andrew.riker

M Posted 4 years 5 months ago

t 9 min read

Minification of web code is essential when optimizing for search engine rankings. However, it can seem like an opaque topic to those without coding knowledge. 

Despite appearances, minification is a relatively straightforward process. And web developers have access to a range of tools, many of them free, to streamline their workflow when minifying code. What’s more, there are various platforms for measuring the effects of minification in terms of page load time and overall site speed. 

In this post, you’ll learn about minification and why it’s important. We’ll also show you how to minify your site’s code using a variety of methods, from manual inputs to the largely hands-off option of a CDN. 

What Is Minification?

Minification is the process of shortening source code to remove unnecessary characters, empty space, comments, delimiters, long-name variables, and other superfluous elements. In the context of search engine optimization (SEO), minification is applied to languages typically used for web development like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. 

Here’s a quick example of minification with some JavaScript code. Below is the original JavaScript code: 

// example of a function called greetbrightedgereaders()
function greetbeusers() {
            console.log("Hello BE Readers");
}

After minification, it looks like this: 

function greetbeusers(){console.log("Hello BE Readers")}

Some people ask why programmers don’t write minified code directly. And there’s a simple reason for this. It’s very difficult to write code without spaces, comments and properly named functions. Minified code is designed to be understood easily by web browsers, not humans. 

Why Is Minification Important?

Minification is important because it improves both site speed and search robot crawlability. Websites and online applications that use minified code take less time to load, primarily because of lower bandwidth use and faster script execution, which in turn increases user satisfaction. 

This is relevant for SEO because Google incorporates speed as a key ranking factor, to the point where it provides dedicated tools (mainly in the form of PageSpeed Insights and the associated API) for web admins to monitor the performance of their pages.

Google evaluates the minification of CSS and JavaScript as one of the top priority audits when undertaking speed assessments, and we see it across most site’s we assess.

Differences Between Minification and Similar Processes

Minification is often confused with other processes that alter source code. It’s important to understand the main differences because they tend to have distinct SEO roles. 

Here is a quick overview of the main processes often mistaken for minification:

• Concatenation - When files are merged they are said to be “concatenated.” It is common practice to combine different CSS files into one, thus lowering the amount of server calls required to load a website.
• Compression - Compression reduces the size of a file without forfeiting any data (or losing only limited amounts). Compression involves capturing the same amount of data in fewer bytes compared to the parent file. GZIP and Deflate compression are commonly used by SEOs. 
• Encryption - Encryption converts code into a non-readable form that can only be decoded with a cipher. It is primarily used to protect information during transit. 
• Obfuscation - Obfuscation involves creating complex code that is unreadable by humans, usually for the purpose of concealment. 

When it comes to minifying source code, you can either proceed manually with minification tools or by leveraging a content delivery network (CDN). We’ll look at minification tools first. 

Minification Tools

Manual minification programs broadly fall into two categories: online interfaces and web development apps with minification features, particularly IDEs and GUI tools. It’s also possible to use command line apps to quickly minify source code. 

Online tools, which offer a browser interface into which code is pasted, are unsuitable for most developers, especially those working on enterprise SEO. They are rudimentary applications and provide little in the way of customization. 

The second, more feasible option is to minify code directly within a development environment. Programs that don’t provide native minification features can usually be modified with extensions. There are, for example, numerous minification plugins for Microsoft Visual Studio. GUI applications like Koala and Prepros include native minification and bundling functionality.

Content Delivery Network

Content delivery networks (CDN) provide one of the most efficient ways of minifying code, especially for large, complex websites. They are also typically cheaper when compared with the equivalent development costs of manually minifying and uploading source code. 

A CDN is a system of servers covering a specific geographic region. Some CDNs like Cloudflare are global. Cached versions of sites are stored on these servers, thereby reducing transfer times when requests are made. 

Manual minification is usually a cumbersome process that requires the maintenance of two groups of server-side files, one set containing the human-readable source code and another containing minified code. Ensuring consistency across these files can be difficult, especially when dealing with large sites and web applications. 

A CDN overcomes this problem by storing minified versions of a site on its caching servers. In the vast majority of cases, no configuration is required on the hosting server. 

Minification: An Essential Piece of the SEO Jigsaw Puzzle

Minification improves overall site speed. As a result, it can have significant impacts on page rankings due to the ability for search engines to traverse and understand more of your site. What’s more, it’s a very quick and inexpensive change to make to a site’s source code. And while there are some potential issues that may arise, they tend to be rare and easy to fix. 

However, keep in mind that minification is not the only aspect of SEO related to site speed that requires consideration. Minification is best undertaken in conjunction with other types of performance optimization, including image compression, rectifying redirects, enabling compression, and so on. 

