SEO - thinking creatively. Q: We are going to reduce our navigation on our mobile site. Will this affect rankings? Friesen: It all depends on the implementation. Kyne: Please don't if you don't think it's a big win for your users. Boser: It's not about whether or not you can explore it. The mistake people make is having too many links on the homepage. Google always likes a link hierarchy. Why pass equity to all those long-tail pages that are better connected further down the path? Friesen:
The hamburger menu can increase bounce rates. Why would you want this? Lippay: Netflix is really testing. If we're going to put a link in the footer, we test it to see how it affects the conversion rate. User experience is always first. Boser: The hamburger thing always starts fax number list with a designer who thinks it's cool, or they see it on a competitor's site and instead of testing it with users, they roll it out. Q: Thoughts on RankBrain? Friesen: RankBrain could override “did you mean” results without you knowing. Basically,
they think they know better than you what you are looking for. Boser: Ultimately, it's just re-sorting things, and you have to go into the whole set of considerations to sort out. These are links and content. So stop worrying about RankBrain. Kyne: Ninety percent of the time when someone asks me what they can do to affect RankBrain, their site shows they're not doing the basics right. Boser: Mining [Google] Suggest is a much better way to spend your time.