See Which Search Queries Trigger the “Install App” Button With Google Search Console by @mattsouthern | Dramel Notes

Google announced a change to Search Console today that will be of particular interest to webmasters with Android apps.

A new filter has been added to the Search Analytics report in Google Search Console, called Search Appearance. Within this view you can see which search queries caused Google to display the “install app” button for your website’s native app.

In addition, you can filter this information by country to see in what parts of the world your app is getting seen most in Google search.

It’s important to note that this filter is not capable of recording how many searchers actually went ahead and installed the app, it can only record how many times the “install app” button was seen.

According to Zineb Ait Bahajji on Twitter, this change will be rolled out worldwide to anyone using Search Console who also has a verified android app:

@jaaved Yes, it is rolled out globally, for all search console users who have an android app verified.

— Zineb Ait (@Missiz_Z) December 21, 2015

The information gained from this new filter can help web asters market their app more strategically based on how people are finding it in search.

Image Credit: rvlsoft / Shutterstock.com

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Google to Prioritize the Indexing of HTTPS Pages by @mattsouthern | Dramel Notes

Continuing its commitment to secure search, Google announced today it will index a site’s HTTPS pages by default, even if an HTTP equivalent exists.

Google’s goal, it explains, is to eventually have everyone landing on a webpage with a private connection. In an effort to accomplish that goal, Google will now index only HTTPS pages when there is an HTTP equivalent. HTTPS pages are now the priority when both are available.

This is certainly a huge step forward from just earlier this year when Google was outright asking for help with identifying and indexing HTTPS URLs. Now Google is able to find a site’s HTTPS URLs without any assistance.

This is not to be confused with the rankings boost given to HTTPS pages back in August 2014. This will not place HTTPS pages appear higher in the rankings than they already would. It simply means that, when crawling a site, Googlebot will index the HTTPS version of a URL if both an HTTP and HTTPS versions are available.

I’ve heard some say they think this means HTTPS will receive some kind of ranking priority over other URLs. That is not the case. Google is simply trying to index fewer HTTP pages when there are HTTPS versions of the same page.

“Browsing the web should be a private experience between the user and the website, and must not be subject to eavesdropping, man-in-the-middle attacks, or data modification. This is why we’ve been strongly promoting HTTPS everywhere.”

The rankings boost given to pages with HTTPS URLs is said to be slight. You can think of it as a tie-breaker — with all else being equal, an HTTPS page will have an edge over a non-HTTPS page

A milestone for HTTPS was reached this past June, when the search giant announced the top ten sites with the most search impressions are now all HTTPS.

Of course, correlation does not always equal causation, but it is still a milestone worth noting since it illustrates how far HTTPS migration has come. It will be interesting to see how much the search impressions for HTTPS pages increase following today’s announcement.

Image Credit: maxuser / Shutterstock.com

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Google to Roll Out Accelerated Mobile Pages to Everyone, Get Your Content Ready Now by @mattsouthern | Dramel Notes

Google announced its plans to roll out accelerated mobile pages in February 2016, following successful testing of the new technology.

The search giant first unveiled its AMP technology two months ago, touting it as an open-source content delivery platform that can load web pages instantly after being clicked on from a Google search.

Initially, this technology was tested with a select few publishers. Now, by late February, everyone will be able to take advantage of the new technology.

You don’t have to wait until then to get your content ready. You shouldn’t wait, either. According to Google’s John Mueller, this is going to be “next year’s hottest new website technology.”

Mueller also added that if you’re a web developer, you’re most certainly going to be asked about it. Whether you’re an SEO, a developer, or just website owner — it’s best to become acquainted with this new technology now and start implementing it.

Creating an Accelerated Mobile Page

To get started, create your first AMP page following the instructions and code provided by Google on this web page.

In the page linked to above, Google walks you through the simple steps of creating an AMP page. This consists of adding a piece of boilerplate code, adding a marked up image, and then styling the page using CSS.

When all your code and markup is in place, you can validate it using a tool provided by Google in the walkthrough. If the code validates, you can then publish your first AMP page.

From what I can tell, these are steps that will have to be followed for all content you wish to turn into AMP pages going forward. If you want a head start, you can start creating AMP pages now.

Google is encouraging publishers to get started as soon as possible, adding: “Content you publish to your sites today will be eligible to show up in the demo now, and soon in Google search.”

According to Mueller, a lot more information about the AMP project will be coming in the new year

Featured Image Credit: Ilin Sergey / Shutterstock.com

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How Web Hosting Can Impact Page Load Speed by @AdamRYP | Dramel Notes

As soon as Google announced that page load speed had been added to its ranking algorithms, page load speed became a buzzword in the SEO community. Unbelievably, that was over five years ago now.

