HOW TO AVOID GOOGLE MOBILE POPUP PENALTY FOR WORDPRESS SITES

Many people find it difficult to stay updated with the latest Google updates and trends. This negligence is most unfortunate and must be avoided at all cost. In the context of the latest Google updates, it is important to mention about the Google mobile popup penalty, which came into effect since January 10 this year. If you are still unaware about it, better read on to save your site being hit by it. This update has started creating considerable dip in mobile traffic for many businesses. So, better mend things in time, than suffer from the negligence.

The update basics:

Many experts involved with providing SEO services in Portland opine that by introducing this update, Google has initiated a shift change in ranking websites on its organic search results. By virtue of this update, pages in which, content is not smoothly accessible to mobile users, may not rank high on SERP. Though it is just one of the hundreds of other page ranking factors, yet you should not ignore it and suffer from the consequences. Google announced the mobile popup penalty quite sometime back, in 2016 August.

More than a penalty, it is devaluing pages:

Technically speaking, the Google mobile popup penalty more than penalizing your site, devalues your pages. Most websites use meaningless popups, which frustrate users. The main reason to introduce this update is to help users from this frustration. Unfortunately, people who do not keep up with the latest SEO trends and practices will probably overlook it and suffer as a result. In other words, popups will appear no more for mobile users and they will have easier and faster access to page content. This Google penalty will be applied on every applicable page of a website. In other words, your entire website will not be devalued or affected by it. Remember, the Google popup penalty is not only applicable to popups, but also to all types of invasive interstitials.

Google tips to avoid inviting the penalty:

Make sure, there is no popup to cover the main content, after user navigates to the page from organic search results.

There should not also be any delayed popup or the one that appears after user has scrolled down to a certain point on the page.

Do not display a standalone interstitial that user has to dismiss, before getting access to the main content.

Never use a layout that makes the above-the-fold part of the page look similar to a standalone interstitial and making the main content inlined beneath the fold.

Popups that are acceptable:

• Push notifications are still accepted, as they take up a small portion of the screen.
• Using cookies for age verification and other legal information that need to be collected from users
• Exit popups can stay
• Make sure that a banner should not take up more than a quarter of the device’s screen space.

Impact on Google Adsense:

Google mobile penalty is not going to have any affect on Google Adsense, as Page-level ads (like, vignette ads and anchor or overlay ads) stay within the accepted guidelines. Vignette ads do not show up when a visitor reaches the page from Google’s organic search result, whereas anchor level ads take up just a tiny part of the screen and can be easily dismissed. Mobile penalty is only applicable to traffic that is directly sourced from Google.

Other traffic: If your web traffic comes from sources other than Google, it is alright to use popups and it will not devalue your page.

Effect of Google popup penalty:

Some websites that have been negatively affected by Google mobile penalty, lost some 10 or more positions in their mobile ranking. Considering the volume of your traffic, losing 10 spots may sum up to losing thousands of visitors every day. On the other hand, websites that do not use popups are experiencing a steady improvement in their ranking. The possible reason for this could be, their competitors are getting penalised or facing devaluation of pages by Google popup penalty.

A practical example:

A brand experienced a 20% drop in mobile traffic after the popup penalty came into effect. Actually, there was a bug with their popup plugin and they lost about 2,000 customers in a span of 3 days. Somehow, they could not disable the WordPress plugin that was being used for popup. As soon as the problem was solved, their traffic and ranking returned within a few days.

Tips to check mobile traffic:

If your website uses welcome mats, popups or invasive interstitials, use Google Analytics to check your traffic coming from mobile handsets. Some people, also prefer keyword rank tracker tool to meet the goal.

Step #1: Log into your Google Analytics profile and select the date range in the filter at the top with your preferred dates.

Step #2: On the left-hand side, there is “Audience”, under which is “Mobile>Overview”. On reaching here, you will see traffic coming from desktops, mobiles and tablets. In case, you notice a 15% or above drop in your traffic, then chances are high Google mobile penalty has hit your site hard.

