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SEO
November 27, 2024

The Importance of Page Speed for SEO and Online Advertising Campaigns

Page speed and Core Web Vitals have become crucial factors for online success. Not only do they influence user experience, but they also play a decisive role in search engine ranking (SEO) and the effectiveness of online media campaigns. In this article, we will explore why these elements are essential and how they can optimize your online presence.

Résultats Google PageSpeed Insights

Understanding Page Speed: Why is Page Speed a Key Factor for SEO?

Page Speed refers to the time it takes for a web page to fully load in the user’s browser. This metric is measured in seconds and is a major ranking factor for search engines like Google. The faster a page loads, the better the user experience and the higher the chances of your site ranking in organic search results. A fast loading speed improves user experience, reduces bounce rates, and increases conversions.

Core Web Vitals: Definition and Importance

Core Web Vitals are a set of specific user experience metrics, such as loading time, interactivity, and visual stability. Google uses these metrics to assess the quality of user experience on a web page. The main metrics include:

  • Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): Measures the time it takes for the main content of the page to become visible. This includes images, videos, background elements, and text blocks. A good LCP score is under 2.5 seconds.
  • First Input Delay (FID): Evaluates the page’s responsiveness during the first user interaction. It precisely calculates the time between when a user first interacts with a page (e.g., clicks a link or presses a button) and when the browser begins processing the interaction. A good FID score is under 100 milliseconds.
  • Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Calculates the visual stability of the page and the frequency of unexpected content shifts. This metric analyzes layout shifts that occur throughout the page loading cycle. A good CLS score is under 0.1.
  • Interaction to Next Paint (INP): Evaluates the overall responsiveness of a page to user interactions. This metric considers the time it takes for the page to respond to each interaction, providing a more comprehensive understanding of performance issues than FID. A good INP score is under 200 milliseconds.

Évaluation Core Web Vitals

Impact of Page Speed and Core Web Vitals on User Experience

Understanding the factors that influence page speed and Core Web Vitals is essential for improving various aspects of user experience. Effective optimization of these elements not only enhances the experience of your site visitors but also boosts your site’s perception by Google, leading to better search rankings. Here are the main reasons why these optimizations are crucial.

Improved Search Engine Rankings

Google has confirmed that page speed and Core Web Vitals are ranking factors. Pages that load quickly and offer a smooth user experience are more likely to appear at the top of search results. Google rewards websites that provide a seamless experience for users.

Additionally, a page that loads in less than 3 seconds is more likely to capture the attention of users and search engines. By optimizing these technical aspects, website owners can improve their positioning on Google, Bing, and other search engines, increasing visibility and attracting more organic traffic.

Moreover, Google rewards sites that optimize their loading speed due to the positive impact on its crawl budget. Since Google constantly updates its index by revisiting websites, faster page loading makes this process more efficient. Therefore, fast sites are favored not only for user experience but also to improve Google’s efficiency. This is a crucial factor to consider beyond enhancing user experience.

Reduced Bounce Rate

The bounce rate measures the percentage of users who leave your site after viewing only one page. Users are more likely to leave a slow page before it fully loads. By optimizing loading speed, you can reduce the bounce rate and keep visitors on your site longer.

A high bounce rate signals to search engines that the page content may not meet user expectations, which can also lead to a drop in ranking. However, a fast page improves user experience, encouraging visitors to explore the site further and interact with the content, increasing average session duration and decreasing bounce rate.

Increased Conversions

A better user experience leads to increased conversions. Fast and stable pages encourage users to interact more with the content and take actions such as making purchases or signing up.

47% of consumers expect a web page to load in 2 seconds or less when they land on a website (Akamai Technologies, 2023). Additionally, recent studies in partnership with Akamai Technologies show that a one-second delay in loading time can reduce conversions by 7% (Retail TouchPoints, 2023).

By offering a smooth and responsive experience through optimizing your loading speed, you increase user satisfaction and their propensity to complete desired actions, whether it’s purchases, form submissions, or subscriptions.

Écosystème publicitaire Google

Importance of Page Speed for Online Media Campaigns

Optimizing web page loading speed is not limited to improving user experience; it also plays a significant role in the success of online advertising campaigns and brand perception. By providing a fast and efficient landing page, you can not only reduce advertising costs but also ensure a smooth post-click experience and strengthen your brand’s reputation. Here are the main benefits for online media campaigns:

Optimizing Advertising Costs for Your Campaigns

Online media campaigns, such as Google Ads and social media ads, benefit from a fast landing page. Slow pages can increase the cost per click (CPC) and reduce ad quality, as pages take too long to load.

Google and other advertising platforms favor ads that lead to high-performing landing pages in terms of loading speed because they offer a better user experience. This positively impacts bidding. In a bidding competition, it is less necessary to overbid when you have a better quality score (user experience, landing page friendliness). A fast landing page can therefore improve your ad quality score, which can reduce advertising costs and increase the visibility of your ads to your campaign’s target audience.

Improving Post-Click Experience

Users who click on your ads expect a fast and seamless experience. If your landing page loads slowly, you risk losing potential customers before they even see your content. In fact, 40% of people abandon a web page that takes more than 3 seconds to load.

Thus, a fast landing page ensures a smooth transition from the ad to the content, maintaining user interest and increasing conversion chances. This is particularly crucial for direct response marketing campaigns, where every click counts.

Strengthening Brand Reputation

Good site performance enhances user credibility and trust in your brand. By providing an optimal user experience with a fast and responsive site, you improve the perception of your business, as users associate speed and responsiveness with quality and reliability. A fast website is perceived as more reliable and professional, meeting user expectations for a smooth and uninterrupted experience. Conversely, a slow site can harm brand perception, prompting users to seek faster and more reliable alternatives. A well-optimized site reflects attention to detail and a commitment to excellence, thereby enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Capture d'écran recherche Google "mobile first"

The Importance of Mobile-First Page Speed for Better Visibility

With the rise of mobile devices, Google and other search engines have placed great importance on mobile experience. In fact, Google now uses mobile-first indexing, meaning that mobile loading speed directly impacts your overall SEO ranking. Thus, Page Speed on mobile devices is particularly critical. If your landing page does not load quickly on a smartphone or tablet, you risk losing a significant portion of your target audience.

 

How to Optimize Page Speed and Core Web Vitals

To optimize your website’s loading speed and improve Core Web Vitals, it is essential to consider several crucial aspects. These improvements can significantly reduce loading times, offer a better user experience, and ensure that your site is perceived as reliable and professional. Here are the main ways to reduce your page loading times and improve your Core Web Vitals:

Use High-Performance Web Hosting

Choose a fast and reliable web host. Good hosting can significantly reduce your site’s loading time. High-performance hosting services offer fast response times and a robust infrastructure that can handle large amounts of traffic without compromising loading speed.

Optimize Images on Your Website

Compress and resize your images to reduce their size without sacrificing quality. Use modern image formats like WebP, which offer better image compression without losing quality, for faster loading times. Unoptimized images are often one of the biggest factors contributing to slow loading times. To take advantage of WebP, you can use various image conversion tools and services or integrate WebP into your web development workflow using plugins for your content management system (CMS). By optimizing images, you can reduce the total page weight and significantly improve Core Web Vitals.

Minimize CSS and JavaScript Files

Work with a developer to reduce and combine your CSS and JavaScript files to decrease the number of HTTP requests and speed up page loading. First, you can use minification tools to reduce the size of your CSS and JavaScript files. Minification involves removing all unnecessary characters (spaces, line breaks, comments) from the code without changing its functionality. This makes your web pages lighter to download.

Next, you can implement asynchronous loading for non-critical JavaScript scripts. JavaScript scripts can block the rendering of the web page when loaded synchronously. By using asynchronous loading, scripts are downloaded in the background without interrupting page rendering, allowing important content like text and images to be displayed faster.

