They are not the same and while the PageRank metric was discontinued, the PageRank algorithm is still a part of Google’s ranking. Another great source of keywords with featured snippets is the so-called “People also ask” box that often appears below the featured snippet. Featured snippet (sometimes called “position zero”) is a selected search result that appears above the standard 10 results in Google search. You’ll find more useful information on this topic in a great guide on analyzing third-party performance by Kinsta. If you’re not sure whether your website is mobile-friendly, you can test it with this tool from Google or go to Search Console and see if there are any issues in the Mobile Usability section.

For example, if I start searching “roofing companies…” near me comes up. And if I search for it, we can see all the options that are local to me (New York City). They’ve been hit really hard by algorithm updates in the past year. From a peak of around 5M monthly visitors to now around 630K monthly visitors (at the time of writing this). So, hopefully, this gives you some inspiration to not be discouraged.

Local on-page optimization

Plus, learn what an SEO certification is and how it can help you. Keywords are the words and phrases that people use to search for information online. By understanding which keywords are relevant to your business and your customers, you can create content that is more likely to be found by those who are searching for it.

• If you’ve tried to learn SEO before, you’ve probably heard about the importance of “high-quality content”.
• It’s typically limited to 160 characters to fit within the preview on search engines, but can sometimes be calculated in megapixels depending on your preferred search engine.
• You’ll see how much of your search traffic comes from branded keywords and how these keywords perform in Google Search.
• In simple terms, search marketing is about getting visibility and traffic from search engines using both paid and unpaid strategies.
• These broken links were not only frustrating to users but also detrimental to SEO.

technical SEO

Some 93% of businesses using Shopify to run their online store have a fast website—that’s more than any other major commerce platform. If you’re ready to take the next step, we’d love to hear from you. WebFX is one of the best SEO companies in Canada, the U.S., and around the world. We have over 25+ years of experience crafting revenue-driving SEO campaigns for clients. Our team has been in the business of optimizing websites since Google’s early days.

Search engines are programs that allow users to search and retrieve information from the vast amount of content available on the internet. They use algorithms to index and rank web pages based on relevance to a user’s query, providing a list of results for users to explore. Organic searches drive most website traffic, making SEO one of the most powerful digital marketing strategies.

The security of your website’s visitors should be a priority for you. Especially if you have a small website with a couple of well-interlinked pages. It’s basic advice, sure, but it’s amazing how many sites I come across where this is in place. So they’ll have a headline, post snippet and a Click here or Read more button in a vertical line. As you can imagine, ‘Read more’ is the only link they have in place. The key to having a well-interlinked website is to have properly structured navigational elements.

The more helpful and relevant a page is to someone’s search intent—i.e., what they want to get out of the results—the more optimized it is for search. Sometimes, Google chooses not to display your meta description and will generate its own for you. If you are using Chrome as your browser (like 73% of all internet users), there’s a really easy way to see the page title of the current page you are on. You can’t talk about anything SEO-related without touching on the importance of high-quality content.

Proper use of title tags, meta descriptions, and header tags (H1, H2, H3) ensures search engines can interpret the page’s structure and relevance. Keyword-rich URLs and internal BHS Links linking improve navigation and signal content relationships to search engines, enhancing rankings. SEO involves optimizing a website’s structure, content, and navigation, which can enhance your user’s experience.

For example, when you search for “keyword research”, you get a list of these questions related to that term. Google will feature results from Google Images for keywords where images make sense, like “cute cats” or “blue cars”. The organic results are determined by Google’s complex algorithm (which has 200+ ranking signals). For example, let’s say you rank your site on the first page of Google for the keyword “how to start a website”.