The Problem with Google Search Console Comparison Report

When using GSC to compare performance data across different time periods, users are presented with raw numbers without any indication of the percentage change. This means that, as a user, you need to manually calculate these changes to understand the full context of the data. For example, if your clicks have increased from 5,000 to 7,000, you have to do the math to realize that this represents a 40% increase. This manual calculation can be time-consuming and error-prone, especially when dealing with multiple metrics, large datasets, and hundreds of different domains.

The Solution: The Agital – GSC Calculations Chrome Extension

To address this issue, we followed our guide on how to use ChatGPT to help create an SEO Chrome extension and created one that automatically calculates and displays the percentage changes for key performance metrics in GSC. This extension enhances the GSC interface by adding the percentage and position change information directly within the performance report. It’s quickly become one of our favorite SEO Chrome Extensions.

You can download the Agital – GSC Calculations Chrome extension today!

Key Features of the Agital – GSC Calculations Google Chrome Extension:

• Percentage Change for Clicks, Impressions, and CTR: Instantly see the percentage increase or decrease in clicks, impressions, and click-through rates between two selected periods.
• Position Change for Average Position: Understand how your site’s average position in search results has improved or declined with a clear numerical difference.
• Visual Indicators: Positive changes are highlighted in green, while negative changes are shown in red, making it easy to quickly assess your performance.

Now it’s true that there are a number of other chrome extensions that add similar type functionality to GSC, but they often are feature heavy, difficult to navigate, and time consume to get the data you need.  The GSC Chrome extension we created aimed to give you the numbers quickly and easily with a simple press of the button.

How We Built the Extension

Building the extension involved several steps, leveraging the capabilities of modern web development tools and ChatGPT’s assistance. Here’s a high-level overview of the process:

1. Define the Requirements: We identified the need for displaying percentage changes in GSC and outlined the specific metrics to target.
2. Collaborate with ChatGPT: Using ChatGPT, we drafted the initial code to fetch data from the GSC DOM, calculate percentage changes, and inject the results back into the GSC interface.
3. Develop the Extension: We wrote the content script to extract the necessary data, calculate changes, and update the DOM. We also created the background script to handle the extension’s lifecycle and interactions. And a Manifest.json file describing the purpose, permissions, and actions of the extension.
4. Test and Refine: Through multiple iterations, we tested the extension in various scenarios to ensure it accurately identified the most recent data points and displayed the correct information.
5. Publish to Chrome Store: After thorough testing, we packaged the extension and published it to the Chrome Store, making it available for all users.

We’re big believers in the benefit of being able to create your own Chrome extensions to help make your SEO work faster and believe that knowing what’s in the code you run on your browser is important from a security perspective.  Especially if the extension doesn’t need any third party data to function.

Here’s the code used to build the extension:

content.js

// Function to extract data from the DOM
function extractData(label) {
    console.log(`Extracting data for ${label}`);
    const elements = Array.from(document.querySelectorAll(`[data-label="${label}"] .nnLLaf`))
        .filter(el => el.offsetParent !== null); // Filter only visible elements
    if (elements.length < 2) {
        console.warn(`Not enough data points found for ${label}`);
        return { current: 0, previous: 0 };
    }
    const current = parseFloat(elements[0].getAttribute('title').replace(/,/g, ''));
    const previous = parseFloat(elements[1].getAttribute('title').replace(/,/g, ''));
    console.log(`${label} - Current: ${current}, Previous: ${previous}`);
    return { current, previous };
}

// Calculate percentage changes
function calculatePercentageChange(previous, current) {
    return ((current - previous) / previous) * 100;
}

// Calculate position difference
function calculateDifference(previous, current) {
    return current - previous;
}

// Function to add percentage change information to the DOM
function addPercentageChange() {
    console.log('Adding percentage changes...');

    // Clear previous data
    document.querySelectorAll('.percentage-change').forEach(element => element.remove());

    const clicksData = extractData('CLICKS');
    const impressionsData = extractData('IMPRESSIONS');
    const ctrData = extractData('CTR');
    const positionData = extractData('POSITION');

    const percentageChanges = {
        clicks: calculatePercentageChange(clicksData.previous, clicksData.current).toFixed(2),
        impressions: calculatePercentageChange(impressionsData.previous, impressionsData.current).toFixed(2),
        ctr: calculatePercentageChange(ctrData.previous, ctrData.current).toFixed(2),
        position: calculateDifference(positionData.previous, positionData.current).toFixed(2)
    };

    console.log('Percentage Changes:', percentageChanges);

    const metrics = [
        { label: 'CLICKS', change: percentageChanges.clicks, isPercentage: true },
        { label: 'IMPRESSIONS', change: percentageChanges.impressions, isPercentage: true },
        { label: 'CTR', change: percentageChanges.ctr, isPercentage: true },
        { label: 'POSITION', change: percentageChanges.position, isPercentage: false }
    ];

    metrics.forEach(metric => {
        const metricElements = Array.from(document.querySelectorAll(`[data-label="${metric.label}"] .m10vVd`))
            .filter(el => el.offsetParent !== null); // Filter only visible elements
        if (metricElements.length > 1) {
            console.log(`Adding change info for ${metric.label}`);
            const latestMetricElement = metricElements[metricElements.length - 1]; // Select the most recent visible element
            const percentageElement = document.createElement('div');
            percentageElement.classList.add('percentage-change');
            percentageElement.style.fontSize = '15px';
            percentageElement.style.fontWeight = 'bold';
            percentageElement.style.marginTop = '10px';
            percentageElement.style.color = 'inherit';

            const changeText = document.createElement('span');
            changeText.textContent = 'Change: ';

            const changeValue = document.createElement('span');
            changeValue.textContent = metric.change + (metric.isPercentage ? '%' : '');
            changeValue.style.border = '2px solid';
            changeValue.style.borderColor = (metric.label === 'POSITION')
                ? (parseFloat(metric.change) < 0 ? 'green' : 'red')
                : (metric.change.startsWith('-') ? 'red' : 'green');
            changeValue.style.padding = '2px';
            changeValue.style.marginLeft = '5px';

            percentageElement.appendChild(changeText);
            percentageElement.appendChild(changeValue);

            // Remove any existing percentageElement to avoid duplicates
            const existingElement = latestMetricElement.querySelector('.percentage-change');
            if (existingElement) {
                existingElement.remove();
            }

            latestMetricElement.appendChild(percentageElement); // Append to the most recent visible .m10vVd element
        } else {
            console.warn(`Not enough metric elements found for ${metric.label}`);
        }
    });
}

// Function to check for changes in the DOM and reapply calculations
function checkForChanges() {
    console.log('Checking for changes...');
    addPercentageChange();
}

// Initialize the script
function init() {
    console.log('Initializing script...');
    checkForChanges(); // Explicitly call checkForChanges when the script loads
}

// Execute the checkForChanges function when the script is loaded
init();

Combined with a background.js file:

chrome.action.onClicked.addListener((tab) => {
  chrome.scripting.executeScript({
    target: { tabId: tab.id },
    files: ['content.js']
  });
});

The Agital – GSC Calculations Chrome Extension is now available in the Chrome Store, making it easier for SEO professionals to gain deeper insights into their site’s performance without the hassle of manual calculations. Try it out today and streamline your SEO reporting process!

Introducing the Agital – GSC Percentage Change Chrome Extension for SEOs is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

According to public data found on IBISWorld, “There are 3,776,498 Construction businesses in the US as of 2023, an increase of 2.4% from 2022.” That’s quite a bit of competition. Deploying a search engine marketing strategy (for both organic and paid) can certainly help a construction business to stand out from competitors and get more visibility around its offerings.

Key Takeaways

• Construction company SEO is the act of improving a website’s performance and relevancy for keywords and questions Users put into Google to be more visible in SERPs (search engine results pages).
• Newer concepts around construction company SEO include building out topical authority maps and creating a number of highly-targeted service pages and location pages to assist clients in finding you through Google.
• Local SEO tactics include optimizing Google Business listings for relevancy utilizing reviews, custom photography, and keywords to appear in “Business” packs when “near me” searches occur.

High-level SEO Strategy for Construction Companies

At a high level, to perform SEO for construction companies we’re going to want to take a look at a few different aspects of our overarching strategy. They can be broken down into:

1. Our construction companies website being optimized for SEO

It’s often easy to overlook small components of a website that could prevent it from appearing in search engines correctly. Optimizing a website for SEO is simply helping Google’s engines better comprehend what a webpage is about. And who the webpage is for.

For example, let’s say we have an H1 on the homepage it says something like the following:

H1 – A Construction Company You Can Trust

While that’s a great start to describing who you are, a wonderful construction company that your customers can trust. When it comes to Google’s crawlers, they’re going to have a more difficult time comprehending who to serve your page to.

We can adjust that H1 to something like this:

H1 – Trusted Construction Services in Chicago, IL

That H1 now contains our target local market and more insights on what we offer to our customers.

Use this as a general example of what constitutes optimizing a construction company website for SEO. We’ll get more into optimization techniques further in this guide.

2. Knowing which target audience and keywords we want to optimize for

The good news is that if you’re the owner of a construction company, there’s a good chance that you already know who your target customers are. And what they’re looking for. However, it’s important to reverse-engineer how your target customers are trying to discover you.

For example, if we’re a local construction company providing residential home building services, what a User might put into Google to discover us is going to vary compared to if we offer commercial construction services.

Keywords for Residential Home Builders and Construction Companies

Here are some keywords that a local residential home builder might want to target:

1. Residential home builders near me
2. Residential home builders in [target geography] (Ex: Residential home builders in Chicago, IL)
3. Custom home builders near me
4. Residential construction near me
5. Residential construction in [target geography] (Ex: Residential construction in Chicago, IL)

Keywords for Commercial Construction Companies

Here are some keywords that a local commercial construction company might want to target:

1. Commercial construction companies near me
2. Large commercial construction companies near me
3. Small commercial construction companies near me
4. Commercial construction companies in [target geography] (Ex: Commercial construction companies in Chicago, IL)
5. General contractors near me

We’ll get more into your keywords and how we target them with particular strategies further into this guide. However, a general idea of the different types of ways that clients may find you are a helpful level-set in what we’re trying to accomplish with our construction company SEO campaign.

