Amazon Games’ latest MMO New World is a hot commodity, with queues as long as up to 469 hours. But there’s trouble brewing in this New World, as the title is still frying graphics cards – and this time it’s not just EVGA RTX 3090 cards
According to multiple online reports on the game’s subreddit, it seems other GPU models have been suffering the same fate. Some examples include the RTX 3080 Ti, RTX 3080, RTX 3060 Ti, and the RTX 3000 laptop GPU. Even some AMD users have been complaining of overheating and crashing issues with their Sapphire 5700 XT models, though there doesn’t seem to be any reports of them fully breaking down like their Nvidia counterparts.
These GPU breakdowns were first attributed to a soldering issue found with Nvidia’s most powerful model, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090, as complications such as the framerate skyrocketing in the main menu and extremely long wait times both resulting in massive overheating. EVGA even conducted its own investigation and verified them to be victims of “poor workmanship,” and replaced any models broken by New World.
Amazon Games so far hasn’t commented on the issues at this time. Originally the company suggested players troubleshoot the initial problem by using an FPS limiter in the game’s menu. Now that the situation has been exacerbated, Reddit users have suggested players use their own FPS limiter tools such as the Rivatuner Statistics Server, which is a part of MSI Afterburner.
Currently, the only way to remedy an already broken GPU is to contact the manufacturer and arrange for a replacement. We’ve reached out to Amazon and Nvidia for comment on this issue, and we’ll update this story if and when we hear anything.
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Read on for our detailed analysis of each platform
The popularity of blogging (which originally derives from ‘personal web log’) continues, whether for profit, or just to have a voice on the web, since over a decade ago when it first captured the internet as the ‘next big thing’. Some blogs are standalone sites, but others are a more personal section that fits into a larger, corporate website.
In order to blog, a blogging platform is required, which takes care of formatting the content in the form of text and images, and provides a framework for getting it onto a website. The blogging platform also makes it easier for a search engine to categorize the blog entries, and to be able to take advantage of marketing and advertising opportunities.
So before you start cranking out posts, and welcoming your virtual visitors from around the world, you need to choose the best blogging platform to suit your needs. Check out these great options.
Ask any old-time blogger about what platform they started their blog with, and chances are they'll answer that it was Blogger. To this day, Google’s offering in the blogging space still retains several advantages, including that your existing Google account already means you have a Blogger account.
A broke startup blog will appreciate that it is free to use, and it will even provide the blogspot.com domain name, as well as the option for a custom domain name. It is also one of the easier platforms to use, and provides a choice of templates that can be flexibly modified.
As it is a Google offering, it easily integrates with other Google products, including Google Analytics that can provide information about your website’s visitors that should be used to help grow traffic. Also, your blog can be integrated with Google’s Adsense, that will analyze your content, and display relevant ads to monetize your blog, so you can pay for the coffee as you sit in Starbucks and blog into the night.
With all that going for it, is there any reason not to use Blogger? Well, the problem is that as your blog grows, its simplicity means that you may outgrow Blogger at some point. In addition, it can be difficult to transition from Blogger to another platform.
WordPress is a popular blogging platform which is used on a claimed 41% of web sites, that offers an excellent balance between ease of use, and more powerful options.
They can handle all the details, and take care of the domain name, the security and the hosting for a one stop shopping option. WordPress offers hundreds of themes, with flexibility in fonts and options for a custom look. They also offer expert support, and credit card payments can be accepted via an available plugin.
Pricing starts at the Personal plan for $4 (€3.6, £3.1) monthly billed annually, which removes all WordPress advertising. There is also a free tier available, which is suitable for a non-commercial blog as there is WordPress advertising and no way you can monetize it.
The Ruby-based blog generator with tons of advanced features
Free cost
Advanced feature set
Not user friendly
Requires knowledge of Ruby
The latest version of Jekyll (4.2.1) is a “simple, blog-aware, static site generator.” Content gets created in TXT files, which get placed into folders. Then you build your site via Liquid language templates. Jekyll then merges the content and the template together, and voila, a website is generated that can be uploaded to a server. For those that need a host, there is integration with Jekyll to host the website for free on GitHub.
While there is a comprehensive ‘quick-start guide’ on the Jekyll website, it hardly offers the simplicity of some competing blogging platforms that can do this all from a web interface. However, the benefits that Jekyll offers are the advanced features, which include options for paginating posts, available plugins, excerpt rendering, templates, and community maintained themes. It also supports blog migration from other platforms.
The plus here is that there is no cost to the platform, but the downside is that there is only community support, and the work takes place in the Ruby development environment, so many newbies will be put off.
While some blogs are well developed, and blur the line between a blog, and a full fledged website, at the other end of things we have Tumblr. It seems to be doing something right as it claims a staggering 500+ million different blogs.
It focuses on the more concise end of the spectrum, with an emphasis on shorter content, like just an image, or link, that can appear as more of an alternate social media platform. Content is definitely more short-form, with posts consisting of a variety of material, for example, pics, jokes, quips, Spotify tracks, and video (just remember that adult content is no longer welcome). Like a social media platform, you can also follow other blogs, and republish posts you like to your own blog.