Tips on resolving the problem:

If your site has been affected by Google mobile penalty, do not panick or get carried away. There are two options to overcome the issue. One, simply disable the WordPress popup plugin you are using. Two, just disable popups on mobile handsets and keep catering to visitors as if, they are from desktops. DubSEO is a renowned SEO company in Portland, which never uses popups on mobile handsets. At other places, where it does, it uses only at 50% scroll. This ensures, the site remains unaffected, as well as its visitors do not get annoyed. Most of the modern plugins come with the option, whether you want to use them on mobile.

In case, you are using WP Subscribe Pro plugin from MyThemeShop, it is better to disable the popup, as currently, there is a bug in it with detecting mobile devices. Although, these plugins come with the option of disabling, you should test on your own handset just to be absolutely sure. Welcome mats from SumoMe are also affected by the Google mobile penalty. However, if you are using these, do not get panicky. SumoMe has just added a new feature, named “Display Mode”. It is found in “Behavior” tab of the mats and this feature completely complies with Google guidelines. Moreover, you are always free to contact the developer to enquire about the popup or lead generation plugins that you are using.

Of course, you do not want your webapges to be devalued by Google as a result of its mobile penalty update. Just to play it safe, disable the popups, welcome mats and every other invasive insterstitials from your website. In case, your site gets affected by it, do not panick, things will return back to normal in a few days.

5 best user-friendly graphic tools to create your social media posts

These days, packaging information for daily consumption has taken the bite-sized form. This is a valuable practice for those who like to supplement their content with a touch of graphic design. Enhancing content with images is a vital habit for bloggers and content writers.

This involves using typography and infographics, creating panels and layouts to segregate content, templates, headers, and suchlike to make good images. These images can then readily be converted into the required dimensions for particular social media handles.

The following list of free and commonly used web-based graphics design applications. These can be immensely beneficial for content marketers as they are built to allow any lay person to create stunning images for social media.

Canva

This online graphic design platform offers an array of features that can help you create quality images for the web. With a user-friendly interface, Canva seems to be the quintessential design site. It has an assortment of layouts for making anything from holiday greetings and classy resumes to posters for your next gig and templates for your blogs. Its collection of ready-made templates is free and can be used for several purposes. It also has options for creating posts specific to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and other social media sites. The end result turns out to be a quality image.

Fotor

Apart from the photo editing feature Fotor is known for, it also has several options to apply graphic design elements to the image. It is best used for its simple editing, and it also allows you to adjust the dimensions of an image to fit those of other social media handles as Canva does. It also gives you the option to save your images on Dropbox, a cloud storage facility, or on your computer.

Easelly

Ever needed some fancy infographics to pep up your presentation? Here’s your answer. Easelly is another web application that is best for making infographics. It has a variety of features that contribute to making detailed infographics with several templates. It also has an assortment of readymade layouts in case you have some starting trouble.

FotoJet

FotoJet is another browser based application and known to be quite a good alternative to Canva. It comes with options of creating collages, editing pictures, and creating images with graphic design elements. FotoJet comes with two modes: Creative and Classic. The Creative mode helps create designs with the built-in templates and layouts, and the Classic mode is used to create designs from scratch. This would mean choosing your own layouts and other things to create your own templates.

Pablo by Buffer

This application is very useful for creating posts and images for on-the-go editing. With Buffer’s Pablo, you can make posters, flyers, and posts for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest quickly. The readymade templates and layouts will do the job for you as you add the content. It can then be saved and uploaded onto the required social media handles.

Even though all these websites are free, they have a premium option where you can pay for certain extra features that could take your designing capabilities to the next level. Although, a huge drawback could be having a solid internet connection, without which there might be a constant lag or the annoying. Nevertheless, all of these tools have a very simple and user-friendly interface, and are built to keep you creative with your graphic designing.

5 free online apps to create stunning visuals for social media

Visual content is indispensable for every digital marketer today. Not only is visual content more appealing to viewers, it’s also 40 times more likely to be shared on social media than any other type of content. Catchy graphics and images have the added advantage of propagating information in a quick and concise manner as compared to, say, blog posts which are time consuming to read.

