Aaron Friedman says, “Thinking in templates We all judge people on first impressions. When we see someone for the first time, we’re quick to decide what type of person they are — based on the clothes they wear, how they style their hair, and anything else we notice that immediately puts them in a group. It’s certainly not fair, but it’s human nature. And I’d like to keep my faith in humanity and argue that lots of us try NOT to prejudge others. Google is judging you Believe it or not, Google is the same. It judges, too. Some might disagree with this theory, but our internal... [...]

Brian Wood says, “At Wayfair.com, we conduct a lot of SEO tests. We’re constantly measuring and evaluating our strategies, some of which were shared in our last post for YouMoz, Accidental SEO Tests: When On-Page Optimization Ceases to Matter. Sometimes, however, we stumble across what we call “accidental SEO tests.” This typically happens when a bad code deploy unintentionally hurts our SEO, and we end up learning something useful from our mistake. Tens of thousands of 301 redirects One of our accidental tests involved regularly 301-redirecting large batches (i.e., tens... [...]

Andrew Shotland says, “Hey, rank trackers! You know I love you guys, but let’s face it — your local rank tracking is a fail. This Twitter thread says it all. I’ve got nothing against any of you, but I am hoping this rant will spur some of you on to solve this problem. Hey, maybe you already have, and I just don’t know about it. Hit me up, and I’ll get SEL to cross this whole thing out and put a nice juicy link to your site at the top with anchor text = “best local rank tracking software.” (Editor’s note: This is not going to happen.) For local search marketers — and... [...]

Ben Davis says, “Google’s unabridged Page Quality rating guidelines were released in November 2015. Whilst some outlets covered this at the time, I thought I’d do so in purely practical terms. So, here’s a very simple checklist, based on Google’s approximation of highest and lowest quality content. It by no means covers everything in the guidelines, but references those bits that caught my eye. 1. Improve your 404 (page not found) message The Google guidelines give many examples of low, medium and high quality pages. One of the examples of a medium quality page was... [...]

Kelsey Libert says, “Did it feel like everyone you knew was watching “Making a Murderer” at the same time? It may have just been an illusion, thanks to a few key members of your social network. Researchers at the University of Southern California recently uncovered that when something appears more popular than it actually is, it can create the right conditions for it to be widely spread. They named this social network phenomenon the majority illusion, which happens due to highly-connected individuals within a social network skewing the group’s perception. These findings explain something... [...]

Matt Smith says, “There are many all-inclusive lists out there of every SEO tool imaginable, and I fully recommend checking those lists out. However, the role of an SEO manager is quickly expanding and adapting as they are asked to take on a bigger role in digital marketing. Throughout my years of experience I’ve honed down my go-to list of tools for each area of my job to improve my efficiency and effectiveness. While this list certainly doesn’t represent every tool out there, these are the tools I’ve found to be most beneficial. Keyword Research Keyword research has gotten more complicated,... [...]

Tom Anthony says, “SEOs traditionally say that a specific search query can be classified as either navigational,informational, or transactional. The categories were originally published in 2002 in a peer-reviewed paper by Andrei Broder who worked for Altavista (remember them?!) at the time. The categories that Broder came up with have been invaluable to SEOs for many years, helping many of us explain the different types of search query that we should consider. However, it’s time to revisit these categories to see if we can improve their usefulness in a world of direct answers, apps,... [...]

Aleyda Solis says, “With the steady rise of mobile search, SEO practitioners these days need to consider how to optimize both their websites and apps for mobile search visibility. Google’s mobile-friendly algorithm update, released in April 2015, gave a boost in mobile search results to pages with good mobile user experiences. Along those lines, Google has sought to increase the visibility of app content within mobile search results through app indexing. Thus, it’s key to have a strategic approach to our mobile optimization efforts — both on our websites and apps. The now... [...]

MOZ team says, “B2B companies face different challenges than B2C companies. From which stages you target in the funnel to how you measure your success to the team you end up selling to, content marketing can be a horse of a different color when you’re business-to-business. In this week’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand shares his tips for successful content marketing when you’re a B2B“. Content Marketing Tips for B2B Organizations – Whiteboard Friday MOZ Blog  [...]

Tim Hand says, “Throughout my work writing with niche websites, I’ve discovered an unfortunate trend where many sites for small, local businesses haven’t been updated in years. While it’s clear they attempted to execute a content strategy at some point of time, they’ve since given it up for other marketing tools where a return of investment is more apparent. Content creation is an essential investment in the visibility and authority of your business. Other than the value that your content offers readers, it also increases the chances that consumers will discover you in search engines.... [...]