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Google ignores any text beyond a hash mark (#) in a URL. If you are generating URLs known as hash or fragment URLs, they will not crawl, index, or rank them. Google will also not flow PageRank to URLs with a hash, and instead, flow the PageRank to the root part of the URL that does not have the hash.

Now, if you’re using hash URLs for some sort of navigation and still have the content on the page (though not visible until a user clicks on the link that generates the hash URL), this will probably also not rank. Google has said that to rank in search for a topic; you need to have the content about that topic visible on the page when a user clicks.

Additionally, long pages with content that is not tightly written around a topic generally do not rank.

You CAN use hashes on the page as bookmarks - linking a user from a TOC at the top of the page to a visible set of content lower on the page - a link called an anchor. Often those anchors are also subheaders. If you link to those anchors, Google will still not transfer PageRank. However, since the text is visible on the page to the user, Google will often rank these headers in search in what the search community calls “Fraggles,” and Google will send the user directly to this header deep within a page. But these anchors don’t generate a new page and are not powered by JavaScript

There you have it -- the overview on hashes in URLs and why you need to be careful and strategic about how you use them on your pages.

Come back tomorrow for another SEO tip.

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You can send me a donation at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katherinewong. Any and all levels of donations are appreciated and will help offset the cost of producing the podcast. You should also subscribe to our newsletter so that you don't miss a future episode. 

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Need to convince a boss or developer that you need schema implemented? Then listen to today's SEO tip.

Here are the ways you can support the SEO Tips podcast.

You can send me a donation at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katherinewong. Any and all levels of donations are appreciated and will help offset the cost of producing the podcast. You should also subscribe to our newsletter so that you don't miss a future episode. 

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Are you curious about whether your site could see an increase in traffic if you REMOVED content? Learn more in today's SEO tip.

Here are the ways you can support the SEO Tips podcast.

You can send me a donation at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katherinewong. Any and all levels of donations are appreciated and will help offset the cost of producing the podcast. You should also subscribe to our newsletter so that you don't miss a future episode. 

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Hello, and thanks for listening to SEO tips today.

First of all. Core Web Vitals. Will it impact you?

At the moment, it’s a tiny ranking factor. But it depends on your business goals, the vertical in which you operate, and your web search competitors, the impact on your business could be significant.

Ultimately I would recommend that everyone look at where they stand today by reviewing your Google Search Console Core Web Vitals report. If the vast majority of your pages are considered slow in this report, then most likely there is something fundamental on your website that is not working and you should make fixing those issues a priority.

But what if your pages are somewhat slow, but your content is high quality?

Here’s what Google says on the matter:

“While all of the components of page experience are important, we will prioritize pages with the best information overall, even if some aspects of page experience are subpar. A good page experience doesn’t override having great, relevant content. However, in cases where there are multiple pages that have similar content, page experience becomes much more important for visibility in Search.”- Google Webmaster Central Blog, 28 May 2020

So here’s the takeaway:

Good content pages will rank well despite having a bad page experience signal.

There is a lot we don’t know yet about Core Web Vitals metrics will be used.

1. The Google web search team has not stated how the metrics will be used. Your pages are graded based on these three categories: Poor, Needs improvement, or Good and we don’t know if a “poor” will make your page low quality and directly be a ranking factor.
2. We don’t know if it will be site-wide or a page level signal.
3. We don't know if the data will be segmented by the user location or the user’s network speed.

Here’s how to think through regularly measuring these metrics on your site:

1. The data that is collected is real-time data and updated once a month.
2. Once you set up these metrics inside your Google Analytics by using GTM, you can then segment the data based on user type or page type.
3. Inside your GA you can then link it to conversions so that you can measure your own impact speed and UX has on your conversions

So that’s your tip for today. Add Web Vitals metrics to your Google Analytics and start tracking your site’s performance. 

Thanks for listening. Come back tomorrow for another SEO tip.

Here are the ways you can support the SEO Tips podcast.

You can send me a donation at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katherinewong. Any and all levels of donations are appreciated and will help offset the cost of producing the podcast. You should also subscribe to our newsletter so that you don't miss a future episode. 