For the sake of this guide, we’re going to discuss more of the commercial construction business strategy with SEO. However, if you’re a residential home builder or general contractor, your approach will be somewhat similar.

3. Using the right construction company SEO strategies to help clients discover us

When most people think of “SEO,” they think of blog posts. However, that’s not always the best way to get in front of prospective clients. Often, customers who are looking for you won’t just be looking for the keywords above. They’ll be looking for something very specific to their need. Usually, this is a client who already has some knowledge about construction.

For example, a construction company that’s doing SEO quite well is APX Construction Group. One of the main ways that they’re getting in front of clients is by having highly targeted and helpful service pages.

This pre-construction planning service page ends up being very useful when a client puts into Google, “pre-construction planning mankato mn.” While tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush might tell us that the keywords don’t have any monthly search volume, that doesn’t mean that we don’t receive any benefit from creating these types of service pages.

In short, we need to map out what types of pages we need to create to show Google that we’re experts and authoritative figures in the space that we service. In short, E-E-A-T is defined as, “a framework that Google’s machines use to evaluate the quality of content and websites. It stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Google’s human reviewers, known as Quality Raters, use E-E-A-T to assess content quality and provide feedback on search results pages (SERPs). While E-E-A-T signals aren’t ranking factors, they can turn into directly impacting rankings.”

More on this as we continue…

4. Ensuring our website is rendering appropriately for crawlers

I wouldn’t normally bring this up in just any SEO article. However, it’s more common to see on construction company websites—a website that’s not rendering properly for mobile devices or generally not built with quality.

If a Google crawler can’t properly render a website for mobile devices or has trouble reading the contents of a website, it’s going to prevent any optimizations that are made to our SEO strategy from working. This is more common in these types of industries (like construction) just simply due to the fact that the website is not usually a top investment for a construction company.

Doing a simple check for some of the following will be helpful:

1. Is the website mobile-friendly? Is it responsive to multiple device viewports?
2. Is there a sitemap that’s available? Is it submitted to Google via Google Search Console.
3. Can the pages get indexed by search engine crawlers? Is there anything in the source HTML code that would otherwise stop crawlers? Is there anything in the robots.txt file that would prevent crawlers?

Using a tool like Ahrefs or ScreamingFrog, you can determine if there are any core issues that might be plaguing the website from appearing in search engines.

5. Having a local SEO strategy with GMB listings

It’s impossible to discuss any local search marketing strategy without including GMB listings. Generally, these are the listings that appear when you perform any type of local or “near me” search. They’ll be under “Businesses” and usually include anywhere from 3 to 4 business listings.

Optimizing a Google Business listing for SEO usually includes some of the following:

1. Ensuring that you have a healthy amount of reviews.
2. Ensuring that you have unique custom photography.
3. Ensuring that your listing contains your target geographic location.
4. Ensuring that your listing contains part of your service types.

As an example, we can see “Commercial Construction” appear in the business name of this listing (G. Fisher Commercial Construction, Inc.). This may be a useful way to attract the right target audience that we spoke about prior. I.e., are you in commercial construction, general contracting, or residential construction?

While optimizing Google Business profiles can be a process in itself. You’ll want to make sure that you have one of thes profiles claimed and that you start driving clients to leave you reviews. If you want to create one, here’s where to start.

Top Tactics for Construction Company SEO in 2024

I’ll do my best here to bring new concepts to the table when it comes to optimizing a construction company website for SEO. You’ve probably heard about most of the basics we covered above. But what are some real ways to start bringing in leads? Let’s jump in:

1. Create as many service pages as you can

When I look at APX Construction Group, one thing I really like about their approach is that they created a number of service pages that speak to everything they offer. From agricultural construction to PEMB construction (Pre-Engineered Metal Buildings).

Think about this for a moment. If you’re working with a bank or potentially getting staffed out by an architectural firm, they’re going to know industry-specific terminology. It’s not just going to be simply, “construction companies near me.”

PEMB construction, as an example, is a very industry-specific term. And even though tools like Ahrefs may tell us that “PEMB Construction in Chicago, IL” has very little to no search volume, it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t create that service page.

Here are a few reasons why:

1. It creates EEAT signals: By creating more service pages and connecting them together through a robust internal linking strategy, we are developing topical authority for our area of expertise. For example, pre-construction planning, PEMB construction, construction project management, and more. All of these are related subject matters. Having pages for each of these, that are well designed for search, helps to establish both topical and domain authority that can be far more powerful than off-page or link-building strategies.
2. It goes beyond just SEO: If a customer finds you through SEO, however, doesn’t know what you offer (complete services list), what are the chances they’re going to contact you? It could be quite low. We want to make sure that we think holistically about our website, outside of just “doing SEO.” Meaning, creating a robust list of services that we offer to encourage prospective clients to call us, email us, or sign up for a newsletter.

Basic services that you might want to consider adding to the website would be construction management, general contracting, master planning, specialty services, and complete design-build. In addition, any specific commercial construction or residential construction services that you offer in the area.

2. Create pages for the areas that you service

When someone puts into Google, “Construction companies near me” — often, Google will automatically locate that User based on geospatial rendering. This is where Google uses the mobile device or computer to reverse engineer the IP address of the Searcher and then serve up highly relevant webpages.

This means that when you design a website or page to appear for “near me” search terms, you don’t actually create “near me” pages, you create pages around specific locations and then let Google do the rest.

For example, using APX Construction Group as our example once more:

We can see that they created pages describing the construction services they offer for every city in the surrounding area they serve.

Here are some of the pages that they created:

1. Rochester, MN
2. Mason City, MN
3. Mankato, MN
4. Fairmont, MN

By creating individual service pages we not only get the added benefit of appearing when someone in our local area looks for a construction service we offer, we also get the benefit of continuing to build out our topical map and topical authority.

3. Create vertical-specific service pages

We’ve spoken about clients finding you by searching for something highly specific like “PEMB construction.” As well as clients finding you by searching for construction services in specific and local geographies. What’s left on the list? Construction services by business type.

“Hospitality Construction Companies” as a keyword, for example, might be searched for by an architectural group that might use if they’re looking to partner with construction groups that have hospitality construction experience.

“Office Building Construction Companies” as a keyword, for example, might be searched for by another architectural group looking for construction firms that have office building experience.

When building out our service pages, we should also consider building out vertical-specific landing pages and optimizing those for SEO (H1, meta description, meta title, and the content of the page).

Here are the examples we can see from the same APX Construction Group:

1. Office and Retail Construction
2. Hospitality Construction

Take the same strategy as you would creating a service page, outlining what you offer, and reformat that to speak to your process and approach for construction with certain verticals. Include relevant projects, white papers, or video interviews and testimonials from customers or other partnered firms.

4. Create a robust internal linking strategy

Internal linking is one of the most forgotten-about on-page SEO tactics. Used correctly, in combination with topical authority, can be far more effective than any off-page SEO strategy for construction companies.

Once you’ve created all of your service and location pages, it’s important to determine a clear and effective internal linking strategy. Our favorite is to consider a dropdown menu in the top navigation bar that includes groups like, “Services” and “Service Areas”.

This simple approach can create highly relevant relationships across pages, giving Google’s rank engines a better understanding of how to process your expertise and authoritativeness (think of this as displaying to Google that you’re highly focused on one subject and that you have a complete and comprehensive understanding of that subject).

Construction Company SEO is About Generating Leads

Let’s not forget that SEO as an acquisition channel should be measured the same way that all other marketing acquisition channels get used, by determining ROAS. The only way to get that is by measuring the effectiveness of generating calls or lead form fills.

When optimizing our construction company website for SEO using the tactics and strategies outlined above, it’s important not to forget a few things:

1. Make sure we have a portfolio of projects

If we’re targeting specific needs in our industry, it’s important to support what we can do through a portfolio of projects. Highlight the individual completed projects by building, construction project, or need. Consider this to be your case study.

Having these projects on the website can assist in taking the lead that came through Google and converting them into someone who contacts you.

2. Make it easy to get in touch with you

Once the construction SEO visitor comes into the website, are you making it easy for them to call you? Make sure to include simple things like your office location, your phone number, or an easy-to-use contact form that can get filled out quickly.

Your goal is to take this visitor and turn them into a marketing-qualified lead (MQL). Make sure that you’re putting the right tools in front of them to make this happen. Or else all of your SEO efforts might go unnoticed by the business.

SEO for Construction Companies: More Leads in 2024 is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

To share what we’ve learned about SearchGPT and to help gage how much of a competitor it will be to Google we’ve put together this article for you.  Here are a few interesting points:

Key Takeaways: 

• Ad-Free User Experience: SearchGPT offers a completely ad-free search interface, enhancing user experience by eliminating distractions and rewarding valuable content.
• Enhanced Search Interface: The search engine features a user-friendly layout with a larger search box and a three-column SERP design, providing clear navigation and a choice between light and dark themes.
• Detailed Answers with Source Citations: SearchGPT delivers in-depth, well-cited answers similar to extended Featured Snippets, ensuring transparency and credibility by including links to source articles.

Interested in a Baseline SearchGPT Audit for important keywords to your business?  We can help!

What is SearchGPT?

SearchGPT is a cutting-edge search engine developed by OpenAI.  It’s important to note that SearchGPT is not an LLM that can search, like traditional ChatGPT, but a search engine that leverages LLM technology. It includes search results and while you can enter long search queries and can ask follow-up questions or searches, it does not respond like a chatbot.

What Are Some Key Features of SearchGPT

SearchGPT is different from other search engines and it’s relatively new.  It does have some unique features vs what we’ve become use to with search engines like Google & Bing.

Ad-Free Experience

One of the standout features of SearchGPT is its ad-free experience. Unlike Google and Bing, SearchGPT does not display advertisements in its search results. This creates a cleaner, more user-friendly interface that enhances the search experience and rewards sites for the valuable content they provide.  This is instantly clear in the user interface.

SearchGPT User Interface

The user interface of SearchGPT is designed for simplicity and efficiency.  It has a Larger Search Box than Google or Bing and features a prompt that asks, “What are you looking for?”

After a search is conducted, the SERP includes a Three-Column Layout:

• • Column 1: Includes navigation options for performing a new search, viewing the linked results, or relatd images
  • Column 2: Displays link results or images based on the selection in Column 1
  • Column 3: Provides a summary of findings and results

The initial alpha version of SearchGPT includes both a light and a dark themes and allows users to select to match their computer system settings or set one of the options for regular use.