Nowadays, marketers don’t need to rely exclusively on designers to create such visuals. A plethora of online applications, replete with pre-existing design templates and graphics, are enabling design novices to create engaging visuals with minimum effort. Here are five such free online tools which you can use to create stunning visuals for social media sites:

Canva

Canva is probably the most versatile free design tool a marketer can use. You can create visuals ranging from simple image posts and banners to detailed posters and blog graphics. It comes pre-loaded with a variety of pictures, vector images, and fonts, most of which are free to use. Canva also offers its users a multitude of templates which can be tweaked and personalised with ease, courtesy of a stellar UI. Once you're done creating what you need, you can download it in Instagram, Facebook or Twitter specific sizes with the click of a single button.

Pixlr

Using Adobe Photoshop requires a fair amount of practice from the user. Understanding the need for a simpler photo editing software, Autodesk launched a toned-down version of the Photoshop known as Pixlr. The online-only app, despite being completely free, does not miss out on Photoshop's most commonly used features which suffice for all but the most serious designers. In case you find using Pixlr to be a bit complicated, there's an even more scaled-down version called Pixlr Express for basic photo editing like adding filters, adjusting brightness, and creating collages, among others.

Recite

Sharing famous quotes has become quite the rage on social media, with posts bearing hashtags like #MondayMotivation and #WanderlustWednesday flooding Facebook and Twitter every week. Recite is a free online tool that caters only to those who want to create engaging quote-bearing visuals. Extremely simple to use, Recite uses a no-nonsense format that requires you to simply enter a quote and select a design template. You can't edit the visuals or upload your own background images, but, with the multitude of different templates Recite offers, you'll never need to.

Pablo

Sometimes, all you need to create an engaging piece of visual content is a captivating image with text overlaid on it. Pablo is a free online software that enables users to create such visuals with unbelievable ease. You can either upload your own photo or select one from its vast cache. After that, adding text, filters, and even your brand's logo, is an effortless task. You can also resize the images in an instant to suit your needs. And since Pablo is a tool by Buffer, a popular social media management app, you can post your creations directly to various social media sites directly.

Piktochart

Infographics, out of all the different types of image content, are the most useful for sharing a large amount of information in an easy-to-consume manner. They are also far more likely to be shared on social media than other content formats. Piktochart is a highly-rated online tool that lets you create captivating infographics with ease. The tool gives you freedom to create your own infographic from scratch in addition to ten varied templates that cover the most common infographic types. Piktochart can also be used to create visually engaging presentations and printables, like reports and posters.

These tools can be used by marketers to create social graphics and images for advertisements, announcements, blog headers, and a lot more. And not only do these online apps eliminate the need for a designer, they are extremely intuitive and simple to use as well.

Five Essential Tactics to Master SEO in 2017

2016 was a significant year in the realm of search engine marketing. While some of the updates focused on the paid side (removal of right column ads, expanded text ads, responsive display ads, etc.), other updates focused on organic traffic. Some of the key updates included the following:

• Removal of right-column ads. While this was more of a paid search update, the impact is felt on the organic side as desktop searches show up to four ads at the top of search results.
• Mobile-friendly update #2. Google launched a second algorithm update a year after “Mobilegeddon,” which gave mobile-friendly websites a boost in rankings on mobile devices.
• Local search algorithm update. Unofficially named Possum, this local search update (while unconfirmed by Google) made a significant change in local search results. Duplicate business listings are filtered out, and more relevant results are shown based on search queries.
• Penguin 4.0. Google *finally* launched a new major Penguin update after a couple of years. Penguin also now runs in real-time and is included in the core algorithm (like Panda).

With regards to 2017, there are a couple of elements you need to master to see a significant return on investment from SEO. Some of these are basic and have been known for quite some time, whereas others are related to recent trends and updates.

#1: Master Keyword Research & Content Marketing

Keyword research is more important now than ever before due to the updates that Google has applied to its core algorithm over the past couple of years. Additionally, RankBrain, Google’s machine learning artificial intelligence program used to process new search queries, helps the search engine giant put things into context rather than relying on metadata. By processing information on a contextual level, Google can serve more relevant results.

How does this help you when it comes to SEO? By utilizing keyword research tools and digging into search trends, you can base your content marketing strategy and website content around popular search queries, long-tail questions, and other terms that will help you capture more traffic. It’s also important to utilize phrase matches and synonyms within your content rather than using the same focus keyword continuously.

