Jo Cameron says, “Welcome to the seventh installment of our educational Next Level series! In our last episode, Jo showed us how to better optimize our sites when we think we’ve done it all (but still aren’t ranking). This time around she’s giving us the tools and the knowledge to finally capture ourselves a SERP feature. Read on and level up! Are you within striking distance of traffic-bumping SERP features? The content on your freakin’ awesome site better be targeting the intent of the searcher. People of the world want different types of content depending on what... [...]

Chapman Lever says, “The GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) format was originally developed in 1987. Debuted by Steve Wilhite of Compuserve, GIFs improved on the black-and-white images in use during that time by allowing the use of 256 colors while maintaining a compressed format that could still be loaded by those utilizing slow modems. Furthermore, web developers and designers could create animations via timed delays. And to this day, little has changed regarding GIFs. Due to its simplicity, the widespread support for this format, and the ease with which it can be used to stream video clips,... [...]

Beth Hayden says, “Promoting your content has clear short-term benefits — like attracting new readers, social shares, and comments. But did you know it’s also a critical part of your search engine optimization strategy? Even the best on-page SEO efforts don’t work as well if no one links to your site, so one of your biggest jobs is spreading the word out about your content. Think of it this way: You’ve got to attract incoming links to rank well in search engines, and no one is going to link to you if they don’t know you exist. In this post, we’ll talk about why content promotion... [...]

Lindsay Kolowich says, “SEO is an evolving science. While some of the core principles will presumably stick around forever, some of the more nuanced parts of it are subject to continuous change. As a result, many of the “proven” tactics people have used in the past — keyword stuffing, link schemes, and so on — are now the stuff of legends. Unless your organization benefits from having a dedicated SEO person who can work on this stuff day-in and day-out, keeping up with the latest changes in the world of SEO can be a struggle. But in the end, adjusting your strategy... [...]

John Lincoln says, “Google just started rolling out the so-called “mobile-first” index. It’s going to change the way that your site gets ranked in the search engine results pages (SERPs). Here are a things you need to know about the mobile-first index so that you can optimize your website accordingly. What is the mobile-first index? By now, you probably know that Google crawls your site to add pages to its index. That is, it uses a bot to surf around your site like a real visitor and follows links on your pages. In the past, Google crawled your site as a desktop user. Now, however,... [...]

Beth Hayden says, “Promoting your content has clear short-term benefits — like attracting new readers, social shares, and comments. But did you know it’s also a critical part of your search engine optimization strategy? Even the best on-page SEO efforts don’t work as well if no one links to your site, so one of your biggest jobs is spreading the word out about your content. Think of it this way: You’ve got to attract incoming links to rank well in search engines, and no one is going to link to you if they don’t know you exist. In this post, we’ll talk about why content promotion... [...]

Pratik Dholakiya says, “Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the many aspects of digital marketing that can seem like a foreign concept to a lot of business owners. For that reason, there are a lot of misconceptions surrounding it. However, upon closer examination, there is really no good reason to avoid incorporating SEO into your marketing strategy. Let’s take a look at some of the reasons why business owners are hesitant to embrace SEO. 1. It’s too complicated SEO is by no means a walk in the park. But at the same time, it’s not rocket science. Digital marketing is a constantly... [...]

Marcus Miller says, “In 2016, the inevitable happened, and mobile overtook desktop as the primary device used to access websites. This didn’t come as a huge surprise because, as far back as 2015, Google reported that more searches were conducted on mobile than on any other device category. In many industries, this may be conservative and, at the agency I head up in the UK, Bowler Hat, our B2C clients are seeing up to 85 percent of all site sessions conducted on mobile devices. Suffice it to say, mobile has well and truly arrived. Yet, while responsive design has been around for a while... [...]

Matt McGee says, “If it feels like the search results changed a lot this year — especially Google’s — you’ve done a good job staying on top of search news. As we look back on the biggest stories of the year, several of them cover changes in SEO and ranking algorithms, and others are about new developments in AdWords and paid search. In 2016, we said goodbye to those text ads on the right side of Google’s desktop search results and to the visible green PageRank bar. Paid search specialists said goodbye to an outdated AdWords interface. And we’re all in the process of bidding adieu... [...]

MOZ team says, “At risk of sounding cliché, we’re right smack in the middle of the season of giving. And when it comes to giving, there’s no better example in our industry space than the topic of communities. Moz itself is a great example: You — the reader, the commenter, the Q&A inquisitor, the subscriber — are what sustains and inspires us. What kind of value does your community add to your site, and how can you provide incentive and value to your site contributors, social media fans, and influencers? In today’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand explores ten fresh, actionable... [...]