More Resources

Are you eager to ensure your pages are loading as quickly as possible? Here are some more resources to check out:

What is Page Speed in SEO? 9 Best Page Speed Fixes

Core Web Vitals: Preparing for the Page Experience Update

Optimizing Images for SEO

andrew.riker

M Posted 4 years 5 months ago

t 9 min read

What percentage of search clicks do you think goes to websites featured in snippets? According to one study, the answer is 35.1%. Whichever way you look at it, that’s a hefty amount of traffic. So we think it’s excellent news that Google is testing two additions to featured snippets—“From the web” and “Other sites say”—that give exposure to additional sites.

In other news, Google has made its first public reference to SpamBrain, an AI-powered spam filter, in its 2021 webspam report. As SEOs, it’s essential we keep up to up to date with Google’s position on what constitutes spam.

There are also some technical updates happening in the SEO space. BingBot will have fully transitioned to a new user agent by Q4 2022, with implications for certain websites. And if your site serves dynamic web pages, you may be affected by Google’s announcement to launch SXG (Signed Exchanges) for desktop users.

Finally, Alphabet has published its quarter one earnings, so we’ll take a look at that. Search traffic has played a sizable role in the company’s revenue growth, as per usual.

With all that in mind, here’s your twice-monthly roundup of all the latest news, announcements, and other noteworthy developments from the world of search.

Google Tests Two Snippet Features: “From the web” and “Other sites say”

Snippets account for 35.1% of all clicks through search engines. As such, they represent a sizable chunk of search traffic competing with first rank results. In recent weeks, Google has been testing out two new features: a “From the web” section which displays content in the form of extracts from multiple websites, and an area labeled “Other sites say,” which lists alternatives to the main featured snippet.

Considering the prevalence of snippets, this is potentially big news for SEOs. The caveat being, of course, that it’s still early days and we don’t know whether Google will commit to a full rollout.

Depending on how often your content comes up in snippets, this news is either good or bad. Our expectation is that the majority of websites will benefit from the increased exposure.

Google Releases Webspam 2021 Report and References AI System SpamBrain

Google released its 2021 webspam report on the 21st of April. Notably, the report directly referenced SpamBrain, an AI system for filtering spam websites, and detailed how it has helped “keep more than 99% of searches spam-free.”

So why does this matter from an SEO perspective? It’s important for web admins to stay up to date with Google’s spam policies. It’s the best way to protect against updates to Google’s filters and ensure rankings aren’t negatively affected with the type of content you produce.

Recognizing that SpamBrain sits at the core of Google’s anti-spam processes provides a long-term reference point for SEOs in establishing what constitutes spam, as well as help content creators or webmasters avoid certain triggers.

Bing to Drop Old BingBot User Agents

Bing has said that it will finalize the move over to new crawler user agents, with separate ones for mobile and desktop, by the the end of this year. In December 2019, Bing announced, “Bing is adopting the new Microsoft Edge as the engine to run JavaScript and render web pages.”

Web admins are advised to download Microsoft Edge to check their site renders correctly. If your site doesn’t currently support the new user agents, you’ll need to update its code.You can learn how to modify how Bing crawlers interact with your site by consulting the official documentation. The majority of sites will not be affected, but it’s something to check if you haven’t already.

Google to Launch SXG (Signed Exchange) Support for Desktop Users

Google announced that it will provide SXG support for desktop users. Signed Exchange technology enables the pre-fetching of websites. It has a variety of SEO benefits, particularly related to site speed. You can learn more about it (and how to implement it on your site) by checking the documentation in Google Search Central.

Sites using dynamic serving will need to make some changes to ensure desktop users aren’t directed to the mobile versions of pages. If you use responsive design or separate URLs for mobile and desktop, you don’t need to take action.

John Mueller Provides Information About Optimizing for Google Lens

In a recent Google office-hours hangout, Search Advocate John Mueller answered a question about Google Lens, available on the Chrome Android and iOS apps. He talked about how the multisearch feature, which allows people to search with images and text simultaneously, might affect SEO.

In essence, SEOs should ensure they’re following best practices when using images—proper context, correct tags, device-friendly, and so on. John Mueller said there’s not much to do manually to improve rankings as long as existing practices are followed.

If your content lends itself to being found through images, particularly if you run an ecommerce store, it is worth auditing your site to ensure that all visual assets are optimized, crawled and indexed.

Google Offers SEO Certification

Google now offers search engine optimization training as part of its Digital Marketing and Ecommerce Certificate, offered through the Grow With Google training platform. This has come as a surprise to many. Google has traditionally maintained it would not provide SEO certifications (like it does with Ads, Analytics, and other tools).