Enable Browser Caching

Configure browser caching so that users return to your site faster. This allows certain resources to be stored locally on the user’s device. Caching can reduce the number of server requests needed to load a page, which decreases loading times for returning visitors and improves their overall experience.

Page Speed Counter

Page speed and Core Web Vitals are essential elements for improving your SEO and the performance of your online media campaigns. By investing in optimizing these aspects, you can offer a better user experience, increase your search engine rankings, and maximize the effectiveness of your advertising campaigns. Remember to test and implement best practices to maintain optimal performance regularly. Monitoring your site and regularly updating your optimization practices is important to achieve the best possible page loading speed.

To maximize your site’s loading speed and improve its overall performance, Dialekta agency can help transform your site into a fast, reliable, and high-performing platform.

Contact us to discover our SEO services and how they can improve user experience on your website.

Data Centralization
SEO
February 15, 2024

Why Centralizing Data is Crucial for Your Marketing Strategy?

Introduction

Have you started implementing a data collection strategy on your website, at your points of sale, or in your call center? Do you have data on your leads in your CRM, and other data on your advertising platform? It’s a good start, but you’re missing the most important part.

Indeed, if these data sources do not communicate and are in different formats, reconciling them and thus using them for your business strategies or marketing activation becomes difficult.

This is where data centralization can greatly help you by unlocking the hidden potential of your information. Imagine a platform where each piece of the puzzle is assembled, where each fragment of information is carefully aligned to form a complete picture. Imagine a unified and holistic view of your activities. Thanks to this integration, you can see beyond fragmented data and gain global, clear, and actionable insights.

What does it mean to centralize data?

Concretely, data centralization is a process that involves gathering all the dispersed data in an organization into a single location. The main objective of this process is to facilitate access, management, and analysis of data by creating a unique and coherent repository.

For example, if you have data on your sales and data on your inventory from two different sources, you can cross-reference them to anticipate your inventory needs. Another example is crossing data from a call center and transaction data to determine the overall profitability of your teams.

This practice has become increasingly important as companies accumulate massive volumes of data from various sources, such as internal systems, applications, connected devices, various marketing platforms, and cloud services. By bringing all these data together, we get a much more global and accurate picture of the results of our efforts on the web. And whatever data you have, you can centralize it!

Data centralization often involves the use of a data warehouse, such as Google BigQuery, where all company data can be consolidated, cleaned, and stored for later analysis. This centralization is often used in business intelligence (BI) and data analysis projects to provide clear and actionable insights to users and decision-makers.

Google BigQuery Ecosystem

A more concrete example of data centralization

A concrete example in business management is reconciling data collected in-store and on the web following a connection. Imagine a potential customer creates an account on your website and their information is identified using a digital identifier. This person views a product, then leaves your website. Your web data indicates that, unfortunately, this person made no purchase.

Unexpectedly, the customer then enters your physical store and buys the product. As you also have a loyalty program, this customer mentions that they have an account with you so they can earn points on their purchase. The account that employees use in the store to enter the points has the same digital identifier as the online account.

Since your data is centralized, you can now see the complete journey of this person, from your site to in-store, by linking the digital identifier of their account! This method allows for overall improvement in managing your business and your data.

What are 8 benefits of data centralization?

Now that you understand the importance of data centralization tools, there are several good reasons why a company would benefit from centralizing its data.

First, according to a study by Treasure Data, 64% of companies report that centralizing their customer data has improved their efficiency and 57% report business growth. Also, with the increasingly large losses caused by the gradual disappearance of third-party data, it is wise to collect and centralize your primary data as much as possible.

You can make the most of it!

1. Greater ease of access

By centralizing data, different parties using your data internally can easily access all the necessary information. No more need to search through multiple data sources! Everything is in one place, on a single platform.

Furthermore, although some platforms offer their own data visualization service or make certain links, they do not necessarily offer the possibility to centralize 100% of your data or are limited to a certain number of entries displayed to maintain fluidity and speed of the interface.

In some cases, like Google Analytics, for example, thresholds are imposed when the volume of data is too large.

2. Longer data retention period

Another advantage of centralizing your data is being able to keep your data for a longer period. For example, if you use a platform like GA4, the maximum data retention period is 14 months, unless you have an Analytics 360 property. By centralizing your data, you have greater control over this retention period. You can decide how long you keep it, choosing a period that is suitable for the decisions to be made concerning your business.

However, be careful to remain compliant with Law 25. This law stipulates that a data retention schedule must be established for certain types of data. In many cases, once the purposes for which the data was collected have been fulfilled, it must be deleted. Make sure to only retain data you are entitled to! These resources must be accessible in case of an audit or a client’s request, so it is important to keep them up to date.

3. Increased Speed

When everything is in one place, precious time is also saved when data needs to be consulted quickly. Teams then do not need to open different platforms to view and consolidate the information! This is also true for data loading when it needs to be displayed.

Handling large quantities of data often takes time, and data centralization through services like data warehouses is a solution to this problem.

4. Informed Decision Making

Access to centralized and updated data allows decision-makers to make more informed decisions based on real-time information. Since you have immediate access to your data, you can be more proactive and no longer have to wait for the data processing delay to be over.

You will also make decisions based on the entirety of the data you have collected. You will no longer make assumptions but will base your decisions on facts. With complete data, everything needed to identify patterns, anomalies, or opportunities is quickly at hand.

5. Improved Consistency

Data centralization ensures that the data is uniform, avoiding inconsistencies among the different sources from which it comes. Apples are compared with apples, and oranges with oranges!

Moreover, data can be “cleaned,” meaning that entries containing errors, duplicates, or formatting issues are corrected to make them uniform and thus improve the quality and standardize the resources.

6. Resource Optimization

By avoiding data duplication and centralizing storage, companies can save on infrastructure and storage costs. All data is managed in one place, which can lower the bill in terms of information management.

Although platforms for data centralization (like BigQuery) are paid solutions, they are still a very good investment when this technology is well utilized.

7. Leveraging the Full Potential of AI

Centralized data is ideal for advanced analysis, machine learning, and the use of powerful data analysis tools.

When the data is cleaned and centralized, it allows an artificial intelligence model to learn correctly. The model can then raise insights and solution paths more precisely. You will also be able to obtain predictions supported by qualitative data!

8. Increased Security and Privacy

According to Harvard Business Review, 70% of employees have access to data they should not have. Centralization allows for better control of access and the security of sensitive data, reducing the risks of leaks or privacy breaches.

Moreover, if a secure infrastructure is used in conjunction with a rigorous data governance process, your data’s security is significantly enhanced.

Conclusion

You’ve collected data that is worth so much when it’s correctly utilized. However, if your data is scattered, it is difficult for you to realize its full potential, causing you to miss real opportunities.

Data centralization will be the key that will allow you to unlock a higher level by having a complete picture of your business.

If you want to learn more, feel free to chat with our Analytics team!

Google Search Generative Experience
SEO
September 8, 2023

Search Generative Experience (SGE): Google’s new search engine

In the past few years new products have appeared, greatly changing the way we use search engines. Whether it be enriched results like ‘People Also Ask’ or the Lens feature which recognizes images; Google’s functionality, along with that of other search engines’ has dramatically increased. We are a long way from the days of such inaccurate search results that we would actually have to venture past the first page of results and onto the second or even the third!

Artificial intelligence is everywhere these days, and we are truly entering a new paradigm in terms of its accessibility. As far as search engines go, AI generated search results are the latest development, but what exactly are they? How do they work? How will they be useful? These are just a few of the questions we’ll explore below.

WHAT IS GOOGLE SEARCH GENERATIVE EXPERIENCE (SGE)?

SGE stands for Search Generative Experience. It’s a new feature offered within Google’s search engine, based on Generative AI.

Generative artificial intelligence is the generation of content (images, video, text, voice) by AI. AI is trained on automatic learning models, to create original content such as images, text or music, by simulating the human creation process. It involves a number of techniques which allow computers to generate new data by pulling from statistical models and patterns previously learned from a collection of training data. These generative models can produce impressive and innovative results, but it is recommended that you have a human validation and supervision process in place alongside.

