Welcome to the latest Relevance countdown of Moz’s top 10, summing up some of the biggest happenings in the digital world over the last two weeks. For anyone still confused about Mobile-First Indexing or pondering a new domain, this post could be vital for getting your strategy right. If you need to inspect any URLs, here is a brand-new tool to help. Catch up on everything from the US Supreme Court’s latest ruling on online retailers to the limitations of voice search, all in this edition of Moz’s top ten.
1 Google releases new URL Inspection Tool Plus More Exciting Updates
We asked for easier URL analysis, and Google listened. The company’s new tool reveals crawl, index, and serving information about your website to help you debug issues quicker. Just enter your URL to find out the last crawl date and status, see any crawling or indexing errors, and get the canonical URL for that page.
On top of this, Google’s Search Console has three additional new features/reports: the Search Analytics API now returns 16 months of data; a Recipe report has been launched to help fix structured data issues; and the Performance report now gives you more visibility on new search appearance results. Happy days!
2 Domain Selection is Seen in a Whole New Light
Moz’s SEO Wordsmith Kameron Jenkins gives us a new approach to choosing that all-important domain. Stop worrying about what’s best for SEO and instead consider what is best for your brand goals. Using Jenkins’ goal-based approach, ask yourself two essential questions: What are my goals, and what’s best for my users? Once you’ve got those, don’t forget to check out the common pitfalls.
3 Google’s Diffuses Mobile-First Indexing Confusion on Twitter
Mobile-First Indexing has got everyone in a muddle. From how desktop and mobile site URLs are handled, to how much crawling will increase during the shift, to why cached pages aren’t showing, there were many unanswered questions. Until now. Here, Google takes to Twitter to try to answer some of the most FAQs.
4 MobileMexie Explains the Effect of Translation and Language APIs on Search
That Twitter debate piqued your Mobile-First interest? MobileMexie experts D Nyagolova and Cindy Krum dive deeper into the new indexing system, looking specifically at query-matching and translation. This piece is one of five in a series looking at what they call the Entity-First Index; if you want to become a real expert be sure to check out the rest. From crawling to translations, stay one (or several!) steps ahead of the game.
5 Former New York Times SEOs Advise on Content Strategies for Publishers
Good news: declining reach on Facebook seems to driving big brands back to organic SEO. But this doesn’t mean we can sit back and relax. At times like this it’s more important than ever to make sure we are prioritising the right projects. So who to turn to for inspiration? Here, two highly experienced publisher SEOs talk AMP, how publishers think about links, editorial opinion as linkbait, and more. Don’t miss these valuable insights.
6 Supreme Court Rules States Can Force Online Retailers to Collect Sales Tax
As a US e-commerce marketer, this new Supreme Court ruling could mean significant adjustments for your clients. States now have the power to force online retailers to collect sales tax, and to handle this some companies will have to make significant adjustments. Watch out for any re-shuffles, both in terms of cost structure and technology.
7 ZipSprout Spills the Beans on Local Sponsorship Campaigns
Looking to establish local sponsorships but not sure how to go about it? These sponsorships increase local visibility and can be fundamental to search rankings, but they can also be hard to get right. Here, an agency that has been there and done that shares its advice. From being prepared to work hard for your placement to taking it slow, these tips will help you succeed at local SEO.
8 Moz Sums Up Exciting Upgrades from 2018 So Far
Moz has blessed us with a midyear overview of its upgrades, having already implemented a ton of updates in the first half of 2018. If you are a Moz user but have been too busy to keep up with all the changes, this is the perfect time to get up to date. Explore its new link index, on-page grader, expanding keyword data, on-demand crawl capabilities, and more.
9 SEO Guru Will Critchlow Re-Evaluates His Voice Marketing Predictions From 2013
Critchlow’s industry-challenging views on voice search have sparked lively debate. He argues that despite the proficiency of modern voice recognition technology, there are factors that will prevent it quickly cannibalising the rest of search, at least in the short term. In fact, he predicts that true voice search opportunity is at less than 1 million global searches per year at this point. Set aside some time to read this thought-provoking piece.
10 Google Rep Says Keyword Stuffing Should Not Warrant Removal from Index
Google’s Senior Webmaster John Mueller said that he doesn’t believe things like keyword stuffing should lead a site or page to be removed from the Google search index, and the SEO community blew up. He instead said that Google can just “ignore [areas of] boring keyword stuffing,” and focus on finding value in the rest of the page. But be wary – this doesn’t mean that Google likes this dated SEO technique.