Maximizing Blog Visibility: Top SEO Issues for Food Bloggers in 2017

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SEO is Hard!

It’s Hard to Stand-Out!

Climbing to the Top ofGoogle Rankings is Tough!

But….You can do it!

To Google: Rankings = Relevance

@MediaWyse /MediaWyse

Big Issues for Food Bloggers in 2017


To Google, Relevance is…1. Meta Tags/Site Appearance

2. Going SSL

3. Page Speed/AMP

4. Recipe Plugins/Rich Cards

5. Featured Answers/Position Zero

#IACP17


1. META Tags and Site Appearance“Page Titles are SUUUPER Important.”

On-Site Optimization: Meta Tags


Look at your Page Titles and Descriptions – How do they appear in Search?

If Descriptions and Titles are too Long they get Cut-off or Truncated. Worse if Missing all Together!

Not a Good User-Experience!

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On-Site Optimization: Yoast Plugin


Correctly Setting up your SEO Plugin Solves a TON of issues!

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Use the Plugin to BLOCK Taxonomies and Duplicate Content

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Use the Plugin to BLOCK Taxonomies and Duplicate Content

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Use the Plugin to BLOCK Tags & Categories (Case by Case)

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Use the Plugin to BLOCK Tags & Categories (Case by Case)

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Use the Plugin to BLOCK Author Archives

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Use the Plugin to BLOCK Author Archives

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Use the Plugin to BLOCK Image Attachment Files

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Use the Plugin to BLOCK Image Attachment Files

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On-Site Optimization: Top Heavy Design


The Problem = Google has a Page Layout Algorithm

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That Penalty (and others) are “Unannounced”

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The Problem = Google has a Page Layout Algorithm

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Don’t do this. It’s not worth the ad income



Do NOT Push your Content Down the Page!

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Or This. It’s not worth the ad income

Image Credit: http://www.gsqi.com



Recipe Pages can also be “Too” Top-Heavy

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Note the Lack of Above-the-Fold Content.See the Excessive Ads?



Recipe Pages can also be “Too” Top-Heavy

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See the Difference? Much easier to “Share” and to Navigate – Also Above-the-Fold Text



Use the GSC Search Queries Report to “Troubleshoot” a Penalty

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Use the GSC Search Queries Report to “Troubleshoot” a Penalty

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If your Home Page is NOT a Top 10Google Referral Choice – You “Could”

Have a Page Layout Penalty!

On-Site Optimization: Usability


The Problem = Google does not like sites that “interrupt” the user experience, especially by putting

excessive ads on, around, or between content

Don’t over-do this. Notworth the ad income

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On-Site Optimization: Stop Bleeding PageRank


The Problem = sitewide external image & text linksThese just bleed authority from your site!

They don’t need youTo link to them.

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On-Site Optimization: Stop Bleeding PageRank


This is NOT a Disputed Recommendation!

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2. Going SSL“Nobody wants a Non-Secure Warning”

Going SSL – Not “Optional” Anymore


Google Gave Everyone a Heads-up

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1st Warning 9/16

2nd Warning 12/16



As of 1/31/17 Non-Secure Sites Show “Ugly” Browser Warnings

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Here’s what a Correctly SSL Secured Site looks like Now.

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You will Rank Higher if you go SSL!

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Brian Dean’s research from analyzing 1 million search results found “that HTTPS correlated with higher rankings on Google’s first page”.

http://backlinko.com/search-engine-ranking



SSL is a Tiebreaker to Google – VERY Important in a Competitive Niche like Food Blogging!



Review this Detailed Guide on “How to Go SSL”

Talk to your Host about Converting to SSLor Visit this Detailed “How to Guide”

http://bit.ly/ssl-best-practices

Going SSL – Social Warfare


PRO TIP: When you move to SSL you will LOSE ALL YOUR SOCIAL SHARES!

https://warfareplugins.com/

Going SSL – Social Warfare


PRO TIP: Check your SSL Install at SSL Labs

https://www.ssllabs.com/ssltest/


3. Page Speed & AMP“Fast sites rank better. Period.”

Mobile MUST be Fast!

Slow = Not Mobile-Friendly

Mobile First Index is Coming!

Rankings Signals will be Mobile-Based

To Google “First Byte” is EVERYTHING!

“First Byte” needsTo be a Priority.

Shoot for <400ms!

This is the Page Speed Metric to Focus on!

On-Site Optimization: Page Speed


Google wants pages to load in LESS than 2-seconds. They want the“First Byte” time to be LESS than 200milliseconds!

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A Score of 80/100 is ConsideredExcellent!

Review & Correct

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https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/

Use the Google Page Speed Insights Tool…Regularly!



Review & Correct

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Use the Google Page Speed Insights Tool…Regularly!

The Google Pagespeed Insights Tools DOES NOT MEASURE PAGE SPEED. This is a Usability Tool. You can have a terrible score here and still do VERY well in Google. Don’t get hung

up on it too much!



https://testmysite.thinkwithgoogle.com/

Google Gives you Plenty of Tools

Page Speed: Image Optimization


Casey Recommends the Above-the-Fold Optimization Plugin

#IACP17

https://wordpress.org/plugins/above-the-fold-optimization/

On-Site Optimization: Page Speed Tools




Page Speed – Choose your Host Wisely!


