the things that go on in the background when you travel from web page to web page. Things like the user agent (i.e., your web browser), the server, the web page you're trying to load, and any third-party web applications you might be running. Because of the complexity of how all those elements interact, there are many possible HTTP status codes you can run up against. HTTP status codes identify and diagnose the particular blocker preventing you from loading a resource, and can give you information about the journey you took on the way to a page. In this article, we'll cover what you need to know about the HTTP 302 status code – jargon-free. For starters, it's helpful to know that all HTTP messages with 3xx are redirection messages. Say blog.hubspot.com no longer exists, and the content is now permanently housed on blogging.hubspot.com. This would trigger a 301 status code, which indicates a permanent redirection from one location to another. The 302 redirect, on the other hand, is only temporary. A good example of when to use a 302 status code is for localization and language purposes. For instance, if you visit a clothing website based in the United Kingdom but you are located...

What is Website Architecture? 8 Easy Ways to Improve Your Site Structuring Getting lost sucks. It doesn’t matter if you’re in a city or a corn maze, the ambiguity of not knowing where you are and what could happen next can make you break out in a cold sweat. Website visitors feel the same way when they land on a jumbled website. Nearly one in two people leave a website after visiting just one page. We don’t have a lot of time to make a good impression on a user, and with a poor site architecture, you’re guaranteed to increase bounce rates. It’s critical to structure your site in an intuitive and easy-to-navigate way to retain your audience’s attention. If you don’t, they’ll bounce in seconds. And if people leave your website because your user experience is messy, search engines won’t think highly of you, either. If you need help structuring a website that will engage an audience and rank on Google, we’ve got you covered. We’ll teach you what website architecture is, why it’s important for UX and SEO, and how you can develop a sound architecture for your own website. Without question, your website structure plays a critical role in retaining users and boosting conversions. Implementing a website structure helps you design your website for the user experience. You might have the most amazing content, but if users can’t find it, they’ll leave for a competitor’s site. A typical website structure looks like a rooted tree graph,...

Dwell Time is the SEO Metric You Need to Track This morning, I made a quick Google search. When the results page loaded, I spent time clicking through the first page of websites to find what I was looking for. When I didn't find my answer, I clicked back to that results page to look at the next one. This process took me through to the bottom of the page until I refined my search and started the process again. I didn't know it at the time, but I was actually contributing to a powerful metric — dwell time. When we talk about metrics, we tend to focus on demographics. We ask questions like, Who's looking at your site, where are they located, and what are their interests?. These interests help marketers make informed decisions about campaigns tailored to their customers' interests. Dwell time is the metric that runs through various search engine results pages (SERPs). It's the time I spent reading those results pages before I went back to Google to take a look at other results. Let's explore more about what dwell time means, and its usefulness, below. What is dwell time? Remember that dwell time begins and ends with the SERP. Simply put, dwell time is the amount of time a user takes analyzing a web page before clicking back to search results. If a web page has a low dwell time, it likely means the page didn't match the user's search intent. It's important to...

HTTP Error 403 Forbidden Messages: What They Are & How to Fix Them Imagine this – you've recently created a new website to host your content, and you're excited to see it go live. You can't wait to dive into SEO and begin ranking for keywords and attracting an audience to your brand. But then a friend emails you and says, "Hey, is there a reason I see this when I click on your website? " Image Source Undoubtedly, a "403 Forbidden" message is cause for immediate concern. How many potential viewers are you losing, as they come across your website to find this message? Fortunately, there are a few quick-and-easy solutions to a 403 error. Here, we'll explain the top three, so you can get your site up and running. What you'll typically see when you land on a page with a 403 forbidden error is something like this: "You don't have authorization to view this page – HTTP Error 403." It can also have slightly different wording, like the example below. Image Source Wondering about the difference between a 403 and 404 error? Here it is: A 404 error happens when you access a page that no longer exists or cannot be found. A 403 error, on the other hand, indicates that your access has been denied due to incorrect credentials. An easy way to remember it: 403 says "access denied" while 404 says "We can't find what you asked for." What causes a 403...

A Beginner's Guide to Data Flow Diagrams Ask any professional athlete or business executive how they became successful, and they’ll tell you they mastered a process. By figuring out which of their habits led to success and which didn’t, they improved their efficiency, effectiveness, and productivity at work. But implementing a process into a business, department, or even a team is a completely different animal than honing your own personal process. With so many moving parts, how do you track each aspect of your business' process and how do you refine it? Data flow diagrams provide a straightforward, efficient way for organizations to understand, perfect, and implement new processes or systems. They’re visual representations of your process or system, so they make it easy to understand and prune. Before we dive into how data flow diagrams can help refine any of your business’ systems or processes, let’s go over what it exactly is. Image Source DFDs became popular in the 1970s and have maintained their widespread use by being easy to understand. Visually displaying how a process or system works can hold people’s attention and explain complex concepts better than blocks of text can, so DFDs are able to help almost anyone grasp a system’s or process’ logic and functions. There are two types of DFDs — logical and physical. Logical diagrams display the theoretical process of moving information through a system, like where the data comes from, where it goes, how it changes, and where...