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Learn more about why as a federal agency you need a coordinated YouTube strategy to ensure that your videos are found by US citizens.

Here are the ways you can support the SEO Tips podcast.

You can send me a donation at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katherinewong. Any and all levels of donations are appreciated and will help offset the cost of producing the podcast. You should also subscribe to our newsletter so that you don't miss a future episode. 

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There are signs that Apple may soon launch a search engine to compete against Google Search

Hello, and thanks for listening to SEO tips today.

SEOs have been noticing increased activity from AppleBot (Apple’s crawler) and in July the company updated information about its crawler as well as published information about its ranking factors. It also seems that Apple search is possibly not using Google (or Bing) anymore for its results.

Here are the details:

In July of this year, Apple updated its search ranking factors in its help documentation. It includes the following:

• Aggregated user engagement with search results
• Relevancy and matching of search terms to webpage topics and content
• Number and quality of links from other pages on the web
• User location-based signals (approximate data)
• Web Page design characteristics

It did not say which factor has more weight in its rankings. And note that Apple is mentioning that it’s watching CTR and pogo-sticking when it ranks items. Apple also uses the content and topic of your pages for ranking, it looks at links, user location, and even the design characteristics of the page.

It also published information about Applebot – how to verify the traffic via its user-agent, and expanded robots.txt rules. They also highlighted that they don’t just crawl HTML but can also render pages with JavaScript

Back in June, Google was still powering Siri’s web results. At times it was using Bing, But now in Spotlight Search on IoS and IPadOS 14 beta shows up as Siri Suggestions – allowing users to go to sites bypassing Google search. This new move is probably due to European regulatory pressure that would force Apple to use its own search engine. 

If you’re curious about Apple’s search focus, Bill Slawski has saved parts of a machine learning job description at Apple – focused on building out its search offering. Bill’s deconstruction of the Apple search patent is definitely worth a read.

So your tip for today is the following – if you’re on a CDN where you have to whitelist your bot IPs and user agents, I would update that for Applebot.

Thanks for listening. Come back tomorrow for another SEO tip.

Here are the ways you can support the SEO Tips podcast.

You can send me a donation at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katherinewong. Any and all levels of donations are appreciated and will help offset the cost of producing the podcast. You should also subscribe to our newsletter so that you don't miss a future episode. 

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When do you need local SEO?

Hello, and thanks for listening to SEO tips today.

Let’s talk through today about when you might need to invest in a local SEO plan for you or your client and what that would even mean.

If you’ve been working on SEO for a site that does NOT have any local offices or a brick and mortar presence where customers can interact with you or your client, you might not be aware of what local SEO is and if you need it.

Ultimately, if your audience is looking for your topics and adding a local identifier (like whoopie pies in Camden, Maine) or “whoopie pies near me,” then you need a local SEO plan.

And unfortunately, it will just mean more work for you- as these are signs you need a local SEO plan.  Local search queries often show map results pulled from a Google My Business listing, so you’re going to want to claim that for every locality.

But it’s more complicated than that. There are some big data aggregators where you’re doing to walk to make sure that you’re Name, Address, and Phone number are accurate because those listings populate much of the rest of the Internet, and a punctuation difference could mean that the various search engines don’t understand your local business or local office.

You’re going to want to do an audit and fix every mention of your name, address, and phone number and claim your listings in all of the major directories used for mobile and voice queries for local businesses, which includes things like Bing and Apple Maps and Yelp.

And ranking? Well then, beyond relevant content, you’re going to need local links — think like from your local church or community bulletin board.

It’s all frankly a lot of work. There are excellent resources out there for you to learn more like Moz Local, BrightLocal, and WhiteSpark, and if you can find a video from any search show with Greg Gifford, I would highly recommend watching as he’s one of the rock stars in the local SEO space.

So that’s your tip for today – when you might need to consider a local SEO plan.

Thanks for listening. Come back tomorrow for another SEO tip.

Here are the ways you can support the SEO Tips podcast.

You can send me a donation at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/katherinewong. Any and all levels of donations are appreciated and will help offset the cost of producing the podcast. You should also subscribe to our newsletter so that you don't miss a future episode.