Get more clicks on mobile results pages
Every week I share no more than 3 hands-on resources that I carefully handpick from the top-experts and best practitioners in SEO and digital marketing. You won’t find FOMO inducing theories and convoluted predictions in these posts. I want to help you build long-lasting SEO and digital marketing strategies with proven methods you can implement today. Previous editions can be found here.
⏰ #NOW - WHAT I HAVE BEEN UP TO
This week was all about starting new things:
- working with a new client 🥳
- meetings for (I hope🤞) future collaborations
- planning future trips 💺
- finally making my Google My Business page 📍
- and even making bread for the first time! 🍞
I also participated in last week's #SEMrushchat about Creating Content That Will Drive Results.
👓 #FOCUS - THE ONE THING YOU SHOULD CHECK OUT
Improving CTR (Click Through Rate) is a constant concern of SEOs. Since Google's big updates of the mobile SERP, and with an ever-growing part of searches being done on mobile, we should pay more attention to the specificities of mobile results, and how it can affect the CTR of our websites.
In this article, Ann Smarty gives a breakdown of ways to improve your CTR on mobile. Here are a few of the key elements I found super useful:
- Learn how to write better headlines and include a call to action
- Optimise the images that will be featured directly in the SERP
- Use tools like TextOptimizer to work on your meta description
- Use breadcrumb Schema
There are loads of other useful resources and guides listed in Ann's article, so check it out!
Read "How to Make Your Google Mobile Search Results More Clickable"
📺 #WATCH – THE VIDEO YOU SHOULD HAVE A LOOK AT
Luke Carthy shares in this talk from the Optimisey Meetup how to use your discontinued products to your benefit for SEO.
The products on your e-commerce website will get backlinks through their lifetime. What will your potential customer do if he/she finds a 404 after following a link from his/her favourite blog? Most probably, go somewhere else.
Luke gives many useful techniques to use those out of date URLs for which people may search for, or at least have interest in buying something similar.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2jQLl20hYo
⚙️ #TOOL - HELPING YOU UP YOUR GAME
Scraping Google Search features using XPath.
... And that's where I lost many readers. 😅
Okay, keep cool, it's gonna be alright.
Let's break that vocabulary down:
- Scraping: a little script/robot/program/automated piece of code is going to read through a page, in this case, a result page, and fetch for you on this page the items you need and put them in a spreadsheet.
- XPath: a syntax that selects items in an XML document.
What's the point?
In the last few years, Google has added a lot of features to result pages, directly pulled from the websites. On top of page titles and meta descriptions, we now have features snippets or position zero, the knowledge panel or related questions - the "people also ask" section. Understanding how the SERP is structured for your queries and what information is pulled in is a great way to figure out what the Google algorithm wants from your website and get ahead of your competition.
How do you set it up? How should you use the gathered data?
For the setup part, I will refer you to the article Patrick Langridge, Head of SEO at Screaming Frog, wrote on the subject. He explains in detail how to use XPath and Screaming Frog to get the data from the related questions section on the SERP and analyse it.
This will help you better understand what your potential customers need from you in terms of information.
Read "How to Scrape Google Search Features Using XPath"
✉️ #SUBSCRIBE - RECEIVE THIS POST IN YOUR INBOX
Do you need help with your digital marketing strategy? Are you planning to work on your website’s SEO? Would you be interested in having me talk at your conference or train your team?
Here are the links to read more about me, check out my former experiences, find out more on the services I provide and contact me.
Latest editions of The Pragmatic SEO
Get more clicks on mobile results pages
Make your Search Results on Mobile More Clickable and Improve your CTR, Use your Discontinued Products to your Advantage in your E-Commerce SEO, and Scrape Google Search Features with XPath....
28 January, 2020
Categorize keywords automatically according to buyer’s intent
Automate Keyword Categorization with Google Sheets and Find the Buyer's Intent, The Anatomy of the Top Performing Articles and Landing Awesome Links with Awesome Outreach Emails....
21 January, 2020
Re-optimize your content with the right tools
How to Use Tools to Re-Optimize your Content with Jeff Baker, Ways to Use Google Sheets for SEO Tasks with Aleyda Solis, and Working Effectively with Developers with Jamie Alberico and Sam Marsden....
14 January, 2020