Page speed continues to be a hot topic in the SEO and UX spaces, and rightfully so. Even after five years, there is still an abundance of inaccurate or incomplete advice available regarding page speed. In my opinion, one of the often-ignored page speed topics is web hosting. In this article, I’ll share some of the data and experience I’ve gained regarding how web hosting impacts page load speed.

The Real World Impact of Page Load Speed

While the realistic benefits of improving page load speed are sometimes overstated, there are very real benefits to speeding up your website’s pages.

SEO: Since page load speed is part of Google’s ranking algorithm, your website’s page load speed may have an impact on your Google rankings. The data on the specifics of this is confusing, though, and it seems likely that page load speed may be a very minor ranking factor.

For example, this study shows no correlation between page complete load times and Google rankings, but it did find a correlation for time to first byte. Another study also found no correlation between rankings and page load time. It seems likely that the impact of page load speed on rankings is very small, so as SEOs it’s important that we don’t present page load speed as a major factor in rankings.

UX: The impact of page load speed on users is likely much greater than its impact on Google rankings. Multiple studies have consistently documented the impact of page load speed on user experience – slow load times lead to user abandonment and decreased conversion rates. Scale does matter when discussing this benefit, though. An incremental improvement in conversion rate (which is huge for large e-retailers) may translate to a very small monetary benefit for websites with small traffic numbers.

Why Web Hosting is an Important Factor

When you browse to a website and load a webpage, you are essentially running programs on and opening files from a remote computer (the web server). The faster that remote computer is, the more quickly the webpage can be loaded. There are three basic tasks the web server has to complete:

1. Execute code: In many cases, the web server has to execute thousands of lines of code (for example, the PHP code that makes up WordPress) to render a single webpage. Just like opening a program on your computer takes time, it takes time to execute all this code on the web server.
2. Run database queries: For any CMS-based website, the website code will have to run database queries to retrieve the webpage content from a database (e.g. MySQL). A WordPress website may make 100+ database queries to render a single page.
3. Serve files: A typical webpage requires the web server to serve up dozens of files (images, CSS, Javascript, etc.). For example, loading the homepage of Amazon.com involves over 350 requests to the web server.

What Makes Some Web Hosting Packages Faster Than Others?

How do you pick out a web hosting package that will help improve your site’s page load speed? As it turns out, the factors that make a hosting package faster are very similar to the factors that make your own computer run faster:

• Dedicated resources: The first step is to choose a hosting plan that offers dedicated resources – this keeps other websites from hogging resources (e.g. processor and memory) from your website. Instead of choosing a shared hosting plan, choose a VPS or a dedicated server.
• More resources: Having more available processing power and memory means your server can execute requests more quickly. (Just upgrading from shared hosting to dedicated will usually give you significantly more available resources.)
• Faster hard drive: A solid state drive (SSD) loads files much faster than a standard hard drive, resulting in faster performance.
• Local resources: Having your database and other resources directly on the web server can help improve performance vs. these resources being on another server as with some shared hosting packages.

Below is an example shared hosting plan (from HostGator). Note, there are not dedicated resources (processor and memory).

Below is an example dedicated server (from KnownHost). Note that there are dedicated resources (processor and memory) but this plan doesn’t have an SSD. If you need more resources, just upgrade to a higher level.

How Much can Faster Web Hosting Improve Page Load Speeds?

Upgrading web hosting can have a significant impact on page load speed, especially for resource intensive (i.e. lots of code and database queries to execute) websites, such as Magento websites. My company recently completed a page load speed study that measured the impact of upgrading from a basic shared hosting plan to a VPS plan has on page load speed for a Magento website.

The results were dramatic – the VPS hosting offered a 62% improvement in page load speed:

Upgrading web hosting will have a smaller impact for websites that are less resource intensive or for websites that are already on relatively fast web hosting. I’ve found that upgrading web hosting has the greatest impact for Magento websites, but it delivers improvements for WordPress, Drupal, and other websites also. Upgrading web hosting can also deliver a significant speed boost if your website is loading slowly due to many users browsing the website simultaneously.

Time to First Byte

Remember the study I cited above that suggests “time to first byte” may be the page speed metric Google uses to influence rankings? Time to first byte isn’t influenced by front-end optimization tactics like minimizing Javascript or optimizing image files. This is another reason to upgrade your web hosting – a faster web server generally means a lower time to first byte.

Next time you’re optimizing a website to improve page load times, don’t stop with code optimization – consider whether you should upgrade the hosting to further improve performance!

