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Digesting The Meaning of EAT & YMYL

Digesting The Meaning of EAT & YMYL

If you’re a content creator or someone who tries to keep up with SEO, then you have most likely heard the term EAT & YMYL mentioned. You’ve also probably heard that Google is a fan of people who consider both of these principles when it comes to their websites and content.

First, let’s start with what EAT means, and then we can tackle YMYL. EAT stands for:

  • Expertise
  • Authoritativeness
  • Trustworthiness

But what does that mean for you and why is this so important? Let’s get to eatin ‘ (don’t hate me)!

Digesting The Meaning of EAT & YMYL

When Did EAT Begin?

EAT has always been a thing in the sense that all of these factors have always helped your site rank. What has changed is that Google presented EAT as an actual concept back in 2014 in that year’s edition of their Search Quality Guidelines. Meaning that this manner of ranking was no longer belief backed by agreed-upon ideas, but was formed into a concrete fact.

Who does EAT Affect?

Well, simply put, if you’re on the internet, then this affects YOU! Whether you’re a small nonprofit or one of Elon Musk’s newest ventures, you’ll be affected. In fact, if you are a small business or someone who is just beginning to build your own authority, then your site will be compared to the sites belonging to the leading authorities in your field. However, it’s important to note that the level of EAT you need to achieve in order to rank well varies by industry.

So say that I start to build a medical blog. My information will be compared to what the Mayo Clinic, CDC and WHO, and other leading experts that have to say on the subject, as medical information must go through rigorous checks from Google before they will allow you to rank. This makes sense, as misleading medical information can have disastrous consequences.

However, for a site that prides itself on having “the best knitting technique”, the requirements for EAT are much more lax, as the information contained in the article doesn’t directly impact people’s livelihoods. The higher the impact your content or industry has on people’s lives, the higher the bar is set for you to meet.

How Is EAT Determined?

The below graph breaks down how EAT is reviewed based on the size of your company; this example covers local business websites and blogs.

EAT Guidelines
Now let’s look at how medical sources are viewed when it comes to EAT.
EAT Graph explaining how sites our ranked
Medical Blogs Ranked by EAT
You can see that your authority plays a massive role in the content that you create. Now if you do create content with a medical aspect, then you will want to have either a certified medical professional writing and or signing off on your content, as this has an impact on your EAT rating:
A graph about how EAT effects Financial blogs.

Google is simply wanting to know why they and others should listen to you. Google’s highest priority is answering a user’s question, so they want to present the most accurate information to their users. Earlier we mentioned that certain industries have a higher standard to meet.

These industries, such as finances, law, health, and politics, are commonly grouped into a category known as YMYL.

What Is YMYL?

YMYL simply means “your money, your life”. To determine if you fall into YMYL, you need to ask yourself “can my content affect how someone handles their health, finances, and/or wellbeing?”. If yes, then you produce YMYL content. Some examples of YMYL industries are:

 

  • Nutrition
  • Fitness
  • Finances
  • Shopping
  • Health & safety
  • News and current events
  • Law, civics, and government
  • Information about groups of people (religion, gender, ethnic origin, veterans)
A screen shot from Google about YMYL

Anything that is considered YMYL must have the highest quality of EAT since these forms of content can have an actual impact on someone’s life. Without any EAT, your content simply won’t rank.

So What Should I Do To Increase My EAT?

If you’ve made it this far, then congratulations! It’s time to get to work! So what can you do to focus on increasing your EAT? Let’s take a look!

Reply To Your Reviews

Google tells its search quality reviewers to check the reviews of a company to get a better understanding of how reputable the business is. It also says to check how the businesses reply to their reviews. So it’s safe to say that an easy step in building your EAT score is to simply reply to all of your reviews, positive and negative. This also helps potential leads decide if they want to go with your company or not.

Web Page Content

Make sure that your pages aren’t lacking content. One thing that can lead to a low EAT score is non-informational landing pages. Each page should have a purpose, a targeted keyword, and the purpose of that page should be clear to anyone who lands on it.

In addition to well optimized landing page, you also need to make sure that you have unique, relevant, and informative content. Don’t just repeat what your competitors are doing. You want to set yourself apart by the content you produce.

You can do this by:

  • Staying up to date with industry updates.
  • Creating opinion pieces on industry news.
  • Researching searcher intent & create content on what’s not being answered.
  • Don’t just create content around keywords, but create content for the reader.

