SEO is a constantly evolving world, and it’s been that way ever since the dawn of search. Fortunately Google does an SEO Q&A session pretty frequently called “SEO Office Hours”, where people can submit questions and experts from Google can give the latest, most up-to-date answers.
I tuned in to the most recent session (May). Here are my top 3 takeaways!
Takeaway #1 – Your website’s backend platform doesn’t matter a ton for SEO purposes
Someone asked if a website’s SEO performance is heavily influenced by its backend, whether its a platform like WordPress, a custom content-management-system (CMS), or some specific programming language.
According to Google, the answer is no! What does matter (and always has) is a website’s performance and behavior. Google doesn’t set out to specifically reward sites built on WordPress, or Wix, or ones that are custom.
I’m really glad someone submitted this question. I’ve created many websites for small and medium-sized businesses – almost always with SEO in mind – and I’ve thought about this often.
Side note: In my experience, WordPress continues to be the ideal platform for most small and medium-sized businesses, especially those who are interested in generating organic traffic and are planning to invest in SEO initiatives.
Takeaway #2 – Using contractions like “won’t” instead of “will-not” in URLs doesn’t make a big difference
This was another great question someone asked. Is it more SEO-beneficial to have contractions or not in your URLs? For instance, is www.demandthrive.com/will-not-work or www.demandthrive.com/wont-work better for SEO?
According to Google, using contractions or not won’t make a difference in your SEO results. They did go on to say, however, that you should be consistent in whichever approach you choose. Stick to one. Use contractions all the time in your URL structures or don’t.
Takeaway #3 – Don’t break your back writing descriptive file names
Ah, the age-old question, “do I need to have descriptive file names for all the images on my website?” The answer is that it’s generally helpful to provide descriptive file names. It can’t hurt. But will doing so have a major impact on your SEO? Probably not, but if you have the time, it makes sense to do it to maximize your chances.
During the Q&A session, Google also said that if you have tons and tons of images on your website, it probably doesn’t make sense to spend time writing descriptive file names. Doing so would be more of a time-waster than anything else.
In Closing
SEO is a constantly evolving and complex industry. These “SEO Office Hours” by Google offered are an excellent resource for anyone interested in growing their leads and online presence!
If your organization is looking for SEO help, please feel free to contact us. We’ve helped many businesses grow their demand generation and online presence with SEO.
Click here to view Google’s May 2023 “SEO Office Hours” session on YouTube.
Also, you can go here to submit a question for Google “SEO Office Hours”.