#2: Implement Schema Markup

An integral part of our auditing process for new SEO clients is to evaluate the schema markup used on websites. Often, we come across websites that have not yet integrated schema markup. What is schema markup? Schema.org is a collaborative project sponsored by Google, Microsoft, Yandex, and (now formerly) Yahoo! with a singular mission to promote schema for structured data on web pages, email communications, and more.

This collection of HTML tags can help submit structured data to search engines so that the information appears as rich snippets. This type of onsite optimization is used to create rich snippets for products, videos, events, music, organizations, people, recipes, and ratings. As illustrated by the sample search below, rich snippets stand out for product searches by displaying price, stock availability, and ratings/reviews.

I’ve seen this luggage set in person – very impressive….note that this is not an ad for out client, but they do have an awesome site. 

3. Optimize Your Local Business Listings

As a general web user, nothing frustrates me more than coming across business listings that are either incomplete or display inaccurate information. I’ve had countless experiences where I have shown up to a local business that had either closed permanently or changed store hours without submitting those updates to Google. With mobile usage increasing month-over-month, local businesses cannot afford to ignore the digital realm anymore, especially with savvy marketing professionals and small business owners capitalizing on recent internet trends.

According to the Mobile Playbook, 20% of all searches made on Google & Google-owned properties are made with local intent. If you think that’s crazy, just look at the impact local searches can have on businesses:

• 94% of smartphone users search for location information.
• 51% of users visited a store.
• 48% of users called a store.
• 29% of users made a purchase at a retail location.
• 80% of mobile searches triggered store visits within five hours of the initial search.
• 85% of mobile searches triggered calls to stores within five hours of the initial search.

As mobile becomes more relevant for SEO and lead generation, it’s crucial to not only own your local listings but to ensure that it is updated with photos and contains accurate information. You can capture a great share of traffic on Google alone by optimizing your Google My Business profile and encouraging satisfied customers/clients to leave glowing reviews.

4. Build Relevant & Valuable Links

Search engines no longer put a value on the number of inbound links a page has to establish authority. These days, search engines expect you to earn any link pointing back to your site by investing resources into creating great content. There is often a debate about the importance of links in the future, but Google has stated that content and links are the top two ranking factors, so don’t discount the power of link building yet. Of course, spammy links are terrible, so please don’t attempt to circumvent Google’s guidelines and annoy webmasters like the guy below.

Sorry, RichardMn, I’m not publishing those links on my blog.

The best approach to link building is to create amazing content and linkable assets for your own website. The development of infographic, whitepapers, case studies and resources can lead to other websites within your niche referencing your site as an authority. Additionally, seeking out relevant sites and content publishers can help you find opportunities to submit content or generate a link back to your site that is legitimate and in accordance with Google’s webmaster guidelines. Stay away from link farms, sponsored links, or any other black-hat tactics, or else you may find your website in Google’s penalty box.

#5: Make Mobile a Priority

If “Mobilegeddon” and the subsequent update a year later wasn’t enough to convince you that mobile was important for SEO, here are a few reasons why you should make it a priority in 2017.

Mobile-First Index

Google’s mobile-first index is launching in 2017. Of course, this will not change much for websites that are responsive because the content is the same for both mobile and desktop devices. Additionally, this will not affect websites that are not mobile-friendly, as the content is the same on both types of devices. Issues will arise for websites that show different content on mobile and desktop devices. For example, if you have a regular website for desktop traffic and a “m.” website with streamlined content, Google’s mobile-first index will rank your website based on what it sees on mobile devices. This could mean Google is seeing less content than it would if it crawled the desktop version of your website.

Therefore, it’s important to prepare for the new mobile-first index and make sure that your mobile version is accessible to search engine bots.

