The Maker SERP Squeeze: Why Should SEOs Care?

Hey folks, this is Russ Jones, Adjunct Search Scientist here at Moz and Principal Search Scientist at System1. I want to talk today about a long-standing theory in search engine optimization, which generally goes like this: reviewers, aggregators, and non-manufacturing retailers will, over time, push makers and manufacturers out of the SERPs. The recent Google Product Reviews Update is just one further step down this long path leading away from makers and manufacturers. Let’s dive in.

Who’s who?

Before we get started, we need at least a few definitions. What is the difference between a reviewer, aggregator, distributor, non-manufacturing retailer, and a “maker”?

1. Reviewer: A site like Tom’s Guide or PCMag uses its industry credibility and writers to produce comparison guides for products. They’re normally funded by advertising or affiliate agreements.

2. Aggregators: While I have no clear sitewide example, these are content providers that rely on the ratings of other sites to determine the content, whole cloth.

3. Non-manufacturing retailers: While there is some overlap here as many retailers have gotten into the manufacturing game, these are sites like Best Buy, Amazon, Walmart, and Overstock.

4. Makers: These are businesses that both make and sell their products. They can be big brands like Blue Buffalo and Apple, or smaller businesses like Hardcore Hammers or Eley Hose Reels.

Why should we care?

This is a fair question. Do we really care about the performance of maker/manufacturers on Google as some sort of moral or ethical measure? I think we should, so let me give you just a few brief reasons why before examining the evidence of the squeeze:

1. Bias filtering: Each class of site (reviewer, aggregator, retailer, and maker) have a different set of biases that can only be overcome by weighing each one against another. Reviewers and aggregators tend to be paid by ads or affiliate agreements, which can incentivize dishonesty. Retailers are paid by the sale of products on their shelves, thus they also have an incentive to be dishonest in rankings. And makers themselves have a self-bias. It’s the middle of the Venn Diagram of these data sources that makes good decisions possible.

2. Innovation: I wouldn’t be the first to point out the perverse system of startup funding, which has — at best — an unbalanced impact on who and what gets produced. If startups that produce a truly amazing product must pay their pound of flesh to the gatekeepers (reviewers, aggregators, and retailers) from the offset because direct, organic e-commerce is no longer an option, there’s an unnatural filter on what is produced and by who.

3. Finally, and this is the most important reason we should care: Google has a vested interest in pushing maker/manufacturers out of their organic results because they represent a massive advertising market. I want to be clear, here: I’m not accusing Google of intentionally doing this. Proving intent is one of the hardest things you can do without actual admission. However, if it is part of a growing pattern of Google pushing businesses out of organic, making them rely on ads, we should pay attention.

Now, I will be the first to admit that this isn’t the most exciting subject. Most websites aren’t maker/manufacturers, so you may be tempted to dismiss this research as simply irrelevant to your activities as an SEO or webmaster. However, I think that it’s important we understand directional trends that are driven economically and algorithmically in Google — it’s a way of thinking and planning, a strategy wrapped in a cautionary tale.

Is the trend real?

While access to data on Google and its algorithm has never been easy to obtain, there are good sources for historical SERPs. As a brief side note, I want to emphasize the importance of rank tracking, as it remains a primary source of information well beyond where your site currently ranks for a keyword. It allows us to investigate much larger trends, behaviors, and updates, all of which help us do our jobs better.

So, what does the data show? I took 50 singular, superlative product terms in the form of “best {product type}” and accessed the top 10 search results for that term in the month of January over the last nine years. I specifically chose singular terms like “best blender” so as not to intentionally bias the search results towards rankings where the intent was clearly for comparisons. (Asking “what is the best blender?” versus “what are the best blenders?” is an important distinction.)

Thus, we’re looking at 500 data points for each year from 2013 through 2021. Each website that ranked in these cohorts was labeled by hand to identify whether a site was a reviewer, aggregator, non-manufacturing retailer, or maker/manufacturer.

I compiled a number of statistics with relation to the categorization of a site and its likelihood to rank. The first, most straightforward question to ask is whether there is any “squeeze” at all, so to speak.

Are maker/manufacturers less likely to rank for singular product terms in 2021 than they were in 2013? The results are, frankly, stunning.

Between 2013 and 2016, roughly 50% of the SERPs collected in January included at least one maker/manufacturer. This is a very important data point, in my estimation, because it reveals that the search result was — at least in principle — capable of delivering the user to the answer of “what is the best {product}” rather than through an intermediary (non maker/manufacturers). Given the expectation of at least some diversity in results, a reasonable user should expect that on some occasions, Google could actually identify what is (based on some set of metrics) the best product of a certain type and include it in the top 10.

Something dramatic happened between January 2016 and 2017, but there are no clear updates that would target just this type of site and type of query, at least from a cursory review of update histories. Nevertheless, we see a stunning drop to just 15% (from 50%) in a single year. The trend continued such that by 2020 and 2021, out of the 50 terms and 500 rankings, only one was a maker/manufacturer. One. 

In order to further confirm the trend, I followed the average (mean) ranking position for maker/manufacturers that were in the top 10 over that same time period. What’s interesting in this equation is that we see a much smoother line between 2017 and 2020 in rankings drop for maker/manufacturers. While many just dropped out of the top 10 in the first year (2017), the losses were steady over the next few years.

This additional information indicates that the trend is continuing, and that other maker/manufacturers who are holding on to rankings for these types of generic terms may not have much time left.

But there is another insult to injury in this trend, which was well articulated by Dr. Pete in 2015’s “The Incredible Shrinking SERP”. You see, once the mean position for maker/manufacturers passed the number 8 spot, they were at great risk of being removed from the first page altogether.

By 2019, for the same set of terms, the average SERP had nine or fewer results. This meant that the remaining maker/manufacturer pages were no longer on page 1. Effectively, 0% of maker/manufacturers benefited directly from organic traffic for these singular, superlative terms.

Maybe users prefer reviews, comparisons, & aggregators

When considering the many reasons why this might occur aside from the simplest explanation that Google decided it didn’t trust the maker/manufacturer websites, the thought came to mind that perhaps users just prefer comparison pages. This would be a charitable explanation and, as an information query, users would want to find a variety of sources that help them make an informed decision. However, I think there are several problems with this assessment.

Let’s take the example of “best mattress topper”, one of the 50 queries tested as part of this project. The first clue that there is more to the story than simply trying to include good review and comparison content is that Google chooses to include non-advertisement products in the search results! Instead of pages, they use a carousel.

There are several important points to make about this inclusion of a product carousel:

1. They prove that Google is aware, at least to some degree, that users would like to know exactly what the best topper is and be able to click immediately to that product.