In-Depth Answers and Source Citations

SearchGPT provides detailed answers, similar to long Featured Snippets, for each query.  But it also includes a traditional SERP links list.  The summaries also include citations throughout and an additional set of links to sourced articles. This transparency ensures users can verify the sources of the information provided.

Handling Follow-Up Questions In Search

SearchGPT is capable of managing follow-up questions based on initial search phrases, making it a dynamic tool for users seeking comprehensive information on a topic.  It modifies the search to account for what you were searching before hand.

Local Search Results

By default, SearchGPT uses your IP address to provide local search results for queries like “near me.” Users can also manually set their location for more accurate local results. Additionally, location can be adjusted using Google Chrome sensors under developer tools if you want to test results in different locations.

SearchGPT Chrome Extension

SearchGPT offers a Chrome extension that allows users to set it as their default search engine. However, Google prompts users to change back to its search engine upon performing their first search.

Addressing Hallucinations

SearchGPT generates responses based on search results. If the information in the search results is incorrect, the summary can also be wrong. This is a common issue with all search engines, not just SearchGPT.  However, during our tests it did not generate summaries that had wrong information.  No problems with suggestions on how to “Make Cheese Stick to Pizza”

Conclusion

We’ll continue to update this post as we learn more, but so far the initial alpha release of SearchGPT appears promising.  The fact that there are no ads and lots of link citations make it even better.

If you’d like an audit of searchGPT for keywords important to your business please reach out.

Everything An SEO Should Know About SearchGPT by OpenAI is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

If you’re a Chrome user yet to explore how SEO extensions improve your workflow, now is your chance! The SEO Chrome extensions listed below offer a wide range of applications to enhance your SEO recommendations. As a Technical SEO Agency we’ve found these to be perfect for our team, web developers, and general digital marketers.

What Are the Best SEO Chrome Extensions?

These are the best free Chrome extensions that SEOs should use:

1. Agital – GSC Calculations
2. Meta SEO Inspector
3. Redirect Path
4. Web Developer
5. Wayback
6. Wappalyzer
7. SERP Counter
8. Check My Links
9. NoFollow Referrer
10. View Rendered Source
11. Word Counter

What Are Chrome Extensions For SEO?

Google Chrome extensions for SEO are integrated software programs users can install to improve their overall browsing experience. These can be customized to create the best setup for each individual user and their needs – like a pocket knife for browsing! For reference, Chrome extensions appear in line with the address bar on the right-hand side of the Chrome interface. In addition, most of these tools can be found in the Google Web Store.

Most SEO Chrome extensions are free but you may come across some that require some sort of subscription.

Related SEO Content:

• Technical SEO Agency
• Shopify SEO Services

The SEO Chrome extensions detailed here are those that I have found to be most useful for my work, however, there are also a few that help me in everyday life as well. Installing an extension takes no time at all and they can increase your efficiency tenfold. Check out the best SEO Chrome extensions below to up your browsing game!

1. Agital – GSC Calculations

This SEO Chrome extension continually saves the team at Go Fish Digital time with our SEO reporting.  Out of the box, Google Search Console (GSC) allows you to compare how your site performed in organic search for different time periods but it doesn’t include details on the actual percentage change, which is how many SEOs report on performance.  This SEO chrome extension makes it so we no longer have to manually calculate the performance of our SEO efforts as this extension automatically adds that data to the GSC interface for any time period comparison report with just a click.  We use it daily!

2. Meta SEO Inspector

This is by far the most-used SEO extension I have, and it makes SEO inspection a snap. This tool has it all when it comes to individual page evaluations.This extensions allows you to check on key SEO elements and even provides helpful warnings for problem areas. Just a few of the components it displays include metadata, headers, alt text, and canonicals. If you’re an SEO, this is a definite must-have Chrome extension.

3. Redirect Path

This chrome extension is invaluable for every SEO or web developer. It displays a drop-down list of server response codes and associated URLs, which can be copied. This allows you to be aware of every redirect and 404 error without performing a full crawl of the site. It is especially helpful when identifying and resolving redirect chains or redirects with too many hops. All of these are critical data points for Technical SEO reviews.

4. Web Developer

This one truly does it all. My favorite use for this extension is being able to view a page without Javascript or CSS. This makes it easy for me to see what it might look like to a web crawler and to quickly recognize any problems that need to be resolved. This extension also overlaps with the Meta SEO Inspector (the first tool in this list) by displaying header tags, alt text, and printing on-page links among other things.

5. Wayback

An SEO Chrome Extensions that lets you look into the past is The Wayback Machine. It allows you to view archived versions of webpages. This function can provide valuable insights into why a page may be performing a certain way in search results in relation to changes made to the page. Additionally, being able to see where it came from gives you a much greater perspective of the site. With that background information in mind, you can thoughtfully strategize the direction you should take yoru SEO strategy moving forward.

6. Wappalyzer

As an SEO, when I encounter a new site, I want to see what I‘m working with. This means the first things I want to check are the systems being used. Wappalyzer is a Chrome extension that makes this a breeze by immediately showing the variety of technologies that are being utilized by the site. From the CMS to the SEO plugin, Wappalyzer can give you a peek into the back end.

7. SERP Counter

The SERP Counter is so simple yet effective SEO Chrome Extension. It helps put SERPs into perspective, especially when queries result in links being pushed further down the page. In addition, it’s a great visual to share with others so they can know where the site stands with SEO performance. As Search Engine Result Pagess have evolved, the SERP Counter makes them easier to understand.

8. Check My Links

With the Check My Links extension, you get a fast track look at the state of links across individual pages. This tool will highlight valid links, redirects, invalid links, and more which makes optimizations that much easier. The Meta SEO Inspector (the first tool listed) displays the anchor text for each individual link as well, which is another example of how these tools work in unison.

9. NoFollow Referrer

The NoFollow Referrer extension is also helpful when you want to identify potentially problematic links that may be negatively impacting your SEO initiatives. This Chrome extension works by outlining no-follow and do-follow links so you’ll know which links are being crawled, and those that may not be. Furthermore, it saves you a trip into Google Search Console by pointing out no index HTML tags as well.

10. View Rendered Source

Being able to view how a browser renders a page is critical for SEOs who are trying to understand how search engines see the content. This convenient SEO extension displays the raw source code, the rendered source code, and a comparison of the differences between the two.

11. Word Counter

Last, but certainly not least, the humble Word Counter is my go-to SEO Chrome Extension. I frequently take advantage of this tool when writing or evaluating metadata to ensure I’m using the full available character count while avoiding potential truncation. I also like to use it in competitor comparisons to determine if page length is a commonality among top-ranking URLs.

With each of these Chrome extensions in your back pocket, you are sure to make new SEO discoveries. I speak for myself and my fellow SEO team members when I say these tools greatly impact our everyday work and allow us to communicate our findings more efficiently. While these are the most valuable SEO extensions, there are a few others I’d like to recommend for more general use. These are less technical but no less useful!

SEO Chrome Extensions – Honorable Mentions:

Each of the extensions noted below can be helpful for any marketer or web user in general. These can definitely save you a few headaches and clicks so you can get more done!

Multiple Tabs Search

With this fantastic SEO tool, you can search for multiple queries at once and have all the SERPs appear in different tabs. You can also open several pages in different tabs at once. This has been a critical tool during competitor research when I’m reviewing numerous competitor pages and it is also helpful during keyword research when I’d like to take a look at a variety of SERPs.

Copy All URLs

This is another invaluable tool similar to the one mentioned above. With Copy All URLs, you can select multiple Chrome tabs by holding “shift” then click the extension. Once copied you can paste all associated URLs wherever you need them to go. 

Save image as PNG

When my SEO efforts have me working on improving site speed, I frequently download images in order to resize and compress them appropriately. All too often, I find I have downloaded a WebP file which makes this process more difficult. This little trick allows you to download any image as a PNG and avoid the annoying discovery of a WebP in your downloads folder.

Grammarly

Honestly, if you aren’t using Grammarly, what are you doing? Grammarly is the spell check of this decade and I’m not sure how I ever survived without it. The “New Document” feature is also immensely valuable for writing and reviewing copy. It allows you to see word count, reading time, and readability in addition to the spelling and grammar corrections, all important aspects of ensuring a page comes across as trustworthy, one of the important SEO EEAT signals.

Disable Extensions Temporarily

If you’ve now installed each of these SEO Chrome extensions, you likely have a lot going on at the top of your browser. As such, I‘ll leave you with this parting extension gift. If your extensions are ever acting funky or you need to view a page without them (ad blockers are common culprits here) this extension will turn them all off at once. You can turn them all back on easily, but be sure to put this in a spot where you will not click it accidentally.

With all of that being said extensions can also add a lot of weight to Chrome. In order to avoid overly taxing your browser be sure to audit your extensions every few months. By doing this you can remove those you’re not using or deactivate extensions that aren’t used often while keeping them around for the rare instances they are needed.

Now that you know all the best SEO chrome extensions, go forth and be a better marketer, developer, or SEO! There are thousands of other SEO Chrome extensions waiting to be discovered as well. If you find another extension that is helpful, let us know below. Learn more about how our team of SEO experts can help improve your technical insights by getting in touch with us today!

Note: This article has been updated to include information relevant for SEO Chrome Extensions in 2024.

The Top 16 Chrome Extensions For SEO is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

This blog aims to equip your personal injury law firm with the knowledge and tools necessary not just to attract, but more importantly, to secure potential clients through search engine optimization. Whether you’re looking to improve your current approach or build a new SEO plan from scratch, this blog can be your go-to resource for learning how to gain an online advantage in this demanding market.

Why SEO Matters for Personal Injury Lawyers

For personal injury lawyers, being easily accessible online is vital due to the urgent and sensitive nature of these cases. Did you know that websites appearing on the first page of Google search results garner about 90% of web traffic? This means that if you’re not on the first page, you’re likely invisible to a majority of potential clients.

SEO strategies such as optimizing website content with relevant keywords, ensuring mobile responsiveness, and building a strong backlink profile can significantly enhance a firm’s online presence. And let’s not forget – as a business that typically focuses on a specific geographical location, personal injury law firms can use local SEO tactics to tap into their local market more effectively. These targeted approaches will not only enhance visibility but also increase the likelihood of converting website visitors into actual clients.