Google AMP

Google’s open source initiative, Accelerated Mobile Pages, has been gaining traction over the past year. More publishers are jumping on board and implementing a stripped-down version of their website purely for mobile devices, which load quicker than the regular version and have a “AMP” label in search results. While it seems like only news-based sites reap the benefits of AMP implementation, it is expected that Google will display the AMP-enabled link of a page within organic mobile results if it’s available. For example, if you have a page ranking high on mobile devices and have an AMP-enabled equivalent page, Google may show the link for the AMP page instead of the original. The main benefit here is a potentially high click-through rate due to the AMP label. While this is not in effect yet, you should at least plan to enable AMP for any blog/news related pages on your website.

Penalty for Intrusive Interstitial Ads

As of January 10, 2017, content pages not easily accessible to users on mobile devices from an organic search may be subject to a penalty and may see a decrease in rankings. Google’s transition to mobile-first has opened fire on websites that push annoying interstitials and pop-ups on mobile websites that may harm the overall user experience. Keep the UX clean on mobile devices and focus on converting users naturally rather than shoving interstitials in their faces.

SEO Isn’t Dead

The claims of SEO being dead have been around for years, but time and time again, those claims end up falling on deaf ears. However, the world of search engine marketing has evolved quite a bit over the past 10 years, which is why it’s important to be aware of the latest trends. Mastering search engine optimization is no small feat. It takes several skill sets to rank highly: content writing, programming, email marketing (reaching out to publishers), analyzing data, etc. However, if executed perfectly and strategically, the return on investment can be immense. You just have to be patient, though. Search engine optimization is a long-term strategy, but worth it in the end.

Are you ready to get ranked in 2017?

Interview Questions on Link Building Strategy

1. What is Importance of Link Building Today as far as you're Concerned?

Link building is the prime measurement tool of Google search algorithm. You get high ranking as per the number of quality backlinks you get for your blog posts.

This is one of the factors which is never going to die in the SEO industry.

So it had importance yesterday, it has today, and for sure it will have tomorrow as well.

2. Which is your Favorite Link Building Strategy?

Link building is a process. So we cannot say this is my favorite or that is my favorite. In my case, I go for the quality guest blogging for my niche websites, because getting guest posts is not easy for everyone.

3. What does thing need to keep in mind before Competitors website Analysis?

We do competitor analysis only and only after finding some great players after doing a keyword search on Google.

So if you competitors are ranking high for some good search terms, it’s the time to learn more about their link building strategy.

4. Please Share your favorite SEO and link Building tools?

I am not using any link building tool as of now.

5. What are some innovative link building strategies?

Guest blogging, infographics, broken link building, blogger outreach are some of the best ways to get quality backlinks.

6. What factors go into a quality link Building?

The blog must have high relevancy to your niche website. They must have good PageRank (although this ranking factor is dead now, I personally still consider it), good DA, PA, and ranking of the website.

If the website is ranking high for some good keywords, this simply means that Google is loving that website. So getting a backlink from such websites can be highly beneficial for your niche sites.

Link Building Strategy

What Is Link Building?

Link building is a really important element of SEO which define how your website gets ranked by search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

Link building can increase the number of high-quality links pointing to a website, in turn increasing the likelihood of the website ranking highly in search engine results. Link building is also a proven marketing tactic for increasing brand awareness.[Wikipedia]

Remember. "A Backlink Or Inbound Link Is Like A Vote For Your Website/Blog. If You Have Good Content, Others In Your Subject Matter Will Automatically Quote Your Content And Add A Link To Your Site Giving You Credit"

Benefits Of Link Building!

Link building is an important part of SEO. Link building is the process of building inbound links for your websites. Here I am going to share why It’s Important for our website/blog?

As you know Google updating its Penguin Algorithm regularly which changed everything about. So in today’s Link building is a process of getting links from relevant authority sites and quality sites. 

1. The more inbound links the higher the SE ranking
2. If the site linking to you is already indexed, spiders will also receive your site
3. Helps you to receive traffic from other websites linked to you.
4. The high-quality incoming link means your site will be admired as a valuable resource. This could be easily done by writing quality content.

ALWAYS REMEMBER - “A Small Number Of Inbound Links From High-Quality, Relevant Sites Is More Valuable Than Many Links From Low-Traffic, Irrelevant Sites.”

Link Building Strategies:

1. Writing Impressive content
2. Guest blogging
3. Infographics
4. Directory Submission
5. Image Submission
6. Video Submission
7. Search Engine Submission
8. Forum Submission
9. Classified Submission
10. Do follow blog comments
11. Dofollow social bookmarking website.