2. Two of the first four in the carousel are not mentioned at all, anywhere, in the top 10 comparison reviews, while later items are.

3. They do not appear to be ordered with any relation to popularity, rating, or relevance to the query.

4. They indicate that Google has significant entity information on the products in question.

It’s a strange occurrence that Google knows users want the product (the answer to the question, not links to pages that answer the question), and that they have the product information but choose not to use it to either link directly to the maker/manufacturer, OR to rank the product carousel based on data extracted from the top reviews and comparisons that fill the organic rankings. But I think it gets worse.

Google’s product review update

Google announced an update that would target reviews and comparisons to ensure quality results. Among the many expectations listed in the update were knowledge about the product, what sets it apart from competitors, and providing quantitative measures. There is something incredibly important about this type of request of webmasters:

1. Either Google is in the position where it knows this information and will be able to validate it in an effort to determine which reviews and comparison sites are trustworthy,

2. Or Google is in the position where it does not know this information, and will only be able to compare this information from site to site in order to identify trustworthiness.

If Google is in scenario #1, then they have the capability to aggregate the results from the current review and comparison pages and determine the truthfulness of their statements (insofar as they are not merely opinion). If they’re in scenario #2, they have absolutely no business judging reviews and comparison sites until they’ve elevated their algorithmic capabilities, in order to use comparative data to determine truthfulness, thus warranting a move up to position #1!

In any scenario, Google should be capable of extracting the answer — or at least handful of answers — to these queries using their entity knowledge, product knowledge, link graph, and information extraction capabilities, which allow them to send traffic directly to the makers and manufacturers rather than intermediaries.

For example, we know that the two companies with the most listings in the top 10 reviews and comparisons are Tempur-Pedic (8 top 10 listings) and Viscosoft (7 top 10 listings). Tempur-Pedic does enjoy the second listing in the product carousel but that, of course, does not link to Tempur-Pedic’s product but rather to another Google listing of products filled with ads.

We have a word for this in our marketing lexicon: nothing more than a glorified interstitial.

Perhaps Viscosoft has a more egregious position. Despite nearly edging out the top position among the organic comparison sites, their products occur nowhere within the 24 products in the product carousel, despite having the highest ranking maker/manufacturer page for best mattress topper at #18!

Maybe they aren’t in this supposed “organic product carousel” because of this:

Why would Google ever choose to add a product to their carousel if they can’t ultimately make money off of it? The Viscosoft mattress topper search result page, as of this writing, has no ads.

The sad reality: Google hasn’t learned its lesson

Despite congressional inquiry and incredible research performed by Rand Fishkin and many others proving that Google is doing everything they can to keep you on Google, it appears that they are still intent on capturing potential customers into a giant click jail where the only way out is to click on an ad. But what is more egregious in this case is not that Google is merely keeping you on their site, but that they have a non-ad-labeled carousel called “Popular products” that clicks through to a special advertising experience search result (which we can trigger with specific search parameters, all of which is documented below.

Step 1: Popular products

Step 2: Specialized ad experience interstitial

Step 3: You can change the query, but retain the right bar ad experience.

Takeaways

I wish there was some good news for takeaways, but I just don’t really see much in the way of things getting better for maker/manufacturers. There are strategies, of course, but most of them will involve getting other sites to sell or market your product rather than your own.

The new review guidelines explicitly state that you should compare products to their competitors, which is a huge legal risk for most maker/manufacturers. This leaves them in a really difficult situation: either try to get your product reviewed by honest sites (which is an incredibly difficult task often requiring giving away free products that then must be acknowledged in the review), or spending money advertising or selling on major retailers and marketplaces like Amazon.

But if there is one thing we do know, it’s that there is no reason to believe that Google will actually list the best product or its site in the search results any time soon — there is too much money to be made by putting Google Ads between the user and the product.

8 Ways to Champion Animals in Your Local Business Marketing Strategy

Image credit: Yoshihide Nomura

If you’ve ever had the privilege of being present for a baby’s first joyful encounter with a household pet, you’ll have noticed the profound wonder and excitement of the little one’s reaction. Once upon a time, that was each of us beaming and bouncing up and down with the thrill of meeting our first dog or cat.

Don’t lose that joy — be like these Canadian women watching whales from their garden:

From our earliest days, most of us have simply loved animals. We fill children’s books with tales of them and choose them as life companions. In many cultures, animals are sources of sacred power, and in all parts of the world, wildlife is absolutely essential to balanced ecosystems.

67% of American households now include pets — that’s the majority of your consumer base signalling just how much animals matter to them. When local business owners and marketers communicate with most customers about animals, shared affinity is ready-built into the exchange, drawing on feelings of warmth, admiration, responsibility, concern, and happiness. These dearly-held sentiments can be sturdy building blocks of benefit for other-than-human creatures, communities, and your business. This is deeply good marketing, which can yield personal satisfaction, press, links, citations, loyalty, and positive social change.

Today, we’ll consider eight options for honoring the love both you and your customers have in common when it comes to animals, plus tips for weaving your efforts into your local business marketing strategy.

All animal-centric activities, great and small

Almost any local business will find one or more actionable ideas here to demonstrate care for animals.

1. Expand your welcome to customers’ pets

Where local health codes and business models permit, make provisions for pets at your place of business. Before the pandemic, dog-friendly dining patios, water stations, lodgings, and shopping center-based dog parks were on the rise and can return once safety does. Put a bowl of dog treats outside your storefront to make your business a memorable highlight of neighbors’ daily dog walks, keep a stash of them behind the counter if pets are permitted indoors, and take note of the dairy delivery drivers who toss snacks to dogs when bringing groceries to customers in the pacific northwest.

A kiosk of free doggy cleanup bags could be a draw to your door and a boon to the neighborhood. Bring customers inside when it’s safe again to do so with a feature wall of local pet photos. Hold contests that center pets or feature pet-centric prizes, or host a pet-based event. Meanwhile, if your business is located in a neighborhood far from large pet supply stores, consider whether a pet section makes sense in your inventory.

2. Make a place for staff pets

Image credit: Groupon

Every year, new studies are published indicating that when pets interact with people, humans benefit from lowered cortisol and blood pressure levels and a variety of improvements in states of whole body well-being. As a shopper, I can say that my household loves visiting businesses with resident pets. Prior to stay-at-home orders, some of our most memorable shopping excursions were to the nursery with the noble-looking Australian shepards, the craft store with the little terriers, and the farm stand with the dachshunds. To-do lists sounded like this:

“We need to buy mulch. Oh, and we’ll get to see Pushkin the little red dog!”

