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Google’s Top 5 SEO Tools

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Google offers a constantly updated suite of tools that are useful for SEO.

These tools help publishers understand why a page is underperforming and guide them with specific advice for improving webpage performance for the purpose of ranking better.

Here are Google’s top five SEO tools.

1. Lighthouse

Lighthouse is a web page performance improvement tool that is built into every browser that is based on Chrome. The tool is accessible within the Chrome Dev Tools panel.

Multiple Ways to Access the Google Lighthouse Tool

  • On a Windows machine, press the F12 function button.
  • On Windows or Mac right-click the page and choose “Inspect” then choose the “Lighthouse” tab.
  • On Mac press: Command+Option+C
  • On Windows, Linux, and Chrome OS press: Control+Shift+C
  • In Chrome, click the 3-dot menu on the top right corner then, More Tools > Developer Tools
Step by Step of How to access Google Lighthouse on Chrome browser.
Screenshot from Google Search, August 2021
Screenshot of Lighthouse within the Chrome Dev Tools panel.
Screenshot from Chrome Dev Tools, August 2021

Lighthouse Offers 5 Feedback Categories

It currently provides five categories of SEO performance feedback:

  1. Performance.
  2. Progressive Web App.
  3. Best Practices.
  4. Accessibility.
  5. SEO.

While accessibility isn’t strictly an SEO-related metric, it is related to good user experience for disabled site visitors.

Using the feedback from these five categories will help improve the search visibility of most webpages.

The SEO section of Lighthouse provides 10 points of feedback on factors that matter for Google.

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Some Metrics Chrome Lighthouse Reports On

  • Viewport Meta Tag.
  • Title Element.
  • Meta Description.
  • HTTP Status Code.
  • Descriptive Text on Links.
  • Page Status for Successful Crawling & Indexing.
  • Validates Hreflang.
  • Validates rel=canonical.
  • Checks mobile-friendliness.
  • Validates font legibility for mobile devices.
  • Checks mobile tap targets.
  • Checks if document avoids browser plugins for viewing.
  • Checks crawling and indexing.
  • Checks the Robots.txt.
  • Checks if the page sends a successful HTTP status code.

Why You Should Use Lighthouse SEO Tool

I won’t deny it, Lighthouse is a lightweight site review tool.

But it’s an important site review tool because it represents Google’s opinion of 10 metrics you should be looking at.

If Google feels that these metrics are important, then you should, too.

To make the most of this tool, be sure to check out A Technical SEO Guide to Lighthouse Performance Metrics.

2. Test My Site

Google’s Test My Site auditing tool offers two metrics:

  1. Estimated loading time on a 4G mobile network.
  2. Recommendations for speeding up the website.
Google Mobile Speed Test Recommendation.
Screenshot of Test My Site, August 2021

This is a good tool for obtaining a quick snapshot of the speed health of a website.

It’s a good starting point for obtaining an overall picture of mobile optimization.

The tool also offers to email a full report containing suggestions for speeding up the tested webpage.

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Why You Should Use Test My Site

You can obtain similar information by using Page Speed Insights.

But the Test My Site tool provides the information in an easy-to-understand manner that’s easy for non-developer stakeholders to gain an understanding of what may be wrong with the mobile site performance.

Yet it’s also good for developers to get a quick overview, as well.

If you want granular details about what needs fixing, then head over to Google’s Page Speed Insights.

3. Page Speed Insights

Page Speed Insights is the tool that provides lab Core Web Vitals performance scores.

Core Web Vitals are important metrics created by Google to represent what a user experience on a webpage is.

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This information is important because fixing the highlighted problems will improve SEO, sales conversions, ad clicks, and (if successful in fixing performance bottlenecks) give a small ranking factor boost.

This online tool provides specifics on what is causing the slowdown and gives suggestions for how to fix the problems.

It tells which scripts and style sheets are slowing down the site, which images are too big, and offers numerous other tips for speeding up affected webpages.

Why You Should Use Page Speed Insights

Page Speed Insights not only offers useful solutions for hidden technical issues impacting page speed, but it is also a resource for learning what those issues are.

Each highlighted issue links to a Google Developers page that offers more in-depth background information and an explainer of how to fix the problems.

4. Safe Browsing Test

Google crawls billions of pages every day to check for malware. This tool reports if there is any malware on a site.

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The tool also provides the date for the last time the site was checked for malware.

Some sites are tested more often than others.

Why You Should Use the Safe Browsing Test Tool

Many people do not consider website security an SEO problem.

But website security quickly becomes an SEO issue when Google starts dropping URLs from its index because the site is hacked.

