Andrew Dennis says, “There is no formal education or pathway into link building. Most professional link builders are self-taught or learned from a mentor who taught themselves — so if you want to enter into the SEO field (or need to bolster your own site’s link profile), it often means trial and error. Due to the lack of formal education available, it’s vital that SEOs share their experience and expertise so we can learn and improve as an industry. Today, I’ll share my own experience to (hopefully) help you improve your link prospecting so you can find better sites that translate... [...]

Ronell Smith says, “Topic Trends, the latest feature added to Moz Content, allows marketers to quickly access a snapshot of the most popular and the most relevant content in any vertical. By accessing the content in the Content Search index, Topic Trends highlights the topics that were written about most frequently in the previous five days. Since the presidential election is the hottest thing going at the moment, it’s little surprise that election news is dominant”. Moz Content Gets More Robust with the Addition of Topic Trends MOZ  [...]

Tim Brown says, “A common question people pose to those in Search Engine Optimization is “Are there any new and big changes coming to the way that we should be on the lookout for?” In the Search Engine Optimization industry, we know there are some very common principles that will make for a more visibile site like technical markup, content marketing and link building, according to experts – but what is shaking things up this year? Well in 2016, Accellerated Mobile Pages from Google and Facebook instant articles are allowing publishers to create simplified versions of their content... [...]

Cyrus Shepard says, “Is it time to rewrite the SEO playbooks? For what seems like forever, SEOs have operated by a set of best practices that dictate how to best handle redirection of URLs. (This is the practice of pointing one URL to another. If you need a quick refresher, here’s a handy guide on HTTP status codes.) These tried and true old-school rules included: 1. 301 redirects result in around a 15% loss of PageRank. Matt Cutts confirmed this in 2013 when he explained that a 301 loses the exact same amount of PageRank as a link from one page to another. 2. 302s don’t pass PageRank.... [...]

John E Lincoln says, “SEO is a complicated discipline. There are many components to it, and best practices change from time to time. Add to that the fact that Google updates its algorithm frequently, causing ranking shifts that are known to make digital marketers lose sleep. Additionally, Google often releases new technologies that offer alternative ways to rank. That makes the lives of SEOs even more complicated, as they have to overcome a learning curve to properly serve their clients. One day, it might be easier to become a doctor than an SEO — kidding! (But not really… ) Even now,... [...]

Sastry Rachakonda says, “Businesses often under-leverage SEO. Companies spend significant money on paid search while balking at investing in significantly in organic search. This is in spite of studies that show four out of five users click on organic listings because users consider them to be more credible. This situation often frustrates SEOs. Based on our conversations with business folks as well as personal experiences in managing businesses in large companies, we’ve uncovered a number of reasons why businesses struggle to use SEO teams well. Here are the three main causes — and... [...]

John E Lincoln says, “SEO is a complicated discipline. There are many components to it, and best practices change from time to time. Add to that the fact that Google updates its algorithm frequently, causing ranking shifts that are known to make digital marketers lose sleep. Additionally, Google often releases new technologies that offer alternative ways to rank. That makes the lives of SEOs even more complicated, as they have to overcome a learning curve to properly serve their clients. One day, it might be easier to become a doctor than an SEO — kidding! (But not really… ) Even now,... [...]

MOZ team says, “Is the practice of tracking keywords truly dying? There’s been a great deal of industry discussion around the topic of late, and some key points have been made. In today’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand speaks to the biggest challenges keyword rank tracking faces today and how to solve for them”. Should SEOs and Marketers Continue to Track and Report on Keyword Rankings? – Whiteboard Friday MOZ  [...]

Tamar Weinberg says, “As the volume of content on the internet continues to expand at jaw-dropping rates, it’s getting harder and harder to attract an audience. And yet, publishers and brands are investing heavily on churning out new pages. The Washington Post publishes 1,200 new content assets every day, 500 of which are articles prepared by their in-house editorial team. Across the entire web, according to estimates from Internet Live Stats, over 4.3 million blog posts go up each day. Keeping up with that kind of competition volume is a bit of a non-starter. What’s more, traffic referred... [...]

Kelsey Libert says, “Content marketers, does the following scenario sound familiar? You’re tasked with creating content that attracts publicity, links, and social shares. You come up with great ideas for content that you’re confident could accomplish these goals. However, any ideas that push the envelope or might offend anyone in the slightest get shot down by your boss or client. Even if a provocative idea gets approved, after feedback from higher-ups and several rounds of editing, you end up with a boring, watered-down version of what you originally envisioned. Given the above, you’re... [...]