Matt McGee says, “SEO (search engine optimization) has come a long way. After experiencing the “wrath of Google” years ago, some marketers have exited the SEO game and opted instead to use paid traffic to generate their leads and prospects. However, when done correctly (and ethically), there is no match for the longevity, consistency and quality of the lead flow you’ll experience from SEO. Today, I want to offer you an insider’s view of how to do this well. All of my businesses are built entirely on organic SEO, and if I were to stop doing everything today, they would continue... [...]

Matt McGee says, “A 2015 study by Smart Insights showed that 50 percent of businesses doing digital marketing had no form of digital marketing plan or strategy. They were doing digital marketing, yet there were no clearly defined objectives or goals. Does this seem a little crazy to you? In our experience helping businesses large and small, we’ve also found that most businesses don’t have a digital marketing plan (or a marketing plan of any kind, in many cases). Unfortunately, smaller local businesses are often the worst offenders here. Micro budgets require a solid ROI, but cutting... [...]

Kelsey Reaves says, “The link building world is in a constant state of evolution. New tools are continually introduced to the market, with SEOs ready to discover what works best. Our outreach team at Modernize recently found ourselves in this position. In need of a new email automation service, we were eager to explore and test out new tools to see what improved our overall outreach system. Modernize is in the home improvement space, and we focus heavily on energy efficiency and green living — thus, we target lots of green blogs, solar websites, etc. Our aim at Modernize is to be a resource... [...]

MOZ team says, “It’s the season of giving, and that notion extends to search! Brand preferences have an almost tangible impact on several levels, from consumer affinity to a rankings boost on Google. In this holiday edition of our now-traditional Whitebeard Friday, Rand explains why it’s important to keep brand recognition at the forefront of your strategy, and offers up a framework on how to get started on giving searchers a reason to prefer your brand“. Giving Searchers a Reason to Prefer Your Brand MOZ Blog  [...]

Trond Lyngbø says, “Going into the FIFA World Cup 2014, Argentina’s prolific scorer, Lionel Messi, widely considered the world’s best attacker, was expected to steer his team to victory. But he didn’t score a field goal in four games at the knockout stage — and his team lost in the finals! Just like soccer, digital marketing is also a team effort. To win in the long run, each element of your omni-channel marketing plan, including SEO, should work in concert with and build upon the others  to power your business to massive success. Do you work in a large organization, selling... [...]

Roy Hinkis says, “Last month Google made a big announcement, potentially signaling a game changer for search. Google is quietly rolling out app-only content indexing, even if that content isn’t actually hosted on the indexed app. So, what does that actually mean? The game-changing implication is that when you search Google from your phone or tablet, app-only content will “stream” directly to your mobile device — even if you don’t have the app installed. Thus, if I search for the key phrase “hotel tonight in Chicago,” I’ll see results from mobile apps that aren’t installed... [...]

Berry Levine says, “With software robots (bots) settling into what seems to be a permanent and major part of website traffic, a Detroit-based company is out with a report that takes a different angle. Instead of focusing on identifying and warding off bots, says “State of the Human Internet Report, 2015,” why not focus on verifying which visitors are human? That’s the mission of Are You A Human (AYAH), Inc., a company that tracks visitors on over three million websites in nearly 200 countries and determines which ones are clearly exhibiting human behavior. Its new report quantifies... [...]

Aaron Agius says, “Could social signals be one of the mysterious 200+ factors that Google considers in order to determine your website’s rank? SEOs and digital marketers have been debating the question for ages. But what does the data actually say? Here’s a new perspective that attempts to answer this constantly debated question. Google Says No Google is often cryptic about what factors it uses to determine rank, but in the case of social signals, they’ve actually been fairly straightforward. Many Google representatives have mentioned that social signals are not a rank factor. One... [...]

MOZ team says, “You may have heard the term “AMPs” thrown around lately. What exactly are Accelerated Mobile Pages, what do they mean for search, and how can you prepare for it all? In this week’s BritishWhiteboard Friday, Will Critchlow and Tom Anthony of Distilled lay out all the important details“. What You Need to Know About Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMPs) – Whiteboard Friday MOZ Blog  [...]

Taylor Tomita says, “Search engine optimization (SEO) has always been apparent within the internet world, but as Google’s ranking factors have been streamlined with their frequent search algorithm updates, implementing SEO into a website is becoming increasingly necessary in today’s digitalized world. SEO is the process of setting up a website in a way that allows it be visible within a search engine’s results page, based on the standard practices that all search engines use to organize the internet world. This can be boiled down to a number of strategies, but overall, SEO is impressing... [...]