The pro is that Tumblr is quite simple to use, costs nothing, and is ideal for use on a mobile device. However, this is not ideal for a more developed blog, as the content remains in the Tumblr ecosystem, and there is no way to monetize it.
Typepad is a fully developed blogging platform, designed for the professional blogger. It offers a ton of flexibility, including the ability to publish from email, a web browser, or mobile. It also easily integrates with Google Analytics, and has its own affiliate plan.
Typepad supports design customization with a Theme Builder for a custom look, and the option for creating your own custom template or modifying a theme with custom CSS. Typepad is also fully hosted, and has support available.
After the initial 14-day trial, plans start at $8.95 (£8) per month for up to four blogs with unlimited storage.
Currently, Typepad is not accepting new users. Instead the company refers new users toBluehost.
The best budget gaming PCs are not only significantly cheaper than more expensive builds out there, they're more than capable of getting great gaming performance for the vast majority of the best PC games out there, even if they might not be able to crank every setting all the way up to 11.
Some even come with some of the best cheap processors and best budget graphics cards, which saves a ton of money while still giving you a solid amount of performance for both everyday computing needs as well as serious PC gaming.
And with the best processors and best graphics cards currently being almost impossible to get your hands on right now thanks to a host of ongoing issues, getting the best budget gaming PC now could be a great choice that can let you upgrade later when better components become more available on the market.
That upgradability definitely gives a budget gaming PC a step up above even the best all-in-one computers that you can't build upon once the components start to age and the system's performance starts to become obsolete in the future.
Most importantly, most users – and even most PC gamers – don't actually need the absolute best gaming PC money can buy to enjoy PC gaming, since even the latest AAA games on PC will have a host of performance settings that can dial things back to what your PC might be capable of.
And sure, something like Cyberpunk 2077 isn't going to look as good as possible on even the best budget gaming PC, but honestly, it probably doesn't have to for you to enjoy the game. What's more, some of the best Steam games aren't as resource-intensive as they were in the past, so you can still enjoy the latest titles along with everyone else, as well as all the best cheap PC games out there from indie studios.
We definitely understand that you'll want to make the right choice when making your purchase though, since getting a gaming PC for cheap is only a smart decision if that PC is actually good enough to use. Buying a crappy system that can't run anything isn't a good purchase no matter how much money you save. Don't worry though, we're here to help you find the best budget gaming PC for your needs and budget so you don't have to stress about whether you're buying a lemon.
Although the Acer Predator Orion 3000’s higher configurations are out of most budget gamers’ price range, its base configuration is very much accessible, sitting at under $1,000. There’s still very much to love here, however, that GTX 1660 graphics card is still an excellent 1080p gaming contender even in the RTX 3000 world. Its RGB lighting and cooling solution only add to its value.
The Omen 25L’s rectangular black metal design isn’t going to turn heads anytime soon. That’s at least offset by its glass panel, but only barely. However, if you’re not too concerned about looks, this is among the best budget gaming PCs to hit the shelves in 2021 that won’t make a sizable dent in your bank account. With AMD configurations on hand, it’s perfect for AMD-leaning gamers. But, those that are loyal to Nvidia’s RTX line can partake as well, as you can configure it to have up to an RTX 2070 Super GPU. Still, it’s the price we can’t get over here – kitted out, the Omen 25L costs as much as many of the premium gaming PCs in their mid-range configuration. Only, this one’s got more memory and a lot more storage capacity.
(Image credit: MSI)
3. MSI Trident 3 9th
A great performer
CPU: up to 9th-generation Intel Core i7 | Graphics: up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Super | RAM: up to 16GB | Storage: up to 1TB
Lots of power
Compact
Come with bloated software
If looking good matters to you as much as power, then you might love the MSI Trident 3 9th, especially if you’re partial to a gaming-leaning aesthetic. It’s not all looks either. This small gaming PC touts plenty of power under the hood for less than its rivals, with 9th-generation Intel Core processors and the best Nvidia RTX and GTX graphics. It’s even cheaper than many of the gaming PCs on this list, with its Intel Core i7 + RTX 2060 Super +16GB RAM configuration setting you back much less than a HP Omen 25L with equivalent specs. If you’re trying to maximize your limited space and budget, this is the best budget gaming PC for you.
(Image credit: HP)
4. HP Pavilion Gaming Desktop
Great for work and play
CPU: up to AMD Ryzen 7 | Graphics: up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Super | RAM: up to 16GB | Storage: up to 1TB HDD + 512GB SSD
Excellent value
Productivity-friendly aesthetic
Specs aren’t future-proof
Trimming that gamer aesthetic look to the barest minimum, the HP Pavilion Gaming Desktop fits just at home in any office as it does in someone’s game room. So, if you’re looking for a machine on which you can both play and work, this is just the ticket – giving you even more savings. It isn’t going to be a kitted out machine, although if you shell out a little more for the higher configurations, you can score one with an RTX 3060. However, its lower configurations should be capable enough to see you through 1080p gaming.