The new course has received a mixed response from industry insiders, with one commentator pointing out the potential for SEOs to misuse Google’s name for leverage with customers.

However, if you run a business, there would seem to be definite value in employing search marketers with training from Google specialists. Similarly, it may be in your organization’s interests to encourage existing employees to complete the certification.

Google and Bing Publish First Quarter Earnings

To finish off, let’s look at the first-quarter earnings of Alphabet (Google’s parent company) and the third-quarter earnings of Microsoft.

Google reported revenues of $68 billion, up from $55.3 billion in the first quarter of 2021, of which $54.7 billion was from advertising revenue. This indicates strong growth and a limited impact from halting ad sales in Russia after the invasion of Ukraine. These figures put to bed any talk of a slump in ad spending, which was a widespread prediction going into 2022.

Microsoft reported similar growth of around 20% in the same quarter, surpassing its earnings estimate and driving an increase in its share price.

By all accounts, these reports point to the ongoing strength and market stability of search engines, and the role that SEO will play. And on that note, it’s over and out.

msweeny

M Posted 4 years 5 months ago

t 9 min read

When it comes to finding information on your website using the built-in search feature, customers bring their experience with them -- they expect the quality of results and ease-of-use they’ve grown accustomed to from searching on Google or other popular search engines.  All too often, visitors using the site search feature leave disappointed. Nielsen/Norman group research found a mere 51% of visitors using site search found a relevant answer with their first query. Relevant site search results drop to 32% on the second query and to 18% on the third query. That is if the visitor is still trying by that time.

If someone visiting your site does not take the time to explore your home page or site navigation and fails to find relevant results when they use the site search feature, they will likely return to Google’s search results and make another selection. This means you have lost the chance to convert and signaled to Google’s ranking algorithm that your site was not relevant for the initial query. Double ouch.

Signs that Your Site Search Feature May be Underperforming

Visitors that land on the homepage quickly leave the site from the homepage
If more than 30% of visitors leave the site from the homepage (as show in Google Analytics User Behavior Flow), it is likely they did not find what they wanted on the page or in the navigation.

Visitors exit the site from the site search results page
If your site search results page has more than a 20% exit rate, it is likely that your site search did not deliver relevant results for their keyword searches.

Site Search Optimization Framework

1. Build your team - Improving audience engagement is an “all hands-on deck” initiative. Where available, team members should include developers, in-house SEOs, content managers, information architects and UX specialists – together these specialists will help frame the problem, deliver a solution and create meaningful benchmarks to measure success.

2. Collect site search data - Website search engines can report on visitor queries and behavior. The level of reporting depends on your application. Some standard reports are:

• Most frequent queries
• Queries that produced zero results
• Queries that produced zero click
• Search results page exit rate
• Search session reports (number if queries, results chosen, etc.)

3. Conduct keyword research - Compare high-volume, high-value keyword search performance on your website search engine and Google. Do the ranking results for your site content on Google match results returned by your website engine?

With enhanced configuration, site search engines can provide personalized data on visitor engagement with your search results. Your content team can manually curate top results as “Best Bets” for targeted queries or queries that produce zero results on their own. An information architect or UX professional can create a personalization framework to map specific content to observed site behavior patterns.

Another area where your developer will be helpful is configuring search engine webmaster accounts to use parameter exclusion to prevent search engines from presenting your site search results page in organic search results. You can also have your website analytics collect and report on site search usage.

4. Create an obvious, useful, and frictionless search user experience:

• Provide a noticeable search box at top of page (either right or left corner). Size the box to accommodate a two-to-three-word query. Those hourglass search icons are easy to miss.
• If you're going to have instruction text inside the search box, make it clear. i.e., “search this site”.
• Provide search suggestions as the visitor types their query. These represent most popular searches that contained similar terms.
• Provide spell-check/spelling correction as many of us rely on this to find information and check our spelling.

Use the search engine to map synonyms for your products or services, e.g. show the same search results for handbag, purse, pocketbook.

Reasons to Maximize Your Site Search User Experience

• Increase sales and revenue: Site search users have a higher conversion rate than those who do not use site search.  Answer customer information needs with their first query by tailoring relevance to your content landscape. Cross-sell and up-sell products with curated relevant results for high-value searches.
• Gain insights into what customers find too cumbersome to find through navigation: Site search reports can provide valuable information on what’s not working with navigation labels, categories, and menus.
• Leverage data to improve your rankings: Reverse engineer site search data to find the organic queries that bring customers to your site.

Leveraging internal site search analytics to help identify trends in the visitors coming to your site is crucial in helping drive conversions and understanding your audience better.

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