That’s why website security should be considered a part of SEO. Failure to secure a site can severely affect search visibility.

5. Google Trends

Google Trends provides information about keyword popularity and also segments the information by time and geography.

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The time segment can give you an idea of how seasons may affect keywords. It can also show you if a keyword is losing popularity.

If you see a downward trend in a keyword, this could indicate that a product or trend is causing searchers to lose interest in that search.

Why You Should Use Google Trends

Google Trends is also important for competitive research. It shows you how often people are searching Google with a competitor’s brand name.

The trend line by time will show you how steady this trend is – if it’s going up, down, or steady.

Obviously, a competitor trend line that is trending down is good. A trend line that is trending up is bad.

A trend line that is steady (the most common) means a competitor is doing well and you’ll have to identify their weaknesses and make those your strengths – among many considerations.

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For more tips, check out 10 Ways to Use Google Trends for Better SEO.

Make Good Use of Google’s SEO Tools to Improve Rankings, Visibility, and User Experience

While SEO professionals tend to take much of what Google says about what helps rankings (or not) with a healthy dose of skepticism, it would be foolish not to take advantage of the tools it has on offer.

In these tools, you can see exactly what Google is looking for in a quality site, webpage, and user experience.

Use this to your advantage to optimize as closely to Google’s (and your audience’s) expectations as possible.


Featured Image: ImageFlow/Shutterstock

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Exploring the Evolution of Language Translation: A Comparative Analysis of AI Chatbots and Google Translate

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A Comparative Analysis of AI Chatbots and Google Translate

According to an article on PCMag, while Google Translate makes translating sentences into over 100 languages easy, regular users acknowledge that there’s still room for improvement.

In theory, large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT are expected to bring about a new era in language translation. These models consume vast amounts of text-based training data and real-time feedback from users worldwide, enabling them to quickly learn to generate coherent, human-like sentences in a wide range of languages.

However, despite the anticipation that ChatGPT would revolutionize translation, previous experiences have shown that such expectations are often inaccurate, posing challenges for translation accuracy. To put these claims to the test, PCMag conducted a blind test, asking fluent speakers of eight non-English languages to evaluate the translation results from various AI services.

The test compared ChatGPT (both the free and paid versions) to Google Translate, as well as to other competing chatbots such as Microsoft Copilot and Google Gemini. The evaluation involved comparing the translation quality for two test paragraphs across different languages, including Polish, French, Korean, Spanish, Arabic, Tagalog, and Amharic.

In the first test conducted in June 2023, participants consistently favored AI chatbots over Google Translate. ChatGPT, Google Bard (now Gemini), and Microsoft Bing outperformed Google Translate, with ChatGPT receiving the highest praise. ChatGPT demonstrated superior performance in converting colloquialisms, while Google Translate often provided literal translations that lacked cultural nuance.

For instance, ChatGPT accurately translated colloquial expressions like “blow off steam,” whereas Google Translate produced more literal translations that failed to resonate across cultures. Participants appreciated ChatGPT’s ability to maintain consistent levels of formality and its consideration of gender options in translations.

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The success of AI chatbots like ChatGPT can be attributed to reinforcement learning with human feedback (RLHF), which allows these models to learn from human preferences and produce culturally appropriate translations, particularly for non-native speakers. However, it’s essential to note that while AI chatbots outperformed Google Translate, they still had limitations and occasional inaccuracies.

In a subsequent test, PCMag evaluated different versions of ChatGPT, including the free and paid versions, as well as language-specific AI agents from OpenAI’s GPTStore. The paid version of ChatGPT, known as ChatGPT Plus, consistently delivered the best translations across various languages. However, Google Translate also showed improvement, performing surprisingly well compared to previous tests.

Overall, while ChatGPT Plus emerged as the preferred choice for translation, Google Translate demonstrated notable improvement, challenging the notion that AI chatbots are always superior to traditional translation tools.


Source: https://www.pcmag.com/articles/google-translate-vs-chatgpt-which-is-the-best-language-translator

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Google Implements Stricter Guidelines for Mass Email Senders to Gmail Users

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Beginning in April, Gmail senders bombarding users with unwanted mass emails will encounter a surge in message rejections unless they comply with the freshly minted Gmail email sender protocols, Google cautions.

Fresh Guidelines for Dispatching Mass Emails to Gmail Inboxes In an elucidative piece featured on Forbes, it was highlighted that novel regulations are being ushered in to shield Gmail users from the deluge of unsolicited mass emails. Initially, there were reports surfacing about certain marketers receiving error notifications pertaining to messages dispatched to Gmail accounts. Nonetheless, a Google representative clarified that these specific errors, denoted as 550-5.7.56, weren’t novel but rather stemmed from existing authentication prerequisites.