Base models won’t get you through the most demanding games
A unique chassis coupled with a price to beat, Dell’s latest in its G series gaming PCs is a solid contender as among the best budget gaming PCs out there. The Dell G5 boasts 9th-generation Intel chips as well as Nvidia’s most powerful gaming GTX and RTX graphics cards, starting with an i3 processor and the GTX 1650 to handle many powerful games without burning a whole in your pocket. Of course, if you’ve got more case to spare, its VR ready configurations are also on hand, though even those are absolutely affordable.
Can get pretty pricey at the highest configurations
Intel’s NUC has come a long way from its humble beginnings. For example, while the previous Hades Canyon didn’t come with a RAM or storage, the newer Ghost Canyon has both. In fact, not only does it have more offerings now in terms of specs, but it’s also highly configurable so you can personalize it to your liking before hitting that buy button. With 9th-generation Intel Core chips, up to 64GB of memory and up to 4TB dual storage, we’re all for it. The only catch is that it's pricier now as well. The lower configurations are still quite affordable, however, and among the best budget gaming PCs for the budget-conscious.
How to Buy the Best Budget Gaming PC
Is it cheaper to build or buy PC?
It is always going to be more expensive to build a budget gaming PC than it will be to buy one, since manufacturers will get OEM pricing on components, which will really make a difference on the lower end of the price scale.
But pre-built PCs are often built with the careful mix of components to maximize performance at that price point. This often means that if you want to upgrade one component, you might need to upgrade other components along with it, which can make upgrading the PC a more expensive proposition down the road.
Is a $500 gaming PC worth it?
It depends on what you mean by "worth it." What you want to play and at what kind of performance and quality settings is going to make a major difference on whether a $500 gaming PC is up to the task.
If your primary goal is to play modern AAA titles at 1080p at reasonable settings at a reasonable frames per second (averaging 30 or more fps), then a $500 gaming PC can probably give you that and possibly a bit more, depending on the game.
If you want to play something at 4K with 60 fps, then no, you're probably better off buying a PS5 or Xbox Series X|S, assuming you can find one at MSRP.
The best SEO tools make it simpler and easier to ensure that your website is optimized for performance, as well as manage and monitor your search engine rankings.
The best SEO tools
Click the links below to go to the provider's website:
At its heart, SEO (Search Engine Optimization) developed as an extension to web accessibility by following HTML4 guidelines, in order to help better identify the purpose and content of a document.
This meant ensuring that web pages had unique page titles that properly reflected their content, as well as keyword headings to highlight the content of individual pages, and that other tags were treated the same accordingly.
This was necessary, not least because web developers were often only focused on coding issues rather than the user experience, let alone following web publishing guidelines.
This slowly changed as it became increasingly known that search engines used these "on-page" signals to provide their "Search Engine Results Pages" (SERPs) - and that there was an advantage to ranking higher on these to tap into free and natural organic traffic.
The internet has evolved a lot since those early days, and major search engines such as Google now process far more "off page" information when determining their search results, not least by using semantic processing, collating user data, and applying neural networks for the machine learning of patterns, trends, and personal preferences.
Even still, the core ideals of SEO remain the same as they always have - that of ensuring pages have the correct tags for targeting keywords, not just for natural search results, but also for PPC (Pay Per Click) and other marketing campaigns, where call-to-action (CTA) and conversion rates are essential indicators of success. Google has underlined this recently with its Core Web Vitals, to signal that basic fundamentals remain essential.
But how does a business know which keywords to target on its sales pages? How does a website filter transactional traffic from general site visitors? And how can that business increase its ability to capture targeted traffic from across the internet? Here we list the best SEO tools to help do exactly that.
Advanced SEO tools, all accessible from a masterful dashboard
Analyze competitors' metrics
Informative robust dashboard
Comprehensive toolset
Uses some complicated terminology
SEMrush SEO toolkit offers a fully comprehensive set of SEO tools. You can view detailed keyword analysis reports as well as a summary of any domains you manage.
More crucially, the SEO toolkit allows you to compare the performance of your pages to see how you rank against the competition. For instance, you can analyze backlinks from other websites to yours. (this process is sometimes called 'link building').
Traffic analytics helps to identify your competitors' principle sources of web traffics, such as the top referring sites. This enables you to drill down to the fine details of how both your and your competitors' sites measure up in terms of average session duration and bounce rates. Additionally, "Traffic Sources Comparison" gives you an overview of digital marketing channels for a bunch of rivals at once. For those new to SEO slang 'bounce rates' are the percentage of visitors who visit a website then leave without accessing any other pages on the same site.
The domain overview does much more than provide a summation of your competitors' SEO strategies. You can also detect specific keywords they've targeted as well as access the relative performance of your domains on both desktop and mobile devices.
SEMrush has received many positive mentions online but has been critiqued for use of SEO jargon such as 'SERP' which may alienate inexperienced users. A 'Pro' subscription costs $119.95 per month which includes access to all SEO tools.
Over time, SEMrush added a few more tools to its offerings: a writer marketplace, a traffic-boosting tool, a tool set for agencies and even a white-glove service for PR agencies.
A full SEO suite with good price points and great web index
Huge web link index
Extensive documentation, tutorials, and knowledgeable user support
Advanced filtering tools for power users
No mobile apps
API integration could be improved
Since its initial release in 2011, Ahrefs has quickly become one of the most popular SEO tools on the market, and it is used by web developers and content creators around the world to grow their online presence.