Start With A Strong SEO Foundation For Law Firms

Before diving into SEO techniques for personal injury lawyers, it’s essential for law firms to evaluate their online presence and truly understand their audience. A thorough evaluation of your website’s design, content quality, user experience, mobile-friendliness, and search ranking is key. This will pave the way for a more effective SEO strategy by enabling you to tailor SEO techniques for personal injury lawyers and the unique needs of your potential clients.

Understanding The Target Audience of Personal Injury Law Firms

Let’s dive a little deeper into truly understanding your target audience. Knowing who your potential clients are, what they are searching for, and the language they use to search is crucial for a successful SEO strategy. This understanding will shape everything from keyword selection to content creation, ensuring that the online presence of your personal injury law firm resonates with the very people you aim to serve.

To effectively determine your target client base, it’s important to consider factors such as age, gender, location, and the specific circumstances that might lead someone to seek personal injury legal services. Analyzing data from your website and social media platforms or engaging in market research, can also provide valuable information about the interests and behaviors of your audience.

Additionally, staying up to date on trends and the most common types of personal injury cases can significantly refine your target audience. For example, if there’s a surge in workplace-related injuries in your particular region, you can modify your SEO strategy to target individuals searching for attorneys who specialize in workplace injury cases.

Key SEO Strategies for Personal Injury Lawyers

Personal injury lawyers need a comprehensive and multifaceted SEO strategy if they want to effectively navigate this competitive digital landscape. The specific strategies outlined below are designed to help personal injury law firms not only gain visibility online but also connect meaningfully with potential clients.

Personal Injury Keyword Research & Legal Terms

SEO starts with keyword research, a fundamental process that involves identifying words and phrases potential clients tend to use when searching on Google for your law firms services. Traditional keywords are often broad and highly competitive, such as “personal injury lawyer” or “car accident attorney.” These keywords are essential as they align with common search terms, but they also face intense competition. Personal injury lawyers can identify these critical keywords by using tools like Ahrefs and Google’s Keyword Planner, and guide content creation and optimization strategies based on these terms.

Incorporating long-tail keywords — more specific and often longer phrases — can further enhance your SEO. These keywords are less competitive and more targeted towards specific queries and locations, for example “car accident lawyer in [City Name]” or “workplace injury attorney for construction accidents.” While these more specific and localized search terms may have a lower monthly search volume, they can capture a more niche audience, often resulting in higher engagement and conversion rates. We will explore this idea further in the ‘Local SEO for Personal Injury Lawyers’ section.

Here are some potential keyword opportunities for personal injury lawyers developing an SEO Strategy:

Content Optimization: Developing Quality Material and Detailed Legal Service Pages

In the competitive field of personal injury law, the more information and qualifying content you have, the better! Content that is both rich and updated regularly not only engages your audience but also signals to search engines that your website is a knowledgeable and authoritative source. This content can be showcased through blog posts about trending legal topics, multimedia elements like videos and white-papers, and specialized service pages for each of the personal injury cases you handle.

Here are some topics your law firm could create detailed service pages for:

Link Building Strategies for Personal Injury Lawyers

Link building is another pivotal part of SEO for personal injury lawyers, and its dynamics have significantly evolved over time. The focus has shifted from traditional methods like guest blogging to more contemporary and innovative approaches, known as digital PR.

Digital PR involves creating and promoting newsworthy content that not only captures the attention of journalists and reputable publications but also relates directly to personal injury law. By crafting stories or resources on currently trending topics, your law firm can significantly increase its chances of being featured by authoritative media outlets.

When effectively pitched to journalists, these tangential content campaigns can help your law firm secure backlinks that boost your website’s position in search engine results pages (SERPs). Such backlinks not only enhance your website’s visibility but also affirm the credibility, relevance, and reliability of your firm.

To learn more about our digital PR services and the process of link building, feel free to read What Are The Benefits Of Link Building? – Go Fish Digital.

Local SEO for Personal Injury Lawyers

Local SEO is a vital component of any digital marketing strategy, especially for personal injury lawyers. It’s all about enhancing your online presence to effectively reach potential clients in a specific geographical area. By focusing on local search queries like ‘car accident attorney [city name]’ and concentrating your efforts on a more localized approach, you can connect more directly with the people in your close vicinity, increasing the chances that they will reach out seeking your firm’s legal assistance. For example, someone who’s living in Florida and looking for legal advice will most likely turn to a Florida-based firm.

Some tactics that can help you build a strong local SEO strategy for your personal injury law firm include:

• Google Business Profile Optimization: Claiming and optimizing your Google Business Profile (formerly Google My Business) enhances visibility on Google Maps and ensures that potential clients have access to accurate business information, including name, address, phone number, and website.
• Localized Keyword Research: Identify and incorporate keywords related to personal injury law in your specific area. Title tags, meta descriptions, and headers should be optimized with these local keywords to improve local search rankings.
• Content Tailored to Local Interests: Creating localized content such as blog posts, articles, and FAQs that address legal issues in your area can attract local traffic and establish your expertise.
• Managing Online Reviews and Ratings: Positive reviews on platforms like Google, Yelp can boost your local SEO efforts. Responding professionally to all reviews is equally important.
• Local Link Building: Acquiring backlinks from local organizations and relevant businesses enhances your website’s credibility and local search performance.
• Location-Specific Landing Pages: Develop landing pages for each location you serve, with content tailored to the legal needs of clients in those areas.
• Schema Markup: Implementing LocalBusiness structured data can help search engines understand specific details about your firm, such as business hours and location, enhancing visibility in local searches.

By focusing on these tactics and tailoring your SEO efforts to follow a more localized strategy, your services will be visible to those who are most likely to seek them, making local SEO an invaluable tool for personal injury lawyers.

On-Page Optimization Best Practices: What Law Firms Should Know

On-page SEO involves optimizing the elements of your website that you have direct control over. This includes title tags, meta descriptions, header tags, content structure, image optimization (including alt tags), and URL structure. Each of these elements should be carefully crafted to include relevant keywords (including the location-specific keywords) without sacrificing readability and user experience.

Best practices for on-page optimization also involve ensuring that your website’s structure is logical and easy to navigate. This includes using header tags to structure your content effectively and optimizing images to reduce load times without compromising quality. A well-structured, easily navigable website is more likely to retain visitors, reducing bounce rates, and improving the overall user experience.

Technical SEO: Fine-Tuning User Experience

And finally, technical SEO. Technical SEO is all about enhancing the technical aspects of your website to improve its ranking in search engines – including both desktop and mobile versions. Since a significant portion of web traffic comes from mobile devices, mobile optimization can be just as important as desktop optimization. To be well optimized on mobile, you must ensure that your site is designed to be responsive and easy to navigate on smaller screens.

Here’s a list of Important technical factors to consider:

• Site Speed: Ensuring your website loads quickly to provide a better user experience and improve search engine rankings.
• Mobile Responsiveness: Designing your site to function seamlessly on mobile devices, adapting to different screen sizes and orientations.
• Crawl-ability and Indexing: Ensuring that search engines can easily crawl and index your website’s content.
• Structured Data Markup: Using schema markup to provide search engines with more detailed information about your site’s content. For more information on structured data for SEO, feel free to read our Guide To Structured Data For SEO.
• Image Optimization: Compressing and properly tagging images to reduce load times and improve user experience. Learn more about enhancing your image SEO here: 5 Tips To Improve Your Image SEO | Go Fish Digital.
• Error Handling: Managing 404 errors and redirects effectively to avoid losing traffic and impacting SEO.

Keep in mind, this is just a limited list of technical SEO tactics. There are a multitude of tactics that can enhance your overall web design and functionality of your website. For expert assistance in creating a website that resonates with clients and search engines, consider Go Fish Digital’s Law Firm Web Design Services.

Tracking, Analysis, and Adjusting SEO Strategies for Lawyers

At the end of the day, tracking your progress, analyzing the results, and making adjustments accordingly is arguably the most important aspect of crafting a successful SEO strategy. Remember, change is the only constant in the world of SEO, and staying adaptable is the key to success. Keeping a close eye on how your website is doing, being aware of changes in legal trends, and adjusting to Google’s changing algorithms are all critical components of SEO.

Here are some useful tools that can help you navigate the tracking and analyzing process of your SEO strategy:

• Google Analytics: Provides comprehensive data on website traffic, user behavior, and engagement metrics. It is crucial for understanding visitor patterns, the effectiveness of content, and identifying areas for improvement. To learn more about our Google Analytics services, click here or browse our ‘Analytics Articles.’
• Google Search Console: Offers insights into how your website is perceived by Google. It tracks search rankings, identifies indexing issues, and provides data on backlinks, which are essential for evaluating and enhancing SEO performance.
• Google Tag Manager: A tool for managing and deploying marketing tags (snippets of code) on your website without having to modify the code. It’s useful for tracking conversions, site analytics, and managing various marketing activities efficiently.

Upholding Integrity: SEO Ethics and Compliance

Maintaining ethical standards and compliance is another necessity in the realm of SEO for personal injury lawyers. While changing certain aspects and information on your site, you still must adhere to the guidelines set forth by bar associations and search engine policies. Committing to white-hat SEO practices ensures that your online marketing efforts stay within the bounds of ethical standards, building a digital presence that’s not only effective but also trustworthy and credible. Remember, in the world of law, your online reputation is just as important as your courtroom presence.

Case Study: Expanding a Law Firm’s Local SEO Strategy Across Multiple Cities

The Goal

In a recent initiative for a law firm based in Raleigh, NC., we worked to expand their online influence and improve their local SEO strategy. The objective was to extend their online presence beyond Raleigh by targeting additional key cities such as Charlotte, Durham, and Greensboro. This expansion aimed to enhance local visibility, establish the firm as a leading legal authority, and increase our leads from new areas.