Companies are always seeking out methods of creating memorable experiences, and friendly cats and dogs on-site can be instant magic in this regard.

At Moz, even before we were working remotely, honored staff pets added calm and pleasure to company meetings, with an established policy for animal etiquette and safety practices Mozzers agreed to in order to bring their companions to the office. Even at companies that can’t have animals on the premises as a regular thing, bring-your-pet-to-work days can signal to staff that a brand is sensitive to work/life balance once it becomes safe again for people to return to offices. Evaluate how a company you’re marketing might safely incorporate animal companions into the workplace for the happiness of both staff and customers.

3. Expand your welcome to wildlife

Image credit: Theresa_Gunn

Many businesses have the space to hang a bird feeder and water dish or set up a bird bath. Nesting boxes for birds and bats are small and can be fitted into all sorts of nooks and eaves around your building in any spot where droppings won’t be a nuisance.

If your business is lucky enough to have the space, planter boxes can provide flowers, fruit, seeds, nectar, pollen, and nesting materials for birds, butterflies, bees, and other pollinators.. Call a local nursery to ask which native plants will fit in your containers and support winged visitors. If you have more space and can plant a hedge, you’ll be making a home for many types of birds and insects, and may even offer protection to rabbits, raccoons, possums, and other small animals.

Well-planned Main Streets and shopping districts can provide more than just sidewalks for humans and streets for cars — they can be places where hummingbirds sip from flower to flower, bees gather pollen, butterflies migrate, and herbivores find forage. Take your seat at city planning meetings and become an advocate for green space in commercial areas, bird-friendly windows, accessible waterways, and other ecological development strategies.

4. Sponsor wildlife crossings, corridor, and rescue programs

Millions of domestic and native animals lose their lives on our roads every year, but wildlife corridors that create safe roaming paths through fragmented areas can reduce animal-related car accidents by as much as 80%. If your heart sinks every time you see a dead animal on the highway, talk to your city council about planning wildlife crossings and corridors in your community and then either help build them or have your brand sponsor their construction. Extra credit to you if you can get your customers involved, too.

Meanwhile, if you’ve ever had to call a wildlife rescue and rehabilitation number after encountering an injured animal on the road, having a bird stun itself by crashing into a window, or finding unfledged nestlings on the ground, you know what a lifeline these programs can be. Do some research on agencies and groups in your community that contribute this vital work and offer volunteer hours or financial support.

5. Sponsor guide dog and companion animal programs

Image credit: Zelda Richardson

Dogs that act as the guides, protectors, and friends of differently-abled people are heroes, and it takes a great deal of care, time, and money to train them for their work. Additionally, many communities have programs that bring pets to children’s hospitals, elder care homes, and other centers for the important benefits humans can experience just from interacting with a loving, friendly animal.

If you’re looking for a sponsorship opportunity that can make a world of difference in people’s everyday lives, research these types of programs and volunteer or sponsor them.

6. Sponsor no-kill animal shelters

When animal lovers seek pet adoption, many insist on visiting only no-kill shelters in order to make a statement consistent with their humane values and to avoid the trauma of having to choose among animals who may be killed if not brought home.

If your region has a no-kill shelter, it’s not only a good thing to contribute to, but can also be a source of fostering community goodwill when you allow these programs to place donation jars at registers.

7. Offer plant-based and cruelty-free options

There’s a reason even fast-food franchises are offering veggie burgers now, and I see the source of it in my own family where 65% of the young people are vegetarians or vegans. Meanwhile, nearly all of them actively seek out self-care products labeled as cruelty-free.

Even if your business isn’t staffed by herbivores or animal rights activists, you can include them in the welcome you’re building so that all community members have something to eat, drink, and purchase. Nielsen found in 2018 that 39% of Americans are upping the amount of plant-based dishes in their diets, and it’s my belief that these numbers will continue to rise. Now is the time to be sure you’re not overlooking this growing consumer base who will reward your care for their needs with patronage.

8. Protect water

Image credit: Mark Giuliucci

If a deep regard for animals is shared by your company and customers, there is likely no better cause to support than the protection of all forms of water, on which we all depend for life. Cleaning up and defending the future of streams, rivers, ponds, wetlands, lakes, and oceans is challenging, vital work for us all.

Take an active role, and invite customers to learn and change with you, in removing pollutants and plastics from water sources, abandoning oil pipelines in favor of green energy, replacing forever-products with biodegradable ones, replacing many ecologically-disastrous man-made dams with biodiverse beaver dam habitat, encouraging local water boards to include Indigenous leadership in sustainable community planning, protecting remaining wetlands from development, and providing safe drinking water to all communities.

Be a vocal advocate for very good reasons

Image credit: Tim Sackton.

In some cultures and faiths, acts of private charity and kindness are meant to be kept secret. At a corporate level, though, social good can be exponentially expanded when brands are willing to take public stands on matters of conscience. The larger your business, the louder your voice inviting participation in works and causes that honor animals.

Once you’ve determined how you’ll be incorporating care for other creatures into your business plan, here are 10 ways to get the word out to the community you serve:

• Publish optimized website content, based on keyword research and community interest, to explain your brand’s animal-centric activities.

• Ask the organizations you support to interview someone at your company to explain why your staff/customers are volunteering/donating to this particularly worthy cause. These groups will also likely be looking for content opportunities. Volunteering to be the subject of an interview can expand their reach and hopefully deliver a good link or two to your website, as well.

• Reach out to local reporters to let them know that this is an angle of your business operations that the public might enjoy reading about; we could all use some good news these days in the local paper!

• If appropriate, get unstructured citations on local blogs or structured citations on specialty directories. For example, HappyCow.net offers a directory of restaurants where plant-based diners can find a meal.

• If appropriate, create image and video content about company pets, wildlife stewardship, and local ecological efforts, demonstrating your business’s participation and inviting customers to enjoy taking part.

• Promote content that you and others have published about your activities on your social media channels.

• Partner with other local business owners with similar policies and programs to share work and send customers to one another.

• Write some animal-centric Google posts on your Google Business Profile

• Assess whether Google My Business Categories or attributes could be added to your listing to represent animal-related features of your business.

• Add photos of staff pets or wildlife features at your location to your GMB listing if they add to the welcoming ambiance of your place of business.

Wag more

Watch the above video by a local business and you’ll see how almost any company can make memorable, emotional connections with the people they serve thanks to a widely-shared love of animals. Actions that celebrate, rather than exploit, our animal relations surely fall under the phenomenon of kindness as currency with multiple studies showing how people are more apt to act with generosity of spirit when they see others do so.