When it comes to search engines, we are now hearing of a new type of result which will soon appear on our screens. The results will be more detailed, encompassing the object of the search by exploring associated themes in order to better advise and respond to users’ questions. In the Google SGE results, you will have the ability to add to your search terms without restarting the search from scratch, in order to find the information you need. For example, if I was to search for a shoulder exercise for kayakers, for a trip coming up in 3 months’ time, the SGE results could show me training plans structured across a number of weeks.

Here is what this would look like:

Available in Beta in the US only (at the time of print – June 2023) Google’s SGE is currently only accessible by requesting it in Search Labs. Google Search Labs is an initiative from Google which aims to test new features for its search engine and products. It consists of an experimental environment where users can access features which are still in development stage, and provide feedback on their experiences.

Google SGE Search results

Users selected to participate in these tests can experiment with the features before they become available to the wider public, and contribute to their improvement by sharing their comments and suggestions with Google. These tests allow Google to collect data along with precious user feedback so that they can evaluate the viability and usability of these new features before integrating them into their principal search engine.

Bear in mind when taking part in any SGE user tests that Google is dedicated to evolving these Beta tools.

WHAT WILL THIS CHANGE?

Google SGE is much more than just an algorithm update, it could revolutionize the way in which we use search engines altogether. It is therefore essential to start asking ourselves how this could change our approach to search engines. How are users going to interact with organic results in comparison to sponsored or AI generated results? Will we be able to track the outcomes (clicks and impressions) of these new results?

The results generated by SGE will appear in the ‘zero’ position – that is to say, right under the search bar – and they will be more imposing than other results. It should be impossible to miss an AI generated result.

The ultimate aim of SGE results is to push the subject and to embed it in the SERPs (search engine result page.) Could this become an obstacle for organic traffic? Currently it is difficult to say. Will this accentuate the ‘zero-click’ phenomenon? Probably, yes. Will users actually click on the button which allows them to generate an SGE result? We’lll quickly find out once this new interface becomes globally available.

SHOPPING WITH SGE – GOOGLE SHOPPING GRAPH 

In the video above, one of the first requests made via the SGE result feature, is for support with online shopping (How to dress for an outdoor wedding in Miami?) This extract of SGE SERP results effectively showcases how Google is aiming to influence changes in behavior. Here, this involves transforming a simple request into a search for a product which addresses a particular need, perhaps even one that the user doesn’t yet realize they have.

This type of result in the SERPs tells us that The Google Shopping Graph will be central to all e-commerce sites wishing to gain even a little bit of visibility. Now more than ever, is the time to optimize your presence with Shopping Graph. What’s more, the PDP (Product Detail page) will also be brought to the forefront through this new feature from Google. If SGE wants to become as useful as it claims it can be, the results will, of course, need to be based on the most readily available and easy to understand PDPs.

Shopping graph in SGE

STRUCTURED DATA

If there was one aspect of your SEO which would be worth keeping a closer eye on once SGE is launched in Canada, it would have to be structured data. It will most likely be your FAQ section that will become central to this new environment. It seems that SGE results will be largely based on this format of universal data, which will reduce the research work of Google by providing clearer naming conventions for data presented on websites. As we know that the question format is increasingly popular in terms of Google requests, particularly since the rise of voice activation, it makes sense to focus on FAQs.

Virtual assistants based on AI, such as Google Assistant, Siri or Amazon Alexa, have gained popularity over the past few years. They use artificial intelligence technology to manage and understand requests in natural language, transforming voice commands into search requests. SERPs adapt to voice activation by presenting more concise responses and structured data which is easy to consume by these devices.

LONG TAIL KEYWORDS

One of the most interesting changes which will come with SGE will be better understanding of questions or complex statements by Google. The comprehension of multiple factors has always been difficult for Google – until now – SGE results should be able to benefit from the power of AI to produce results which take into account numerous elements. Staying with the example of Miami, we can see that various factors have been considered in order to generate a variety of responses, such as:

  • The month of the event and the temperature
  • The town
  • The style of clothing (chic, casual, eveningwear, etc.)
  • The type of clothing (light materials)
  • Trending colors for the season
  • Quick delivery

The fact that a request so complex can be answered speaks to the possibilities which will become available to us in the future. As requests made in question form continue to rise, it seems that  the creation of an environment that encompasses multiple aspects of the user’s question has arrived right on time.

MORE FOCUS ON VIDEO

SGE results aim to be more complete than the usual SERPs. Amongst the obvious addition of AI generated results into Google, we can also see that videos are promoted as often as is possible in the results. YouTube seems to see the biggest portion of this promotional ‘cake’, as it is owned by Google. And going back to the aforementioned point, video structured data will also become essential.

LOCAL RESULTS

From the myriad sources we consulted, if there was one point which kept popping up amongst the analysis on this subject, it was the difficult presence of AI generated results for all things local. Google maps is already a fabulous example of functionality, execution and precision. It would seem that SGE generated results do not offer any further benefits for the time being than we already have with good old Maps.

WHAT DOES DIALEKTA THINK ABOUT SGE (AT LEAST FOR MOMENT?)

Coming back to the example of outfits for a wedding in Miami, we see straight away that  searching for a dress also gives us suggestions on shoes and more, without us having to restart our search. This looks like a well integrated example, but could be different in practice.

In the case of clothing searches, it seems to be a fairly well integrated feature, but what about searches for more complex products, or where many more factors are to be taken into account, like a car? We know that around 46% of product searches start on Google, maybe AI generated results could more precisely reflect the user’s true intention and direct them towards a solution which suits their buying habits.

We can look at this new product from a million different angles, but the real test will be whether it is picked up or not by Google users. The SGE user experience seems to be built around becoming more and more personalised and attentive to what users are typing into their search engines. It will finally be possible to develop on an existing search, a long awaited improvement in user experience.

There will also be the possibility to ask more complex questions and to receive more comprehensive results which seek continuously to better understand the intention behind each search. With this development, Google is also offering a direct response to its competitor Microsoft Bing which has made a head start on the AI front with the integration of ChatGPT into its search engine. Google must wait no longer, it must respond and evolve its search engine.

On the other hand, it seems a little contradictory to display such well-rounded and comprehensive results on one sole request now that we know that more than 60% of searches are made via a handheld device (63% to be precise). Will the AI generated results also be formatted for mobile? We feel this is a crucial point to consider.

WHAT WILL BE THE IMPACT ON ORGANIC AND SPONSORED RESULTS?

A question which many SEO specialists are asking is whether we will see a fall in the amount of organic traffic generated. It’s difficult to predict a response to this question, but we can surmise that this environment, created by SGE, around the user’s question, will keep them in the Google search engine for longer than was previously the case. As SGE results aim to be more complete, will they lead to a fall in site navigation? How can we ensure that a site is considered and suggested in the Google SGE results? Are there any SEO criteria which will become more important than others for SGE results?

In regards to SEM, we have seen for a few years now that the ‘sponsored’ label has become more and more discreet on search results. We have no doubt that it will continue to be the aim of SGE results to show adverts in a more appropriate format. But what will happen in terms of performance, and if the SGE results appear above the sponsored ones, taking up a large portion of the page?

On a lighter note, have you ever stayed up late, sat in bed maybe, searching for info on intriguing topics such as the pyramids or the human genome? If there is a section of the population who will be truly well served by SGE results, it would certainly be those who love researching interesting facts and falling down internet rabbit holes! Not only are all the responses you’re looking for available in one sole search, but all the context you could need to truly understand your initial question, will be shown in the results too; and you will also have the ability to ask further questions.

ARE YOU READY FOR GOOGLE SGE?