Image Credits:
Screenshot captured from HostGator.com
Screenshot captured from KnownHost.com
Graph by 10x digital, my employer, used with permission

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For Only $39 You Can Get 1TB Of Cold Cloud Storage For Life | Dramel Notes

There has been a lot in the news in terms of Cloud storage lately, as Microsoft just announced that it’s reducing the amount of space offered with OneDrive.

Don’t let anyone take your storage from you! Just snag a lifetime subscription to Zoolz Cold Storage. It comes with 1TB of Cold space in the Cloud for life for just $39! That’s a lot of space for not a lot of money.

Buy: Zoolz Cold Storage: Lifetime Subscription

Zoolz Cold Storage Features

This is Cloud storage that’s meant for backing up incredibly large amounts of files. With 1TB, you’re essentially getting a standard HDD worth of storage that doesn’t have to sit on your drive.

What’s important to note about this service is that, unlike Dropbox and some other Cloud storage solutions, you can’t get access to the files stored here instantly. Instead, it will take between three and five hours to get the files. Basically, you’re meant to use this storage for backing up files that you want to keep forever, but that you don’t need to dig into every single day at a moment’s notice. The tradeoff is that you get far more space than with other services.

There are tons of useful features offered as part of this deal. You can set up backup schedules, so you can make sure your files are regularly uploaded and stored. You don’t want to lose anything by forgetting to upload, it and having them scheduled will prevent you from making a big mistake!

If data usage and stealing all of your Internet speed while a backup is in progress, don’t worry, because Zoolz offers a convenient bandwidth throttling feature. This is controller by you, so there’s no built-in limit, but you can slow it down as needed.

Of course, if you’re going to send 1TB of data into the Cloud, you want to make sure it’s not going to get lost. Thankfully, Zoolz stores data across multiple locations, so if something catastrophic happens, you won’t have to worry about your data disappearing.

Unlike a lot of other cold Cloud storage solutions, Zoolz is very easy to use. You don’t need to learn to code or deal with an API. You just install the program, setup your backups, and then relax knowing your stuff is safe and secure. It doesn’t get much easier than that!

Hurry, Only Available For A Limited Time

You can only sign up for this deal for a little while, so if you need to store a large amount of data in the Cloud, this is a deal you can’t miss. We’re talking about a lot of storage for a very low price, so don’t let this one slip away!

Buy: Zoolz Cold Storage: Lifetime Subscription

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Snapchat Now Allowing Some Publishers to ‘Deep Link’ To Their Content by @dantosz | Dramel Notes

Snapchat might be getting a lot more useful for brands looking to reach younger consumers.

Snapchat recently announced it will allow Discover Channel partners to link directly to their content on the platform using deep links. This means publishers such as Hearst, IGN, Vox, BuzzFeed, CNN, and Vice will be able to post links on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter that will take users directly to their Snapchat profiles and posts.

In a statement to Digiday, Snapchat stated:

“We are launching Snapcode deep-linking for Discover Channels, creating another way for partners to publicize their great content. Snapcodes are scannable codes that link directly to content on Snapchat.”

Previously, publishers were unable to share links to Snapchat content outside of the app itself, which tended to keep that content insulated from outside interactions. Instead, publishers were stuck using third-party tools if they wanted to share their Snapchat content on other platforms.

This change means publishers will now be able to drive users directly to their content on Snapchat, or to a page to download the app if they don’t already have it installed.

This shift could result in a huge change in how brands use Snapchat.

According to Digiday: 

“The link…is key because it gives publishers another outlet for measuring user engagement with their Snapchat videos and articles. Users will be able to share the social posts with their friends. They also can like and comment on them, actions not available on Snapchat, where there is little insight into the viewer mindset.”

Currently, this feature appears to only be available to Snapchat Discover Partners, a group of 16 publishers who receive special promotions through the app.

Featured Image: 360b / Shutterstock.com

 

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Raspberry Pi Launches $5 Model Zero: Here’s How It Compares | Dramel Notes

Yet again, the Raspberry Pi foundation has surprised the world. They just announced the Raspberry Pi Zero. But don’t let the name fool you. It’s essentially a cut-down Raspberry Pi, with a price tag to match: each one costs a mere $5. And no, that isn’t a typo.

So, is it any good? What can it do? What compromises were made in order to get it at such a low price point. And more importantly, how can you get one? Read on to find out all these things, and more.

What’s Inside?

Although there are some pretty significant differences compared to the mainstream Raspberry Pi lineup, it feels deeply familiar.