Now It’s time to Experts Conversation. What they think about Link Building and what strategy they follow for their blog/website.

MY FAVOURITE TOP 5 SEO EXPERTS

As we know, SEO is one of the important factors to rank a website high on the main search engines. You can’t ignore SEO process if you want to increase traffic from search engines. Search engine optimization is the one and only best practice to gain organic traffic from search engines.

As we know, Google updates its algorithm regularly, so if you want to stay updated with all Google Algorithm and SEO Community, then you should have to follow these industry experts. These below experts have the best Search marketing experience and helping a lot of companies to establish their online businesses. These experts provide you best strategy and guidance, how to get success in online business and increase revenue?

In this Post, I am going to mention my favourite top 5 SEO experts I recommend you too to follow all time. I have followed all of them since 2013 and continuously,

Matt Cutts

Matt Cutts have a bachelor degree in mathematics and science from the University of Kentucky. And also have a Ph.D. degree from the University of North Carolina.He is well known for developing SafeSearch and Google’s family filter.He is the former head of Google web spam team. But As per Wikipedia and Matt Cutts blog he is on leave to spend some time with his family.

We all know Matt Cutts is a rock star in the world of SEO, One of the favourite quotes of mine from Matt Cutts.

“The objective is not to ‘make your links appear natural’; the objective is that your links are natural.”

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Check out – Valuable Quotes and Advice from Matt Cutts

If you would love to hear more from Google Updates, why not hear directly from the source?

Website: mattcutts.com/blog
Twitter: @mattcutts

Check out here – Seo Writing Tips

Rand Fishkin

Born in New Jersey, In 2002 Rand Fishkin involved in the field of SEM and2004, Rand Fishkin foundedMoz.com with his mom Gillian. And well known as Wizard of Moz, in today which is one the most popular software making company in the marketing field. He hosts a weekly video segment called Whiteboard Friday, where they discuss marketing tactics and his terms. He is also a Co-founder of Art of SEO and Inbound.org.

We’ve got to create a unique, special experience for them and delight visitors in addition to satisfying their query 

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Website: moz.com
Twitter: @randfish

Neil Patel

Neil Patel is the mastermind of the world of SEO; He has done some incredible thing in the field of Internet Marketing. He is a co-founder of Crazy Egg, Hello Bar, KISSmetrics, and writer QuickSprout. He helps companies like Amazon, NBC, GM, HP and Viacom grow their revenue.

Last week I read some great blog post of my fellow bloggers about Neil Patel.You can check out here:-

What I Wanted to Ask Neil Patel for You – Adeel Sami Blog

What People Can Learn From Neil Patel – Ãbdül Häséèb Blog

Here is my favourite quote of Neil Patel

If you want to grow your blog contin­ually, you need to learn to blog on a consistent basis. @NeilPatel

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To LOVE without condition, to SMILE without reason, and to SERVE without end… THIS is achievement @NeilPatel

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Website: quicksprout.com
Twitter: @neilpatel

Aaron Wall

Aaron Wall is the Founder of SEOBook.com and to its parallel site PPCBlog.com, a very influential and powerful SEO blog that’s frequently updated. Aaron Wall is a one of the most influencing personality in the field of SEO. Just Type “SEO training” into Google and Wall’s site is the first to pop up. His SEOBook.com website founded in 2003, which offers Internet marketing tips, Search Analysis and online business tips.

The success of a page should be measured by one criteria: Does the visitor do what you what you want them to do?

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Website: http://www.seobook.com
Twitter: @ SEObook

Brian Dean

Brian Dean is a well-known entrepreneur and SEO expert and founder and CEO of Backlinko. His firm is focused on organic traffic, link building campaigns as well as provides SEO Training.

Following Brian Dean profile is the best way to keep track of recent SEO Updates, changes, Link building tips, and development in Internet marketing world.

Whether you own an e-commerce site, run a digital marketing agency, sell software, or are a full-time blogger, you need content that brings in targeted traffic.

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Website: http://backlinko.com
Twitter: @Backlinko