Ahrefs boasts the largest backlink index of top SEO tools, with over 295 billion indexed pages and more than 16 trillion backlinks. Throw in an upgraded keywords explorer, tools for monitoring the competition, plus a serious amount of user documentation, and Ahrefs may be the tool you need to rank better and increase traffic.
Ahrefs comes with all the tools you need to explore and grow your online presence. A central dashboard gives you an overview of your projects’ ranking, traffic, and backlinking. From the landing page, you can easily access each of the five core Ahrefs elements, outlined below.
Ahrefs boasts a number of powerful features that help set it apart, including a proprietary web crawler second only to Google in size and speed. While price points are broadly aligned with those of similar products, best-in-class link analysis, powerful research tools, and knowledgeable user support help make Ahrefs one of the best options for understanding and improving your domain’s online presence.
Moz Pro is a platform of SEO tools that aim to help you increase traffic, rankings, and visibility across search engine results.
Key tools include the ability to audit your own site using the Moz Pro spider, which should highlight potential issues and recommend actionable insights. There's also the ability to track your site rankings over hundreds or even thousands of keywords per website.
There's also a keyword research tool to help determine which keywords and keyword combinations may be the best for targeting, and there's also a backlink analysis tool that mixes a combination of metrics including anchor text in links as well as estimated domain authority.
Pricing for Moz Pro begins at $99 per month for the Standard plan which covers the basic tools. The Medium plan offers a wider range of features for $179 per month and a free trial is available. Note that plans come with a 20% discount if paid for annually. Additional plans are available for agency and enterprise needs, and there are additional paid-for tools for local listings and STAT data analysis.
Even if you don't sign up to Moz Pro, a number of free tools are available. There's also a huge supporting community ready to offer help, advice, and guidance across the breadth of search marketing issues.
Majestic SEO tools has consistently received praise from SEO veterans since its inception in 2011. This also makes it one of the oldest SEO tools available today.
The tools main focus is on backlinks, which represent links between one website and another. This has a significant influence on SEO performance and as such, Majestic has a huge amount of backlink data.
Users can search both a 'Fresh Index' which is crawled and updated throughout the day, in addition to an 'Historic Index' which has been praised online for its lightning retrieval speed. One of the most popular features is the 'Majestic Million' which displays a ranking of the top 1 million websites.
The 'Lite' version of Majestic costs $50 per month and incorporates useful features such as a bulk backlink checker, a record of referring domains, IP's and subnets as well as Majestic's integrated 'Site Explorer'. This feature which is designed to give you an overview of your online store has received some negative comments due to looking a little dated. Majestic also has no Google Analytics integration.
Comes with advanced tools that beginners may not need
Data overkill can be difficult to sort through.
SpyFu is a search analytics company that scrapes the internet for data that is used to identify the keywords that companies and websites purchase using Google AdWords. SpyFu also matches search results with search terms so that companies have more insight into the types of searches and strings of words for which they appear on Google’s Search Engine Results Page (SERP).
SpyFu essentially allows you to ‘spy’ on your competitors by helping you pinpoint the keywords your competitors purchase for online advertising and by singling out the words and phrases that generate the most traffic. In this way, you can keep a step ahead of other companies or services working in your industry and attract more traffic to your own sites.
SpyFu has three different plans. The basic plan costs $33 per month and comes with 250 sales leads and domain contacts as well as 5,000 weekly tracked keyword rankings. This plan is best suited to new startups and small companies with a limited online footprint.
Few products come close to providing the depth and functionality you get with SpyFu. It is priced below its main competitors, is easy to use, and can be customized to your needs. It provides all of the PPC, SEO, and keyword research tools anyone from a big company to a small startup would need and is a highly effective and well-designed application.
SEO Spider is an effective web crawler but the free version is slightly limited
Used by industry leaders
Excellent crawling features
Limited free version
SEO Spider was originally created in 2010 by the euphemistically named "Screaming Frog". This rowdy reptile's clients include major players like Disney, Shazam and Dell.
One of the most attractive feature of SEO Spider is its ability to perform a quick search of URL's, as well as crawl your site to check for broken pages. This saves you the trouble of manually clicking each link to rule out '404 errors'.
The tool also allows you to check for pages with missing title tags, duplicated meta tags, tags of the wrong length, as well as check the number of links placed on each page
There is both a free and paid version of SEO Spider. The free version contains most basic features such as crawling redirects but this is limited to 500 URLs. This makes the 'Lite' version of SEO Spider suitable only for smaller domains. The paid version is $180 per year and includes more advanced features as well as free tech support.
Although we've highlighted the best paid-for SEO tools out there, a number of websites offer more limited tools that are free to use. Here we'll look at the best free SEO tools available.
(Image credit: Google)
1. Google Search Console
Who better than the search giant Google to improve your SEO?
Ideal for beginners
Easy access to key metrics
Free support
Google Search Console (GSC) is an excellent way for newbie webmasters to get started with SEO.
Even if you're not headstrong on SEO, whatever the size of your site or blog, Google's laudable Search Console (formerly Webmaster Central) and the myriad user-friendly tools under its bonnet should be your first port of call.
