Charlie Norledge of award-winning digital agency Impression shares an update on all that's new and changing in search engine optimisation. Learn what's coming up and where you should be focusing your digital marketing investment.

1. What’s New in SEO - July 2018
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by Charlie Norledge

2. hello@impression.co.uk
- Search marketing since 2014
- Joined Impression in 2016
- 8 years of agency experience
- Background as a web developer
Charlie Norledge
SEO Strategist

3. “Each day, Google usually releases one
or more changes designed to improve
our results. Some are focused around
specific improvements. Some are
broad changes.”
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G O O G L E S E A R C H L I A I S O N
https://twitter.com/searchliaison

4. Google will always place emphasis on the following:
● Great websites
Websites that are quick, user-friendly and adhere to Google’s best practise guidelines across
all devices
● Great content
Websites which feature great content that successfully inform and answer a user’s search
query
● Great promotion
Businesses that create a buzz about their brand online whilst acquiring links, likes and shares
along the way.
Whatever happens...
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5. Update #1
Broad Core Algorithm Update
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6. ● Released April 2018
● Core search updates happen “several times per year” and
there is nothing specific a site can do to tweak its rankings
around these updates.
● Google says to continue to improve your overall site quality,
and the next time Google runs these updates, hopefully,
your website will be rewarded.
U P D A T E #1
Broad Core
Algorithm Update
https://twitter.com/searchliaison/status/987397051997663232
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7. U P D A T E #1
Broad Core
Algorithm Update
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8. U P D A T E #1
Broad Core
Algorithm Update
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https://www.webmasterworld.com/google/

9. hello@impression.co.uk
Update #2
Google Uses Chrome Data to Measure
Site Speed

10. ● Chrome User Experience Report - “is a public dataset of key
user experience metrics for top origins on the web,”
● PageSpeed Insights includes data from Chrome User
Experience report
● Page speed is ranking factor and will be further relied on
during July with the mobile pagespeed update (don’t have
slow experiences on mobile!)
U P D A T E #2
Google Uses Chrome Data to
Measure Site Speed
https://moz.com/blog/google-chrome-usage-data-measure-site-speed
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11. ● Audit your site using Chrome Developer Tools
● Options > More Tools > Developer Tools > Audit
U P D A T E #2
Google Uses Chrome Data to
Measure Site Speed
https://moz.com/blog/google-chrome-usage-data-measure-site-speed
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12. hello@impression.co.uk
Update #3
Search Console Updates

13. ● Offers more details on how Google Search sees a specific
URL
U P D A T E #3
Search Console Updates -
Inspection Tool
https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2018/06/new-url-inspection-tool-
more-in-search.html
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14. ● 16 months of data with the Search Console Analytics API
U P D A T E #3
Search Console Updates -
API Data
https://searchengineland.com/google-search-console-analytics-api-now-
has-16-months-of-data-300430
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15. hello@impression.co.uk
Update #4
Mobile First Indexing - Clarification

16. ● Being switched to mobile-first indexing does not give you a
better ranking in Google search. While being mobile-friendly
is a ranking factor on mobile, it is unrelated to being in the
mobile-first index.
U P D A T E #4
Mobile First Indexing -
No Ranking Boost
https://searchengineland.com/google-begins-rolling-out-mobile-first-
indexing-to-more-sites-295095
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17. ● If you deploy different URLs for mobile versus desktop,
Google will show the mobile searchers your mobile URL and
the desktop searchers your desktop URL. In both cases, the
indexed content will be the mobile version of the site, even if
Google shows the desktop URL. Sites that are designed with
a single URL for mobile and desktop do not need to worry
about this.
U P D A T E #4
Mobile First Indexing -
Only Mobile Version Indexed
https://searchengineland.com/google-begins-rolling-out-mobile-first-
indexing-to-more-sites-295095
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18. ● The speed update that is coming up in July is unrelated to
mobile-first indexing. Yes, you should make your site fast,
especially for mobile users, Google says, but the speed
update is not directly related to mobile-first indexing.
U P D A T E #4
Mobile First Indexing -
Unrelated to Speed Update
https://searchengineland.com/google-begins-rolling-out-mobile-first-
indexing-to-more-sites-295095
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19. hello@impression.co.uk
Update #5
Fun With Meta Description Lengths

20. ● Description length doubled in December up to 320+ characters
● Lots of room for copy!
U P D A T E #5
Fun With Meta
Description Lengths
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https://www.seroundtable.com/google-extends-snippets-320-characters-
24862.html

21. ● Reduced them back to previous levels in May
● Created a headache for SEO’s
U P D A T E #5
Fun With Meta
Description Lengths
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https://www.seroundtable.com/google-extends-snippets-320-characters-
24862.html

22. U P D A T E #5
Fun With Meta
Description Lengths
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23. hello@impression.co.uk
Update #6
Upcoming Speed Update

24. ● This only affects the slowest sites
● Those can incrementally improve (though ideally you'd
significantly improve the speed...)
● Still aiming for this month.
● If your site is reasonably fast, tweaking won't change things.
U P D A T E #6
Upcoming Speed Update
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-speed-update-clarification-
25995.html
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25. hello@impression.co.uk
Update #7
Google Mark HTTP Sites Non-Secure

26. ● Google Mark HTTP Sites Non-Secure
● Secure your sites with SSL now!
U P D A T E #7
Google Mark HTTP
Sites Non-Secure
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https://searchengineland.com/effective-july-2018-googles-chrome-
browser-will-mark-non-https-sites-as-not-secure-291623

27. hello@impression.co.uk
Keeping up-to-date yourselves!
https://searchengineland.com/
https://www.seroundtable.com/
https://webmasters.googleblog.com/
@searchliaison

28. Thank you
Any questions?
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16 King Street
Nottingham
NG1 2AS
01158 242 212

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