From McCord Web Services – Google Partner and Web Visibility Experts
We’ve just completed a new web design project www.TutorWithCarol.com and are glad to share it with you.
This site designed for Carol Macina a professional math and reading tutor for K-8 grades uses our Pixelarity themes and is a quick and inexpensive way to have a search engine optimized website at an affordable price point.
To learn more about our Quick Start web design projects visit our web design page on our website for more information and examples.
Recently Google released a new feature for Google Search for desktop – continuous scroll. This fresh look for Google Search was clearly created from careful analysis of user behavior.
In terms of users moving through material of interest, Google sees continuous scroll as a way to get more information in front of a reader without the break of clicking to new pages. The problem with this new feature is the loss of top SERP placement for SEO and top of page placement for Google Ads. For Google Ads this may cause a drop in conversion numbers.
What Google Says About Continuous Scroll
Google has not released an official blog on the topic of continuous scroll on desktop, but here is what Google had to say when continuous scroll was released on mobile.
“While you can often find what you’re looking for in the first few results, sometimes you want to keep looking. In fact, most people who want additional information tend to browse up to four pages of search results. With this update, people can now seamlessly do this, browsing through many different results, before needing to click the ‘See More’ button.”
The Impact
Google seems to think that SEO results will improve as there will no longer be pages in the SERPs, but the simple fact is that people do not want to scroll through 50+ results of website listings trying to find an answer to a search query.
When it comes to Google Ads, Google say that ads won’t show on the bottom of the page but rather in the middle of a given portion of scrolling. From my point of view, the bottom of the first page, is better than the middle of what would have been the 3rd page of results.
Google has already stated that users of Google Ads will see an increase in impressions as users scroll down the page. On mobile, continuous scroll was one thing, because users could always find results on desktop, but now with desktop folded into continuous scroll, it is a whole new ball game.
Truthfully, I do not know the full impact continuous scroll will have on the digital Netscape, but I am watching and looking for solutions as problems emerge.
As an experienced Google ads and SEO expert who is always interested in drastic changes Google makes to its platforms, I am watching closely to see how continuous scroll impacts my clients marketing and SEO efforts.
About the Writer
Christopher Harper is a Senior Associate at McCord Web Services, a Google Partner. He is a certified in all areas of Google Ads and an expert in Search Engine Optimization.
Second in the nation behind California to enact online privacy regulation, Virginia’s new law takes effect on January 1, 2023.
Similar to the law in California that is again similar in itself to the more stringent privacy regulations in the European Union, Virginia has new privacy rules now too.
What does this mean for US and Virginia-based businesses and those selling in Virginia?
First and foremost, if you do not have cookie notifications on your website, now is the time to implement this scripting. There are many online services that provide the scripts to meet the European Unions’ strict rules and can be used to meet both California and Virginia’s regulations. We use cookie-script.com for our privacy adherence needs.
For Virginia businesses and those that do business in Virginia, here’s what you need to know about this recently passed act.
First you must be in compliance by January 1, 2023.
“Virginia’s legislation has a carve-out for information collected in the employment context, whereas California’s law applies to some employment data.” Read the full article.
The CDPA applies to the following business types:
• Those that control or process the personal data of at least 100,000 consumers.
• Those that process the personal data of at least 25,000 consumers and derive more than 50 percent of their gross revenue from selling personal data.
Make sure to check this article for a number of exemptions. Virginia has made its law less stringent than California’s privacy law, but make sure you know what is covered and not covered.
What Are Your Rights in this New Law?
“Virginia’s law was modeled after California’s laws and the European Union General Data Protection Regulation. Virginia’s law provides expansive consumer privacy rights, such as the right to access, right of rectification, right to delete, right to opt out, right of portability and right against automatic decision-making. The act includes a broad definition of “personal information,” a “sensitive data” category, and data-protection assessment requirements for businesses that control the data.”
“Consumers don’t have the right to bring a private lawsuit for violations of the act. Instead, the Virginia attorney general’s office will enforce the law. Entities will have the opportunity to cure violations or face a fine of $7,500 per violation.” Read more.
Most people expect other states to follow with restrictions similar to Virginia’s or California’s.
Our Recommendation
With privacy being in the forefront of everyone’s mind right now, it is time to look at adding a privacy statement and cookie setting acknowledgement script on your website.
When the EU rolled out it’s privacy regulation several years ago, many businesses opted to not update their site for cookie approval as they felt they were exempt (erroneously) by not selling services or products in the European Union. Now with expansion of similar regulations to California and Virginia, it is time to implement technology to be in compliance this year and at the minimum by December 31, 2022.
I recently ready a very interesting article and wanted to share some of the important nuggets with you in Google indexing in this January 1, 2021 post.
First, Happy New Year! 2021 simply has to be better than 2020.
Second, there are the nuggets that I find of particular interest for our clients from this article.
• Google has now verified that it can take two months or more to impact search results when you make a change to your website.
• Google does validate that when you regularly add new content to your website, that the Google Bot spider will focus on the new content and not the old content for its time to index your website.
• If you have poor quality sections on your website, these poor sections can drag down the rating/ranking of your entire website.
• Rankings are determined not by page, but by weighing the entire website.
• However, now the Google team has stated that regularly updated new sections of your website that are of good quality may keep the poor sections of your site from making a strong impact that drags down your website in the rankings. Hmm, kind of conflicting from what has previously said and Google couches this with “it depends on your website.” So, not a conclusive nugget.
• What I find of particular importance in all this is that ranking and changes to your site have far reaching long term impacts that in some cases not seen even in two months from the changes. Keepng your content fresh is crucial to attracting and keeping the attention of the Google Bot spider.
If you are mystified by this, it may be time to visit our website to check our services. When you need a team that is trustworthy on your side to help you understand and then act to improve your website visibility, McCord Web Services is your top choice.