The Strategy

To achieve this goal, we employed a multi-tiered approach:

1. Geo-Targeted Area Pages Rollout: We first initiated the strategy with the launch of area-specific pages, beginning with Charlotte on February 28, 2023. These pages (e.g., https://www.clientname.com/areas/charlotte/) served as a foundation for our local SEO efforts in each new city.
2. Focused Service Pages: On March 14, 2023, we started publishing Charlotte-focused service pages, such as https://www.clientname.com/charlotte-car-accidents/. This pattern was replicated for other fruitful services like motorcycle accidents, truck accidents, and workplace accidents.
3. Comprehensive Local SEO Optimization: Each area and city-focused service page was meticulously optimized for local SEO, incorporating city-specific keywords such as charlotte car accident lawyers, and content relevant to the local audience. This included localizing meta tags, headers, and on-page content to reflect the unique aspects of each city.

The Results

The rollout of these localized pages yielded significant positive outcomes. As observed in the image below, we saw a remarkable surge in page one keyword rankings across our site after launching these new city-focused landing pages.

In December 2022, we tracked a total of around 106 keywords on the first page of search results. Once these new pages rolled out, we were tracking roughly 155 first page keyword rankings in April 2022, a 46.2% increase. Moving forward to December 2023, after making a handful of SEO enhancements to these localized pages, we are now tracking a little over 260 first page keyword rankings, an additional 67.7% increase since April.

Personal Injury Law SEO FAQs

What is SEO for personal injury lawyers?

SEO for personal injury lawyers involves optimizing your online presence to enhance visibility on search engines. It’s about strategically using keywords, crafting informative content, and ensuring your website is search-engine friendly to attract potential clients who are actively seeking legal assistance for a personal injury.

Does SEO work for personal injury lawyers?

Absolutely. SEO is highly effective for personal injury lawyers. It’s a form of digital marketing that can help increase online visibility, attract more clients, and compete effectively in a crowded digital marketplace.

How can I find keywords for my personal injury law firm website?

Utilizing tools like Ahrefs, Google Keyword Planner, and Semrush can help when researching and identifying relevant keywords. Including both broad and long-tail phrases that potential clients might use to search for personal injury legal services is crucial.

Why is high-quality content essential for personal injury law firm SEO?

High-quality, informative content is vital for personal injury law firm site’s because it helps establish your firm’s authority and expertise, improves search engine rankings, and engages potential clients by addressing their specific legal concerns and questions.

How can I optimize my personal injury law firm website for local SEO?

Optimizing for local SEO can include a handful of tactics such as discovering location-specific keywords, creating localized content, managing your Google Business Profile, and building local backlinks.

What are some ethical considerations in SEO for personal injury lawyers?

Ethical SEO is crucial in maintaining your personal injury firm’s credibility. It involves adhering to bar association guidelines and search engine policies and focusing on transparent, honest, and white-hat SEO practices to maintain credibility and trust.

How often should I update my SEO strategy for my personal injury law firm?

SEO is an ongoing process. Regularly monitoring performance using tools like Google Analytics and adjusting strategies in response to changes in search algorithms, legal trends, and client behavior is very important.

What role do online reviews play in SEO for personal injury lawyers?

Positive online reviews are crucial for SEO, especially in showcasing EEAT signals. For personal injury lawyers, positive reviews can boost local SEO rankings and bolster the firm’s credibility. They are key in shaping the firm’s online reputation and play a vital role in validating the quality and reliability of your legal services.

How can Google Ads complement my SEO efforts for my personal injury law firm?

While SEO is key for organic search visibility, integrating Google Ads can significantly amplify your online reach. For insights on using Google Ads effectively for law firms, check out Go Fish Digital’s comprehensive guide to Google Ads for lawyers. Additionally, specialized Lawyer PPC Services offered by Go Fish Digital can further enhance your firm’s paid search strategies, working hand in hand with your SEO efforts.

Upgrade Your Personal Injury Lawyer SEO with Go Fish Digital

As we’ve explored, SEO is an indispensable tool for personal injury lawyers looking to stand out in a crowded digital landscape. Implementing the strategies discussed here can significantly enhance your online visibility, attract more clients, and establish your firm as an authority in personal injury law. If you’re ready to take your SEO to the next level, Go Fish Digital is here to help. With comprehensive SEO solutions tailored to the unique needs of legal professionals, Go Fish Digital can elevate your online presence. Discover what we can do for your firm by visiting Go Fish Digital’s Lawyer SEO Services.

A Guide To Personal Injury Lawyer SEO is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

What is Search Intent?

Search intent, or user intent, is the motivation behind every search query entered into a search engine. What drives someone to type those particular words? Are they seeking information, trying to make a purchase, or looking for a specific website? Understanding search intent is crucial for SEO because it influences how well your content performs in search rankings and how visitors interact with your site.

Google’s algorithms have evolved to prioritize websites that best match not only the keywords but also the intent behind the queries. This focus on search intent means Google aims to list content that aligns most closely with what the searcher is actually seeking.

For example, if a user searches “how to install a ceiling fan,” they are likely looking for a detailed guide or instructional video, indicating informational intent. Knowing this, your content should provide comprehensive, step-by-step installation instructions to rank well in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Why is Search Intent Important for SEO?

Google’s top priority is to provide users with the most relevant and helpful results for their searches. By understanding and aligning with search intent, you can create content that not only ranks higher but also truly satisfies your visitors.

Imagine Google as a matchmaker between users and the information they’re seeking. If your content matches the user’s intent, Google is more likely to show it at the top of the search results. This means more visibility for you and a better experience for your audience.

For instance, when someone searches for “best SEO tools 2023,” they’re probably looking to compare options before making a decision. If your content offers detailed comparisons and honest reviews, you’re directly addressing their needs.

For more insights into how search intent can impact your keyword rankings, check out this detailed article.

The Types of Search Intent For SEO

Search intent can be categorized into four buckets: informational, navigational, transactional, and commercial investigation. Here’s a breakdown of each type and how they differ from one another:

1. Informational Intent

Informational intent is when searchers are primarily looking to learn or gather information without any immediate intention of making a purchase.

For example, if someone searches for “how to tie a tie,” they are seeking knowledge. Your content for these queries should be informative and clearly answer the questions posed.

2. Navigational Intent

Navigational intent means the user is trying to reach a specific website or webpage. A typical query might be “Twitter login” or “Spotify app download.” Here, the searcher knows their destination and uses the search engine as a shortcut. Your goal should be to facilitate their navigation by ensuring that your site is optimally structured to lead them to their intended target quickly.

3. Transactional Intent

Transactional intent is when the searcher’s goal is to perform some type of transaction, such as making a purchase or signing up for a service. Searches like “best buy iphone 14” or “buy ceiling fans” clearly indicate this intent. To cater to these users, your content should include strong calls to action and a streamlined purchasing process that makes it easy to transition from interest to action.

4. Commercial Intent

Commercial intent is for searchers who are on the brink of making a purchase but are still comparing options or looking for the best deal. This intent is seen in queries such as “best SEO tools 2023” or “Samsung vs. iPhone reviews.” These users are looking for detailed comparisons and reviews to help them make informed purchasing decisions.

Identifying Search Intent

How can you tell what users really want from their search queries? Start with these strategies:

1. SERP Analysis:

Look at the current top results for a keyword. What do they suggest about user expectations? If the top results are how-to guides, it’s likely that users are looking for informational content. On the other hand, if the results are product pages or reviews, the intent might be a transactional or commercial investigation. Analyzing the SERPs can give you a clear idea of what type of content Google believes best serves the user intent for that keyword.

2. Keyword Modifiers:

Pay attention to words that modify searches, such as “how to,” “buy,” or “review.” These types of queries can indicate the intent behind the search. For example, a query like “how to bake a cake” suggests informational intent, while “buy iPhone 12” indicates transactional intent. Here are some common modifiers to look out for:

• how to – informational
• best – commercial
• buy – transactional
• reviews – commercial
• cheap – transactional
• top – commercial investigation
• guide – informational
• benefits of – informational
• vs – commercial investigation
• near me – transactional

3. Analytics:

Dive into your site analytics. Which articles perform best, and what does this tell you about your visitors’ intentions? By examining which pages have the most engagement and conversions, you can infer the search intent behind the keywords driving traffic to those pages. This data can guide you in optimizing existing content and creating new content that aligns with user intent.

How To Optimize Content for Search Intent

When creating or optimizing content, it’s important to align with the search intent of your audience. This will ensure that your pages effectively meet their needs. There are many techniques you can use to optimize content depending on the intent of the page. Let’s dive into some strategies for optimizing content to match different types of search intent.

Optimizing for Informational Intent

When optimizing for informational intent, focus on providing clear, authoritative answers to users’ questions. Popular content formats for meeting this intent include:

• Blogs and Articles: These should thoroughly cover topics relevant to your audience’s queries.
• Guides and Tutorials: In-depth and step-by-step formats work best for those seeking comprehensive information on a subject.
• Videos: Ideal for users who prefer visual and auditory learning. Make sure they are well-captioned and structured to address specific questions throughout the video.

Use natural language keywords and questions as headers to improve SEO and ensure your content directly addresses users’ needs.

Optimizing for Navigational Intent

Users with navigational intent know where they want to go; they just need help getting there. Ensure your brand and product names are prominently featured across your site, particularly in:

• Page Titles and Meta Descriptions: Make them clear and accurate to improve visibility in search results.
• Header Tags: Including branded keywords in H1 or H2 tags can help with page ranking for navigational searches.

Make sure your internal linking is robust enough to guide users effortlessly through your site.

Optimizing for Transactional Intent

For transactional intent, your goal is to facilitate a smooth and straightforward path to conversion. Here are some key strategies:

• Clear Calls to Action (CTAs): Ensure your CTAs are prominent and compelling, guiding users to make a purchase or sign up.
• Streamlined Checkout Processes: Simplify the steps required to complete a transaction to reduce cart abandonment.
• Trust Signals: Include customer reviews, security badges, and guarantees to build trust and encourage conversions.

Optimizing for Commercial Investigation

When users are in the commercial investigation phase, they are comparing options before making a purchase decision. Your content should help them make an informed choice by including:

• Comparative Content: Create side-by-side comparisons of your products versus competitors.
• Detailed Product Reviews: Offer in-depth reviews and analyses of your products.
• User Testimonials: Showcase positive experiences from satisfied customers to build credibility and trust.

Examples of Successful Search Intent SEO

Let’s dive into a real-world example to illustrate how understanding search intent can significantly impact SEO and user experience. One of my clients is a factory automation wholesale distributor who sells industrial automation parts. Their main audience consists of experts in the field who are potentially looking for replacement parts or repairs for their automation systems.

