Marcus Miller says, “SEO and content marketing can be tough for small businesses. Creating content that answers the frequently asked questions in your industry may not be too difficult, but getting it found in search engines is not so easy if you are a small local player. Even if you could rank a piece of content nationally, would it turn into business? Could you handle the influx of leads if it did? The digital marketing channels and tactics you use are a strategic decision — and in many cases, traditional content marketing is not the best choice for small local businesses. This is a... [...]

Shris Smith says, “One of the first things I was taught when I started out in SEO a few years ago was that “your site speed is part of Google’s algorithm and can affect ranking performance.” My reply was something like “Google has algorithms?” Being new to SEO, I had many questions, but as this was one of the first things I was told, I thought it would be best to take a keen interest in it, and try to understand exactly how your site speed effects performance. Cue my head exploding. Yes, site speed can be a difficult thing for a newbie to get to grips with, especially when you... [...]

Casie Gillette says, “Last month, my colleague Derek Edmond wrote a column here on Search Engine Land discussinghow to improve your value as a strategic SEO partner. The post included suggestions around reporting dashboards, software knowledge and industry-specific networking. What I liked about the piece was the implication that to show value, we have to do more than just provide recommendations. But it also got me thinking about the value of the recommendations themselves. If you search “show SEO value,” you’ll get a slew of posts discussing how to use data and reporting to make... [...]

Amanda Zantal-Wiener says, “Tracing the history of SEO is kind of like trying to trace the history of the handshake. We all know it exists, and we know it’s an important part of business. But we don’t spend a ton of time thinking about its origins — we’re mostly concerned with how we use it day-to-day. But unlike the handshake, SEO is fairly young, and changes frequently. Quite appropriately, it appears to be a millennial — its birth is predicted to fall somewhere around 1991. And in its relatively short life, it’s matured and evolved rather quickly — just look at... [...]

MOZ team says, “Web technologies and their adoption are advancing at a frenetic pace. Content is a game that every type of team and agency plays, so we’re all competing for a piece of that pie. Meanwhile, technical SEO is more complicated and more important than ever before and much of the SEO discussion has shied away from its growing technical components in favor of content marketing. As a result, SEO is going through a renaissance wherein the technical components are coming back to the forefront and we need to be prepared. At the same time, a number of thought leaders have made statements... [...]

Casie Gillette says, “Last month, my colleague Derek Edmond wrote a column here on Search Engine Land discussinghow to improve your value as a strategic SEO partner. The post included suggestions around reporting dashboards, software knowledge and industry-specific networking. What I liked about the piece was the implication that to show value, we have to do more than just provide recommendations. But it also got me thinking about the value of the recommendations themselves. If you search “show SEO value,” you’ll get a slew of posts discussing how to use data and reporting to make... [...]

Diana Huff says, “The small manufacturers who are thriving in the face of global competition and other challenges have spent the last five to seven years improving productivity and process efficiencies. This focus has often meant that marketing activity was next to nonexistent — with much new business coming from word-of-mouth. Once a small manufacturer has their process down, however, they’re ready to begin a marketing program that includes SEO. The problem is, where to start? With so much information and so many moving parts, a small business owner can be easily overwhelmed. It’s... [...]

Tim Wailes says, “In my day-to-day role at Builtvisible, I build tools to break down marketing challenges and simplify tasks. One of the things we as marketers often need to do is pitch content concepts to sites. To make this easier, you want to pitch something on-topic. To do that more effectively, I decided to spend some time creating a process to help in the ideation stage. In the spirit of sharing, I thought I’d show you how that process was created and share it with you all. Tell me what you write The first challenge is making sure that your content will be on-topic. The starting... [...]

MOZ team says, “Have you ever considered gating your content to get leads? Whether you choose to have open-access content or gate it to gather information, there are benefits and drawbacks you should be aware of. In today’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand weighs the pros and cons of each approach and shares some tips for improving your process, regardless of whichever route you go”. Content Gating: When, Whether, and How to Put Your Content Behind an Email/Form Capture MOZ  [...]

Sherry Bonelli says, “Getting a local business to rank high on Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs) used to be as easy as having a website, getting listed on some online business directories/citation sites and claiming your Google My Business page. Once you did those few simple things, you had an incredible shot at ranking high on Google for local keywords like “plumbers in Austin.” But those days are long gone. Local SEO is much more competitive These days local SEO is more and more competitive. Why? Part of the reason is that many local businesses have finally realized the... [...]