EAT Works In Tandem With SEO

You can perform all the EAT improvements in the world but if you don’t have an active and ongoing SEO strategy then it’s all lost. It’s likely that when your website was created you had some initial SEO work done. However, with each core Google update, your website’s rankings are affected. If you’re not actively adjusting your SEO efforts to reflect the latest changes to the industry, your website’s rankings will suffer.

It’s In Your Hands Now

The fact that you made it this far proves that you care about your online image, your rank with Google, and that you want your business, nonprofit, or personal blog to succeed. It’s important to know that positive growth and change takes time.

So let’s look at what you can do:

 

  • Add an author or have your content reviewed by someone who is qualified to speak in your field & their credentials to appropriate pages and posts.
  • Audit site content and remove any unnecessary content.
  • Locate and update any old content.

You can make every positive change possible, but it will still take time to see the results flow in. Improving your rank and EAT ranking takes time, but by doing nothing, you’ll never see change. So don’t give up, stay positive and if you need help, feel free to contact us to see what can be done!

Understanding ADA Compliance: In Regards to Website Accessibility

Understanding ADA Compliance: In Regards to Website Accessibility

Understanding ADA Compliance: In Regards to Website Accessibility

When the Americans with Disabilities Act was first passed, the majority of Americans thought that the scope of the ADA would be limited to creating an inclusive environment in the physical world. Not too many people thought that the digital world would later be included in ADA compliance at the time of its creation.

The core purpose of ADA, however, is to guarantee that every American has the same access to brick and mortar companies, restaurants, parks, and information, and that includes digital information.

So the big question is: does your website provide access and information to all who want it?

Do all businesses have to be ADA compliant?

When it comes to exemption, an incredibly small number of businesses are actually exempt from following ADA compliance. Companies that have less than 14 or fewer employees and/or companies that only operate twenty weeks out of the year are exempt. On top of that, religious organizations are exempt as well.

Does my website have to be ADA compliant?

Yes, under federal law, all websites fall under the Americans with Disabilities Act. In 2010, the Americans with Disabilities Act Standards for Accessible Design went into effect. Under this act, the DOJ mandates all websites under the private and public sectors to be accessible to all Americans facing visible and invisible disorders.

What does ADA compliant mean for websites?

While the DOJ standards for online accessibility currently lack a clear outline, a few court cases such as Gil V. Winn-Dixie help paint a picture of what is required by the DOJ. Lawsuits over website accessibility have actually increased quite a bit in recent years. In 2018, 200 lawsuits were filed over the lack of accessibility in America; this marks a 177% increase from 2017. It’s safe to say that this number will only continue to increase as more Americans are working from home.

How Do I Make My Website ADA Compliant?

There’s a lot of approaches that you can take to achieve ADA compliance. Thankfully, a pretty comprehensive list, known as WCAG, has been created so that companies can achieve ADA compliance. Let’s look into some of the requirements below:

  • Provide ALT text to any and all audio and video content.
  • Add transcripts and/or captions for all audio and video content…
  • double check that your content is well defined with appropriate headings and well-structured paragraphs that flow easily.
  • Make sure that each page on your site has clear and informative titles.
  • Have an easy to navigate sitemap structure.
  • Have a consistent navigation menu present on every page.
  • Ensure your text and background can pass a contrast test.
  • Eliminate or reduce background sounds to under 20 decibels.
  • Get rid of any and all pop-ups.
  • Ensure the website content has a high readability score if possible.

While this list does not account for all of the possible accommodations, it does provide you with a good starting point. It’s important to implement these as soon as possible, either by doing this yourself or by reaching out to a third party that specializes in website accessibility.

Take Advantage of Free Tools

There are plenty of tools that exist that can be used to check the level of your website accessibility. You can click here for a comprehensive list of tools, but be aware that not all of these are free. Out of all of the free options, two of the widely preferred tools you can use to check your accessibility are:

Wave

Wave is able to identify and reveal any WCAG issues that can keep a user from accessing needed information. By directly highlighting these issues, you can easily see and correct any needed changes. It will also show you a report breaking down the information by category.

Lighthouse

Lighthouse is a great and easy to use Google Chrome plug-in that can quickly generate reports that show a variety of important information, including website accessibility. It’s important to note, however, that this plug-in only generates a report for whatever page you’re on, so you will need to generate a report for every page on your site to get a comprehensive picture of your website.

