Ryan Shelley says, “Since the inception of the search engine, SEO has been an important, yet often misunderstood industry. For some, these three little letters bring massive pain and frustration. For others, SEO has saved their business. One thing is for sure: having a clear and strategic search strategy is what often separates those who succeed from those who don’t. As we wrap up 2016, let’s take a look at how the industry has grown and shifted over the past year, and then look ahead to 2017. A growing industry It was only a few years ago when the internet was pummeled with thousands... [...]

Eric Enge says, “When you first start out with content marketing, you often have a very basic challenge: you have to build an audience for your content. Even if you’re a large brand with lots of people who are passionate about you, they’re not yet conditioned to see you as a publisher of valuable content. In other words, either way, you’ve got work to do. In today’s post, I’m going to outline why you should focus on reach and influence, and how to do it so that your content marketing efforts can deliver the maximum ROI. Map your marketplace The first thing to... [...]

Stephan Spencer says, “I have a theory: the best SEO practitioners in the world are not consultants helping their clients get rich. Rather, they are their own clients. Or, if they do have clients, they’ve figured out a way to have them on a performance pricing model in order to share in the client’s upside. How are these rock-star SEOs their own clients, you ask? It could be a range of things — they could be affiliates, “infoproduct” sellers or lead generators who are leveraging SEO expertise. Or a combination of the above. One thing is certain: they use their SEO knowledge and... [...]

Dudley Carr says, “Today we’re making an announcement that’s exciting for marketers at local businesses, enterprises, and agencies focused on digital marketing. Back in August we announced the industry’s most advanced duplicate detection and closure toolset. And just last month we unleashed our new Moz Local packages, adding Google My Business sync, listing alerts, Apple Maps distribution, reputation monitoring and management, and more to the mix. Well, we have one more announcement to squeeze in before the year ends, and it’s a big deal! Yelp data management for everyone! We’re... [...]

Syl DeLeon says, “Have you ever… Have you ever been put in charge of running a website only to find there’s no content management system, when you FTP in to fix a typo there are hundreds of files organized helter-skelter, named with long strings of acronyms, and you can’t find the index file with the misspelled word you’d like to fix to save your life? Have you ever tried to update the navigation of said site because it’s horrendous and lacks the basic links visitors need to find their way around, only to learn that the nav is held together by a complex overlapping template... [...]

Jacob Baadsgaard says, “If you have a love/hate relationship with buyer personas, you’re not alone. According to a 2016 survey by Customer Think, 72 percent of marketers are familiar with these personas, and 60 percent have created their first persona within the last two years. Unfortunately, lots of search marketers are confused about how to use their personas or are frustrated that their personas are not producing the hoped-for results. For this reason, buyer personas have been criticized as an exercise which, although well-intentioned, can distract marketers from actually producing... [...]

Dr. Peter J. Meyers says, “In October of 2014, Google launched “In the news“, replacing their traditional news vertical results with a broader range of sources from across the web. Last week, Google’s news results were shaken up again with the launch of “Top Stories”, a card-style set of featured stories. Here’s an example from a search for “John Glenn”. Even John Glenn’s death somehow can’t escape becoming a Trump story, but that’s a topic for another time. What do we know about the shift to “Top Stories”, and... [...]

Barry Schwartz says, “Google has announced that the Google Search Console now has more reporting options for your property sets. Property sets is Google’s way of allowing you to combine different profiles in Google Search Console into one report. When it first launched several months ago, it basically let you view the Search Analytics report for all the properties you combine with the property set. But you couldn’t see many of the other reports within the Google Search Console. Now you can. With this update you can see mobile usability report, review your AMP implementation, double-check... [...]

MOZ team says, “After analyzing hundreds of SERPs over the past few weeks, Rand has identified the 10 distinct content types that work best for SEO and classified which formats are suited for certain queries. In today’s Whiteboard Friday, he explains those content types and how to use them to satisfy searcher intent, match them to the right projects, and enhance your overall strategy”. The 10 Types of Content That Work Best for SEO MOZ  [...]

Jacob Baadsgaard says, “If you have a love/hate relationship with buyer personas, you’re not alone. According to a 2016 survey by Customer Think, 72 percent of marketers are familiar with these personas, and 60 percent have created their first persona within the last two years. Unfortunately, lots of search marketers are confused about how to use their personas or are frustrated that their personas are not producing the hoped-for results. For this reason, buyer personas have been criticized as an exercise which, although well-intentioned, can distract marketers from actually producing... [...]