URL Parameter Best Practices, Favicon Guidelines & Scraping Customer Reviews
SEO TL;DR #45 - 28/10/2024
Google Sitelinks Search Box Discontinued
Starting 21st November 2024, Google is removing the Sitelinks Search Box from search results - due to low usage.
These were a pain to set up and would do the same job as a site search within Google, e.g. “Is SEO Dead site:reddit.com?” which keeps your users on Google instead of encouraging them to visit your site.
Google confirmed:
This won’t be listed in the Search status dashboard, and there's no need to remove the structured data from your site—unsupported data won’t cause issues.
Google Revises URL Parameter Best Practices
Google advises using equal signs to separate key-value pairs and ampersands for multiple parameters. Avoid colons, brackets, or commas, which can cause crawling inefficiencies and potential indexing issues.
Recommended:
https://example.com/category?category=dresses&sort=low-to-high&sid=789Not Recommended
https://example.com/category?[category:dresses][sort:price-low-to-high][sid:789]Have a play with your current filtering and search functionality and make sure it adheres to these standards. Proper formatting helps Google crawl your site better, reducing potential duplicate content issues.
John Mueller on Content-Length
In response to a LinkedIn question, Google's John Mueller emphasised that there is no "ideal" content length for ranking on Google. His advice? Focus on delivering unique value, not word count. More words won’t necessarily make your content better. Instead, consider the quality and relevance of your offering.
As John put it
If you count the words in bestseller books and match them in yours, will it make your book a bestseller? Probably not.
If you want an ideal number for length or a specific keyword ratio, then you can always visit https://www.random.org/
Google Trends for Journalists
Quite a niche audience for this one, but if you’re a journalist, Google has put together a Google Trends guide to help you craft data-driven stories. They explain how to leverage trending search data to create compelling narratives and uncover story opportunities.
Google Now Recommends Higher Resolution Favicons
Google has updated its favicon guidelines, recommending icons of at least 48x48 pixels for better visibility in search results.
While the minimum size is still 8x8 pixels, higher-resolution favicons will give your site a sharper, more professional look in the SERPs.
Ensure your favicon is in a 1:1 aspect ratio, and consider upgrading if your current one is smaller than 48x48 pixels to enhance your site's appearance in search.
Scraping Customer Reviews for SEO and Business Insights
Scraping customer reviews can reveal key friction points and blockers that might not show up in traditional web analytics. Issues like shipping concerns, website errors, or unclear brand legitimacy can surface in reviews, offering insights into why users might abandon purchases or not engage.
By collecting this qualitative data, businesses can improve not only their SEO but also user experience and satisfaction. This post by Giulia Panozzo, goes through how to scrape this data using Python and Google Colab and what to do with it once you have it.
🕷️ How to scrape customer reviews for actionable insights