When you’re tasked with marketing, you’re always looking for that extra reason to be chosen by customers. 73% of people say they care about the company they buy from, not just the product. The furry paw poised on your knee right now, the purr emanating from behind your laptop, the songs of birds outside your window could be calling you to connect with customers in an authentic new way, over your joint, abiding care for animals. These days, who wouldn’t welcome a chance to wag more?

Looking for more authentic local search marketing tips to make your community a better place to live and work? Read The Essential Local SEO Strategy Guide.

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SEO and Accessibility: Technical SEO [Series Part 3]

We hope you’ve enjoyed this series on SEO and accessibility. In the final installment, Cooper shows you how the technical SEO strategies you implement across your site can help make it more perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust.

Click on the whiteboard image above to open a larger version in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Hey, Moz fans. Welcome to the latest edition of Whiteboard Friday. I'm Cooper Hollmaier. I've been doing SEO since 2016, and today I work for a large outdoor retailer helping our technical SEO strategy come to life. Thank you so much for attending this series on SEO and accessibility.

I hope that you've gained a broad perspective and new tips and tricks for creating content that not only is resonating with your audience, performs well in search, but is also accessible to more people. Today we're going to talk about technical SEO and accessibility. 

Technical SEO and accessibility

Let's dive in. Last time we talked about Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, and you might remember that the four principles of WCAG are perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust.

Perceivable

As a technical SEO, you're probably most concerned with perceivable because your day-to-day operations, your day-to-day work stream involves making sure that the pages, the content, the experiences you're creating are accessible to search engines and perceivable to search engines. 

A lot of times when we go through SEO recommendations or SEO audits, I hear a lot of common themes, like the header tag is baked into the image and so a search engine can't see it, or the content I'm producing is visible to bots but it's not visible to people. These are issues with base level perception. I want you to take that mindset and consider if you apply that to your whole audience as well. So can all of your people that are hoping to engage with your service or product or experience, are they able to perceive all the things you have to offer at a base level?

1. Styles

Some things you might be thinking would be similar to what you would be seeing in this audit, like: Is all of my text on the page visible? Is it active text? Is it native to the page, so can I select it and copy and paste it, or is it baked into the image and unreachable by assistive technology or browsers or what have you? You might also be thinking: Is the color contrast to my background and my text, is it the right contrast?

Is there enough clarity and crispness between my layout elements? If things seem a little bit fuzzy or it's not quite clear that something is accessible to a search engine and a user, go back to the drawing board and figure out how to make both of those things work out well. 

2. Rich media

We also like to add images, text, video, and audio to the pages that we're building for our customers. It's important that these rich elements, now that we're kind of past the basic text and the styling elements, the rich elements we're putting on the page are perceivable by all of your users as well. There's a couple of things we can do to make that happen. For images, giving them a text alternative and providing something that is in addition to that imagery will help it be seen by a screen reader and understood by someone who has a visual disability.

Also naming things with human-friendly names versus "DSC1352.JPEG" is going to help search engines as well as assistive technology see that image and understand what it is. On-page context, it's also important that you put images on pages that add value. You want to enlighten a user with some additional content to give them a little bit more of a feeling or give them some more context on what you're talking about. Add images for value, not just to show up in Google image search. 

What about video? So video is a little bit different. Video has a series of moving images. So every time I think about movement, I think to myself, "How can I make sure that if a user wants to stop this movement, they can?"

Having clear playback controls is crucial when we're talking about accessibility as well as having a great video player experience for any user. In addition, synchronous equivalents for those text alternatives. We talked about images having text alternatives. Videos need to have text alternatives as well, but they need to be synchronized to time with that video. Otherwise they won't make sense in context. 

Then making sure that they're distinguishable. This is the same between video and audio. We want to make sure that the foreground and the background are easily distinguishable from one another. If your video feels muddy, if your audio feels muddy and it takes me straining my ear or straining my eyes to be able to see that content and understand what's happening, you need to be a little bit more crisp, a little bit more clear on those two distinctions.

Then text transcripts. Just like you need closed captions for videos, for audio you want to have a text transcript, so if I'm maybe in a loud place and I can't hear the audio or I don't have my headphones plugged in or I needed to use assistive technology, I'm able to access that audio. 

These are all things that you'll be seeing as you're reviewing code as a technical SEO and you should be aware of.

If you don't have these things going on, on your website, I would empower you to ask those questions, the hard questions like: Hey, is there a text alternative to this image? How will a person with a visual disability, how will a person with an auditory disability access these things? 

3. Page structure

Three and four are about page structure and semantic HTML. So this is a little bit less about is this perceivable and is it kind of understandable.

It's kind of grazing the understandable, but it should be a little bit about perception, too. Having a bunch of H1s on a page, as you can imagine, a search engine might perceive as very confused, right? They're like, okay, there's a bunch of H1s on this page. I'm not really sure what this page is about. Adding structure and cascading headings to signify parent-child relationships is going to help your content be a little bit more perceivable. It's going to be easier to understand what's happening. 

4. Semantic HTML

Same thing with semantic HTML. We tend to put lots of divs and spans and unidentifiable elements in our HTML. But by marking them up in more appropriate ways, so that we understand what their meaning is, understand what those tags contain, whether it's navigation or forms or tables, providing that extra layer of information and understandability is going to allow search engines and assistive technology to be able to parse through those things, to allow them to perceive the things you're putting on your page that are different from one another and provide a richer experience.

Operable

Okay, so we're able to perceive the content. But how do we make sure that it's operable? 

1. HTML sitemaps

A couple of SEO recommendations that I often see people making are build an HTML sitemap and put breadcrumbs on your page. A lot of times you might get some pushback from that. The HTML site map is super important we know for SEO, for discoverability of those pages deep in our website's hierarchy.

We know that breadcrumbs are also pretty equally important for discoverability. Both of these elements help users with assistive technology better navigate the website. The HTML site map allows for if your menu doesn't include all the pages on your website or if it's confusing or you're using JavaScript or some other technology that's not accessible to my tech stack.

2. Breadcrumbs

Then breadcrumbs allow me to parse up and down the particular let's say it's a product search page on an e-commerce website without having to go back to the menu and then parse through every single menu item again. So these two are super important for navigation but also especially for people who are navigating with a keyboard and using assistive technology.

3. Develop keyboard-first

Then a non-SEO thing but important nonetheless and relatable, develop your website and your experience keyboard first. Not everyone has a mouse or the ability to use a mouse because of a movement disability or because of an impairment or because of a lack of technology or hardware. So make sure you develop keyboard first, and you're going to kind of encapsulate more of those people that you're looking to encapsulate with your audience.