How much does it cost to make your website ADA compliant?

When it comes to website accessibility, the first step is obvious: ensuring your website is optimized and built in such a way that it’s easy to navigate. Whether you’re wanting someone to overhaul your site or simply wanting a new one, our team of web developers can help you achieve your goal and lay the groundwork for an ADA compliant website. Call RankMonsters at 405-605-8218 or contact us online for a ADA Compliant website quote!

Website Analytics Benchmarks

Website Analytics Benchmarks

When you’re diving into the sea of data that Google Analytics collects for your website, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed or not understand what all of the metrics are telling you. In this article, we’re going to take a look at some of the more commonly used metrics, such as bounce rate, time on site, pageviews, conversions, and what the generally accepted website analytics benchmarks are for each, based on information provided by Google and by various SEO experts in the field today.

What is Bounce Rate?

Google defines a “bounce” as a single-page session on your website. That is, when a visitor follows a link to your website and leaves the website without visiting other pages. Your website’s bounce rate is simply the number of all single-page sessions (bounces) divided by the total number of all sessions on your website.

When viewing bounce rates, it’s important to keep your website’s goal in mind. If your goal is to sell a product or to get visitors to explore your website, then a high bounce rate is a major warning sign. However, if your website is geared to provide all the necessary information on a single page, a high bounce rate is probably a good sign.  It means they didn’t have to search your website or go to other pages to find what they needed; everything was in one place and your website is performing exactly as you want it to.

Bounce Rate Standards

Bounce rates don’t currently have an across the board standard, as each website has a different goal, and each goal has a different bounce rate. Also, contact us pages and blogs will typically have high bounce rates, as visitors are looking solely to interact with that page alone. Under the lens of a worldwide “average” bounce rate benchmark, anything over 50% is considered high and worth taking a look at, and anything between 20-50% is considered low. Anything under 20% is likely an error. Again, these are worldwide standards. If a website is over 50% bounce rate, it doesn’t mean the website is performing poorly. You simply need to then look at the purpose of the website and if the bounce rate reflects it well. If anything, bounce rate is best used to give you information on visitors and their experience on your site.

Bounce Rate Benchmarks (per Google Analytics)

  • Landing pages with one call to action: 70-90%
  • Content Websites: 40-60%
  • Lead Generation: 30-50%
  • Blogs: 70-98%

The following are some helpful graphs that provide a closer look at bounce rate benchmarks by device, industry, channel, and device type (all graphs are courtesy of CXL).

 

Time on Site Benchmarks

Anything under 20 seconds is a major red flag, as that’s barely enough time for a visitor to look at the page, much less read its content. 40-50 seconds is a great start, as it means you have their attention. In general, anything over 2 minutes is the accepted standard for websites.

Pageview Benchmarks

Pageviews are much like bounce rates; there is no universal benchmark. Again, if your website is information based, a single pageview could mean your website is doing exactly what it’s supposed to do: provide everything in one place. For the sake of discussion, however, let’s look at the e-commerce industry standards:

  • 1.58 sessions/user
  • 5 avg. pages/session
  • 3 mins avg. session duration
  • 41.26% bounce rate

What does this tell us? For e-commerce, having a high number of pages/session is good, as you want people to browse their products. Having a sessions/user number that is higher than 1 is ideal, as it means visitors are returning to the site at least once. A 3 min average session duration is also good, as that’s a very good time for a user to spend on a website (remember, 40-50 seconds good and 2+ minutes is the benchmark). Lastly, a 41.26% bounce rate means over half of their visitors are going beyond their landing page and interacting with the site, which is exactly what you want to see.

Conversion Rate Benchmarks

The average conversion rate in Google Ads across all industries is 3.17% on the search network and 0.46% on the display network. Using the health & medical industry as an example, the 2018 averages were as follows:

  • 3.27% CTR for search ads
  • 0.59% CTR for the Google Display Network
  • 3.36% avg. conversion rate for search ads
  • 0.82% avg. conversion rate for the Google Display Network

Other Useful Information

  • In 2016, 42% of companies had hired a content strategist executive.
  • As of 2017, content marketing (i.e. blogs) gets 3x more leads than paid search advertising.

We hope this has been a helpful overview of some of Google Analytics’ most commonly used metrics and that you have gained a deeper understanding of what these metrics can tell you about not only the performance of your website, but also the visitor experience and engagement with your content.

