Ben Davis says, “What will 2017 bring for SEO? Our experts have already weighed in on the biggest trends that happened in 2016, now they look to the future. Thanks to everyone who contributed to this article. In no particular order, they are: Andrew Girdwood, head of media technology, Signal. Max Holloway, senior search manager, Pi Datametrics. Glynn Davies, head of search strategy, Pi Datametrics. Will Critchlow, founder & CEO, Distilled. Ruth Attwood, SEO consultant, 4Ps Marketing. Felice Ayling, SEO and Social Director, Jellyfish. And for more on this topic check out these resources... [...]

Mark Johnstone says, “A few weeks ago, a post was published entitled The SEO Myth of Going Viral. It referenced 8 pieces of content across 4 different sites that went viral and, most importantly for SEO, gained hundreds of linking root domains. I was the creative director on a lot of those campaigns while working as the VP of Creative at Distilled. Today, I’d like to add some important context and detail to the original post. I actually agree with much of what it said. However, it’s based on the assumption that one big viral piece of content would result in a visible jump in rankings... [...]

Aleh Barysevich says, “Last year, I wrote about five SEO trends you needed to know in 2016. Plenty of things in the SEO industry have stayed the same since I made those predictions (e.g., mobile optimization is still all-important, responsive Web design is still essential to ranking well, and keyword rankings are still important), but much has changed, too. In this article, I walk you through five of the hottest SEO trends that you can expect to see more of in 2017. 1. Rank Tracking 2017 is going to bring rank tracking back to the forefront. Yes, you read that right. Rank tracking is almost... [...]

Dr. Peter J. Meyers says, “This story starts long before RankBrain, but the action really kicked in around May of 2013, when Google announced conversational search for desktop. At the time, voice search on desktop may have seemed like a gimmick, but in hindsight it was a signal that Google was taking natural language search seriously. Just a few months later the Hummingbird update rewrote Google’s core engine, and much of that rewrite was dedicated to dealing with natural language searches. Why should you care about voice? For most sites, voice is still a relatively small percentage... [...]

Miriam Ellis says, “Two dates to know: August 4, 2010 – the day Google enabled owner responses to Google My Business reviews; November 17, 2016 – the day Moz enabled incredibly easy GMB owner response functionality in the Moz Local dashboard. Why are these noteworthy events in Local Search history? Because reviews and owner responses are direct reputation management, free marketing, free advertising, damage control, and quality control all wrapped up in one multi-voice song about your brand”. Mastering the Owner Response to the Quintet of Google My Business Reviews MOZ  [...]

MOZ team says, “Should you focus on perfecting your H1s and H2s, or should structured data demand all your on-page attention? While Google hasn’t completely pulled the rug out from under us, don’t let the lack of drastic change in page markup fool you. In today’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand outlines where to focus your efforts when it comes to on-page SEO and offers some tools to help with the process”. Which Page Markup + Tags Still Matter for SEO? – Whiteboard Friday MOZ  [...]

Kerry Jones says, “I was in Peru earlier this year for a digital marketing conference, and I overwhelmingly heard the same frustration: “It’s really hard to use outreach to earn links or PR coverage in our country.” This wasn’t for lack of trying. As I continued to hear this sentiment during my visit, I learned there simply weren’t a lot of opportunities. For one thing, in Peru, there aren’t nearly as many publishers as in more populous countries. Most publishers expected payment for mentioning a brand. Furthermore, journalists did a lot of job-hopping, so maintaining relationships... [...]

Joy Hawkins says, “Previously, I wrote an article unveiling some of the most common myths I see in the Local SEO space. I thought I’d do a follow-up that specifically talked about the myths pertaining to citations that I commonly hear from both small business owners and SEOs alike. Myth #1: If your citations don’t include your suite number, you should stop everything you’re doing and fix this ASAP. Truth: Google doesn’t even recognize suite numbers for a whopping majority of Google business listings. Even though you enter a suite number in Google My Business, it doesn’t translate... [...]

Lindsay kolowich says, “It’s been years since the power’s shifted away from marketers and advertisers and in favor of Internet consumers. Now more than ever, people are empowered to choose their own experiences online. They’re actively avoiding ad content — and instead of living by advertisers’ rule books, they’re deciding what to click on, what to read, what to download, and what to buy … and what not to. And they have a lot of choices. When inbound marketers like us are looking to generate more leads from our website, we need to think not just about how to capture people’s... [...]

Samantha Anderson says, “Search engine optimization (SEO) has been the buzzword of inbound lead generation for the past few years. SEO enables you to reach relevant leads and guide them to your Website. However, it is a mistake to focus your efforts on just SEO. SEO is unable to be the lead generating strategy, it must work in concert with other techniques to create sales and build a business. Many small business owners get trapped into the lead generation cycle and fail to build bridges to convert those leads into sales. Never forget the purpose of SEO lead generation, to find you, potential... [...]