This is more than a simple functionality. Here, Google is offering a new way to interact with your search engine, and organic, sponsored and AI generated results. The Search Generative Experience from Google is sure to be under the microscope for marketers everywhere once it is launched in Canada!

To start prepping from today, we recommend applying these best practise strategies:

  • Offer rich, unique, quality content to users. For a while now, Google has been pushing content validation via E-E-A-T (Experience – Expertise – Authoritativeness – Trustworthiness).
  • Put into place structured data to simplify the comprehension of your code and content by search engines, and also to increase your visibility.
  • Be sure to make the most of the Google tools available to you. Fill-out and regularly update your Google My Business document. Optimize your product feed on your Google Merchant Centre. Optimise the titles and descriptions of your YouTube videos.

The journey into the world of generative AI is only just beginning! This AI will occupy more and more space in our marketing strategies and toolkits. It will become essential to consider AI when looking to surpass your competitors, and above all in order to better serve users when they are looking for your products and services. Got questions on the impact of Google SGE results? Want to prepare for these changes? Contact our SEO experts in Montreal.

SEO
June 22, 2022

13 Essential KPIs to Follow for Your SEO

A KPI – key performance indicator – is just that – an indicator of performance which allows us to measure the effectiveness of any implementations made. In SEO, KPIs help to calculate the profitability of these implementations, such as the publication of new content or the optimisation of internal linkage networks.

We’ve compiled a list of 13 essential KPIs which will allow you to manage your SEO effortlessly. 

There are tens upon tens of KPIs, each one as different as the next, but at Dialekta, we work on the premise that you only really need to use those which are essential. To simplify this for our clients, and to help them save time and money, we offer personalised monthly performance reports, accompanied by comments from our experts.

The 13 essential KPIs for your SEO strategy can be broken down into 5 categories:

KPIs Which Measure Site Traffic

Getting organic traffic from search engines is the purpose of SEO. Our performance marketing agency advises you to follow three essential KPIs for measuring the amount of organic traffic you receive.

Organic sessions and users

By installing data analysis tools such as Google Analytics, you can monitor the number of users who visit your site, as well as the number of sessions that they each carry out.

DEFINITION

A session is a group of interactions performed by a user. For example, when visiting the Dialekta site you are classed as a user who has completed a session. If you return to our site domain you will then be classed as a user who has completed two sessions. Google Analytics allows you to filter your users by traffic source. By following this KPI, you will be able to see the number of people who found themselves on your site by clicking on a search engine result.

Users & Sessions - Google Analytics

ADVANTAGES

Google Analytics is a tool which allows you to harvest lots of different data on your site visitors. You  could, for example, see how many people live in the île-de-France region, or which users found your site organically via their iOS smartphones- and measure whether these people stayed for a shorter or longer amount of time than Android users…

PITFALLS

If your site conforms to GDPR standards you will only be able to manage this data if your visitors accept your site’s cookies. Unfortunately, it is not possible to manage 100% of your traffic.

TOOLS

Google Analytics (free)

Impressions, clicks and click-rate (CTR)

The second tool which is indispensable for SEO is the Google Search Console. This tool allows you to keep track of the performance of your site on different Google products (search, images, news, discover..) There are also similar tools out there for other search engines, such as Bing Webmaster Tools.

With this tool, you can keep track of the number of impressions and clicks generated from Google results pages (known as SERP) as well as your click-rate and your average positioning. You can monitor your performance by searches, by site page, by country, by device or by how your site appears (enriched results, videos, etc.)

DEFINITION

An impression is formed once a link to your content is shown on a page of results. On Google, from the moment your link appears on a SERP, an impression is formed, even if the link in question is not used because it appears down screen and can only be viewed upon scrolling. A click is what is classed as the action taken when a user clicks on a link for your site. For example, if we search ‘CRO Agency’ on Google, our action will generate an impression for Dialekta because our site sits at the top of the list. By clicking on the result, an impression and a click will both be formed. The third most important element to look at, which Google provides, is the CTR – the click rate per impression. However, this CTR will vary enormously depending on how Google manages its SERP. As a rule of thumb, a low CTR, despite a good results ranking, means that the title or the meta description of your page is not optimised. On the other hand this rule depends on numerous factors. In certain cases, the site at the top of the results list may not even appear on-screen! When this happens, the CTR risks becoming very weak as the site will generate many different impressions yet receive very few clicks. Here’s an example for the request ‘How to bake cupcakes’ (our line of vision -the bottom of the screen- is marked in red):

Enriched results - Google search

Even when searching on a tablet, the site at the top of the results page is not always visible on-screen.

Firstly, we see ‘enriched’ results – recipes, videos and then other similar questions which have been searched. If you want to appear in the enriched results, our SEO experts can help you to optimise your structured data.

Clicks & Impressions - Google Search Console

ADVANTAGES

Cookies used for collecting this data come from Google. This way the data is more accurate than that taken from Google Analytics. What’s more, the Search Console allows us to manage almost all of what Google sees of your site (your backlinks, index covering, bot experience, indexing etc).

PITFALLS

As we have illustrated, the SEO KPIs which the Search Console provides are not to be followed to the letter. It’s important to notice what works and what doesn’t and to take each case on its own merits.

TOOLS

Google Search Console (free)

Keyword Position Management

Keeping track of the position of your site by key-words searched by web users gives you an idea of your SEO performance.

DEFINITION

This KPI consists simply of looking at the position of your site on a search results page. This can be monitored on the Search Console or on other management platforms which you can subscribe to, such as Semrush or Ubersuggest. With these platforms, it’s interesting to see on which key-words your site is positioned, and on which it isn’t. Monitoring these indicators also allows you to detect opportunities for new content. On the other hand you will need to take into account Google’s increasing penchant for personalising its results by user location, behavior and search history. 

Keywords ranking - SEMrush

ADVANTAGES

This SEO KPI allows you to get a good all round idea of your positioning on search engines.

PITFALLS

Some indicators offered by platforms which you have to pay for can lead to errors in terms of true site results. We should note that these tools work on algorithms and calculations, rather than real numbers.

TOOLS

Google Search Console (free), Semrush, Ubersuggest, Monitorank etc. (paid)

Brand Traffic Vs Non-Brand Traffic

A brand which has existed for many years and which is well known by the general public will easily achieve SEO traffic, as many users will search them by typing something such as: [product] + [brand] (for example: [marketing] + [Dialekta].) Naturally, the first results which come up will be those of the brand in question.

DEFINITION

Measuring the traffic linked to the name of the brand will tell you if your visitors are finding your site by searching for your brand name, or if they found you by searching for just your industry. The brand in question often sees this indicator as encouraging, whereas at Dialekta, we see it as an all too real menace. Establishing an SEO strategy linked uniquely to the name of your brand will only show its popularity, and this is generally linked to any current publicity taking place. If a brand is having a sale or putting on an offer, users who see or hear about it will likely search them on Google. When the promotion period is over, a dramatic fall in SEO KPIs is consistently recorded by these brands. This is why it is very important to establish a ‘non-brand’ strategy which consists of positioning yourself on key-words which are not directly linked to your brand name – such as searches related to your industry instead. This way, you can be sure to acquire consistent and qualified traffic and not have to depend solely on your brand popularity.

ADVANTAGES

This KPI allows you to ensure that your referencing strategy is effective and does not pose any threat. In fact, if your traffic is predominantly brand traffic as opposed to non-brand traffic, then an SEO strategy must be put in place as quickly as possible, with the help of a reputable agency.

PITFALLS

None

TOOLS

Google Search Console (free), Semrush (paid)

SEO KPIs Which Measure Content Quality

Obtaining traffic is the first stage of organic referencing strategy. The aim is then to ensure that your visitors can find what they are looking for on your site. Three visual KPIs allow you to measure the quality of your content.

Bounce rate

The bounce-rate is an indicator which can be monitored via Google Analytics.

