Nick Chowdrey says, “Anyone who knows anything about content marketing understands that a successful blog post or other piece of content is not just a case of “build it and they will come.” You can spend hours writing the most interesting and engaging post, or spend thousands on creating interactive/video content or e-book, but if you don’t have a strategy from the start for getting it in front of eyeballs… nobody’s going to see it. All that time and money—wasted. Here are my surefire, tried-and-tested suggestions for getting high ranking on search engines... [...]

Damon Rutherford says, “Forward-thinking PR agencies are quickly learning that by adding comprehensive search engine optimisation (SEO) to their range of services they can differentiate themselves from their competition and deliver significant additional value to their clients. As an SEO, my work with these agencies has increased in line with this development. Why have PR agencies started to embrace advanced SEO? The Google algorithm development rewards websites securing high quality links and mentions from dominant websites, giving PR agencies a new advantage over traditional SEO agencies. PR... [...]

Dudley Carr says, “Today we’re excited to remove the Beta label on Moz Local Insights! This feature has been in beta since November when David first announced it. This release of Insights continues the push to provide our customers with a holistic understanding of local search presence. First, a tremendous thank you to all of our customers who gave us feedback about what works and what doesn’t work. In the two months that Insights has been active for all 60K+ listings in Moz Local, we’ve collected 2.5 billion individual metrics! Insights is tracking 220K search keywords, traffic for... [...]

Verónica Maria Jarski says, “To increase your ranking in search results, check out these five rank-boosting tips. “Navigate your way to the top with blogs,” suggests Spark Pay in the following infographic. “Blogging is a fantastic way to build up your power ranking.” Blogging also increases your SEO footprint, lets you optimize specific keywords, and attracts social shares and inbound links. Another tip is to “explore the social media landscape,” recommends Spark Pay. “Social shares are arguably more important than ‘follows.’ Be as visible... [...]

Miriam Ellis says, “St. Valentine’s Day is on the way, and I’ve been thinking about love and loyalty as they apply in the local business world. It’s been estimated that it costs 7x more to acquire a customer than to retain one; in my city, most of the major chains offer some type of traditional customer loyalty program. Most rely on a points-based system or an initial sign-up investment to receive benefits, but I wondered about Main Street. I picked 15 locally owned businesses at random to see if they had created loyalty programs, and then I checked Google and Yelp to see if any of... [...]

Will Critchlow says, “The FTC recently published their updated rules (and more accessible “guidance”) on what constitutes a “misleading” native advert [PDF]. I’ve read them. I only fell asleep twice. Then, near the end, a couple of bombshells. But first, the background. Native ads and the FTC For those who haven’t been following the trends closely, native advertising is a form of digital advertising whereby adverts are included “in-stream,” interspersed with regular editorial content. On social platforms, this takes the form of “promoted” posts — including stories or... [...]

MOZ team says, “Should you ditch keyword targeting entirely? There’s been a lot of discussion around the idea of focusing on broad topics and concepts to satisfy searcher intent, but it’s a big step to take and could potentially hurt your rankings. In today’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand discusses old-school keyword targeting and new-school concept targeting, outlining a plan of action you can follow to get the best of both worlds”. Can SEOs Stop Worrying About Keywords and Just Focus on Topics? MOZ Blog  [...]

Eric Enge says, “Machine learning is already a very big deal. It’s here, and it’s in use in far more businesses than you might suspect. A few months back, I decided to take a deep dive into this topic to learn more about it. In today’s post, I’ll dive into a certain amount of technical detail about how it works, but I also plan to discuss its practical impact on SEO and digital marketing. For reference, check out Rand Fishkin’s presentation about how we’ve entered into a two-algorithm world. Rand addresses the impact of machine learning on search and SEO... [...]

Matt Round says, “Before joining Distilled I worked for UsVsTh3m, an experimental Trinity Mirror project, where we created hundreds of games, quizzes and daft “toys.” We had unprecedented freedom to try out new interactive formats, learning a great deal about what works… and what doesn’t. The key to success was “viral” traffic. You’ve probably heard the term bandied about in reference to something popular, and might even have rolled your eyes; it’s a much-abused buzzword. The idea is that online word-of-mouth can drive exponential traffic growth and broad... [...]

Daniel Faggella  says, “In part 1 of this series, we talked about the origins of good marketing, how SEO fits into modern marketing, why it’s the most dependable and consistent form of quality lead generation, and (most importantly) how to start your SEO machine. Today, we’re diving into the last two levels that will take you from just generating leads to collecting a return on your leads (revenue). Here are the four levels: High Level (search terms, PPC terms). Top of Funnel (indirect content). Blog Level (relevant blog topics and lead generation tools). Back End (marketing automation... [...]