The suite of tools gives you valuable information about your site at a glance: it can assess your site's performance and observe potential problems to troubleshoot (like negative spammy links), help you ensure your site is Google-friendly and monitor Google's indexing of your site.
You can even report spam and request reconsideration if your site has incurred a penalty. Plus, if you don't refer to their Webmaster Guidelines now and again, well, you've only yourself to blame if you go wrong. Search Console is constantly updated, and new features are on the way, such as new URL inspection tool or the new sitemaps report.
Help is available via the Webmasters Help Community, a place for webmaster's to connect and share troubleshooting and performance tips. Since the end of 2020, Google migrated its disavow link tool to Search Console and has also updated its Outdated Content tool.
Knowing the right keywords to target is all-important when priming your web copy. Google's free keyword tool, part of Google Ads, couldn't be easier to use. Plug your website URL into the box, start reviewing the suggested keywords and off you go. Jill Whalen, CEO of HighRankings.com is a fan and offers advice to those new to keyword optimization: "make sure you use those keywords within the content of your website."
However, while useful for keyword research purposes it's important to realize the numbers provided are approximations rather than exact figures, and intended to provide a guide to popularity rather than exact real-time search volume.
(Image credit: Google)
3. Google Optimize
Free
A/B Split testing platform
Not as feature-rich as rivals
Not for beginners
Yet another Google tool on that list (not a surprise isn’t it). Google Optimize is not for the faint hearted and will make even seasoned SEO experts uncomfortable. SEO isn't all about rankings and without the right balance of content that engages with your visitors and drives conversions, you're earnest optimization could be wasted.
Google’s free service helps take the guesswork out of the game, allowing you to test your site's content: from simple A/B testing of two different pages to comparing a whole combination of elements on any given page. Personalization features are also available to spice things up a bit. Note that in order to run some of the more complicated multivariate testing, you will need adequate traffic and time to make the results actionable, just as you do with Analytics.
(Image credit: SEOQuake)
4. SEOquake
Popular SEO toolbar extension
View multiple search parameters
Save and compare projects
Traffic history trended on a graph
Cheat sheet and diagnostics page
SEOquake is one of the most popular toolbar extensions. It allows you to view multiple search engine parameters on the fly and save and compare them with the results obtained for other projects. Although the icons and numbers that SEOquake yields might be unintelligible to the uninformed user, skilled optimizers will appreciate the wealth of detail this add-on provides.
Gauge details about number of visitors and their country, get a site's traffic history trended on a graph, and more. The toolbar includes buttons for a site's Google index update, backlinks, SEMRush ranking, Facebook likes, Bing index, Alexa ranks, web archive age and a link to the Whois page. There’s also a useful cheat sheet and diagnostics page to have a bird’s view of potential issues (or opportunities) affecting a particular page or site.
What is an SEO crawler?
An SEO crawler can help you discover and fix issues that are preventing search engines from accessing and crawling your site. It remains an essential yet elusive tool in the arsenal of any good SEO expert. We caught up with Julia Nesterets, the founder of SEO crawler Jetoctopus to understand what exactly an SEO crawler and why is it so important.
If you are a webmaster or SEO professional, this is probably the most heartbreaking message you may receive. Sometimes Google’s bots may ignore your content and SEO efforts and avoid indexing your page. But the good news is that you can fix this issue!
Search engines were designed to crawl, understand, and organize online content to deliver the best and most relevant results to users. Anything getting in the way of this process can negatively affect a website’s online visibility. Therefore, making your website crawlable is one the primary goals and can highlight any issues you have with your web hosting service provider.
By improving your site’s crawlability you can help search engine bots understand what your pages are about and by that leverage your Google ranking. So how can an SEO crawler help?
1. It offers real-time feedback. An SEO crawler can quickly crawl your website (some crawls as fast as 200 pages per second) to show any issues it gives. The reports analyzes the URL, site architecture, HTTP status code, broken links, details of redirect chains and meta robots, rel-canonical URLs, and other SEO issues. These reports can be easily exported and referred to for further action by the technical SEO and development teams. Thus, using an SEO crawler is the best way to ensure your team is up to date on your website crawling status.
2. It identifies indexing errors early. Indexing errors like 404 errors, duplicate title tags, duplicate meta descriptions, and duplicate content, often go unnoticed as they aren’t easy to locate. Using an SEO crawler can help you spot such issues during routine SEO audits, allowing you to avoid bigger problems in the future.
3. It tells you where to start! Deriving insights from all available reports may be intimidating for any SEO professional. Therefore, it’s wise to choose an SEO crawler which is problem-centric and helps you prioritize issues. A good crawler should make it possible for webmasters to concentrate on the main problems by estimating their scale. That way, webmasters can keep fixing critical issues in a timely manner.
How do Google SEO spiders work and many more backlink questions
An SEO crawler can help you discover and fix issues that are preventing search engines from accessing and crawling your site. It remains an essential yet elusive tool in the arsenal of any good SEO expert. We caught up with Julia Nesterets, the founder of SEO crawlerJetoctopusto understand what exactly an SEO crawler, why is it so important and a bevy of questions about backlinks in general.