TTFB and Start Render are PROMINENTLY Determined by your HostingHere are my Hosting Recommendations!

Page Speed – Choose your Host Wisely!


And PLEASE do not use BLUEHOST….EVER!



“Try” to Upload Images Smaller than 80KB to your Site (if possible)!

Original Image: 448KB

Optimized Image: 79KB

#IACP17



“Try” to Upload Images Smaller than 80KB to your Site!

Original Image: 448KB

Optimized Image: 79KB

#IACP17

Upload Images to your blog that are SIZED to your theme. Don’t make your theme RESIZE your images to match the

display size. That’s a BIG reason bloggers have slooooooow Page Speeds.



Casey Recommends the Imagify Optimization Plugin – It’s Awesome!

#IACP17

https://wordpress.org/plugins/imagify/


On-Site Optimization: Page SpeedPrepare Yourself for AMP“Accelerated Mobile Pages”

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https://www.ampproject.org



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The AMP module disrupts the search experience by appearing at the top of the SERP and pushing everything

else down. The most obvious impact for sites that don’t opt into AMP will be a decrease in impressions and clicks, even

with a top organic position.


On-Site Optimization: Page SpeedAMP Recipe Carousel now LIVE!

#IACP17

http://www.thesempost.com/google-amp-recipes-live-search-results/

AMP and Google


Get to Know the AMP Plugins – and Start Talking to your Ad Networks!

Amp for WP – use to “Style” your AMP Pages

AMP Plugin – Main Required Plugin

AMP and Google


Monitor your AMP Results in Google Search Console

AMP and Google


Monitor your AMP Results in Google Search Console

Check-out this AMP Checklist!

https://en.onpage.org/knowledge-base/tutorials/amp/

AMP and Google – It’s NOT Perfect


AMP has a known Google Analytics Issue – Fix Coming


4. Recipe Plugins/Rich Cards “The WRONG plugin will hurt you.”

Recipe Plugins – A Crowded Landscape


I’ve Encountered A LOT of Recipe Plugins in my Auditing Work…



But Only a VERY Small Number are ACTUALLY Updated Regularly…



And of that Number…Only a SMALL Number are Built with both JSON-LD (for Google) and Microformats (for Pinterest Rich Pins)



All of Google’s Structured Data Examples are in JSON-LD.



And Yes… Google is A-OK with Multiple Structured Data Recipe Cards



Google has made it Clear WE PREFER JSON – You need to have a Plugin that understands that!



Let’s Keep Going…Which plugins provide Free Versions that are Fully 100% Google Rich Cards Compliant?



And the Winner is……



Casey’s Top Recipe Plugin Recommendation is WP Recipe Maker

Recipe Plugins – Optimizing for Rich Cards


Using the RIGHT Plugin is a MUST to Fully Optimize for Rich Cards



Optimizing for Rich Cards means FULLY Filling out all your Recipe Attributes – your Goal is 100% Fully Enhanced



Optimizing for Rich Cards means FULLY Filling out all your Recipe Attributes – your Goal is 100% Fully Enhanced

Don’t Confuse “Non-Critical” with “Fully Optimized”



When you Move Recipe Cards to Fully Enhanced you Generate No ErrorsIn the Google Structured Data Tool



Fully Enhanced Recipe Cards GREATLY INCREASE their Ability to bePulled into the Mobile Recipe Carousel



In Contrast, FAILING to Fill-out Your Recipe Attributes Results in Multiple Critical and Non-Critical Errors

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On-Site Optimization: Structured Data

@MediaWyse

Google Structured Data Testing Tool:

http://bit.ly/structured-data-tool

#IACP17

Test your own Recipes Right Now in Google


5. Featured Answers/Position Zero“Good recipes & photography isn’t enough.”

Featured Snippets are a BIG Deal!


Focus on Optimizing for Position ZERO in 2017.




Any Site, Regardless of Position can Generate a

Featured Snippet




Featured Snippets are direct answers in the Search Results returned solely by Google. These are NOT influenced at all

by Structured Data. It’s all content-related. Featured Snippets have high CTR and send LOTs of Traffic!

Featured Snippets – How to Track?


You can Track Featured Snippets in SEM Rush



You can Track Featured Snippets in Moz Tools



Identify Opportunities for Featured Snippets in Search Console



Identify Opportunities for Featured Snippets in Search Console

Filter your Search Analytics by How, What, When, Where, Why, Does, How, Are, & other Question/Answer queries.

Find content that Asks and Answers Questions. Then optimize accordingly!

Featured Snippets – How to Optimize?


Use Answer the Public to Surface the Questions Around a Topic

http://AnswerthePublic.com

Final Thoughts?

SEO is all about doing

…the Little Things.

But they add up to BIG Traffic Increases…

Questions?

Casey MarkeeFounder, Media Wysewww.MediaWyse.com [email protected]

@mediawyse

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Maximizing Blog Visibility: Top SEO Issues for Food Bloggers in 2017