Mime Murray says, “The tech-savvy president of a company recently told me he’s confused because he heard keywords don’t matter anymore with SEO. It’s not the first time I’ve come across that view about keyword phrases. Three major changes in recent years may be feeding the misguided notion that it’s foolish to focus on keywords. In a sense, Google is the culprit. – Google’s Panda algorithm update in 2011 placed a stronger emphasis on high-quality content. – Google also introduced “Not Provided,” its pathetic move to conceal organic keywords to protect searchers’... [...]

Craig Bradford says, “Strategy is hard enough if you understand it. It’s even harder if you don’t. If you understand it, you realize it’s made up of many moving parts. If you don’t, the best you’ll come up with is some version of operational efficiency: building more links, writing more blog posts, making more video. Those activities aren’t strategies — and if you fail to differentiate your plan, you’ll find yourself forever chasing those who started before you, or falling behind better-funded competitors. I enjoy strategy, both on the academic and theoretical... [...]

Barry Feldman says, “Maybe? A little? Probably? “We do say we have a small factor in there for pages that are really slow to load where we take that into account. But I don’t know how much it’s still a problem in ranking,” according to Google’s John Mueller. I’m not saying Google’s crooked, but if you’re going to ask a question about how search works, you can bet your last dollar you’re not going to get a straight answer. Perhaps we’ll get further, faster, by going to search research experts, such as Searchmetrics. Its most recent... [...]

Erica McGillivray says, “All the puzzle pieces have come together, and MozCon 2016 is ready to rock! Over the past week, I’ve had the pleasure of peeking at our speakers’ outlines, and I cannot wait. Whether you’re looking to for the latest SEO information, ready to tackle mobile’s biggest issues, wanting to push your content to 10x, or generally wanting to absorb everything online marketing, it’s going to be so good. If you’re reading this post and remembering you haven’t bought your ticket yet, I’ll pause”. ​The Finalized MozCon 2016... [...]

Greg Sterling says, “According to official Google statements, more than 50 percent of search queries globally now come from mobile devices. But we don’t know whether the number is 51 percent or 60 percent, or if it varies significantly by country. A recent report from Hitwise (registration required) argues that in the US mobile search is roughly 58 percent of overall search query volume. That’s based on an average of 11 key categories and associated queries analyzed by Hitwise in its “Mobile Search: Topics and Themes” report. The company “examined hundreds of millions of online... [...]

MOZ team says, “What’s more important: drawing in more traffic, or converting the traffic you have? When it comes to your landing pages, that may be a tough question to answer. After watching today’s Whiteboard Friday, you’ll be better equipped to decide whether your site should opt for an SEO focus, a conversion focus, or a strategic balance of both”. Should My Landing Page Be SEO-Focused, Conversion-Focused, or Both? MOZ  [...]

Marcus Miller says, “Measuring your results is a critical component of any SEO campaign. There are many, many variables at play in an SEO campaign, so successful campaigns rely on a control system to ensure the work undertaken delivers results. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) act as this control system and allow you to identify what is working — and often, more importantly, provide the SEO with an early warning system if something is not moving the needle as expected. KPIs also provide a means to illustrate success to your clients (or company higher-ups if you’re in-house). Typical... [...]

Patrick Stox says, “Back in June, the AdWords Keyword Planner started displaying the same volume of searches for keywords that were similar. Search Engine Land reported on the anomalies and asked Google about it but didn’t receive a response at the time. Ginny Marvin speculated, and now an AdWords representative has confirmed, that this was caused by close variants. Many people and tools are overestimating search volume by adding together the results that AdWords Keyword Planner has already grouped, effectively doubling or tripling volume estimates. If you’re like me, you want to see... [...]

Pratik Dholakiya says, “Since their launch in 2009, rich snippets have served as a “sneak preview” of Google Search results, adding extra information to a search listing that helps searchers find exactly what they’re looking for. Depending on the page content, this extra information might include site navigation breadcrumbs, customer reviews, TV and movie information, event information, recipe information, product information and so on. By marking up webpages using vocabulary from schema.org, webmasters can help their sites become eligible to display rich snippets in search results.... [...]

On the Moz webswite, Alexandra Tachalova reports, “When it comes to brick-and-mortar storefronts, local businesses often struggle to compete with neighboring big brands. Statistics show that, even for a well-known local store that’s established a strong relationship with its customers and built a community through the years, having such a neighbor can be detrimental. But what about a newly opened business? Does it have any chance of competing with popular brands? My experience has led me to believe there’s only one way a locally owned business can overcome big competition: it... [...]