In terms of cold hard specifications, there’s very little that stands out compared to earlier models. It comes soldered with 512MB of RAM, plus a slightly wheezy 1Ghz ARM CPU and 40 GPIO (General-Purpose Input Output) ports. It can run Scratch and Minecraft, and it supports a broad church of Linux distributions, including Fedora, NOOBS (a beginner-oriented Linux distro), and the Raspberry Pi fan favorite, Raspbian. It’s even made in the same factory as the Raspberry Pi B+ and Raspberry Pi 2 in Bridgend, Wales.

This is very much a Raspberry Pi at its core. But there’s some really major differences that set it apart. I’m not just talking about its diminutive price either, although that in itself is groundbreaking.

Admittedly a little bit obvious, it’s worth stressing how unfathomably tiny the Raspberry Pi Zero is. It measures 30mm (3cm) by 65mm (6.5cm), making it roughly the same size as a box of matches. It’s hard to believe that a fully Linux-capable machine can occupy such a small physical footprint.

Despite that, it’s compatible with most Raspberry Pi-based Internet of Things (IoT) projects. Make Magazine tested it with their pirate radio station project, and it worked with a minimum of changes.

Of course, it goes without saying that a number of compromises were made in order to make the Raspberry Pi Zero so small, and so affordable.

What’s Missing?

Perhaps the most conspicuous absences are the lack of wired networking and analog audio-out. If you want to get online, you’re going to need to connect a USB Wi-Fi dongle over the built-in MicroUSB connection. Similarly, if you’ve got any hopes of listening to music on your Raspberry Pi Zero, you’ll need to pipe it through the mini-HDMI port. This means your monitor will need to have built-in speakers.

The official Raspberry Pi store sells a bundle that consists of a mini-HDMI and MicroUSB adaptor. This will set you back £4, or about $7. Although you can just as easily get each of these products on Amazon individually for roughly the same price, give or take a few dollars.

But these are minor inconveniences. Especially when you put them next to the decision to use the Broadcom BCM2835 processor.

This is the same processor that shipped with every model before the Raspberry Pi 2, although it’s clocked at 1Ghz, rather than 700Mhz. The Achilles heel of this processor is that it uses the same tired ARMv6 instruction set, which is only supported on a handful of Linux distributions. Ubuntu, unfortunately, is not one of them. It also means that it can’t run Microsoft’s Windows 10 for IoT Core.

Are There Any Competitors?

I’m calling it: the Raspberry Pi Zero is almost certainly the cheapest Linux computer on the planet. That said, there are similarly low-priced alternatives that are equally worthy of consideration.

Perhaps the most obvious one is the CHIP computer, which bills itself as the world’s first $9 Linux Computer.

The CHIP was a kickstarter phenomenon, raising $2,000,000 over the course of just one month. It shares a lot of similarities with the Raspberry Pi Zero, measuring 40mm (4cm) by 60mm (6cm), and boasts similar specs, packing in a 1Ghz Allwinner CPU, 512MB of RAM, and 4GB of internal storage. Unlike the Pi Zero, it comes with built-in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, making it a much more attractive proposition for those looking for a day-to-day computer.

If you plan to use the Raspberry Pi Zero to teach coding or in a classroom environment, you owe it to yourself to check out the BBC’s MicroBit.

This diminutive computer distinctly resembles the form factor of the Raspberry Pi Zero. It comes with oodles of GPIO, and support for the Python programming language, although it’s by no means a general purpose computing platform. The only apps it supports are the ones written for it by the user. Each Year 7 pupil in the UK will be given one for free, before they’re eventually available for purchase by the general public. When it’s released, it’ll likely compete with the Raspberry Pi Zero on price, although definitely not on features.

This is to say nothing of the startling number of single-board Linux computers on the market right now – from the PandaBoard, to the Banana Pi, and the ODROID. But none of these are nearly as affordable as the Raspberry Pi Zero. This piece of kit really is in a class of its own.

Where to Get One

You shouldn’t have much trouble getting your hands on a Raspberry Pi Zero. In the UK, it’s available to purchase from element14, The Pi Hut, and Pimoroni. If you live in the US, you can get one from Adafruit and the Micro Center.

Better yet, if you live in the UK, you can get a free unit with the December edition of The MagPi, available in stores right now. You heard me right. A free computer with a magazine.

Way back when I used to compile magazine CD-ROMs. Now we get this; a computer on the cover. pic.twitter.com/2K5pK8D7vE

— Simon Le Gros Bisson (@sbisson) November 26, 2015

Will You Get One?

The Raspberry Pi Zero is a compelling piece of kit, and offers a lot of bang for your (five) bucks. But do you plan to get one? Let me know in the comments below, and we’ll chat.

Photo Credits: Raspberry Pi Zero GPIO Soldering Project (Gareth Halfacre), Raspberry Pi Zero GPIO Soldering Project (Gareth Halfacre)

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