Hermes Ma says, “Recently, I attended Baidu’s annual search conference for agency partners in Beijing. One of the premier search events in China for SEO professionals, the conference was hosted by engineers from Baidu’s core search and Webmaster Tools teams. The agenda covered Baidu’s eco-empowerment strategy, its Mobile Instant Page (MIP) project and a wrap-up of the 2016 algorithm updates. The event made it clear to me that 2016 was the year Baidu SEO came into its own. If you aren’t already investing in Baidu SEO, 2017 is your year to start. The eco-empowerment The concept of... [...]

Rand Fishkin says, “Friends and fellow SEOs, I just need a few minutes of your time. This is gonna be short and sweet. If you’re optimizing a page to rank well for a keyword or set of keywords, you probably use some sort of checklist to make sure you’re doing the right things. That might be through an SEO plug-in like Yoast or through Moz Pro’s On-Page Grader, or it might be just be a mental checklist. The problem is, there’s a crucial set of flaws in how I’ve seen a lot of marketers and SEOs approaching on-page SEO in the last few months, and I want to help. These... [...]

MOZ team says, “You’ve got top-performing content on your site that does really well. Maybe it’s highly converting, maybe it garners the most qualified traffic — but it’s just sitting there gathering dust. Isn’t there something else you can do with content that’s clearly proven its worth? As it turns out, there is! In today’s Whiteboard Friday, Moz’s resident SEO and Content Architect, Britney Muller, shares three easy steps for identifying, repurposing, and republishing your top content to juice every drop of goodness out of it”. Refurbishing... [...]

Emily Carrion says, “What if you didn’t have to wait months to find out how a new feature is resonating with your audience? What if you could hear from 25 percent of your audience on a regular basis — not just the vocal minority? I’m going to show you how you can leverage your mobile app audience for rapid feedback loops and why traditional focus groups are dead. The problem with focus groups Yes, focus groups are a great way to learn about how a potential demographic will respond to a yet-to-be released product. They can give you a sense of how your brand resonates in the market as... [...]

Dudley Carr says, “The big news in the Local Search community three weeks ago was Google’s announcement of the availability of the Google My Business (GMB) Insights data via the GMB API. Today, we’re excited to announce support for GMB Insights data in Moz Local! – Learn how customers are searching for your business on Google and the actions they are taking once they find it – Easily visualize and filter results by region, a specific client, or a specific campaign — on the fly – Measure conversion rates for your local marketing campaigns”. Track Your Prospects’... [...]

Russ Jones says, “There are a handful of data sources relied upon by nearly every search engine optimizer. Google Search Console (formerly Google Webmaster Tools) has perhaps become the most ubiquitous. There are simply some things you can do with GSC, like disavowing links, that cannot be accomplished anywhere else, so we are in some ways forced to rely upon it. But, like all sources of knowledge, we must put it to the test to determine its trustworthiness — can we stake our craft on its recommendations? Let’s see if we can pull back the curtain on GSC data and determine, once and... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “High keyword rankings are the most sought-after achievement in the world of search engine optimization (SEO). Small businesses and brands alike strive to obtain the first organic listing in search results because of the lucrative traffic and lead opportunities that are associated with this position. But with the evolution of paid advertising and expansion of universal search, as well as Google’s continuous efforts to provide consumers with content that resolves their demands directly in search results, the opportunities attached to traditional keyword rankings are... [...]

Ronell Smith says, “During the holidays, my youngest daughter apparently had cabin fever after being in the house for a couple of days. While exiting the bedroom, my wife found the note below on the floor, after the former had slyly slid it under the door. Though tired and not really feeling like leaving the house, we had to reward the youngster for her industriousness. And her charm. Her effective “outreach” earned plaudits from my wife. “At least she did it the right way,” she remarked. “She cleaned her room, washed dishes, and read books all day, obviously... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “With Google’s expanded text ads deadline upon us — as of January 31, advertisers will no longer be able to upload or edit standard text ads in AdWords — it’s time to get very serious about making the most of the new text ad format. Maybe you have been putting off implementation, or maybe you have been experimenting with expanded text ads (ETAs) for months but haven’t been wowed by stellar click-through rates yet. Don’t fret. We’ve got findings and advice that may provide some anxiety relief and motivation for paving your way with ETAs. Findings so far The... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, ” Back in October 2016, I wrote about how you can use a Python script to determine whether a page has been indexed by Google in the SERPs. As it turns out, Google’s webmaster trends analyst Gary Illyes wasn’t too happy with the technique that was being utilized by the script, so I cannot endorse this method. Shortly after, Sean Malseed and his team at Greenlane SEO built a similar tool based in Google Sheets (among other awesome tools like InfiniteSuggest), and Googler John Mueller expressed reservations”. How to check which URLs have been indexed without upsetting... [...]