Understandable

1. Language

Understandable. So we talk about in international SEO, when we're dealing with different countries and different languages, how important it is to use the HTML on our page to signify what the language of the page is. It helps search engines provide the right results in the right maybe national or international context. It also helps screen readers read your content aloud in the right language.

2. Navigational layout

Then navigational layout and interstitials I think are pretty common, but nobody likes a navigation or a layout of a website that's confusing. The easier you make it, the easier it is for people to convert or do what you're looking for them to do with this website, whether it's learn, whether it's buy, whether it's engage in a service. That's easier when the navigation and layout is streamlined and we're not using different words in different places to mean the same thing. It's even more important for people with assistive technology. 

3. Interstitials

Interstitials, nobody likes those pop-ups in our face, that don't allow us to browse the rest of the website. Google doesn't love them either. But especially people with assistive technology, if we're not treating those pop-ups in the right way, we're going to end up in a scenario where users may be in a keyboard trap and they can't get out of the interstitial, or they don't understand that an interstitial is even put up on the page. So it's important to be very mindful when using interstitials. 

Robust

Last but not least is robust. How do we make sure that the content we're putting on the page is compatible for a large variety of devices and scenarios? 

1. Validation

Just using proper HTML is a big way to do this. You can use a validator and you can look at your HTML, your CSS, and your JSON-LD. Creating the right code and especially when you're using semantic HTML as well providing meaning to that code, you're going to have a lot better experience and everything your building is more digestible. 

2. Responsive

Is your website responsive? You should be doing this already. But if you're not, make sure it's operating on a mobile and a desktop and a tablet device and the layout stays the same, it's just maybe resized or re-imaged in a different way.

3. Interactable

Make sure it's interactable. If a user wants to be able to zoom in because they have a visual disability or they want to be able to change the colors, does your technology on your website allow them to do that? It should. If you do these three things on the bottom, I think it's going to do a lot of heavy lifting and you're going to have to do a lot less work because you've kind of built in the framework, the foundation to be accessible.

That's technical SEO and accessibility. If you have more questions or want some validation tools, there are some on the right-hand side here, or you can hit me up on Twitter @cooperhollmaier for some more advice. But thank you so much for listening to Whiteboard Friday and accessibility along with SEO. I hope that you take this and you become more and more inclusive in the way that you're doing SEO in the future.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

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Resources

• HTML sitemaps
• WCAG
• Markup validation
• Rich results tests
• International Association of Accessibility Professionals

The MozCon Virtual 2021 Final Agenda

This year's MozCon Virtual is right around the corner, and we couldn't be more excited! If you've never considered it before, it's high time you became acquainted with the idea of a "couchference" — a full-fledged conference held from the comfort of your home office space, real office space, or even your sofa.

On July 12th, 13th, and 14th, join Ringmaster Roger under the MozCon big top for insights and tactical presentations from industry leaders, plus the opportunity to connect and network with fellow attendees!

Tickets are just $129 for Moz subscribers until May 31, including access to the professionally produced video bundle (a $350 value!), providing incredible marketing thought leadership at an unheard-of price:

Save my spot at MozCon Virtual!

And remember, this is a great opportunity for our friends around the world and those who aren't able to travel to experience the MozCon magic live! If this will be your first time attending, we'd love to hear what talk you're most excited for in the comments.

Read on to see what your favorite industry leaders are speaking on this year!

All talk times are in Pacific, so keep that in mind when planning your day!

Monday, July 12th

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8:30am – Networking

Open time for attendees to connect with other attendees and MozCon partners.

9:00am – Welcome to MozCon 2021

Sarah Bird, CEO of Moz

The fearless leader of Moz will be welcoming each and every one of us to this year's virtual event, laying out exactly what you can expect over the next three days.

9:35am – Doing the Perfectly (Im)Possible: Debunking Digital PR & Link Building Myths in 2021

Shannon McGuirk, Client Services and Delivery Director | Aira

"You better be pitching that campaign into the press before 9am and definitely not on a Friday or Monday!”

“Link relevancy is important if you’re a link builder, but if you're a digital PR, it doesn't really matter.”

“You're asking the impossible to get links to category and product pages.”

Tired of hearing bold claims and questions like these? We are too. Shannon is going to challenge many of the digital PR and link building myths you're seeing debated on Twitter. From the old classic myths that stand the test of time and are always asked, through to new beliefs that are hot topics, she's going to use data, insights and case studies to show you how to cover some of these beliefs and improve your link building and digital PR efforts in 2021."

10:15am — The Science of Purchasing Behavior: How to Use it Effectively to Attract & Convert More Prospects Into Customers

Flavilla Fongang, Founder & Creative Brand Strategist | 3 Colours Rule

Some brands have achieved the dream: a large audience who believes in them, buying from them time and time again without questioning the value or authenticity of the products and services. And they've done it by developing an emotional connection with that audience. These days, it's more about building a community around your brand, rather than simply having clients. We'll explore the power of brand psychology that's been used by huge, successful brands such as Apple or Starbucks to earn customers that are loyal long-term.

10:50am — Networking

Open time for attendees to connect with other attendees and MozCon partners.

11:15am — The Content Refresh: How to Do More With Less

Kameron Jenkins, Content Lead | Shopify

No matter where you work, there's something we all seem to have a shortage of... time. Combine that with ambitious traffic KPIs and you'll quickly realize that a 100% new content strategy isn't sustainable. Enter the content refresh. Learn how to identify and execute the best refresh opportunities so you can rank faster and increase your existing content ROI.

11:40am — Rule Your Rivals: From Data to Action

Dr. Pete Meyers, Marketing Scientist | Moz

Most competitive analysis ends in an avalanche of potential keywords to target, leaving you buried in indecision. Real case studies will show you how to forge your data into an actionable plan that drives strategic, targeted content. Escape from under the keyword pile and conquer your content rivals.

12:20pm — Build for Search: Modern Web Dev That Puts SEO First

Dana DiTomaso, President & Partner | Kick Point

With the debut of Core Web Vitals, modern SEO is more relevant to website development than ever before. Sure, we’ve always been thinking about title tags and making sure our pages convert — but the actual underpinnings of a website might have been left to your web development team and maybe that one technical SEO. They're likely very skilled people, but the chances of them thinking about how development decisions impact SEO are typically slim to none. Let's modernize the relationship between the web development process and SEO.

12:55pm — Networking

Open time for attendees to connect with other attendees and MozCon partners.