Moreover, Google has verified that commencing from April, they will initiate “the rejection of a portion of non-compliant email traffic, progressively escalating the rejection rate over time.” Google elaborates that, for instance, if 75% of the traffic adheres to the new email sender authentication criteria, then a portion of the remaining non-conforming 25% will face rejection. The exact proportion remains undisclosed. Google does assert that the implementation of the new regulations will be executed in a “step-by-step fashion.”

This cautious and methodical strategy seems to have already kicked off, with transient errors affecting a “fraction of their non-compliant email traffic” coming into play this month. Additionally, Google stipulates that bulk senders will be granted until June 1 to integrate “one-click unsubscribe” in all commercial or promotional correspondence.

Exclusively Personal Gmail Accounts Subject to Rejection These alterations exclusively affect bulk emails dispatched to personal Gmail accounts. Entities sending out mass emails, specifically those transmitting a minimum of 5,000 messages daily to Gmail accounts, will be mandated to authenticate outgoing emails and “refrain from dispatching unsolicited emails.” The 5,000 message threshold is tabulated based on emails transmitted from the same principal domain, irrespective of the employment of subdomains. Once the threshold is met, the domain is categorized as a permanent bulk sender.

These guidelines do not extend to communications directed at Google Workspace accounts, although all senders, including those utilizing Google Workspace, are required to adhere to the updated criteria.

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Augmented Security and Enhanced Oversight for Gmail Users A Google spokesperson emphasized that these requisites are being rolled out to “fortify sender-side security and augment user control over inbox contents even further.” For the recipient, this translates to heightened trust in the authenticity of the email sender, thus mitigating the risk of falling prey to phishing attempts, a tactic frequently exploited by malevolent entities capitalizing on authentication vulnerabilities. “If anything,” the spokesperson concludes, “meeting these stipulations should facilitate senders in reaching their intended recipients more efficiently, with reduced risks of spoofing and hijacking by malicious actors.”

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Google’s Next-Gen AI Chatbot, Gemini, Faces Delays: What to Expect When It Finally Launches

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Google AI Chatbot Gemini

In an unexpected turn of events, Google has chosen to postpone the much-anticipated debut of its revolutionary generative AI model, Gemini. Initially poised to make waves this week, the unveiling has now been rescheduled for early next year, specifically in January.

Gemini is set to redefine the landscape of conversational AI, representing Google’s most potent endeavor in this domain to date. Positioned as a multimodal AI chatbot, Gemini boasts the capability to process diverse data types. This includes a unique proficiency in comprehending and generating text, images, and various content formats, even going so far as to create an entire website based on a combination of sketches and written descriptions.

Originally, Google had planned an elaborate series of launch events spanning California, New York, and Washington. Regrettably, these events have been canceled due to concerns about Gemini’s responsiveness to non-English prompts. According to anonymous sources cited by The Information, Google’s Chief Executive, Sundar Pichai, personally decided to postpone the launch, acknowledging the importance of global support as a key feature of Gemini’s capabilities.

Gemini is expected to surpass the renowned ChatGPT, powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4 model, and preliminary private tests have shown promising results. Fueled by significantly enhanced computing power, Gemini has outperformed GPT-4, particularly in FLOPS (Floating Point Operations Per Second), owing to its access to a multitude of high-end AI accelerators through the Google Cloud platform.

SemiAnalysis, a research firm affiliated with Substack Inc., expressed in an August blog post that Gemini appears poised to “blow OpenAI’s model out of the water.” The extensive compute power at Google’s disposal has evidently contributed to Gemini’s superior performance.

Google’s Vice President and Manager of Bard and Google Assistant, Sissie Hsiao, offered insights into Gemini’s capabilities, citing examples like generating novel images in response to specific requests, such as illustrating the steps to ice a three-layer cake.

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While Google’s current generative AI offering, Bard, has showcased noteworthy accomplishments, it has struggled to achieve the same level of consumer awareness as ChatGPT. Gemini, with its unparalleled capabilities, is expected to be a game-changer, demonstrating impressive multimodal functionalities never seen before.

During the initial announcement at Google’s I/O developer conference in May, the company emphasized Gemini’s multimodal prowess and its developer-friendly nature. An application programming interface (API) is under development, allowing developers to seamlessly integrate Gemini into third-party applications.

As the world awaits the delayed unveiling of Gemini, the stakes are high, with Google aiming to revolutionize the AI landscape and solidify its position as a leader in generative artificial intelligence. The postponed launch only adds to the anticipation surrounding Gemini’s eventual debut in the coming year.

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