DEFINITION

The bounce rate is a percentage of all sessions across which users have not carried out any action on your page, such as clicking on a link, or submitting a form. A session lasting less than a second is also counted as a bounce. If your page has a high bounce rate this can signify that you may be lacking calls to action, or that your internal network is not optimised. There aren’t strictly any rules as to what a good or bad bounce rate looks like – this will depend mostly on the source of your traffic and the type of content you have. You could gain some interesting insights by measuring the bounce rate by the objectives of each page. For example, a blog article on a highly sought-after short-tail search will aim to generate as much low-qualified traffic as possible. The bounce rate here will naturally be higher. On the other hand, a landing page established for a long-tail, seldom searched request, will allow you to generate a maximum number of conversions, and will therefore have a lower bounce rate. In SEO, if a user stumbles across your content, then it follows that they must have performed a search. In other words, your user is already interested in what you have to offer. You can use your bounce rate as an indicator, and then establish strategies for lowering it as much as possible.

Bounce Rate - Google Analytics

ADVANTAGES

Calculate the bounce rate in order to effectively measure the performance of your pages which have conversion objectives.

PITFALLS

In order to effectively calculate the bounce rate, there are many factors to take into account. SEO traffic will naturally be more qualified than social traffic. A landing page will convert more than a blog post, for example.

TOOLS

Google Analytics (free)

User Visit Length

One SEO KPI closely linked to the bounce rate, is the length of user visit.

DEFINITION

This KPI is simply the average amount of time spent on your content. Here, again, you’ll need to look at the length of user visit by traffic source and page type. Obviously, a blog article with 100 words will have a shorter visit time than one with 1000 words.

Average time on page - Google Analytics

ADVANTAGES

Measuring the visit time of users is a KPI which allows you to understand the quality of your content.

PITFALLS

Measuring the overall visit time doesn’t make much sense, as each user will navigate a site in their own way. This indicator must be monitored for the pages that you estimate to be the most important on your site.

TOOLS

Google Analytics (free)

Number Of Pages Viewed Per Visit

This SEO indicator is also linked to bounce rate. This will depend on your business objectives and the objectives of your pages.

DEFINITION 

This SEO KPI is the average number of pages visited per session.This indicator can be insightful in terms of your objectives and of the nature of your site. For example, for a site which is funded by ads, its objective would be for the user to visit as many pages as possible. For a landing page whose aim is to sell a service, the objective would be that the user could do everything they needed to do all on one page – namely, to obtain information and to convert it.

ADVANTAGES

Measuring the number of pages visited allows you to monitor specific objectives.

PITFALLS

This indicator varies enormously from site to site.

TOOLS

Google Analytics (free)

SEO KPIs Which Measure ROI

Now that you have acquired your traffic, and that you are aware of the quality of your content, it is important to study the KPIs linked to ROI of SEO implementations. We suggest you follow two visual indicators:

Conversion Rate

Whether it’s for an ecommerce site or for a showcase site, it is important to measure your conversion rate. This allows you to know the effectiveness of the actions you have implemented.

DEFINITION

The conversion rate is the percentage of users who perform an action relative to the objective of the website. This therefore depends on what you would class as a conversion. It could be an ‘add to basket’, a sale, a subscription to your newsletter, a contact request… Having a website that is very well positioned on search engines but which does not convert, will result in you losing money because your efforts are not compensated for. This is why Dialekta offers a service dedicated to the optimisation of conversation rates.

ADVANTAGES

Conversion rates are an excellent way of tracking the investment to profit ratio and of monitoring the effectiveness of your implementations.  

PITFALLS

Analytics and other data monitoring platforms cannot, by default, know how you would like to class a conversion. You often need to conduct some sort of risky configuration to enable this. Fortunately, your Dialekta SEO agency can do this for you.

TOOLS

Google Analytics (free)

SEO Cost Per Click

In order to calculate the ROI of your SEO, Dialekta suggests you calculate this in the same manner as a SEA campaign. 

DEFINITION

To calculate the SEO CPC you simply need to divide the cost of your SEO mandate by the number of supplementary visits that this has generated. For example, say you have a site which has generated 10,000 organic visits in a year, and you commission an SEO mandate with Dialekta which costs you E10,000 per year (around E833 a month.) Thanks to this mandate you generate 30,000 organic visits in a year. You have therefore generated 20,00 new organic visits. If we divide the cost of the mandate by the number of supplementary visits, then we get the SEO CPC of 50 cents.

ADVANTAGES

This KPI allows us to measure effectively the ROI of the implementations we have made. As opposed to with an SEA campaign for example, your site will continue to generate organic visits even after the campaign has finished. At Dialekta, we always make sure that the SEO CPC is as low as possible for our clients.

PITFALLS

None.

TOOLS

Google Search Console (free)

SEO KPIs Which Measure Site Health

Google tends to prioritise well performing sites which don’t have blockers and which load quickly. Two easy-to-analyse indicators will give you a good all round idea of the health of your website.

Page Indexing Coverage

Google offers a dedicated tab for monitoring site coverage directly in the Search Console.

DEFINITION

Analysing your indexing coverage allows you to see if Google detects any errors, is deciding to exclude any pages from its index, or if all of your pages are well referenced in your file. This way, it is possible to manage potential blockers such as Error 404 codes, server errors, incorrect content descriptions, or even duplicate content.

Coverage - Google Search Console

ADVANTAGES

This KPI is very useful for webmasters and references, as it allows you to live-monitor the health of a site without having to use manual crawls.

PITFALLS

Some tasks might seem tedious, or might not simply be understood by everyone. This is why we encourage you to seek our help in order to be sure to avoid creating any further problems.

TOOLS

Google Search Console (free)

Site Loading Time

As part of its positioning algorithm, Google sets a lot of store by page loading time. This is also one of the reasons that the company supported the AMP project which favoured pages which loaded almost instantly.

DEFINITION

It’s important to have a site which loads as quickly as possible in order to fit Google’s performance criteria. Platforms such as Google PageSpeed Insights, allow you to understand your site’s performance and how to improve it. More comprehensive platforms such as Pingdom Website Speed Test allow you to know exactly which type of element is slowing your page loading time (large images, badly optimised coded…)

Page Speed Insight

ADVANTAGES

There are easy to-implement optimisations you can use to improve loading time.

PITFALLS

Once the optimisations have been implemented and all good practise has been followed, there aren’t really any further ways you can help improve loading time. In fact it’s rather difficult to optimise a site’s code once it’s live online. Putting in place optimisations such as a cache, would require the help of a developper. 

TOOLS

Pagespeed Insight, Pingdom Website Speed Test, GTmetrix, … (free)

SEO KPIs Which Measure Domain Popularity

The more popular a domain is on Google, the easier it will be able to position itself well within search results. As a rule of thumb, the better quality a site’s inbound links, the more popular it will become. Studying the popularity of your site is a good way to find out how much Google ‘trusts’ it.

Domain Authority

There are many tools which help calculate the strength of a domain.

DEFINITION

One of the simplest indicators is the Domain Authority by Moz. The Domain Authority is a score which predicts the probability that a website will be classed amongst the highest ranking positions, by number and quality of inbound links. The closer the Domaine Authority score is to 100, the more chance a site has of ranking in the top Google results. Moz offers a free Chrome extension which allows you to see the Domain Authority of any given site you are browsing. Other tools offer other indicators which do more or less the same thing. It is important to note that these SEO KPIs are not Google indicators and should be used for information purposes only.

DA Moz

ADVANTAGES

These indicators give you a good idea of the strength of your domain. The closer the score is to 100, the better your off-site SEO will perform.

PITFALLS

These indicators should be used whilst taking into account historical data, because they are produced by tools independent of search engines.

TOOLS

Moz (Ubersuggest also allows you to see the Moz DA), Ahrefs, Semrush (free)

Knowing which sites direct through to yours is a good indicator of how much Google ‘trusts’ it.