1:20pm — Internationalization Errors: How to Go Global Without Losing All Of Your Traffic

Jackie Chu, SEO Lead, Intelligence | Uber

Internationalization is one of the leading causes of technical SEO debt for multinational companies. We’ll talk through common internationalization mistakes and how to avoid them so you can win visibility and grow anywhere.

2:00pm — Mastering 3 Click + Engagement Signals for Higher Rankings/Traffic

Cyrus Shepard, SEO Consultant | Moz

Successful websites are all different, yet nearly all Google-ranked websites succeed in the exact same fundamental ways. In our quest to optimize for Core Web Vitals, mobile-first indexing, and JavaScript rendering, have we lost sight of the content and user experiences that dominate the very top of Google search results? In this presentation, Cyrus explores the three Google click and engagement signals that top-ranking web pages master: clicks, long clicks, and last clicks. Using examples and experiment results, he demonstrates how any website — and SEOs of all skill levels — can leverage these signals for improved Google traffic.

2:40pm — Birds of a Feather Discussion Groups

Join fellow attendees in one of our Birds of a Feather Discussion groups to share ideas, and network with peers around a common topic. Birds of a Feather groups are informal, peer-to-peer conversations.

3:15pm — That’s a wrap on Day 1!

Networking remains open until 3:30.

Tuesday, July 13th

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8:30am — Networking

Open time for attendees to connect with other attendees and MozCon partners.

9:00am — Day 2 Opens!

9:10am — Why Marketers Should Think More Like Investors To Drive Content Results

Ross Simmonds, Founder, CEO | Foundation Marketing

Every single piece of content your brand creates is an asset. So why do we view them as an expense? In this session, Ross will talk about the parallels between content marketing/SEO and the world of investing. From the techniques that take blog posts and landing pages to the moon, to the fundamentals of content investing to create a competitive advantage, learn how an investment mindset can drive results.

9:50am — Taking Charge of Your Indexability: How to Optimize and Prioritize Your Technical Work

Areej AbuAli, SEO Consultant

Take charge over the indexability of your website! With a focus on aggregators and classifieds, Areej will share advice on how to best reduce index bloat for large websites. Diving into parameter handling, sitemap logic, robots directives, and more, we'll also assess how to analyze the most impactful changes, how to get sign-off from senior stakeholders, and how to prioritize work with product teams.

10:25am — Networking

Open time for attendees to connect with other attendees and MozCon partners.

10:50am — Reporting for Duty: Why You Need to Start Using GA4 TODAY

Brie E Anderson, Owner, Founder | BEAST Analytics

Much like with any other change, the change to Google Analytics 4 may seem daunting and a bit useless. But it's better to get started now before you have to. Plus, in this presentation we will uncover secrets Google hands out in GA4. Then, stick around to see what is new and may be even better in the future.

11:15pm — Counterintuitive Content: How New Trends Have Disrupted Years of Bad Advice

Casie Gillette, Senior Director, Digital Marketing | KoMarketing

Along with the always-shifting landscape, one of the biggest things we as marketers struggle with is the sheer volume of information. For years we were told we had to produce as much content as possible. Then we were told to focus on quality but we still had to have a consistent schedule. What about YouTube or voice search or TikTok? The fact of the matter is, there's no one way to do content marketing. In this session, we’ll look at content from an entirely different perspective and talk about how you can start creating content on your own terms.

11:55 — To Post or Not to Post: What We Learned From Analyzing Over 1,000 Google Posts

Joy Hawkins, Owner | Sterling Sky Inc

What value do Google Posts have, and how should the average SMB prioritize them? Dive into the data from two studies conducted by Sterling Sky to answer these questions.

The first study analyzes over 1,000 Google Posts to see what types perform better based on clicks and conversions, and measures the impact of various features such as stock photos, emojis, titles, and more. The second looks at whether posting on Google has any influence on where your business ranks in the local pack. Findings from both will have you reevaluating your clients' Google posting strategy!

12:30pm — Networking

Open time for attendees to connect with other attendees and MozCon partners.

12:55pm — Maximize Your Conversions: Harnessing Full-Funnel Optimization for B2B Success

Joyce Collarde, SEO Supervisor | Obility

The long sales cycles presented in B2B pose a unique set of challenges for converting visitors into coveted users. Success requires a strategic approach that goes beyond the landing page to include your entire site. In this session, we'll look at three tried-and-true methods for increasing your conversion rate and winning more business.

1:20pm — Beyond the Basics: 5 SEO Tricks for Uncovering Advanced Insights from Your SEO Data

Rob Ousbey, VP Strategy | Moz

Modern SEOs have no shortage of data, but you could learn even MORE about your site, content, links, and competitors by working smarter, not harder. Rob will show you how to breathe new life into your standard SEO data, and walk away with more advanced insights that are sure to impress your team (and your boss!)

2:00pm — The Cold Hard Truth about CTR and Other Common Metrics

Britney Muller, Serial Entrepreneur + Data Science Student | Data Sci 101

Reporting on website performance is an integral part of SEO, but not all metrics are created equal. If you think your metrics are telling the full story, think again. Start building more insightful reporting methods with data science. In this session, Britney will show you how to quash your reporting woes and make easy work of identifying exactly why your website’s performance changed.

2:35pm — Birds of a Feather Discussion Groups

Join fellow attendees in one of our Birds of a Feather Discussion groups to share ideas, and network with peers around a common topic. Birds of a Feather groups are informal, peer-to-peer conversations.

3:00pm — That’s a wrap on Day 2!

Networking remains open until 3:30.

Wednesday, July 14th

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8:30am — Networking

Open time for attendees to connect with other attendees and MozCon partners.

9:00am — Day 3 Opens!

9:10am — The Fast & The Spurious: Core Web Vitals & SEO

Tom Capper, Senior Search Scientist | Moz

Core Web Vitals are all the rage, but do they live up to the hype? Tom explores the real SEO impact of Google’s shiny new metrics, which ones you actually need to worry about, and how to prioritize fixes.

9:50am — The Ultimate How-To for Faceted Navigation SEO in E-commerce

Luke Carthy, eCommerce Consultant

One of the biggest FAQs in e-commerce: "How do you handle faceted navigation when it comes to SEO?"

We’ll ask the tough questions and answer them head-on! Join Luke as he walks through case studies, real-world examples, and how to leverage faceted navigation to really capitalize on high-converting long-tail keywords. If you're in e-commerce, you won’t want to miss this!

10:25am — Networking

Open time for attendees to connect with other attendees and MozCon partners.

10:50am — Let the API Do the Work: Harnessing Natural Language for More Productive SEO

Miracle Inameti-Archibong, Head of SEO | Erudite Agency

Keyword research is a vital process in getting insights into your consumer behaviour. However, it is often a very manual and labor-intensive process. How can we speed up the process so we can get to working on our implementations and getting results? Miracle walks through practical ways marketers can use APIs to do the heavy lifting and save time.