Identifying Transactional Intent

After analyzing the keywords my client was ranking for, I discovered that many of them had transactional intent. It appeared that in this industry, users often search for specific product names or numbers, indicating that they’re ready to purchase a particular product immediately.

With this discovery, we decided to look at different methods to streamline and enhance the current checkout process.

Original Setup: Request a Quote

Originally, the checkout process on my client’s website required users to ‘Request a Quote’ for every product. Users had to get in contact with my client via a ‘Request a Quote’ button and form, or they could call or email. There was no way for users to go through the checkout process themselves and purchase a product directly through the website without talking to a representative. This extra step could deter users who were ready to buy on the spot.

Streamlined Checkout Process

To better align with the identified transactional intent, we introduced a new checkout method that allows users to add products to a cart and checkout on their own. We still maintained the ‘Request a formal quote’ option and ensured the ‘Contact Us’ link was prominently displayed in the main header for users who had questions.

SEO and Search Intent Benefits

By streamlining the checkout process, we effectively catered to the transactional intent of our audience. This change is expected to have several positive outcomes:

• Improved User Experience: By reducing friction in the purchasing process, we enhance the user experience, making it easier for customers to complete their purchases.
• Increased Conversions: A smoother checkout process can lead to higher conversion rates, as users are less likely to abandon their purchase due to a cumbersome process.
• Higher Search Rankings: Search engines prioritize sites that provide a seamless user experience. By aligning our content and checkout process with the transactional user intent, we improve our chances of ranking higher in search results.
• Engaged Audience: Providing a clear path to purchase helps meet the immediate needs of users, increasing satisfaction and the likelihood of repeat visits.

By understanding and optimizing for transactional intent, we ensured that our content and user experience were perfectly aligned with what our audience was looking for, ultimately driving more traffic and conversions.

Challenges in Understanding and Applying Search Intent

Understanding and applying search intent can be challenging for marketers. Here are some common hurdles and how to overcome them:

Ambiguous Queries

One of the biggest challenges is dealing with ambiguous queries. These are search terms that are not clearly defined and can have multiple meanings. For example, a query like “apple” could refer to the fruit, the tech company, or even a music band.

Solution: To handle ambiguous queries, perform a thorough SERP analysis to see what type of content is ranking. This can give you insight into what most users are looking for. Additionally, consider creating content that addresses multiple interpretations, or use modifiers to clarify the intent in your keywords, like “Apple fruit nutrition” vs. “Apple iPhone features.”

Overlapping Intents

Sometimes, a single query can have overlapping intents. For instance, a search for “best DSLR camera” might have both informational intent (looking for reviews) and transactional intent (ready to purchase).

Solution: Create comprehensive content that serves multiple intents. For the example above, a blog post that includes detailed reviews, comparison charts, and direct purchase links can cater to both informational and transactional intents. Structured content with clear sections can help users quickly find what they are looking for.

Changing User Behavior

User behavior and search patterns can change over time, making it difficult to maintain alignment with search intent. What worked well a year ago might not be effective today.

Solution: Regularly review your analytics and perform periodic keyword research to stay updated on current trends and user behavior. Adapt your content strategy based on these insights to ensure you are meeting the evolving needs of your audience.

Limited Data

For niche markets or new websites, there might be limited data available to accurately determine search intent. This can make it difficult to create content that aligns well with user needs.

Solution: In such cases, leverage competitor analysis to gather insights on what’s working well in your industry. Look at the content and keywords your competitors are using and how they address user intent. Also, consider using surveys or feedback forms to ask your audience about their needs and preferences directly.

Balancing SEO and User Experience

Sometimes, optimizing for search engines can conflict with creating a seamless user experience. For example, stuffing a page with keywords might improve rankings but could make the content less readable.

Solution: Focus on creating high-quality, user-centric content that naturally incorporates relevant keywords. Use clear headings, bullet points, and concise paragraphs to improve readability. Remember that search engines are increasingly prioritizing user experience in their ranking algorithms.

By recognizing these challenges and implementing best practices to address them, you can better understand and apply search intent to enhance your SEO strategy and provide a better user experience.

To Wrap Up

Understanding and incorporating search intent into your SEO strategies is crucial for achieving better search rankings and enhancing user satisfaction. By aligning your content with what users are truly looking for, you can create a more engaging and effective online presence.

Take the time to audit your existing content and evaluate how well it meets the various types of search intent. Use the insights gained from analyzing user behavior and search patterns to guide your future content planning. By doing so, you’ll be better equipped to create content that not only attracts more visitors but also converts them into satisfied customers.

Remember, the key to successful SEO is to meet your audience where they are and provide them with the information they need. Start applying these principles today, and watch as your website’s performance and user engagement improve.

If you need help strengthening your SEO strategy and optimizing for search intent, check out our SEO services or contact us for expert assistance.

What Is Search Intent In SEO? is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

Something that’s important for SEOs to consider is that in order to understand your content, Google needs to translate it into a numeric value. This is the beset way that search engines can efficiently understand the contents of the web at scale. This conversion is done through what’s called an “embedding model”.

What’s extremely powerful is that once you convert two sets of text into numeric values, you can then measure the “distance” between them (cosine similarity). This is a mathematical  representation of how close to each text value is to one another. The closer they are, the more similar the content is and the more relevant it’s perceived to be. In fact, search engines like Google directly use Similarity to understand if a given page is a close enough match for a given query.

At Go Fish Digital, we wanted to better showcase how Google search and vector embeddings worth together. To demonstrate this, we created a simple Python script that allows you to use BERT in order to calculate how similar a given piece of text is for a target keyword. By running this script you can see there’s a direct Similarity calculation between a given piece of text on the site and the target query.

Here’s how you use it:

Download The Python Script Below

In a text editor, copy & paste the below Python script somewhere on your computer and name it “BERT.py”

————————-

import torch
from transformers import BertTokenizer, BertModel
from sklearn.metrics.pairwise import cosine_similarity

def get_embedding(text, model, tokenizer):
inputs = tokenizer(text, return_tensors=’pt’)
outputs = model(**inputs)
return outputs.last_hidden_state.mean(dim=1).detach().numpy()

def main():
sentence = input(“Sentence: “)
keyword = input(“Keyword: “)

tokenizer = BertTokenizer.from_pretrained(‘bert-base-uncased’)
model = BertModel.from_pretrained(‘bert-base-uncased’)

sentence_embedding = get_embedding(sentence, model, tokenizer)
keyword_embedding = get_embedding(keyword, model, tokenizer)

# Calculate cosine similarity
similarity_score = cosine_similarity(sentence_embedding, keyword_embedding)[0][0]

# Truncate embeddings for display
sentence_embedding_truncated = sentence_embedding[0][:10]
keyword_embedding_truncated = keyword_embedding[0][:10]

print(f”Sentence: {sentence}”)
print(f”Embedding: {sentence_embedding_truncated.tolist()} …”)
print(f”Keyword: {keyword}”)
print(f”Embedding: {keyword_embedding_truncated.tolist()} …”)
print(f”Similarity Score: {similarity_score:.4f}”)

if __name__ == “__main__”:
main()

Install Transformers In Your Terminal

Next, you’ll want to install the Transformers library from Hugging Face. Open up your Terminal and run the following command:

pip install transformers torch

Execute BERT.py

Next you’ll want to execute the actual Python script. In your Terminal, you’re going to want to navigate to the folder on your machine where you have the file saved. To do this, you can right-click your BERT.py file and then hold down the “Option” key. You’ll see an option to “Copy as a pathname”. You can use the “cd” command to change directories to that pathname.

For me, I used this command to access my downloads folder:

cd /Users/username/Downloads/

Once there, you’ll simply run the python script by using the following command:

python BERT.py

You’ll then be prompted to fill out both the content you want to analyze and the keyword you want to compare is against. Type a sentence you’ like to analyze and then hit enter.  Next, enter in the keyword you’re targeting.

Generating Embeddings From Text

The first thing the script does is generate a 768 point vector array, or an embedding, for both the sentence and the target keyword.  We truncated this to just 10 vectors for visual purposes. When we say that google creates an embedding, we mean they generate one of these 768 point vector for a piece of content on your site.  This may be entities, paragraphs, headings, or other chunks of text on your page.  In fact, Google can use this same process to convert an image into a 768 point vector array.   Once they have text and images converted into numbers, they can start to process them algorithmically.   One way is to measure how far apart two vectors are.

Analyze Your Content Similarity Score

Next, the Python script will take thw generated embeddings for the sentence and keyword and output a “Similarity Score”. This will be a score from 0 to 1 on how relevant the text is to the query that you entered.

Now this is an extremely simplified way of understanding how relevant your content is to a given query. However it is useful to understand the technical process Google uses to process, understand, and score your content.  You can also use this type of approach as it lets you put a numeric value to your content in terms of how targeted it actually is for the query you want to analyze.

Go Fish Digital’s Similarity Tools

At Go Fish Digital, we’ve actually build some custom Chrome extensions that are able to perform this type of analysis for every section of content on an entire page. The tool will ask for a input query, scrape each section of content on a page, calculate Similarity and then score all analyzed sections. You can see the processed visualized below:

This means, that for an entire page, you can analyze your content section by section to see what’s scoring high in terms of Similarity and what isn’t. You can also run this analysis on competitor pages to see where potential gaps might be. We’re currently running demos on how this tool works for individual sites so don’t hesitate to reach out if you want to learn more.

How To Use BERT To Analyze How Relevant Your Content Is is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

Key Takeaways

• Basic missed opportunities like making sure your H1 includes your local city, neighborhood, or state—is an easy optimization to correct and can increase the odds of someone finding your website on search engines by more than 30%.
• Remembering to do basic tasks like submitting your sitemap to Google through Google webmaster tools, ensuring that you don’t have any “no-index” tags on your website, and making sure that you optimize your meta description to include pest control services keywords and local geographies are some other great ways to optimize your pest control company for SEO.

Top 8 Ways to Optimize Your Pest Control Website for SEO

Here are some of the top ways to optimize your pest control website for SEO:

1. Include your local geography in the H1

Most commonly, it’s easy to forget to include your service area in the H1. For most people, they simply want to say, “Pest Control Services” because that feels the most targeted. However, Google wants to help local customers connect with your website. And to help optimize your website for best results in the SERPs, it’s useful to give Google’s crawlers a boost.