RankMonsters is a Google Ad Grant Certified Professional Agency

RankMonsters is a Google Ad Grant Certified Professional Agency

Our team at RankMonsters is proud to announce that we’re now listed as Google Ad Grant Certified Professionals. As one of the first agencies to be included in this program, we’re very excited to continue our work with both the Ad Grants team at Google and with nonprofits around North America and beyond.

Google Ads Logo

The Goal Of A Certified Google  Ad Grant Professional

According to Google, the goal of the Certified Professionals Community is to “enhance the Ad Grants experience for professionals and Grantees alike.” Google recognizes that there are many challenges for nonprofits when it comes to understanding the Google Ads platform and managing the Ad Grant. Through this initiative, nonprofits will be able to find trustworthy agencies and partners to help apply for and manage their Ad Grants.

When you partner with RankMonsters to manage your Google Ad Grant, you get an experienced and engaged partner to help with every aspect of your Grant account. We’ve worked with nonprofits across the US and Canada of every type and size, from single-person organizations to large museums and libraries.

What We Bring To The Table

Here are a few of the benefits you can see when you work with RankMonsters to manage your Google Ad Grant:

  • Fast Approval – If you don’t have the Grant yet, our team can help you get approved quickly and without unnecessary delays.

     

  • Free Applications – We will help your nonprofit apply for the Google Ad Grant for no charge and with no obligation to use our management services.
  • Experienced Management – Our team has years of experience managing both standard Google Ads campaigns and Ad Grant accounts. We can recognize issues before they become problems, and help respond to and solve them fast.
  • Full Reporting – Every month you get a complete and detailed report of your campaign’s performance and progress.
  • No Strings – Our goal is to help your nonprofit fulfill its mission. Because of that, all of our services are straightforward and can be canceled at any time.

Let Us Help You Help Others

If you’re interested in partnering with us to apply for or manage your Google Ad Grant, simply fill out the form on our website or give us a call at (405) 605-8218 today. We’re ready to help your organization take the next steps toward online success!

Understanding TechSoup for Nonprofits

Understanding TechSoup for Nonprofits

 TechSoup is an organization that partners with technology and service providers to grant opportunities to nonprofits online. They help nonprofits access special tools and services, such as technical assistance and discounts on computer programs and hardware. TechSoup has partnerships with companies like Google, Microsoft, Adobe, Cisco and Symantec. Your TechSoup membership can be a valuable asset. Especially if you are trying to grow your nonprofit and save money on much-needed tools.

How To Apply

In order to apply for the special programs offered by Google, Microsoft and more; TechSoup provides NGO (non governmental organizations), validation services foundations, libraries, and other civil society organizations worldwide. These validation services allow TechSoup’s partners to know your organization is a legitimate nonprofit. In effect, TechSoup verifies your nonprofit status and makes it easier for you to access special nonprofit tools and offerings from their partners.

TechSoup and the Google for Nonprofits Program

One of the requirements for the Google for Nonprofits program is for your organization to have an active TechSoup membership. Google requires nonprofits to apply for TechSoup as a way of verifying your nonprofit status and identity. Once you are validated by TechSoup, you will be able to get a validation token that you will use on your Google for Nonprofits Membership application.

When you work with RankMonsters to apply for the Google for Nonprofits program, we will walk your organization through the enrollment process for TechSoup. This ensures your organization gets the required validation token that you need to apply for the Google for Nonprofits program and other online offerings.

TechSoup Benefits

Your TechSoup membership carries several benefits, including:

  • Discounts on useful software including Microsoft Windows, Adobe Creative Cloud, Intuit Quickbooks and more.
  • Refurbished desktop and laptop computers to help keep your organization connected and up-to-date.
  • Cloud services consultations to get your organization set up for future success online.
  • Dedicated IT assistance to help keep your nonprofit running smoothly.

TechSoup Eligibility

Most 501(c)(3) nonprofits are eligible for TechSoup. To check your organization’s eligibility you can visit the TechSoup website and take a short quiz about your nonprofit’s activities and budget. The eligibility for the programs and tools available to TechSoup members varies. You can check your eligibility for the various programs after your TechSoup enrollment is completed.

Want RankMonsters to Help?

RankMonsters can help your organization enroll in TechSoup, as well as other programs for nonprofits. Call (405) 605-8218 today to speak to one of our representatives today!

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