11:15am — A Live Guide to Finding & Filling the Gaps in Your Link Strategy

Amanda Milligan, Marketing Director | Fractl

Is your link portfolio strong enough to withstand everything Google and your competitors throw at you? If you’re hyper-focused on acquisition and you ignore strategy, you can end up with a pile of weak backlinks that aren't relevant — and won't move the needle. Competitive analysis is your key to finding and filling the gaps in your link building strategy. I'll walk you through the process start-to-finish.

11:55am — From the Medic Update to Now: How the E-A-T Ecosystem Has Transformed Organic Search

Lily Ray, Senior Director, SEO & Head of Organic Research | Amsive Digital

Learn why E-A-T (expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness) has taken a front seat in SEO discussions in recent years, the numerous places where Google focuses on E-A-T, and how the growing emphasis on surfacing authoritative content has drastically changed the organic search landscape across search, News, Discover, YouTube, and more.

12:30pm — Networking

Open time for attendees to connect with other attendees and MozCon partners.

12:30pm — Networking

Open time for attendees to connect with other attendees and MozCon partners.

12:55pm — Game-Changing Ways to Use the Google Search Console API

Noah Learner, Product Director | Two Octobers

Let’s face it, you aren’t getting what you want from your keyword data. Unlock your newest SEO secret weapon with this deep dive into the power of the Google Search Console API. This game-changing tool will help you crush the competition, sell SEO to your team, and win prospects with deep SEO insights you had no idea were available.

1:20pm — The 3 Most Important Search Marketing Tools…Your Heart, Your Brain, & Your [Small] Ego

Wil Reynolds, Founder & Vice President of Innovation | Seer Interactive

Search is a game of rankings. Only one can win the #1 spot and small tweaks can mean the difference between ranking #1 and #5. If you’re using the same tools as everyone else, what competitive advantage are you bringing to the table? Wil shows you how to transform your data into winning insights with 3 tools everyone has at their fingertips: your heart, your head, and a willingness to question everything you thought was true about SEO.

1:55pm — Birds of a Feather Discussion Groups

Join fellow attendees in one of our Birds of a Feather Discussion groups to share ideas, and network with peers around a common topic. Birds of a Feather groups are informal, peer-to-peer conversations.

2:30pm – Farewell and Goodbye from MozCon 2021

Sarah Bird, CEO of Moz

That’s a wrap on MozCon Virtual 2021! Stick around for networking until 3:30, and hope to see you again next year!

See you there?

Chatting with speakers via Q&A, connecting with peers and potential partners in Birds of a Feather groups, absorbing all the knowledge for another fruitful year of marketing... we can't wait to share it with you!

8 Tips for Finding and Hiring the Right SEO Provider

It doesn’t take a pro to do SEO.

But hiring one can certainly help.

For business owners who are ready to take their SEO efforts up a notch, it may be time to move beyond the DIY approach and onboard an SEO provider that can get the job done.

But the question is: How do you find and hire the right SEO company that can generate real, tangible results for your business?

Here are our top tips for smart SEO hiring — from weighing the pros and cons of outsourcing to knowing what questions to ask during the hiring process.

Benefits of hiring an SEO company

While there are countless resources online to help you implement SEO on your own, there are also many perks to either outsourcing your SEO marketing or hiring an SEO professional in-house. SEO isn’t always the easiest to figure out, so working with a professional may be the solution to avoiding headaches, wasted time, and marketing dollars down the drain.

If you’re asking yourself if it’s worth hiring an SEO company, it’s time to consider the benefits.

An SEO provider can help:

• Take the guesswork out of SEO to start implementing an effective strategy from the start.

• Save you money by running data-driven, highly targeted campaigns that make the most of your marketing budget.

• Broaden your business’s reach online by expanding your marketing to a variety of channels.

• Prevent costly SEO errors and, potentially, Google penalties.

• Explain your website analytics, what they mean, and why they matter for your business.

Tips for SEO hiring

Choosing an SEO company or consultant takes careful consideration, as your primary goal is to find a provider that best fits the needs and goals of your business.

For this reason, we’ve included some of the best tips for effective SEO hiring to help you weigh your options and decide on the right choice for you.

1. Ask your network

One of the best sources for SEO provider recommendations is your existing network, particularly those business owners who are in your industry. By asking your network, you’ll already have people who can vouch for the provider’s services, offer an honest review, and point you in the right direction.

2. Request an honest estimate

When you end up reaching out to an SEO agency or consultant, you should request an honest estimate of how much their services will cost for your site and how long they expect those services to take. Any provider that’s cryptic about what they offer or how much it costs is one you should be wary of.

A decent SEO agency will know how much work is required to optimize your site, approximately how long it will take, and how much it will cost. There may be optional add-ons to be discussed later, but their upfront quote should give you a clear idea of what to expect when working with them.

3. Know what’s included

Many providers pitch an “all-in-one” SEO package, but it’s important to be critical of anyone who takes a one-size-fits-all approach. You’re looking for a provider that will take the time to understand your business and craft a strategy that suits your specific needs and audience.

It’s essential to ask what’s included in their SEO package so you can be super clear on what you're paying for. Some of these services might include on-page SEO, local SEO, technical optimization, content creation, or link building.

4. Ask how they measure results

Every business owner dreams of landing that #1 spot in the SERP, but SEO is about more than just rankings. A reputable SEO provider knows that the goal of any SEO strategy is ultimately to help the business make money, so they’ll look at key performance indicators (KPIs) beyond just rankings.

Some of these KPIs may include traffic numbers, conversion rate, leads, and revenue generated. They should be able to communicate the true value of SEO and why these metrics are most important when it comes to measuring the success of your SEO efforts.

5. Schedule a call

Before you sign on the dotted line, it can help to have a face-to-face (or voice-to-voice) conversation with your potential provider. This will give you a chance to discuss your needs in more detail, ask questions, and get a better sense of whether this provider is right for you.

6. Research

Before signing on with a new SEO provider, it’s best to conduct some initial research to learn more about their services, approach, and the results they’ve generated for their clients. This involves scoping out their social media profiles, looking out for client testimonials, and checking out case studies on their website.

Scope out reviews and testimonials

Whether you’re referred by someone in your network or stumble across a provider on your own, it’s always a good idea to check out the provider’s testimonials to get a read on how they work, and whether their past clients have enjoyed working with them. Also look for evidence that they’ve generated results for their clients in the form of traffic, leads, or sales.