DEFINITION

A referent domain is a domain which contains one or more links to your site. A backlink is the link from a page on an external site, directing to yours. If a website contains three links to your site then you’ll have one referent domain associated with three backlinks. The Google Search Console offers a dedicated tab for monitoring internal and external links. The tool is rather simple to use and allows you to see the number of external links which direct to your site as well as the number of referent domains and internal pages which receive the most links and link anchors. The more hyped analysis tools such as Semrush or Ahrefs allow you to visualise your inbound links more easily. For example, you would be able to see the exact page from which the link came, whereas with the Search Console you are simply shown the homepage of the site that created the link. To maintain a good netlinking strategy it’s important to have a good number of domains which link organically to you.

Baclinks SEMrush - Dialekta

ADVANTAGES

Know which sites direct to yours.

PITFALLS

You’ll probably need paid tools as the Search Console isn’t optimised.

TOOLS

Google Search Console (free), Ahrefs, Moz, Majestic SEO, Semrush, Ubersuggest (paid)

How To Easily Monitor These Indicators

Following a handful of essential KPIs will give you a good idea of your SEO health, however, this does require a bit of effort in order to collect all the different indicators. What’s more, SEO analysis is often necessary in order to understand the evolutions of your KPIs over time.

At Dialekta, SEO agency based in Montreal and Paris, we offer our clients monthly automatic personalised SEO reports accompanied by our experts’ comments.We are able to offer you long or medium term strategies whilst implementing a framework which allows us to take action in the short term. SEO performance reports also allow you to save time and money by removing the need for numerous tools. Don’t hesitate to contact us to receive your personalised performance report!

Utilisatrice de la plateforme de vente en ligne Shopify devant une fenêtre
SEO
May 17, 2022

Optimise your Shopify SEO: 5 technical tips for boosting your search engine visibility.

The Shopify platform is chosen by numerous ecommerce businesses for its simplicity. Although it offers plenty of benefits, this content management system does have its fair share of challenges and limitations, most notably in terms of SEO. Whether your company is already using the platform, or is planning to, it’s paramount that you take these limitations into account if you wish to improve your online visibility, and avoid errors such as content duplication, bad multi-language management and even slow loading times.

Over the years at Dialekta, we’ve worked with a lot of companies using Shopify. Here’s a useful list of technical elements to think through when looking to improve your store’s SEO:

  1. Managing duplicate content
  2. Optimising loading times
  3. Adding a breadcrumb (navigation trail)
  4. Countering limitations on multilingual sites
  5. Planning a budget for your apps

1. Watch out for duplicate content on Shopify!

One of the major challenges that Shopify poses is duplicate content. Why should you avoid duplicate content? Content which is repeated on multiple pages of a site can create a bad user experience and lead to lack of engagement. As well as this, Google will automatically choose a page amongst those containing the same content as the most important, meaning the other pages are deprioritised. Your site will therefore find itself at a disadvantage. Then, as the duplicate contents all use the same tags and keywords, they begin to compete with one another, thereby diluting the visibility of each duplicate page.

Duplicate content on a website confuses the Google crawler

So, it’s clear that we need to avoid duplicate content in order to improve our SEO. But take care, because Shopify automatically creates duplicate content when a product is part of a wider collection.

There are many different configurations in Shopify which can create duplicate content, and which you should look out for. Most notably, if for example you add tags to certain products, allowing users to filter products by these tags, then the same content will be found on multiple different URLs, as below:

  • yoursite.com/collections/round-tablecloth/blue
  • yoursite.com/collections/round-tablecloth/red
  • yoursite.com/collections/round-tablecloth/white

You should therefore put in place a management strategy of template URLs in order to compensate for the duplication issues caused by Shopify. A URL template will effectively indicate to search engines which the main page is amongst multiple pages containing similar or identical content, and should therefore be shown higher up in the search results. With the help of tools such as Screaming Frog or SEMRush, you can check the amount of duplicated content on your site.

2. Improve the Page Speed of your Shopify site

Whether using Shopify or another platform, your site should be quick to load. Why? A website which takes a long time to load will have a much higher bounce rate: users will leave without engaging in any way. This is tantamount to bad user experience and therefore penalised by search engines, impacting your SEO.

Optimized breadcrumb trail
Google Speed Insight Performance Test

There are many different recommendations on how to optimise the page speed of your Shopify store. Firstly, ensure that the theme you choose for your store is quick and responsive, and make sure you keep it updated. 

Images are often the largest form of content on a webpage, so it’s important to compress them, whilst maintaining their quality. For this you can use sites such as tinypng, or Shopify apps like Crush.pics.

Videos are also rather large. Choose to embed YouTube videos in your site rather than adding them directly, as this would reduce the loading speed of your page.

Finally, any apps which you add to Shopify can also clog-up your store, making it perform less efficiently. It would be easy to recommend simply deleting all your apps, but they do often have their uses and they are not always so easy to get rid of! Our advice would be to restrict access to apps to key pages only, where they are actually needed. 

3. Add a Breadcrumb Trail to Your Pages

Oft-used in ecommerce, this trail helps users to navigate the online store. If correctly implemented, it can also help define the set-up of the site in order to help clarify the relationship of the different pages to each other. 

Optimized breadcrumb trail

Once the breadcrumb trail is properly implemented, we’d advise that you add structured data (breadcrumb). Structured data can lead to some very interesting SEO results. This way, your trail will be shown amongst the search results, creating clearly defined URLs for Google as well as internet users.

4. Plan-Out the Management of Multi-language Options on Shopify 

If you envisage selling on Shopify, and that your site will need to be available in different languages, be aware that Shopify does not contain hreflang attributes by default. Hreflang attributes allow us to indicate clearly to indexing bots that our site is available in multiple languages, or across multiple regions. This avoids alternative pages from being considered as duplicate content by Google. 

Hreflang attributes are therefore very important for SEO. On Shopify, even though the attributes are not available by default, it is still possible to include them in the tag via the theme.liquid file.

Another thing to keep in mind if you have a multilingual site and are considering using Shopify, is URL management. Shopify does not automatically translate URLs. Also, it is impossible, without using third party apps, to translate certain parts of URLs such as “/collection/”, “/product/” or “/blog/“

5. Think about Creating a Budget for Your Apps

Plenty of apps are available on Shopify to help you with various aspects of running your store. Be aware that most of them do come at a cost. It’s important therefore to plan-out a budget to take into account these types of costs when looking at migrating over to a content management platform. 

Here are our favourite Shopify apps:

By following these 5 pieces of advice you can decrease the amount of technical issues caused by Shopify which would otherwise impact your SEO, visibility, visitor numbers and sales. 

If you have any specific needs regarding your Shopify store, or if you would like to plan a Shopify migration, our Montreal-based SEO specialists can walk you through the process for your site.

SEO
December 23, 2020

Improve site loading time by optimising your images

Although some tend to forget, the loading time of your site is paramount to ensuring its performance. In fact, it is at the very heart of user experience and customers visiting your site. For the latter, this is often their first introduction to your brand. 

A bad user experience could lead to a user taking business elsewhere – to one of your competitors. This is what a report commissioned by Google in 2017 found. In it, the web giant states that more than half of web users (53%) abandon a site visit if it takes any longer than 3 seconds to load. So, it’s essential to keep your loading time below this threshold.  

Currently, loading time plays an important role in the classification of your site by the Google algorithm, especially on mobile devices. In an update scheduled for 2021, this algorithm now focuses further on loading time, in the name of user experience. There is no better time to optimise yours.

ELEMENTS IMPACTING SITE LOADING TIME

When it comes to the above, it’s easy to see that site loading time is something which must be optimised. However, even if we wish to improve, we still need to know where to begin. As a rule of thumb, the loading time of a website is influenced by 4 main factors.

INEFFICIENT JAVASCRIPT AND CSS RESOURCES

If they are badly configured, certain site resources can slow loading time. Javascript and CSS, if not properly optimised, can slow the initial display of your web pages. In other words- make them take longer to display- either partially or in full, to users. Certain resources can be suspended in order that they don’t slow the site loading time. Others, which are of now use, can just be deleted.