Google’s SEO spiders are programmed to collect information from webpages and send it to the algorithms responsible for indexing and evaluating content quality. The spiders crawl the URLs systematically. Simultaneously, they refer to the robots.txt file to check whether they are allowed to crawl any specific URL.
Once spiders finish crawling old pages and parsing their content, they check if a website has any new pages and crawl them. In particular, if there are any new backlinks or the webmaster has updated the page in the XML sitemap, Googlebots will add it to their list of URLs to be crawled.
So is it worth retrospectively adding backlinks? It’s worth adding backlinks to content that was posted a while ago, especially if a page is high-quality and on the same subject. This will also help preserve the equity of that page.
Is there a hierarchy ofbacklinks? Technically, there is no hierarchy of backlinks, as we can’t structure and scale them the way we want. However, we can increase the quality of backlinks based on several criteria like:
Anchor text relevance
Relevance and quality of a linking page
Linking domain quality
IP address
Link clicks and a linking website traffic
Few links on the linking webpage
The links of highest quality have relevant keywords in the anchor text and come from trustworthy websites. But again, there are no hard and fast rules on how Google evaluates backlinks. Some backlinks can still be of proper quality even if they don’t fulfill these parameters.
How often should a site audit links?
Though there’s no right or wrong way of auditing links, there are a few pointers to bear in mind when determining the frequency.
If your website has a long history of inorganic link building, it’s wise to do a monthly disavow.
In most cases, a quarterly audit is recommended. It allows webmasters to keep a website’s link profile clean and track new backlinks pointing.
Links on a website that has been growing ethically and isn’t in a competitive domain can be checked half-yearly as the risk of the negative SEO is low.
Consider a website with hundreds of old, very low traffic pages with no links (e.g. eCommerce/news). Is it worth either 301 these pages to relevant key hubs or update the page with backlinks to the relevant key hubs without updating the dates?
In such a case, choose the pages with the best content and update them. Set up 301 redirects for the pages you do not want your audience to see and point them to the relevant key hubs. The key term here is ‘relevant.’ The 301 redirects should point to thematically relevant hubs. Otherwise, Google will treat them as soft 404s.
Are social media backlinks any good in 2021?
Most webmasters may feel that social media backlinks are pointless primarily because they are Nofollow links that do not impact SEO. However, social signals are an important ranking factor for Google. People are constantly clicking on links they see in their newsfeeds. If you offer great content, then this can be a great advantage for you. That’s why, do not ignore social backlinks.
Can adverts impact your SEO negatively?
When you think of SEO, you generally don’t think of ads, and with good reason. Eric Hochberger, Co-Founder and CEO of full service ad management company Mediavine, explains to us the love-hate relationship between these two entities.
By definition, advertising runs counter to the goals of SEO optimization, a process which relies on publisher content and user experience. However, as an ad management company that originated as an SEO marketing firm, we work to find the perfect balance, ensuring the two can coexist. Yes, you can run high-performing ads and still rank well in search engines thanks to the right ad tech. It’s not an either-or scenario, and here’s why:
The first key feature is lazy loading. When a website employs lazy loading, ads only load on a webpage as a user scrolls to them. Meaning, if a user doesn’t scroll to a certain screen view, the ads don’t exist on the page. This function extremely lightens the page load. A lighter page means faster loading which leads to better SEO.
Complying with the Coalition for Better Ads (CBA)standards is critical to SEO because the CBA is what Google uses to power its built-in Chrome Ad Filtering and its Ad Experience Report in Google Search Console (its main SEO tool). There’s a misconception that the number of ads affects SEO, but it’s actually the density. The CBA provides comprehensive insight regarding appropriate ad-to-content ratios for both mobile and desktop.
Lastly, reducing above the fold (ATF) ads, or ads that appear in the first screen view, is huge for both page speed and SEO. If an ad isn’t loading in the first screen view, the site will appear to load faster (how Google measures it), since users don’t notice when an ad loads if it’s below the fold.
Which leads me to this - you’ll often hear that SEO follows user experience. Google uses this line quite a bit, which makes sense. Ultimately, the goal of Google search results is to return the best user experience. If ads are bogging down a website, that doesn’t equal a high-quality user experience, which therefore will not generate good SEO. Do you see the pattern here?
While there is an ability for SEO and advertisements to coexist in a positive way, the existing resources for publishers to promote this are scarce. The solution would be to get a framework that works on the most popular CMS and focuses on Google’s best practices from Core Web Vitals to page experience and employs lazy loading and reducing ads ATF.
We've been hearing about the Apple Glasses since recorded history began – or that's how it seems, at least, with patents dating back to 2015 detailing software and hardware that could lead to consumer-facing smart glasses.
Since 2019, the Apple Glass rumors and leaks have crept up in frequency, and it feels like every few months we get another big report detailing a possible release date and features. But so far, our faces remain devoid of Apple-branded smart specs.
Currently, the Apple Glasses are looking like they'll release in 2022 – but this is just the most recent of a long string of posited windows, so it's hard to really know the truth. Meanwhile, Apple continues to release its typical suite of iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, Macs, and Apple TVs. Heck, aside from the cancelled AirPower charging mat, there's no hint that Apple is even developing anything beyond its current lineup.
