MOZ team says, “At risk of sounding cliché, we’re right smack in the middle of the season of giving. And when it comes to giving, there’s no better example in our industry space than the topic of communities. Moz itself is a great example: You — the reader, the commenter, the Q&A inquisitor, the subscriber — are what sustains and inspires us. What kind of value does your community add to your site, and how can you provide incentive and value to your site contributors, social media fans, and influencers? In today’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand explores ten fresh, actionable... [...]

Courtney Feairheller says, “Did you know that the search result in #1 position on Google gets 33% of search traffic? And that page 1 search engine results resulted in 92% of all traffic, dropping off by 95% for page 2? Numbers don’t lie. If you want to climb to the top of search engine results pages (SERPs), well-written, engaging content alone won’t cut it. You also need to focus on writing SEO-driven, keyword-focused content that attracts not only website traffic, but the right kind of traffic. You might be thinking, “That sounds great, Courtney! But, how do I get started?” We’re... [...]

Miriam Ellis says, “In our ongoing quest for local prominence, are we leaving anybody out in the cold? For years, a fundamental message I’ve shared with almost every incoming local business client is that they need local SEO, specifically, because they need to be found on the web by local people. I’d estimate that 98% of everything our industry writes about is tied to this concept, and while this focus is sensible, today I’d like to highlight an underserved (but enormous) target local market: non-local people. Consider these statistics: According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 40,093,000... [...]

Jon Schepke says, “The time has come for businesses to frame their search marketing in the context of a broader media landscape that includes all the ways people discover brands. One of the implications of this is a new focus on location. Because “near me” mobile moments are experiencing a dramatic rise, brands must use the context of location across all their search marketing efforts — paid, earned and owned. This reality hit home for me earlier this year when Forrester Research published its Wave for search marketing agencies, which is an evaluation of agencies such as 360i, Acronym... [...]

Ronald Dod says, “PPC, or pay-per-click advertising, is a complex digital marketing strategy that is composed of many working parts. A lot of the parts are very technical and require extensive knowledge and expertise. Those generally fall on the back end of PPC, and many people who are working with PPC ads can forget about the ad itself. The biggest part of what your audience is going to see and connect with is the ad copy, and you need to make sure you are putting enough time and effort into making your copy the best it can be. With that being said, writing copy for PPC ads can be very... [...]

Andrew Dennis says, “Link campaigns need strategy. Link building is a difficult, time-consuming process that doesn’t produce results overnight. However, strategic link acquisition is necessary to achieve long-term improvements in organic search. It’s possible to grab “quick win” links here and there (and I’d encourage pursuing these opportunities), but you will need an ongoing campaign to achieve sustainable results. A campaign model ensures research, strategy development and ongoing review and analysis as a project progresses. Whether you’re planning to pursue links in 2017... [...]

Barry Schwartz says, “Google has announced they’ve upgraded the AMP reports within the Google Search Console to “clearly differentiate between the critical issues that would prevent your page from being shown in the search results, and the other non-critical issues that would be good to fix.” So those errors labeled as “critical” would mean Google cannot index that AMP content, and thus it won’t rank in the search results. The non-critical issues are more likely around richer results that do not prevent the content from being indexed but prevent it being enhanced in the search... [...]

Ronald Dod says, “Local SEO is one of the hardest SEO campaigns to run for a variety of reasons. The reasons vary, but here are some main reasons local SEO is so difficult: The local search pack is integrated with the search results. The local search pack is very difficult to influence positively. Results are very hard to track. Google changes local results a lot with algorithm changes. Search behavior changes You get the point. There are a lot of reasons and variables which can influence a local SEO campaign. However, even though it is difficult, you can see a great impact from a well-executed... [...]

Andrew Shotland says, “It was bad enough that Prince, Leonard Cohen and Mrs. Brady checked out in 2016, but then I had to go and read David Mihm’s excellent 2017 Local Marketing Predictions, and I couldn’t find a cocktail fast enough to drown my misery. Mihm’s piece is a sober look at how Google has been leading us all down the path to a single result and how SEO is going to get even tougher over the next year as Google culls the SERPs in favor of entities (aka Knowledge Panels, Local Packs and so on) and voice results. Kind of reminded me of this old sunshine and rainbows post. Thing... [...]

Dr. Peter J. Meyers says, “You’ve been hearing a lot about featured snippets from us at Moz lately, including how they power answers on the latest technology wish-list item, Google Home. I hope by now that you understand the value of ranking “#0,” but you might be left wondering where to start. How do you find questions, determine if they have featured snippets, and track them over time? I’m happy to say that, between Keyword Explorer and Moz Pro, we now have all of the tools you need to practically tackle featured snippets in a way that will be familiar for almost... [...]