GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 49 - April 2021

There is still time to prepare if you focus on the top facets we’ve outlined below. 1. A need for speed Site load speed remains a huge factor for the user and a slow site speed represents a poor page experience. Data shows that the average bounce rate for pages loading within two seconds is 6 % and this increases to nearly 50% when page load time hits six seconds. This means losing almost half of your customers in just four seconds — so every second counts! Google’s best practice guidelines suggest that page loading speed should be just three seconds, so be sure to check your site speed . If your site is performing way above the recommended parameters there are some quick questions you need to address: • Are your images larger than they need to be? If not, you need to optimize your images and make sure they’re in the correct format and that they are compressed for the web. • Minify CSS, Javascript and HTML • Minimize HTTP requests — the more components on a page, the longer it takes to render. 2. Time to finally go mobile-first We’ve lost count of how many times it was meant to be the year of mobile. However, with this upcoming update, there will now be absolutely no excuse not to be serving up an optimummobile experience first. As of September 2020, Google started to roll out mobile-first indexing across all websites. This measures how well your website performs on your smartphone or any mobile device and means that Google will use the mobile version of your content when it’s assessing your ranking. Therefore, it’s imperative the mobile version of your website leads the way in terms of following best practice guidelines. You should no longer be prioritizing your desktop site. You can check if your web page is mobile-friendly by entering your URL on Google’s Mobile-Friendly test tool. 3. Time to review your UX If you’ve got a well-established website, you’ll likely be sitting on a gold mine of valuable insights, which will help you review how users interact with your site, what your successful pages are, and which pages drive your user to a swift exit. In the affiliate space, it’s worth reviewing all the different call to actions (CTAs) across the site that can go some way to improving interaction on the site. Which ones have the highest click-through rate and can the learnings be tested and rolled-out elsewhere on the site? If you have some CTAs with a low engagement or click-through rate, take some time to review them and assess if they are still clear and spe- cific enough. Also, review the design of them. What does the color and iconography imply and what emotional feedback do they give? In terms of creating powerful CTAs, affiliate sites need to make the benefits of signing up or click through clear while choos- ing positive and persuasive words to invoke good feelings and quick actions, all while trying to keep your message succinct and snappy! Think about the different CTAs you can use across different pages. For example, on top-level landing pages, you can be using top offers and deals. On blog or news pages, you can use subtle links to help direct traffic back to transactional pages. For example, if you’ve got a blog topic providing “Top Tips for Playing Blackjack,” a CTA at the end of the article such as “Apply These Skills and Play Blackjack Here” is powerful. By looking at how else users interact with your website, you might want to review the main navigation of the site. Are there ways in which you could simplify navigation and perhaps test keywords that better describe the content they want/need? On mobile, it’s important to place the important navigation in clear view, and hide secondary tabs away in a hamburger menu. Finally, are there any barriers on-site that present an unnecessary distraction for your users and takes your users attention away from the great content? Google does not consider pages with intrusive interstitials as being mobile-friendly. So, if you are still using interstitials or intrusive pop-up ads that are interrupting a user’s flow when they’re consuming your content, it’s time to rethink your approach with these types of formats. 4. As always, focus on quality content When creating or optimising any content on your site, it’s im- portant to remember what content Google is trying to display as results for its searches. Google recommends following the EAT methodology and is something we underpin all our SEO strategy with at Blueclaw. PREPARING FOR GOOGLE PAGE EXPERIENCE 2021 Ultimatelyasanaffiliate , youneed to produce content that demonstrates your expertise in the world of casino or specific games . . . Aimtomake your site the “go-to” source of information for a particular topic and be the site that owns it ! G P W A t i m e s . o r g 42