We might not even see Apple Glasses from the company soon. A recent rumor suggested that Apple will release a pricey VR-focused headset first, potentially in 2022, with the AR-focused headset we presume to be the Apple Glasses following by 2023 at the earliest.
So there's a lot of confusion and debate around when or even if we'll get Apple glasses, but the latest leaks suggest they might be announced before too long, but won't hit stores until a lot later.
While you try and get your head around all that, let's take a look at all the Apple glasses leaks and rumors, as well as Apple's augmented reality background and why AR specs seemed like the next big move for the tech giant.
What is it? A new Apple wearable, a pair of glasses using augmented reality tech
When is it out? May be announced in 2022
What will it cost? A source suggests $499 (roughly £410 / AU$765)
What will Apple AR glasses cost?
That’s a tough question, as there’s no real precedent for this sort of thing yet. The only rumor on that subject so far claims $499 (roughly £410 / AU$765) - not including any prescription charges.
And yet, another rumor based on an alleged JPMorgan Chase analyst note suggests that the cost of materials (COM) alone could amount to $499 – and given Apple's infamy for pricey devices, we could see a much higher pricetag for the Apple Glasses. A separate rumor suggests the price could be closer to premium devices like the $5,999 (about £5,499, AU$9,999) iMac Pro.
When could the Apple Glasses release?
We've been hearing possible Apple Glass release dates for years now, and we're getting more and more jaded every time a new date gets brought up.
Currently, it sounds like we could see the first Apple Glass generation in the first half of 2022, which is a pretty wide window.
Apple AR glasses hardware: the evidence, the patents and the specs
The biggest leak on that front has detailed a lot of things. According to Jon Prosser (a reliable leaker), the Apple Glasses will be called Apple Glass and will be capable of displaying information on both lenses, with a user controlling them via gestures both on and in front of the frames.
All the processing would apparently be handled by a connected iPhone, and Apple Glass supposedly wouldn't have conventional cameras but would have a LiDAR scanner to power AR experiences. A rumor in early 2021 reaffirmed that LiDAR would be part of the Apple Glass – along with six lenses, though it was unclear if this referred to layered glass or camera lenses.
Other details from the source include that there apparently won't be a sunglasses version, as the display doesn't work with tinted lenses, that observers won't be able to tell the lenses are displaying anything, and that the frame - at least in a prototype - is made from plastic.
The same source also said that Apple is experimenting with a special Steve Jobs Edition version of the glasses. That would act like an Apple Watch Edition where the company sells a certain style of its product for a higher price.
Another source for Apple leaks - Mark Gurman at Bloomberg - has also said the previous information isn't correct though, so take all of this with a big pinch of salt. A later report from him cites sources claiming the AR glasses are still in very early development and won't come out until at least 2023, but will be preceded by an Apple VR headset that could come in 2022.
Beyond that, Apple has been busy picking up companies with an interest in AR, which suggests it's prepping a product of its own – and recently Cook said that Apple had several new products in the pipeline that could "blow you away".
We've also seen a bunch of Apple patents appear recently, explaining how specially-designed lenses could be used to cast images on a user's eye, and how a touchscreen surface (like an iPhone or an iPad) could be used as a controller.
One patent points to glasses with adjustable opacity, which might help add focus to a video, for example, or aid visibility on a particularly bright day.
A glimpse at digital items placed in the real world
Apple also filed a patent for a catadioptric optical system – a series of lenses designed to project images into a user’s eyes – in early February this year.
In fact, Apple has been granted 53 patents, covering its AR wearable, 3D mapping technology, and a more intelligent iPhone Home screen, amongst others, as discovered by Patently Apple.
Perhaps most telling of all is a leaked injury report out of Apple’s Cupertino headquarters, which suggests Apple is working on a “prototype unit” which has resulted in eye injuries for two users.
Apple has also made a number of key AR talent hires over the years. According to a report from Bloomberg, Apple has poached a leading employee of Nasa for the project, hiring Jeff Norris, founder of the Mission Operations Innovation Office of Nasa's Jet Propulsion Lab.
He is said to be working as part of an augmented reality team being headed up by another poached talent, Dolby Labs executive Mike Rockwell.
That team is apparently 1,000 people strong, and the AR glasses they're working on are said to have a high-resolution display, cameras, 3D scanning, and "advanced human detection". They're also apparently working on an AR headset, which could launch first with a design like the Oculus Quest, but a lightweight, comfortable build.
In May 2020, Apple confirmed it had acquired NextVR, a startup that produced virtual reality content from the likes of the NBA and Fox Sports. While it's unclear how this could impact the Apple AR Glasses, it's logical the startup's expertise will contribute to product design in some way.
While the glasses weren't announced during the iPhone 12 launch in October 2020 as was rumored, we did hear a rumor from display expert Ross Young that they'd use Sony half-inch microOLED displays with 1280 x 960 resolution, combining for a pixels-per-inch (ppi) density over 3000.
I should clarify that this is AR only. It will use projection optics inside the glasses.October 22, 2020
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Microsoft HoloLens. Image Credit: TechRadar.(Image credit: Future)
What is augmented reality?
You're familiar with the concept of virtual reality, right? Popping on a headset and having software transport you to an interactive, 360-degree, left, right, up, down, all-encompassing virtual world?