Here’s some H1’s that you might already have on your pest control website:

1. Pest Control Services
2. Local Pest Control
3. Pest Control
4. Pest, Insect, and Rodent Control

While those are great, consider some of these elegant alternatives:

1. Pest Control Services in Columbus, OH
2. Pest Control in Columbus
3. Pest, Insect, And Rodent Control in Columbus

The inclusion of the primary geography that you service can be helpful in Google’s crawlers contextualizing where you offer your pest control services.

Here’s a great example of an optimized H1 for SEO by Broadway Pest Control in New York, NY.

2. Include your local geography in your meta title

Very similar to the tip above, including your local geography in the meta title of your website can be another helpful indicator for Google’s crawlers to contextualize the services that you offer. And where you offer them.

Page titles might look like the following:

1. Chip’s Pest Control Services
2. Done & Done Pest Control
3. Pest Control by John

Instead, think of something like the following:

1. Chip’s Pest Control Services | Columbus, OH
2. Done & Done Pest Control in Columbus, OH

These simple adjustments can go a long way in helping Google match a prospective customer or caller with your pest control website.

Related: Complete pest control SEO guide

3. Don’t forget about your meta description

Often, most meta descriptions are generated by whatever content management system you use. However, it’s best to optimize your meta description to both include your local service areas as well as ensure it’s a clean, well-written, and “clicky” description. While Google might not take your meta description verbatim and show it to Users on the search results page, it’s still a helpful signal especially when combined with your H1, meta title, and now meta description update.

Here’s an example of a helpful meta description that stays under 150 characters:

Call us today for same-day pest control services in Columbus, OH. With 1,000 reviews and a 5-star rating, you can trust in Chip’s Pest Control.

This simple meta description is only 143 characters in length and calls out the number of reviews and overall rating for the business. Making highly “clicky” to the User who might see it in the SERPs.

4. Optimize your website for pest control keywords

It can be useful to consider what keywords prospective customers put into Google and other search engines to find you. Here’s a short list of potential keywords that someone might use:

Using this list you can see variations like “affordable” and “cheap,” which could make for a great way to include these word variations in paragraph text throughout your website. Or, potentially adding entire sections of your pest control website that speak to coupons, special promotions, or other offerings for new customers.

It’s most common to see pest control companies want to appear for “near me” search terms. However, if you follow some of the optimizations above, you’re already well on your way to increasing the odds of appearing for those searching “pest control services” on their mobile device (automatically geolocates them and localizes the search).

Related: 100 pest control keywords for SEO

5. Create a very helpful website

While the optimizations above will take you less than 30-minutes to complete, it’s also worth spending time thinking about how well your website is designed to take a visitor and convert them into a caller. Most frequently, pest control companies want to get lead calls that either go directly to the owner or a service agent.

It’s useful to include helpful video, imagery, and links to ratings and reviews so that customers who land on your website are compelled to make a call. Remember, all of your customers are going through a “diligence” phase when they first land on your pest control website.

They most likely want to know the answer to a few questions:

1. Can this pest control company fix the particular issue I’m dealing with?
2. How much does it cost to work with this pest control company?
3. Is this pest control company trustworthy? Do local customers use them and appreciate working with them?
4. What is the phone number to call them and get services?

Broadway Exterminating does a great job of making sure they speak to trust for website visitors. Leaning into the number of years they’ve been in business, real pictures of real employees, and providing a promise to customers for all services rendered.

We can see the presence of the local service area’s once more. However, not “over doing” it. To where the website loses its ability to answer the diligence questions a prospective customer has.

6. Have a mobile-friendly website

This is often overlooked as well. Google’s crawlers will start from a mobile-first perspective. And do render websites into actual HTML. If they see issues with your mobile rendering, they’ll not necessarily prevent it from appearing in search results, however, they might not prefer the page as highly as others.

You can use Google Chrome’s inspector option to render your website in mobile devices and see how it looks. Try to resolve any overflow issues or issues where the User might have a more difficult time navigating through the website or making a phone call to you (your primary call-to-action).

To check this in Google Chrome do the following:

1. Right click on the body of the website.
2. Click “Inspect” from the drop down list
3. Toward the top of the page,  choose “Dimensions” and select your device

7. Submit your sitemap to Google

Google utilizes sitemaps to know which pages to crawl and in what order. Without submitting a sitemap to Google, you’re going to be relying on their crawlers to naturally find your website through the external links that point to it as well as your internal links that go deeper into your website.

By simply claiming your website through Google Webmaster Tools and then submitting a sitemap, you increase your odds of the pest control company website getting put into Google’s index. And once it’s in the index, you have a far greater chance that all of your optimizations above get noticed.

8. Don’t over optimize your website for SEO

This is my last and best tip—don’t try to “over do” pest control SEO. Instead, try to aim for making a very helpful website that speaks to all of the pest control services that you offer. Create individual pages for all of the rodent, insect, and pests that you deal with. And create individual service area pages that align with the nearby cities that you’re willing to go to.

By creating a naturally helpful website, you’re doing more modern pest control SEO. Try to avoid keyword stuffing your service areas into every single paragraph. Remember, if a customer does land on your website, you want it to be professional, elegant, and worthy of them making a phone call. An over-optimized website might not “look real” or may “look fishy” to the customer who lands on the page.

Keep the prospective caller, their questions, and what you offer in mind. Avoid extremely long websites with unnecessary website text. However, don’t go too short to where you don’t describe and explain everything that you offer in detail. Keep it balance, informative, and focused on good User Experience.

Pro tip: Go through a small A/B test by asking friends and family to view the website. Ask them questions like, “Do you know what services we offer?” Or, “Were you able to find the page that spoke to our ant prevention services?” Questions like this can be useful in grading the balance you have around SEO and overall quality of User Experience.

Improve Your Pest Control Company Website for SEO is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

These pest control search terms and keywords are used to help find local service providers who can address pest control issues a customer might be facing. We’ll cover some of the most common pest control keywords, and which device types we see them searched in (as of July 2024). Lastly, I’ll include my best tips for what you might want to consider utilizing these pest control keywords for.

Key Takeaways

• Top search terms for pest control services include “pest control near me,” “best pest control near me,” and “affordable pest control near me.”
• Local variations may be added to these terms. For example, if you’re in the Chicago, IL area—you would see search terms for “pest control chicago” or “pest control chicago il.” Matches pages with the proper page intent will also get shown for local searchers who are in the Chicago, IL area and use the “pest control near me” query within Google.
• These pest control keywords can be used for pest control SEO campaigns, paid search campaigns, and market research to optimize existing websites for search marketing purposes.
• Some of the more interesting keywords include terms like “organic pest control” and “flea pest control” or “bed bug pest control” that contain highly specific issues that a customer is dealing with.

Top 100 Pest Control Keywords for SEO and Paid Campaigns

Here are the top 100 pest control keywords that can get used for SEO and paid search campaigns:

Free Download (CSV)

If you want to download a complete CSV/Excel file of these pest control SEO keywords, you can do that right here.

Best Tips for Utilizing These Pest Control SEO Keywords

Here are some of our best tips for utilizing these keywords:

1. Use for Topical Authority Building

Looking at these keywords give us specific issues, insects, and animals like:

1. Raccoon
2. Mice
3. Mole
4. Bird
5. Ant

Using these as opportunities to build out individual service pages for your pest control website could be a great way to utilize these keywords. Connect them together using an internal linking strategy and present a world-class website to your visitors by speaking to your specialities and what services that you provide.

2. Optimize Your Website

Using these keywords can help you to align your website to what the User is looking for. For example, “eco” or “organic” is a great keyword to see. And may help us better understand what other types of services or information a User might be looking for when they land on your website. If you provide these types of services. Or maybe your core business is all about these types of services, then it gives you a great opportunity to optimize parts of your website.

Optimizations should include looking at:

1. The H1 on your homepage or internal pages (like service pages or service area pages)
2. The meta description of your homepage (to help with click-through rate of when you’re presented on the SERPs)
3. Other opportunities to include services that you offer, however may have missed as being part of your website

3. Come Up With Other Service Offerings

If you’re in Arizona, as an example, however don’t offer scorpion pest control—this could be a great opportunity to talk with your team and consider offering this. It gives you a sense of the local demand in your area and for some service business or business owners, this may have simply been something you didn’t initially consider. Or maybe disregarded just due to the fact that you gauged the demand would be low.

Think of this as a type of market research and learning how to become more competitive in your local area by utilizing these keywords. Lastly, we can see the mention of some brands in frequently searched terms. Brands like “Orkin” or “Viking” might appear. This could be a queue to consider franchising opportunities if you’re starting a new business. Especially as the demand for these service providers is consistent and relevant to what you want to offer for your venture.

100 Pest Control Keywords for SEO and Paid Campaigns is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.

It’s no surprise that we’re seeing more and more websites utilizing Shopify and Shopify Plus. While it’s easy to point to the pandemic as the event that has triggered this “eCommerce renaissance”, the data shows that it’s been going on well before that. Looking at Shopify Plus usage statistics on BuiltWith, we can see that the platform has been gaining popularity since 2017.

While we’ve previously written about our best practices for general Shopify SEO, we wanted to write a more specific guide for Shopify Plus SEO. While the underlying technology is largely the same, we generally see different types of clients adopting the Shopify Plus platform. These are generally larger brands with bigger marketing teams.

What Is Shopify Plus SEO?

Shopify Plus SEO is a set of search engine optimization adjustments to Shopify Plus sites. Shopify Plus SEO initiatives include removing duplicate product page links, reducing JavaScript-dependent content, faceted navigation adjustments and more.

Related Content:

• Technical SEO Agency
• Ecommerce SEO Agency
• Shopify SEO Services
• Franchise SEO Agency
• Enterprise SEO Services

Shopify Plus sites tend to have larger inventories, more customization, and utilize more complex marketing technologies. With this in mind, we wanted to detail our best practices for when working with these types from an SEO perspective and the common issues a Shopify Plus store might encounter.

1. Duplicate Product Pages

One of the biggest SEO issues we find on Shopify Plus websites is the existence of duplicate content. Duplicate content occurs when the same content can be accessed at two or more unique URLs. Shopify Plus sites have a variety of ways in which they create duplicate content.