SERVER RESPONSE TIME

Another factor which can have a huge influence on site loading time is the server response time of your host provider. When a user attempts to access a website, their device sends a request to the site’s server. The latter must then send back a response, which gives the device access to the site. If this transaction takes too long it could mean that your site will take longer to load.

REDIRECT CHAINS

A redirect chain generally follows a 301 redirect instruction (to correct an error 404, for example) without the inlink needing to be corrected to redirect towards the new destination page. Without regular monitoring we could quickly find ourselves with multi-layer redirect chains, such as this:

Inlink to page A (200) ⇨ Page B (301) ⇨ Page C (301) ⇨ Page D (301) ⇨ Page E (200)

These excessive redirect chains can increase site loading time considerably, so it’s best to keep on top of keeping them tidy.

IMAGE SIZE

Finally, the images on your site can also have an impact upon its loading time. If they are not adequately optimised, your images can slow your site considerably. In fact, this is often the principal factor in slow site loading times.

HOW TO OPTIMISE IMAGES FOR ONLINE USE

The optimization of the first three factors can be tricky to sort out by oneself – often these are the aspects of your site which require a certain amount of technical knowledge. Therefore we may need to enlist the help of a specialist such as a web developer. Fortunately, optimising images for use online is much simpler, once you know what you’re doing. There are lots of different aspects of an image that you can optimise, even with limited technical know-how. Here are a few:

IMAGE FILE SIZE

The size of your images can have a considerable effect on your site loading time. After all, The bigger the image, the longer it will take to fully display on-screen. In order to ensure images load correctly, their size must sit below 100 Ko. To reduce the size of an image you can use photo editing software (do remember to ensure you don’t lose any of the picture quality in the process!).

IMAGE DIMENSIONS

To improve loading time, you can also change the image dimensions. Your images do not need to be any larger than the space in which you wish to display them. For example, it would be of no use to have an image measuring 1920 pixels by 1080 if the area of the page in which you wished it to appear was only 850 x 560. You can considerably improve your loading time by altering the size of your images.

IMAGE FORMAT

For the most part, images which are used and shared online are either in .jpeg or .png formats. These formats however, are not always the best adapted for online use. In fact, if you want to optimise your images for use online, opt for newer formats created especially with this in mind, such as Jpeg2000, Jpeg-XR and WebP instead. No single browser currently supports all file types, but all of them will support at least one. The installation of plugins such as WebP Express on WordPress compensates somewhat for this issue by offering a WebP version of a Jpeg file to browsers which support it, and Jpeg files to those which don’t.

NUMBER OF IMAGES

Some sites may need to incorporate numerous images, but obviously, the more you have the slower your site will load. If you do have lots of images on your site, be sure to install a CDN. The Content Delivery Network allows you to to host your pictures outside of your site, therefore reducing load time by reducing the amount of bandwidth needed and the number of requests generated.

CHECK THE EFFECTIVENESS OF YOUR OPTIMISATIONS

Once your images are optimised you can use certain tools to easily check their load time. For example, Website speed test developed by Cloudinary. This tool allows you to check each of your site pages for image size and format, to see if they are well enough optimised.

cloudinary-webspeedtest

You can also use Google Page Speed or GTMetrix to measure site loading time. These tools also give you an idea of the supplementary speed that you could obtain. 

OTHER RESOURCES FOR IMPROVING SITE PERFORMANCE

Optimiser les images pour le Web est l’une des façons les plus simples d’accélérer le temps de chargement de votre site Web et, ainsi, en assurer la performance. Vous n’avez pas les ressources à allouer à l’optimisation des images de votre site Web ? Pas de problème. Il existe une foule de plug-ins qui peuvent facilement s’en charger pour vous. 

smush icon

Amongst others, one of the most notable resources is Smush which can compress images as needed. Do consider, however, that adding a plugin to your site will also slow things. You should, therefore, look to strike a good balance if using this method. Of course, images are not the only thing to take into account when you are looking to improve your classification on search engines, and this is where a good expert can help, by carrying out a thorough audit of your site. If you have any questions at all, please do not hesitate to get in touch!

 

By Geoffrey Perrochon

Geoffrey Perrochon chargé de projets seo

Meticulous and methodical, Geoffrey has quickly developed an interest for project management. Measuring, analysing, improving, controlling and consolidating are his bread and butter. It’s not surprising, then, that Excel is his best friend! With more than 6 years of client marketing experience, he specialises in digital and joined Dialekta to fulfill the role of SEO Specialist. Always available and in good spirits, Geoffrey knows how to establish a relationship of trust – essential for getting on well in business.

SEO
August 1, 2019

3 Critical Tips to Boost Your SEO Efforts in 2019

There’s no denying that SEO is a complex and ever-changing aspect of digital marketing. It involves a number of different factors ranging from content to the usability of a website. As a result, most major search engines regularly update their algorithms meaning SEO strategists often have to pivot and tailor their strategies. For example, Google implemented 3,234 updates to their algorithm in 2018 alone according to Moz, which equates to 9 changes per day on average. While most of these changes are typically minimal, there is occasionally a major update (such as the June 2019 Core Algorithm Update) that had a wide-ranging impact.
Despite these regular algorithmic changes, here are 3 effective and essential tips to bolster your SEO efforts in the long run and therefore reduce your dependency to buy keywords (SEM) on Google Adwords and Bing.

Tip #1 – Focus on high-quality and engaging content

While this tip might seem general and obvious, many organizations forget that content creation is the basis of a sustainable SEO strategy. Now how does one go about doing this? It’s not about simply churning out lengthy blog posts on a regular basis, but rather doing the proper research beforehand to identify the core of your business along with the needs of your audience.

After all, Google places an importance on adequately sourced and well-written content. The search engine giant also penalizes sites in SEO rankings that produce low-quality content that’s riddled with spelling mistakes and broken links.

So grab a pen and paper and write down five fundamental terms that come to mind to describe the core of your business activities. These terms will serve as the thematic pillars that’ll help you select pertinent keywords related to your business and audience.

To facilitate the keyword research, you can use a number of tools (free and paid) such as Ubersuggest, Wordtracker, Moz Keyword Explorer or SEMrush. Below you’ll find a screenshot of an example of our keyword research method using the Keyword Magic Tool on SEMrush. Once you have these keywords, schedule a meeting with your SEO strategist to identify which keywords pertinent to your business’ needs. In most cases, the strategist will use a formula to compare the search volume with the competition in order to define the relevant keywords. You can then incorporate the keywords into your static content or future blog content, which will inevitably increase your visibility on major search engines over a period of time.

semrush - keyword magic tool

Tip #2 – Optimize for mobile devices

Switching gears and looking at the technical aspect of SEO, it’s crucial that your website is optimized for mobile devices. Why is this important? Nearly 25.5 million Canadians use either a smartphone or a tablet, equating to 70% of the entire population. This figure is expected to increase to 80% within the next year, meaning more individuals are using their phones to find answers to their questions.

Moreover, in many instances, Google’s robots will index the mobile version first instead of the desktop version. This phenomenon in SEO is referred to as mobile-first indexing, which demonstrates the importance of having a mobile-friendly website that’ll rank higher in search results. Consequently, sites that are not designed for mobile use are penalized in terms of search engine rankings.

To check if your site is mobile-friendly, there are a number of free tools out there, including one by Google Search Console. Give it a try and check if your site is mobile-friendly in a few seconds. Simply type in your website URL and it will generate a report stating whether your page is or isn’t mobile-friendly. 

As an example, let’s look at a brand that we all know and love – the SAQ – Quebec’s sole liquor distributor. In the image above, you can see the report (generated by the aforementioned tool) that the site is not mobile friendly. Google also generates a list of recommendations, which can be interpreted and implemented with the help of an SEO expert.