Check out their socials

Many SEO companies are active on social media, and perusing their content is a good way to get a sense of their approach to SEO and how they work with their clients. Beyond reviews, look out for blog articles and posts being shared on their social media pages to see whether this is a brand you’d like to work with.

Look for case studies and portfolio examples

While you’re searching Facebook, Google, and Yelp for reviews, you should check out the provider’s website to see if they post any SEO case studies or examples of their past work. Testimonials may be able to tell you how much clients have enjoyed working with them, but case studies are a stronger indicator of whether their services actually move the needle.

During your research of a company, ask yourself: Do they communicate an in-depth understanding of analytics and how to interpret them? How do they measure success? Are they fixated on rankings, or on more discernible metrics?

These are all important questions to ask yourself as you read their case studies and website content. Their answers can build—or break—your confidence in their services, helping you determine whether they are the right provider for your business.

7. Communicate your business’s SEO goals

“Rank at the top of Google” may seem like a noble goal, but it’s likely that you have other, perhaps more tangible goals in mind. Be sure to communicate these to your potential provider so they know what you hope to achieve and to ensure you are both on the same page.

The right provider should be able to help you articulate your SEO goals and establish new ones. They should know what’s realistic for your business and be able to set your expectations from the very beginning.

8. Compare your options

You don’t have to pick the first SEO provider that comes your way. Feel free to compare your options, shop around, get a second opinion, or otherwise check out different providers so you can choose the right fit for your business. Ultimately, it should come down to who understands your business the best and proves that they have what it takes to bring your business positive results from your SEO campaigns.

Hire the right SEO for the job

Finding the right SEO agency for your business requires researching your options, asking the right questions, and looking out for proof of results. Any agency worth its weight will take the time to understand your business and come up with a strategy that serves to bring your business the best SEO results possible. This guide gave you some ways to identify a good SEO agency and choose the perfect fit for your needs.

5 Free Google Tools to Upgrade Your SEO Strategy

There's plenty of room for paid tools in the SEO space — Moz is a prime example — but if you’re just getting started or lack the budget necessary for fancy tools, there are still many resources available.

In this piece, we’re going to cover five of our favorite FREE Google tools, and how they can help you step up your SEO game.

1. Google Trends

Google Trends is used to track the “trends” around search queries. This makes it a great tool for keyword research.

Finding new keywords

When you go to Google Trends, you’ll see a search bar where you can input a broad topic or specific search query. Upon entering your query, you’ll be presented with a trend chart of interest in the query over time.

While this may be useful, the real gems are at the bottom of the page: Related Topics and Related Queries.

By default, these boxes will both be set to “rising.” This means that these topics and queries are currently gaining traction. These are the keywords that you may want to capitalize on quickly, as you could be a first-mover and gain rankings quickly.

Advanced keyword research

Even at a base-level, Google Trends is helpful, but you can always take it a step further. Across the top of Google Trends, there is a menu that allows you to specify a region, time period, category, and search platforms.

Region allows you to determine where you want to pull search data from geographically. This can be especially useful when working on local SEO projects.

Category allows you to select the category you’re competing in. This is a nice feature for people who offer a service in a specific industry, or who have a query that’s extremely common.

Search platform allows you to refine the data to specific platforms such as YouTube Search, Image Search, Google Shopping Search, and News Search. Search platform modifiers are great for those with an integrated SEO plan.

2. Rising Retail Categories

Though it’s almost impossible to predict what the Next Big Thing is going to be in e-commerce, you can still stay on top of the game with Rising Retail Categories.

This is Google’s compilation of data on retail. On it, you’ll find currently trending product categories and the searches around them, as well as where exactly they're trending.

As an e-commerce SEO, this can give you a good idea of which products to focus on for the most potential impact.

As an enterprise local SEO, you can use this data to determine which products to focus on in each market.

3. Visual Stories

Google summarizes Visual Stories as “Bite-size visual stories for busy marketers, driven by trending topics and data from Google.”

These stories range from holiday shopping trends to specific industry case studies, and more. They're interactive slides, each with a few insights or data points.

For example, there's a Visual Story about the automotive industry. Throughout the story, there are data points shared to give insight into how the pandemic has affected the car-buying process.

These data points don’t just focus on search data, though. It’s clear that this has been a full-on case study by Google. Some insights shared address the desires, experiences, and perceptions of the audience.

This information can easily be used to change the user journey, including the things that matter to the customer earlier on. It could also be used to address pain points that hadn’t been previously uncovered, or, on a more basic level, give an SEO an idea of what keywords to focus on.

4. Grow My Store

Grow My Store is a fantastic tool for those selling a product either online or in person. Grow My Store tests sites for Google Identifiers for Successful Online Stores.

These identifiers are broken down into five categories: Product Information, Store Details, Personalization, Customer Service, and Security.

This tool literally hands over Google’s idea of the must-haves for a product-selling business website. Some of the components included are product reviews, profiles for shoppers, live chat, and HTTPS.

To use Grow My Store, you simply answer three questions: what is your domain, what type of business do you have, and what industry are you in? Once you answer the questions, you will see a preview of your report with your overall score and some data around your industry. To get your full report complete with recommendations, you have to create an account. The report is then sent to your email.

You then get an account where you can create (and track) a checklist of changes that need to be made — according to Google.

In addition, you’ll get customized data and insights based on your industry. To find this data on Grow My Store, in the menu, select “Reach More Customers.” If you scroll down a bit, you’ll find a section with the heading “Understanding industry trends.” Here you’ll be able to choose your industry and specific category to get specific information such as top searches in that industry, top months for the industry, and so on.

5. Test My Site

Another great tool for measuring your site in the eyes of Google is Test My Site. Much like Grow My Store, Test My Site tests for three very specific categories of features on your site. These features are Speed, Personalization, and Experience. Unlike Grow My Store, Test My Site is for any website, not just product-base business sites.

The first report you will get from Test My Site is a mini report that breaks down your mobile site speed and any recommendations for fixes. There is also a tool to show the potential ROI of speeding up your site! Talk about buy-in.

If you want even more information, which you will, you can sign up to get the full report. The full report is emailed to you and breaks down recommendations and explanations for both marketers and developers. The report I got back was 16 pages long, filled with links to other resources and case studies as well as tactical tips in the form of a checklist.

In conclusion

While Google can often be cryptic about what they care about on websites, they’ve created quite a few resources that can give you insight into what they find important. Using these tools can easily get you a step ahead.

It’s not just about the tools, though. In 2021, data is more important than ever, and who better to get data from than The Giant themselves?

Now, go forth and be excellent — using free stuff!