The first is duplicate product pages. Oftentimes, category pages on Shopify Plus will link to duplicate product pages.

For example, let’s take a look at the Untuckit website. We can notice that navigating to one of their product pages from a category page, we find the “Flannel Manning Shirt” (now discontinued). We can see that the URL has both /collections/ and /products/ in the URL path:

https://www.untuckit.com/collections/flannels/products/manning

However, when we check the canonical tag of that particular page, we can see it points to another URL altogether. This URL only has /products/ the path: https://www.untuckit.com/products/manning

When we navigate to this page, we can see that it’s actually an exact duplicate of the URL listed above.

This creates an issue for Shopify Plus SEO. This means that the page that’s getting linked to from the category page is not the canonical URL. Instead, the category page is linking to a duplicate page that’s also capable of getting crawled/indexed.

As well, the larger issue is that this set up creates duplicate content at scale. Every single product linked to from category pages is a duplicate page. This means that Shopify Plus sites create a lot of potential duplicate content for important pages for SEO.

While the canonical tag is helpful to give Google consolidation signals for indexation, canonical tags are hints and not directives. This means that Google can ignore canonical tags and index the duplicate anyway.

Fortunately, there is a way to ensure that your Shopify Plus website’s category pages link to the correct product pages. By making an adjustment to the product-grid-item.liquid file, you can ensure that Shopify links to the correct product URLs on all of your site’s category pages. To learn more about how to fix this, you can read our guide on Shopify duplicate content.

2. JavaScript Rendered Content

Another major SEO consideration for Shopify Plus sites is JavaScript rendered content. Websites using Shopify Plus are more prone to having JavaScript crawling and indexing issues. This is because these stores generally carry larger inventories and are used by bigger brands. As a result, it’s more likely that developers have made adjustments or implemented JavaScript frameworks to deliver the content over the lifetime of the site.

While Google has gotten much better at crawling and indexing JavaScript over the years, this process still isn’t perfect. JavaScript SEO best practices still need to be followed for any site using the technology. If JavaScript hinders or outright hides content from getting crawled and indexed by Googlebot, this can have a deterrent effect on rankings.

For example, let’s take a look at Motherhood Maternity’s Nursing Bras category page. We can see that when we navigate to the URL, a standard category page is loaded. Here we can see the navigation, banner image, and product listings.

However, when turn off JavaScript, we see that the banner image and product listings are nowhere to be found:

In order to further inspect this, we can use “View Source” to see the raw HTML of the page. This will show us the content of the page that’s accessible to search engines before any JavaScript is executed. When searching around for products such as the “Average Busted Seamless Maternity And Nursing Bra”, we can see that it cannot be found on the page:

This shows us that JavaScript is required in order to properly load key content of the page as isn’t accessible in the raw HTML. This is an indication that we’ll want to further review if Google is able to properly index our product listings.

When looking at Motherhood Maternity’s organic traffic, we can see that it has sharply declined over the past couple of years.

It’s possible that Google is having trouble indexing the JavaScript content which could be a source of the traffic drops. Since they use the FastSimon technology, they might want to test if pre-rendering the content helps improve organic rankings.

If your site is on Shopify Plus, you definitely want to be auditing your usage of JavaScript and testing to see if Google can properly index any JS rendered content. My colleague Pierce Brelinsky has written a fantastic JavaScript SEO guide that will help walk you through the process.

3. Faceted Navigation

Another major SEO consideration for Shopify Plus sites is faceted navigation. As Shopify Plus sites are likely to have larger inventories, they’re more likely to have implemented a faceted navigation. This functionality allows users to easily sort and filter category pages across different criteria (Size, Price, Material) to find the products most relevant to them. Faceted navigation can be great for users who are trying to browse through a large variety of products.

However, faceted navigations can cause significant SEO issues by creating a large amount of duplicate content. In many setups, every facet that’s selected creates a new URL. These URLs can quickly add up to a huge number of pages. In a case study from Google, they found that their store with 158 products created 380,000 URLs! URLs created by the faceted navigation are generally duplicate or similar to the source page as they only contain sorted and filtered views of the root category page. This can create large duplicate content issues.

Using an example, we can see that very thing on the Women’s Eyeglasses category page on Bonlook.

This category page contains a faceted navigation that allows users to filter by different parameters such as Size, Gender, Shape, and more:

When selecting options from the faceted navigation, we can see that this changes the URL, creating a unique path for Google to crawl. When selecting the “Black”, “Female”, and “Cat Eye” options, we can see that this loads the following URL:

Notice how this content is very similar to the root category page. This could definitely be considered similar or duplicate content. If Google is able to index all of the parameterized pages created by the faceted navigation, this could lead to massive duplicate content issues.

Fortunately, this content is blocked by Shopify’s default rules in the robots.txt file. This prevents Google from crawling the many duplicate pages created by the faceted navigation.

However, if your Shopify Plus store uses faceted navigation, you’ll want to be sure to analyze if Google is able to crawl and index the large number of URLs that could be created. Oftentimes, we see that faceted navigations are not blocked by Shopify’s default robots.txt rules. This could lead to a large amount of crawl budget focused on low quality and duplicate pages.

4. Internal Site Search

Internal site search is another important part of Shopify Plus sites. As these sites have a large number of SKUs, it becomes critical for users to be able to use this functionality in order to quickly access the products they’re looking for on the store. If your store doesn’t have internal site search, we’d highly recommend adding it in a prominent location. Our data has shown that users who utilize internal site search can be much more likely to convert than users who don’t use it.

With internal site search, you need to be testing it to make sure that it’s not causing any SEO problems. The most common issue we find is that some Shopify stores can allow their internal search page to be crawled and potentially indexed. This could result in low quality pages in Google’s index that could impact the quality assessment of the rest of the site.

When looking at the Lord & Taylor website, we can see that they allow their internal search to be crawled. For instance, below we can see an internal search result page when looking for “Tote Bags.”

While this page is useful for users looking for Tote Bags, this is not a page that we would want to be crawled or indexed. Lord & Taylor already has created a Tote Bags category page that should be the primary ranking page for SEO.

However, when looking at their robots.txt file, we can see that Lord & Taylor does not block this page from being crawled by Googlebot:

As a result, Lord & Taylor might want to take steps to adjust their Shopify robots.txt file to block the crawling of their internal search pages. This will ensure that Google is not able to crawl through these low quality pages and potentially index them.

If you’re using internal site search, we recommend that you perform tests to ensure that Google cannot crawl your internal site search pages. If it can, we recommend creating rules in the Shopify robots.txt.liquid file to block Google from crawling them.

5. Structured Data

When working with any eCommerce site, structured data is an absolute must to consider. Structured data is a code that you can add to your website’s pages that makes it easier for search engines to understand the content of your page. Structured data can more directly tell search engines what the overall topic of a page is about as opposed to them having to interpret the content.

When working with Shopify Plus sites, we’ve found that many sites have inconsistent structured data. In most cases, elements such as the theme and Shopify apps automatically add structured data to the site. Unfortunately, most of the time we see that these technologies result in incorrect, incomplete, or duplicate structured data on the site.

For instance, here’s an example of a product page on Huel.com that doesn’t contain any structured data.

Overall, we recommend that Shopify Plus sites use the following structured data mappings. Please note that every page on your site should only have a single instance of each schema element:

1. Home Page: Organization
2. Category Pages: CollectionPage or OfferCatalog
3. Product Pages: Product
4. Blog Posts: Article

When it comes to implementation, you first need to check what structured data exists on each of your different page types. You can use tools like the Schema Validator to test this. You’ll then need to create a plan to ensure that the structured data mappings above get applied to each page type. This might involve working with a developer to remove some of the existing schema and then adding the proper mapped structured data.

If you don’t have developer resources, we highly recommend using Schema App Total Schema Markup to add schema to your Shopify site. This app does a fantastic job of implementing the mappings above and can also help you remove structured data added by the theme without the help of a developer.

For a deeper dive on Shopify Plus schema, you can read our Guide To Shopify Structured Data.

6. Site Speed

Performance is always something that’s top of mind for enterprise sites. Generally speaking, bigger brands that have larger marketing teams will have websites that end up getting slower over the long run. This is often because these sites are more prone to have different functionalities and technologies added to them over time. Analytics teams will add more tracking scripts and marketing teams request functionalities such as chatbots and animations. As a result, this can lead to slower performance on enterprise sites.

Data from HTTP Archive

The good news for Shopify Plus sites is that the Shopify is already pretty fast out of the box. Recent data shows that the Shopify platform generally has some of the best Core Web Vitals of any other popular CMS (WordPress, Drupal, Wix, etc). This sets up Shopify store owners in a great position for site performance.

Of course, there are always initiatives that can be done to improve site performance. A study from Walmart discovered that every one second improvement in site performance can result in a +2% conversion rate for your site. For this reason, Shopify Plus sites need to keep performance top of mind.

From our years of working with Shopify sites, we’ve started to develop frameworks to help speed up Shopify stores. Below are some of the techniques and thought processes we use to help improve Shopify Plus performance:

1. Audit Shopify apps and remove any unused or unnecessary ones.
2. Implement lazy loading using the lasysizes.js library
3. Ensure images are only uploaded at their display size
4. Use Crush.pics to automatically compress Shopify images
5. If starting a new store, find a lightweight Shopify theme

If you want more details on how to improve your store’s performance, you can read our Shopify Speed Optimization Guide.

Conclusion

While the SEO basics are the same between Shopify and Shopify Plus, the types of brands on Shopify Plus will most likely face more complex challenges. Larger inventories to manage, JavaScript frameworks, and increased technologies are all challenges that Shopify Plus stores are likely to face and store owners need to be aware of how these elements impact SEO. Hopefully this guide serves as a good starting point to helping improve your Shopify Plus store from an SEO perspective. If you have any questions about our Shopify Plus SEO services, please reach out to us!

Other Shopify SEO Resources

• Shopify Speed Optimization
• Improving Shopify Duplicate Content
• Shopify Sitemap.xml Guide
• Shopify Structured Data & Schema
• Shopify Robots.txt Guide
• Shopify SEO Tools
• All Shopify SEO Articles

A Guide To Shopify Plus SEO is an original blog post first published on Go Fish Digital.