It’s important to note that there can be several reasons as to why Google does not consider a site to be mobile-friendly. That being said, this weakness can have a devastating impact on brands, manifesting in a drop in search engine visibility and affect the number of site visits that convert to sales.

If you discover your site is not mobile-friendly, it’s best to contact your SEO strategist to help you take immediate action by recommending a series of immediate actions. A specialist will be able to help identify cornerstone issues and work in tandem with a web developer to make your site compatible for mobile devices. 

google search console - mobile-friendly test page

Tip #3 – Remove Irrelevant Code

Many amateur webmasters fail to realize that irrelevant code directly and negatively impacts your SEO rankings. Why? It typically takes longer for Google’s bots to crawl the entire website if there’s excess code, which means it won’t be able to fully index your site and negatively impact your ranking. If you want to verify if your website is bogged down by excess code, you can use a free tool like FreeFormater or HTMLHint to check for the following:

  • Missing or unbalanced HTML tags
  • Missing HTML tags 
  • Unbalanced HTML tags
  • Duplicate IDs 
  • Invalid attributes
  • Stray characters 

Once you have the results, you can either pass this information on to your web developer or try and implement some of the changes on the backend yourself. This might be difficult for those who have never worked with code before, but there are an infinite amount of YouTube tutorials and guidelines available. For webmasters who use certain platforms like Wix, Squarespace or Weebly, this may be more challenging because it’s harder to modify the source code compared to a WordPress or custom CMS. laptop with a coding screen

Another great tip is to be on the lookout for an unbalanced code-to-content ratio by using a free “code to text ratio checker.” A higher ratio tends to be positive news, meaning your site is likely to rank well. On the other hand, if your ratio is unbalanced, you can use a tool like Minify Code to reduce bloated lines of code to aide with your SEO strategy. 

In essence, these 3 foundational tips will undoubtedly help your SEO efforts. As mentioned earlier,  just remember this is a long-term effort. If done correctly, you should see a direct impact on your search engine positions in regards to relevant keywords. You should also see an increase in quality traffic that can decrease your need to purchase media (SEM) via Google Adwords and Bing. If you have a particular subject you’d like our SEO team to discuss in an upcoming post, feel free to reach out to us. 

 

laptop blog
SEO
January 25, 2017

Blogging : 3 tips to increase your organic site traffic

Company blogs thrive all over the web – and for a good reason. They’re a great opportunity to discuss topics that are relevant to your clients and prospects. Creating your blog is the first step, but promoting your content is essential to be seen (and read) online.

How to drive traffic to your company blog?

First, you want your articles to discuss interesting and relevant topics. You also want to think about how you are going to communicate in order to catch your reader’s’ attention.

1/ Branded articles

People reading your blog seek information, but they also want a human connection. Keep in mind that your blog is a part of your company’s image.

Let’s focus on two aspects: the tone of your blog and your writer’s personality.

Having a consistent tone throughout your articles is important, but it shouldn’t mean that your writers shouldn’t express their ideas the way they want to. A hint of their personality will give a uniqueness to your blog and make it more human. You want your readers to feel like you are truly talking to them. This will make them more likely to interact with you and share their opinion. – And this, is what you’re looking for!

You can also provide personal information about your writers: job position, photo, expertise, etc.

Try inserting links to your other articles throughout your blog post. This will generate more traffic to your website. Link your subjects and present them in a coherent way.

2/ Promoting your articles

This is no secret. Social media and Newsletters are the best way to promote your content. With everybody using these platforms… how can you stand out from the crowd?

No need to remind you how important it is to post your articles on all your social networks, it’s a no-brainer. But there are some strategic moments to post in order to reach a larger audience. For example, 9am on a Tuesday is when the highest social media activity is recorded. That being said, best practice is to test different timeframes and see which one renders the best results for you. For example Facebook offers interesting insights about the moment your audience is online and interacting with your content. Think about using this information as a starting point for your testing.

There are so many communities online that share the same interests as your industry, so take advantage of this opportunity. Link your articles to your personal account on LinkedIn. This will alert your connections and maximize the visibility of your articles.

3/ Spotlight on others

Sharing your articles on your social networks is not enough. You need to take part in your community’s discussions. You want people to interact with you, so interact with their content: share, comment, quote articles you read and bring value to the discussion. By showing interest, you’ll build credibility and increase your reputation. This can help build awarenes and interest for your own articles.

BONUS/ What about case studies and guest blogging?

Case studies are a great way to prove your expertise! Quote your clients and invite them to share your case studies. You’ll be able to reach their social networks and increase your audience.

Consider guest blogging: invite influencers of your industry to write an article for your blog, or offer to publish one of your own on theirs. These techniques can help improve your credibility and reach more visitors.

Having a blog filled with thought-provoking and compelling articles is a real added value for your company. Check out our 10 tips to help you choose subjects for you articles and optimize your content.

femme devant un laptop
SEO
December 15, 2016

Blogging: 10 Tips to Write SEO Optimized Blog Posts

 
We all know it. Blogging frequently has many benefits for your company: it generates traffic to your website, improves your SEO, helps develop better client relationships and increases your website authority.
But choosing a relevant topic and a good title can be tricky. And if you forget to optimize the article correctly, it will have fewer chances to appear on the first pages of search engines. So where to start? Here are our top 10 tips to choose a topic and optimize the content of your articles.
 

CHOOSE A TOPIC

 
Choosing a topic is often the most difficult step. Here are a few tips to find your next blog post topic:

1- Look at common client questions: Ask the sales department, customer service or even the technical team what are their most common client questions, and use them to make useful and educational blog posts.

2- Be inspired by your competitors: Create an inspiration file, and gradually add articles and titles that attract your attention. Classify them into different subjects.

3- Use Google tools: Google tools are a great source of inspiration to write new blog posts.

Search Analytics Report allows you to identify keywords that people use to find your content.

Adwords Keyword Tool is useful to collect a list of keywords. Choose a combination of at least 3 keywords and select the ones that have a search volume neither too low or too high.

We particularly like those tools, but we also use tools such as Über Suggest, Keyword Tool, Soovle and Xtendo to generate keywords’ ideas.

FIND A TITLE

 
The next step is to find a catchy and relevant title that will make your readers want to read the article.

4- Use powerful words: the worst ads, must-follow steps, brilliant tips…

5- Highlight the value of the article: if you offer an ebook, specify [ebook] in the title

6- Be specific: “10 tips to build an Inbound Marketing Campaign on Instagram” will be more effective than “How to build a Strategy on Social Networks”

Following those tips, here are some suggestions for ‘’15 Ways to Optimize Blogs Posts”:
15 Brilliant Expert Tips to Optimize your Blog Posts
15 Must-Follow Steps to Succeed at Blog Post Optimization
15 Hidden Blog Optimization Hacks You’ll Want to Know About

OPTIMIZE YOUR ARTICLE

 
Finally, you have to write and optimize the article so that search engines index it correctly. Remember that the flow of the article should remain as natural as possible.

7- Focus on 1 or 2 long-tail keywords: Choose one or two keywords per article and aim for long-tail keywords that are more effective. Include them in these 4 parts of your article:

  • Title: Always try to include your keyword in the first 65 characters of your title
  • Headers and Body: Mention your keyword throughout your article and in the headers
  • URL: Optimize your URL and add one or two keywords.
  • Meta Description: It must be easy to read, compelling and relevant, and include the keywords for which you want to appear on search engines.

8- Optimize images: Your articles contain images, but Google can’t read them so you have to include ‘alt text’ for each one. Be descriptive and add some keywords without doing keyword stuffing.

9- Include internal links: nternal links help search engines validate the relevancy of your content. If you write on a subject previously mentioned in another article/ebook/page, it is a good practice to add a link to this page.

10- End with a CTA: Ideally, every article ends with a CTA. It’s important to retain your visitors and keep them engaged with content.

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