Augmented reality works a bit like that but with one big difference. Rather than giving a window into an invented world, it uses either screens or transparent lenses to place digital items on top of the real world around you.
Pokémon Go makes the pocket monster appear in your world using AR
The most popular example of this in action would be the lenses and filters available on Instagram and Snapchat – the ones that make it look like you have a squashed face, a dog's tongue or hearts coming out of your eyeballs.
Another great example of well-executed and mainstream AR is Pokémon Go which puts Pikachu and co into your world through a combination of your phone’s camera and screen.
Both see your real world 'augmented' by software on your smart device. Essentially, AR lets you get context sensitive digital information overlaid onto your real world surroundings – look at a subway station and get train times automatically displayed, for instance, or walk down the aisles of a food store and have the specs recommend a recipe. The applications could be exciting and used for games and entertainment or just extremely boring and extremely practical.
Augmented reality could also get a significant boost thanks to the advent of 5G. In fact, many believe 5G could prove instrumental to augmented reality finally hitting the mainstream – at least for those in the UK.
First launched back in 2017, ARKit was Apple's way of sticking its flag down into the augmented reality landscape, an attempt to claim the space as its own.
An AR app running on an iPad
First revealed at WWDC 2017, ARKit is a new set of APIs to let developers build augmented reality applications for Apple devices. They can now create apps that use the cameras, processors and sensors in your iPhone or iPad and use this information to overlay virtual objects onto the real world.
It's now in its third version, with the latest iteration arriving with iOS 13 in September 2019.
Users don't necessarily know that an app has been created with ARKit – there's no label – but they'll see a fun, AR experience. For example, the IKEA app allows you to hold up your iPhone and 'preview' how furniture will look.
Apple ARKit is already bringing augmented reality to the forefront of consumer technology – but it's just a platform. It's long been suggested that the real future of Apple’s augmented reality road map would be AR glasses.
After all, Apple’s in need of a new product category. The last time the tech giant launched an inarguably successful new product line was the iPad – and even that has proved difficult to maintain momentum in.
AR is an exciting new area, and one in which Apple (at least in hardware terms) wouldn’t have much competition in, at least in the present with a mainstream and consumer focus.
Apple boss Tim Cook sees great potential in augmented reality. Image Credit: Apple.
Tim Cook has sung the praises of AR tech, going so far as to say augmented reality use will become as common as "eating three meals a day".
"A significant portion of the population of developed countries, and eventually all countries, will have AR experiences every day," he said during the 2016 Utah Tech tour, before casting shade on VR.
"I can't imagine everyone in here getting in an enclosed VR experience while you're sitting in here with me," said Cook to those assembled for the Utah talk.
"AR is going to take a while, because there are some really hard technology challenges there," he added.
"But it will happen, it will happen in a big way, and we will wonder when it does, how we ever lived without it. Like we wonder how we lived without our phone today."
Right now, there are a number of augmented reality glasses already on the market from companies like Vuzix, Epson and Vue. But many of them are reserved for enterprise use (in big businesses), are being used by developers or have been built for a rather niche purpose.
There are also mixed reality headsets, like the Microsoft Hololens 2, which sits somewhere between VR and AR. As well as one of the most exciting AR headsets, the Magic Leap One.
The main difference between these devices and the promise of AR glasses made so infamous by Google Glass, is AR glasses were tipped to be smaller, slimmer and could easily be mistaken for regular glasses. The Magic Leap One is an extraordinary piece of kit, but not exactly what Apple would have in store with AR specs.
There could also be mounting competition from other big tech giants. For example, in July, details were leaked about a patent, which suggests Samsung might be working on its own pair of AR specs.
Spotted by Patently Apple, the filing shows a fairly standard design for a pair of glasses with added smarts on board. They're going to be foldable, apparently, so you can pop them in your pocket when you're not being wowed by AR.
What's more, according to a patent filed by Huawei at the World Intellectual Property Organization (and spotted by LetsGoDigital), the company is experimenting with a pair of AR glasses that are lightweight but only work when you insert your smartwatch into them.
It's also not a surprise to hear that Facebook, which owns Oculus, has also been rumored to be working on its own AR eyewear.
According to a 2017 patent, Facebook's AR glasses could use a ‘waveguide display' to combine computer graphics with the real world – essentially an advanced method of giving the illusion of depth on specs right in front of your face.
Based on the patent images, the AR glasses could look just like a regular pair of glasses, which means there will be lot of complex, miniaturized technology to get right before they can be released.
This means Apple may not be releasing its own AR glasses anytime soon, but its competitors might be just a year or two away.
Of course we can't talk about AR specs without mentioning the legacy of Google Glass. These advanced smart glasses were tipped to change everything, from tech to the way we live, by overlaying layers of information onto the real world. But thanks to public perception, financial problems and design challenges they never fully materialised – apart from for a small number of developers and testers.
Well, at least not how they were meant to. Google Glass is still around, but exists as the Glass Enterprise Edition aimed at business use.
Although the troubled story of Google Glass may sound like a bit of a failure (at least when it comes to consumer traction), it actually taught tech companies a great deal about building AR, tech-enabled eyewear and the challenges of bringing a whole new product category to market.
