Rand Fishkin says, “It’s that time again, friends… That time where I grade my 2016 predictions to see whether I’ve got the clout and foresight to get another shot in 2017. This year is gonna be really close, as I was more aggressive last year than in prior ones, so let’s see where we end up, and what I’ve got to say for the next 12 months. s always, my predictions will be graded on the following scale: Nailed It (+2) – When a prediction is right on the money and the primary criteria are fulfilled Partially Accurate (+1) – Predictions that are in the area,... [...]

Andrew Medal says, “Is your SEO provider about to get you penalized? Hopefully not, but there is a chance it might. It is too easy to put up a website and advertise SEO services without actually knowing what they are doing. There are also marketers out there who don’t keep up with Google best practices and still use old methods that are ineffective. If you have never been hit with a Google penalty, let me just tell you it is an experience like no other. Your heart falls into your stomach, you become short on breath and your eyes start to hurt from staring at your computer screen wondering... [...]

Joe Robison says, “Who doesn’t love working on low-hanging fruit SEO problems that can dramatically improve your site? Across all businesses and industries, the low-effort, high-reward projects should jump to the top of the list of things to implement. And it’s nowhere more relevant than tackling technical SEO issues on your site. Let’s focus on easy-to-identify, straightforward-to-fix problems. Most of these issues can be uncovered in an afternoon, and it’s possible they can solve months’ worth of traffic problems. While there may not be groundbreaking, complex issues that... [...]

Ryan Shelley says, “We’ve all heard the saying, “Content is king.” While in some respects this saying is true, in my opinion, this one phrase has done more damage to our industry than anything else. According to WordPress, “Users produce about 73.9 million new posts and 49.0 million new comments each month.” That’s roughly 2.4 million posts a day, and that’s just on WordPress alone. I would love to believe that all of that content has value, but in my experience over the years, I could make a very strong argument that most of it is junk. Google’s end goal is to deliver the... [...]

Jason Parks says, “One of the most common mistakes I see amongst companies investing in SEO is that they’ll write 4-5 internal blogs per month. When it comes to external blogs and distribution, there is no defined strategy. Zilch. Nada. Why External Content is Crucial Backlinks are the foundation of Google’s algorithm. If you want a complex explanation of the original PageRank algorithm, click here. I’ll give you the CliffsNotes version. Google views your site as authoritative when other sites link back to it. They don’t want to see a site that is spammy linking back... [...]

Sherry Bonelli says, “There’s one thing that remains true about SEO: it’s always changing. One of the big changes that we’re experiencing now in local SEO is the increasing popularity of voice search. Voice search used to be a novelty — now it’s a necessity, especially when you’re on the go with your smartphone or tablet. If you’re a local business, how do you optimize your business for this new personal assistant-type search? Here are some tips. Voice searches are on the rise According to Google, 20 percent of searches on its mobile app and on Android devices are voice searches.... [...]

JP Sherman says, “On-site search, also known as internal search, is a critical yet undervalued and underrepresented tactic in the search industry. In 2014,eConsultancy released a report that showed that 15% of companies dedicate resources to optimizing the on-site search experience, 42% fold on-site search into other online measurement responsibilities, and 42% of companies ignore on-site search. This report was released more than two years ago and after some extensive Googling, some Duck Duck Go-ing, and some slight Bing-ing, I couldn’t find any reputable site releasing similar, more... [...]

Laura Forer says, “Even if you’re already familiar with how to optimize your website for local search today, you probably know that the state of local SEO is always changing. Between updating your Google My Business page, understanding schema markup, and setting up the right monitoring tools on your own website, keeping up with local SEO can be a bear, an infographic from On Blast Blog points out. But fear not: The infographic also provide tips on how to succeed with local SEO now and prepares you for some possible upcoming changes. For example, although customer reviews are already... [...]

MOZ team says, “Launching a startup is a huge task all on its own. While it can be a challenge to factor SEO into the mix, it’s an incredibly important consideration. In today’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand shares a comprehensive plan to kick off your new SEO audit and grab a piece of that organic search pie from the get-go”. How to Kickstart an SEO Audit for Your Startup – Whiteboard Friday MOZ  [...]

Aleyda Solis says, “Although many of us in the industry pay hundreds or even thousands for SEO software that helps to automate and simplify our everyday work, we already have one of the most handy free SEO tool sets in the market with Google Chrome’s DevTools. Built into Google Chrome, this set of web authoring and debugging tools allows us to validate some of the most fundamental and critical SEO aspects of any page. In most cases, using DevTools is pretty straightforward. But there are a few very handy and not so obvious applications for SEO analysis. Let’s go through them now. Start... [...]