3 Warning Signs Your Website Is Not SEO-friendly

Everyone can promote a site, create content, build links and attract traffic. But not everyone can avoid search engine optimization (SEO) mistakes. They are typical for most websites and difficult to avoid, especially if you are an amateur in this field. Rules for ranking sites are constantly changing, so those who do not follow them cannot develop the site with maximum efficiency. In this article, you will discover 3 warning signs your website is not SEO-friendly. Let’s get to it.

The Site Is Not Optimized for Voice Queries in Google

Voice search has been considered a major trend for a few years now. According to research: 

• 55 percent of users use voice search on their smartphones
• 39.4 percent of U.S. users use a voice assistant at least once a month

Some time ago, people had to be at a computer to find something on the internet. Now, they search for information through mobile devices, often via voice search. It’s worth mentioning that growth is also observed in the voice chat market. The market for smart home devices like Google Home, Amazon Echo and Yandex Station is also growing. 

So, your site can’t be considered SEO-friendly if it is not optimized for voice queries in Google.

How to optimize a site for voice search:

• Note that the context of the query is based on where the user is. For example, the query “Where is Golden Gate” in Kyiv and San Francisco can lead to different search results.
• Clearly understand who your customer is and what they are looking for with voice search. This user usually has less time to research and interact than someone who writes a text query.
• Focus on situational queries that your potential customers might ask. For example, if a person is driving and wants to grab a bite to eat, he or she might ask for “Restaurants with parking near me.”
• Read and try to implement Speakable specifications.
• Create FAQ pages. Many site administrators add these sections to pages, but not all types of sites need them. Try to make such blocks where appropriate.
• Your site can no longer be unsuitable for smartphones. Voice search implies using the mobile version of the site.

The Site Does Not Meet Google E-A-T Requirements

Many sites have felt the effects of the Google E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) algorithm. Optimizing sites for this algorithm is a mandatory recommendation for anyone who writes expert content, and many took the algorithm as a nudge to create author profiles. Use every approach possible to show that your content is written by an expert, or prove your data is correct by citing experts. 

In fact, there are several examples of sites that grow significantly without using author pages. For example, the HubSpot blog often doesn’t use authors or just provides a link to the author’s Twitter. That doesn’t stop them from being one of the most popular marketing blogs.

The Google E-A-T algorithm likes long (over 2000 words), unique and informative articles. For instance, if you want to blog about various assignment services and post only short content, the content won’t provide any value for potential clients. You should also aim to create long-form and useful content.

Various studies show that articles from 3,000 words collect on average 3X more traffic and have 3.5X more links. There are observations that the optimal number of words for a blog is around 1,900 words. In any case, Google can bring a certain portion of an article to the top, and with proper page design, you can collect several times more traffic for different queries.

So, your site can’t be considered SEO-friendly if it does not meet Google E-A-T requirements.

How to optimize your site for Google E-A-T requirements:

• Make sure that your content is expert enough, the information is not contradictory and that it contains links to primary sources
• The author of the text should be an expert in the field (this is especially true for medical sites)
• Your About Us page must be comprehensive and contain data about the company and its history, the team members, awards and accolades and other important facts about its activities
• Your website should not be the only place where your audience sees your credibility – work on increasing your business’s reviews on various sites
• Encourage regular citations of your site
• Use special services and remove highly toxic links in Google Search Console

The Site Is in the Red Zone of Core Web Vitals

Core Web Vitals are a set of metrics that Google considers when evaluating user interactions with a website. These three factors will become Google ranking signals when the Page Experience update completes its rollout in August.  There are three specific indicators: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID) and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).

As of earlier this year, content that complies with special rules will be allowed to show up in Search with Top News. When determining your ranking in search results, pages that are easy to browse will be given priority. The technology by which a particular page is created, e.g., Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP), will not be taken into account.

So, your site can’t be considered SEO-friendly if it is in the red zone of Core Web Vitals. 

How to improve Core Web Vitals performance?

• Conduct a large-scale audit of the site’s pages to determine the potential for improvement
• The PageSpeed Insights and Lighthouse tools will help to fix any issues found
• Web.dev/vitals-tools provide comprehensive information to get you started
• Leverage the potential of AMP technology – it makes working with pages easy and efficient

Conclusion

SEO promotion is a painstaking and complicated process. But by choosing the right strategy, you can quickly and easily eliminate all inaccuracies and mistakes. The rules for ranking sites are constantly changing, the internet is changing – and the rules are changing. That’s why it’s important to stay up to date and regularly audit your SEO performance.