GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 34 - February 2016

SEO.” Does a high score really help assess a good site? No. Does it help make the cli- ent feel safe? Yes. Essentially these metrics are third- party and arbitrary. They are Moz and Majestic’s best guess at what Google thinks is a good site. And guesswork isn’t good work. They’re valued only on what they track and by cumulative scores based on sites linking to the one you’re checking. But in no way does that take into account if the links to the site are networked, if the site has a penalty, or even if it ranks for something. Which brings us to the alternative: SEMrush or Searchmetrics. If you do want a score that actually shows that Google values a website, ask this one simple ques- tion: Does it rank for what it’s trying to rank for? A site about mobile games that ranks for thousands of relevant terms and has a high search traffic estimate is better than one that has a great DA and is about gambling, but ranks for noth- ing. Why? Because that site is clearly an authority. You should still check to make sure that most of its content isn’t linking out to people placing links everywhere. But if you need a number, SEMrush or Searchmetrics is the way to go. Mobile It’s shocking that this still needs to be mentioned in 2016, but optimizing for mobile is no longer optional. The growth of mobile is only going to continue over the next year, and if you’ve not already put effort into a proper mobile layout with your affiliate links placed well, you will fall by the wayside. Content The 500 words myth The idea that each page should contain at least 500 words is nonsense. If you actu- ally run the numbers, most uplifts are at about the 2,000-word mark, and even then it’s debatable. The 500-word minimum has hung around since the first Panda update, and too many people have been wedded to it ever since. Google is smart- er than that now; it’s more interested in user metrics. If your content suffers from a case of “TLDR” (too long; didn’t read), then odds are you’re wasting your time writing it, or your money paying to have it written. The length of a page should depend on the type of content on that page. I’d recom- mend site reviews and any guides being longer than 500 words because it makes sense for them to be. If you’ve got a small news piece or update that really should only be 250 words long, stretching it to an arbitrary length is not helping your rank or your readers. If the piece is quality and informative, that will do. If all of your posts are just over 500 words, or some other arbitrary mark, that’s more likely to raise red flags against you in the future. Meta tags Meta tags are more important than ever as click-through rates and other user metrics are taking even more precedence in search, as far as we can tell. You need to keep in mind that the recommended lengths have changed over the last year due to mobile search artificially truncat- ing metas, and Google allowing some significantly longer ones into the organic search listings. A recent study done by Moz found sev- eral reaching more than 350 characters. Only about 1% broke the rules of cutting off after 141 characters (that’s the new safe point to get the whole description to show). But it’s enough that it may be worth trying to get more real estate by in- creasing meta description lengths. Google is likely to keep making tweaks to this in the New Year, and it’s definitely some- thing to keep an eye on. Hopefully a few of these points will help your websites get stronger and fitter while safeguarding against a few malicious in- dustry practices in 2016. Mike Litson is managing director of Greyheart Media. Specializing in gambling marketing, Mike has spoken at the foremost industry events and regularly contributes to industry publications. He was recently announced as Young Professional of the Year by the UK Search Awards. Contact him at mike@greyheart.co.uk . I’m going to upset a few people by saying this: Domain authority and trust flow are used time and time again in an unbelievably misguided manner.” 13 SEO resolutions for 2016