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  [...]

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... [...]

Last Summer, Donald VanFossen released software (a WordPress plug-in) that shook up the SEO process. It improves your standing on the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). He called it: SERP Shaker. It lets you avoid the tedious, long hours building a single site, hoping it will start ranking sometime down the road. Build multiple sites in the time it used to take to build one. You can build sites in multiple niches. When you find a niche that is generating the results you want, you home in on that niche and build multiple sites in the niche, related niches and sub-niches that complement each other.... [...]

The SEOPressor team (Daniel Tan and his assistants) did a case study and discovered that they were ranking for the term “LSI Keywords”. When they first ran the RankReveal report for their site, they were surprised that this keyword showed up among the top 100 keywords their site ranked for. With this new insight, they decided to build a keyword course on the topic of “LSI Keywords”. They built some internal links in their site and then published a press release for the course. As a result of their campaign, they are consistently ranking in the top 5 of Google for “LSI... [...]

Graham Charlton says, “Lots of companies have different international domains serving similar content and pages, but are they working against each other?  Here, I’ll show examples from three companies, showing how their international domains are actually competing for the same search terms, as well as how to solve this problem. 888.com 888 has several international sites, and in this case the www.888.com is competing with the uk.888.com and au.888.com sites for the term ‘online Texas Holdem’. From the chart below, we can see the the Australian site has had the better rankings... [...]

Chow says, “We often here about SEO and how a solid campaign will improve your ranking in the search engines, however we are often left hearing the basics. When we read about SEO, we hear about link building, high quality content, on-page SEO, etc. Did you know all of these methods can be narrowed down to more effective strategies? For example, using link building is ONLY effective if you create links from the right websites with a high authority and keyword density. In order for you to get the full long-term effects from your campaign, it’s important you implement the following advance strategies... [...]

Chow says, “Live by the Google and you’ll die by the Google. Even if your online business hasn’t come to rely on search engines to drive your most critical web traffic, it’s undeniable that being ranked highly in Google for your target keywords and keyword phrases is positively invaluable. And that’s why there are so many people out there who keep trying to game the system and that’s why Google keeps slapping them back down with algorithm updates. Yes, it is true that the only way you’ll survive pandas, penguins and hummingbirds is to keep providing great content and true value to... [...]

David Mihm says, “Many of you have been tweeting, emailing, asking in conference Q&As, or just generally awaiting this year’s Local Search Ranking Factors survey results. Here they are!   Hard to believe, but this is the seventh year I’ve conducted this survey—local search has come a long way since the early days of the 10-pack way back in 2008! As always, a massive thanks to all of the expert panelists who in many cases gave up a weekend or a date night in order to fill out the survey”. Announcing the 2014 Local Search Ranking Factors Results MOZ Blog  [...]

Steve Dille says, “By their very nature, email and mobile marketing campaigns produce large amounts of data. This information can be a gold mine for knowing what’s working and what’s not working with your messaging programs, especially when it comes to figuring out how many eyeballs actually see your content and how recipients are acting on your messages. The machine-to-machine data generated through email and text messaging campaigns was long seen as relevant primarily to systems administrators and IT professionals responsible for maintaining sending infrastructure and remediating bounces... [...]

Greg Sterling says, “In another blow to Google’s privacy policy in Europe, the German data-protection regulator Johannes Caspar is ordering the company to change and limit how it uses data from its various online properties. Google’s consolidated privacy policy has faced heavy criticism by European privacy officials since its debut two years ago. There’s a Europe-wide effort going on to limit Google’s ability to use data without offering explicit disclosures and opt-out opportunities for individuals. The proposed changes would alter Google’s ability to collect and draw upon audience... [...]