Siobhán McGinty says, “Search engine optimization is complicated. For many, it’s considered a dark art, peppered with unknowns and uncertainties. And while some marketers consider it an exciting challenge, others back away from it in fear that they’ll simply never get it right. However, the truth is, if you are doing any kind of online marketing, having even a basic understanding of SEO can help you deliver more successful strategies and campaigns. So to help set you up for success, we’ve put together a 30-day plan designed to give you a better sense of how SEO works,... [...]

Marie Haynes says, “Thin content! Duplicate content! Everyone knows that these are huge Panda factors. But are they really? In this article, I will explore the possibility that Panda is about so much more than thin and duplicate content. I don’t have a list of ten steps to follow to cure your Panda problems. But, I do hope that this article provokes some good discussion on how to improve our websites in the eyes of Google’s Panda algorithm. The duplicate content monster Recently, Google employee John Mueller ran a webmaster help hangout that focused on duplicate content issues. It was... [...]

James E. Hein says, “Gone are the days when search engine optimization was enough to land your website onto Google’s good graces. Now you must to add content marketing to your arsenal of digital marketing tool if you want to gain search engines’ approval and ultimately win the heart of online users. Given the important role content marketing now plays in the success of online business, it’s time that SEO ties the knot with content marketing. The two digital marketing tools that were once viewed as separate entities are now an inseparable couple, promising to inch businesses... [...]

Paddy Morgan says, “Not all links are created equal. One part of the Google algorithm is the number of links pointing at your website, but it would be foolish to make this a raw number and not take into account the quality of those links. Otherwise it would just be a free for all, and everyone would be trying to get as many links as they can with no regard for the quality of those links. Back in the early days of search engine optimization, it was pretty much a free-for-all because the search engines were not as good at determining the quality of a link. Even the introduction of PageRank,... [...]

Carson Ward says, “A friend of mine recently asked me to review and explain a series of site recommendations sent over by a well-known digital marketing agency with roots in SEO. We talked through the (generally good) recommendations for content and search optimization, and then we got to this: “* Mobile accounts for 53% of your traffic. We recommend building a mobile-friendly responsive website. Google recommends using responsive design so that your site looks good on all devices, and it may help increase mobile rankings.” And that was it. A bullet point that says “build... [...]

MOZ team says, “This week we’re chatting about remarketing to people who’ve already visited your website and then left, or already interacted with your niche, your service, your community, and then gone off somewhere else. In today’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand discusses how to get back in front of folks who have visited your site or engaged with your industry, new options in retargeted ads, and offers some best practices to follow“. Remarketing to People That Have Already Visited Your Website MOZ Blog  [...]

Anthony Coraggio says, “Pay-per-click advertising generates vast amounts of data, which presents us with tremendous potential for optimization and success. However, this formidable sword cuts both ways—even skilled managers can quickly find themselves adrift if tests and changes are not carefully tracked. Here’s a quick, actionable guide to keeping order in your AdWords account with a simple and professional activity log. The philosophy of orderly management Good Adwords management is an exacting science—every tweak and change made should be for a specific reason, with a particular... [...]

Ryan Stewart says, “In my 28 years on this planet, I’ve come to accept two things as fact: The sun rises every morning. Marketers screw everything up. Because of fact No. 2, I had to stop selling SEO. Why? Here’s an interaction I used to have five times a day. *Phone rings* Me: “This is Ryan Stewart with WEBRIS. How can I help you?” Caller: “I’m looking for SEO for [domain.com]. I want to rank for [keyword terms x, y, and z]. Can you guys handle that?”“. Why I Stopped Selling SEO Services and You Should, Too MOZ Blog  [...]

John Hingley – Dasheroo says, “Search engine optimization can be one of the most important KPIs at a company, especially when online traffic is the number one source of new customers. The more customers that naturally find you on search engines, specifically Google, the less you have to spend advertising to get them in your door. And advertising can be an expensive way to get new customers, especially on search engines when you’re in a constant battle with the big boys. At my company, we dove into our own SEO KPIs and developed a strategy for gaining in the search results because... [...]

Rand Fishkin says, “It’s a near-universal experience for consultants and in-house SEOs who’ve worked on numerous organic search campaigns. The first 3–6 months (longer if the site is very large or complex) of any SEO effort is almost always exclusively dedicated to fixing mistakes, improving existing issues, tweaking and tuning the sub-optimal, and generally closing the gap between what exists now and current best practices. The beautiful part of SEO is that, once completed, these efforts can have ongoing and compounding benefits for months or years to come. The newly accessible... [...]