Paul Shapiro says, “I recently asked a room of experienced marketers how they thought social media marketing could assist their SEO efforts. The answers were more or less what I had expected to hear: Social media helps foster relationships, which in turn helps build links and improves rankings. Social media aids in public relations, as a distribution channel and a means of generating easy online buzz. Social sharing provides a form of social proof, giving greater credibility and trustworthiness to your content. Brands can rank for their social networking profiles and receive greater visibility... [...]

MOZ team says, “With all the advancements search engines have made, a lot of folks in the SEO world are circling back to a fundamental question: If I’m targeting a particular keyword, where and how often should I use that in the front and back ends of my page? In today’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand puts his recommendations into the context of today’s SERPs“. How Much Keyword Repetition is Optimal MOZ Blog  [...]

Farooq Bhatti says, “Big changes have been introduced in the way local businesses are presented on Google search results.  Since early August 2015, Google altered the usual seven pack local listing to a smaller three pack (aka snack pack) listing across all its sites worldwide. How businesses react to these changes will define how easily consumers can find them. Let’s take a look at what the new search results look like and what insights we can gain from them“. How the Google Snack Pack update impacts local search ‘Econsultancy’ Blog  [...]

Jackelyn Magwire says, “What is your gender? It’s a standard demographic question that many of us answered on the Online Marketing Industry Survey. It’s a compelling indicator of how our industry is evolving in an area that truly helps us become better marketers: gender equality. Why does gender equality matter to marketing, and why do we need to understand this trend? There are hundred of reasons why gender diversity is good, and we can name at least a few. Diversity in the workplace fosters better working performance by forcing us to think more deeply about decisions and with... [...]

Casey Meraz says, “Last week I wrote a post about the new Snack Pack, where three local results have become the new standard, and explored where users were clicking based on some preliminary data from UsabilityHub tests we ran. In our test, we measured 200 clicks on a heat map to see where users were clicking most. In that example, organic results won, getting almost 40% of clicks. However, this test was based on a search result where there was one organic listing above the local results, as seen in the screenshot below: Since the release of this study, we’ve been conducting many more... [...]

Marcus Tober says, “You would expect Google to reward web pages that provide a better user experience with a ranking advantage. So which parts of user experience are most important?    In Searchmetrics’ annual study of the characteristics of pages with a high Google ranking and the key factors that correlate with (or are more likely to appear on) these pages, we found that relevant, quality and easy to understand content is now more important than ever. That is no surprise, and continues a long-term trend. However we also found evidence that factors that enhance the user experience... [...]

David Mihm says, “Those of you who have logged into your Moz Local dashboard recently may have noticed a few updates this week! I thought I’d post a quick announcement to highlight them. New distribution partners: Bing, Citysearch, and Insider Pages Long-time users of Moz Local know that we’ve been helping you examine listing accuracy on two of these sites (Bing Local and Citysearch) since the earliest days of the former GetListed product“. Moz Local Updates You May Have Missed on Your Summer Vacation MOZ Blog  [...]

Tom Dibble says, “Although the relationship between dynamic personalisation and search engines is anything but a happy marriage, it seems to be evolving in the right direction. Do you remember those Christmas mornings as a kid, when you rushed downstairs, dizzy with excitement and nervous in anticipation of what Santa left waiting for you under the tree? You tore through the snowman covered wrapping paper, your fingernails peeling back the final layers to reveal (gasp!) the perfect gift. So perfect, in fact, that it was exactly the thing that you asked for when you wrote that letter to Santa... [...]

Jennifer Slegg says, “Local SEO has seen the biggest shake-up since Google launched their first local algorithm, Pigeon, just over a year ago. On Thursday, August 6th, people began to notice that the usual 7-packs that frequently showed up in the search results for local businesses were suddenly replaced with 3-packs in the desktop search results. It initially wasn’t too alarming, but as the hours passed it was obvious Google had changed the face of local search in their search results. By the end of that day, 3-packs had completely replaced all the 7-packs across all verticals and... [...]

MOZ team says, “Ever mass-deleted a bunch of impersonal emails from your inbox? Brand fatigue is a real threat to your marketing strategy. In today’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand discusses why brands become “background noise” and how you can avoid it“. Why No One Pays Attention to Your Marketing MOZ Blog  [...]