Rand Fishkin says, “Imagine a world where even the high-up Google engineers don’t know what’s in the ranking algorithm. We may be moving in that direction. In today’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand explores and explains the concepts of deep learning and machine learning, drawing us a picture of how they could impact our work as SEOs“. What Deep Learning and Machine Learning Mean For the Future of SEO MOZ Blog  [...]

Eric Enge says, “Let’s face it. Getting slapped by a manual link penalty, or by the Penguin algorithm, really stinks. Once this has happened to you, your business is in a world of hurt. Worse still is the fact that you can’t get clear information from Google on which of your links are the bad ones. In today’s post, I am going to focus on the number one reason why people fail to get out from under these types of problems, and how to improve your chances of success. The mindset Success begins, continues, and ends with the right mindset. A large percentage of people I see... [...]

Bill Slawski says, “There are many pages on the Web that are filled with data in the form of tables. It’s possible that if you weren’t paying attention you may have missed Google Table Search entirely—it hasn’t gotten a lot of press as far as I can tell. If you include tabular data on the pages of your site, though, you may be able to find tables from your site included in the results from a query in Google Table Search. Imagine that I am looking to buy a new camera lens, except I’m not sure which one to purchase. I’ve heard good things about Nikon lenses,... [...]

Jami Oetting says, “We are creatures of habit, especially when it comes to buying behavior. We know the location of our favorite products in the store, and we trust that they will work, year after year. In fact, Americans buy the same 150 items, which accounts for 85% of household needs. People don’t like change. And it is a battle to get someone to switch to an unknown brand. When a client is looking to launch a new product, get into a different market, or open a new store location, the odds are stacked against him. Consider this: Only 3% of consumer packaged good exceed the sales... [...]

Rachel Sprung says, “While Google keeps us on our toes with all the algorithm updates they keep rollin’ out, one thing has stayed pretty consistent for inbound marketers looking to optimize their websites for search: keyword research. Well, the need to do keyword research has stayed the same. How you actually do it hasn’t. So I’m going to lay out a keyword research process you can follow to help you come up with and narrow down a list of terms you should be targeting.That way, you’ll be able to establish and execute a strong keyword strategy that helps you get... [...]

Matthew Turner says, “If you read the headline, “Portland Entrepreneur Raises $13 Million by Enticing 62,000 People to Buy His Cooler,” which part fascinates you? How about, “7,000 Hungry Folks Raise $55,000 for Potato Salad Project?” I imagine, if you’re anything like the majority, those large amounts of money stand out. After all, $13 million is a gigantic amount of cash, as is $55,000 for potato salad. But whenever I come across crowdfunding campaigns like these, it is the crowd of people who band together that captures my attention”. How to Crowd-Publish Your Content... [...]

Brian Clark says, “What’s the reality of search engine optimization after the Google Hummingbird update? Can someone destroy your business with negative SEO? Did Google kill the concept of AuthorRank when it eliminated the Authorship initiative? For these types of questions, there’s no better person to ask than Danny Sullivan, founder of Search Engine Land and Marketing Land, CMO of Third Door Media (producers of the popular SMX conferences), and a veteran search engine expert of 20 years. Today’s show is just a warmup to Danny’s presentation at Authority Rainmaker 2015, May 13-15... [...]

Martijn Scheijbeler says, “Everybody remembers being in college, writing down activities in a logbook, hoping the hours they worked on a project were enough for a sufficient grade. After two years as an online marketer/SEO, I realized what makes writing down activities so important. The intent of this post is to save you from making the same mistakes I made. If you’re working for a brand, you probably want to make sure you’re on top of all your KPIs, but few of us are able to carefully track our valued metrics 24 hours a day. So in addition to providing you with some... [...]

Samuel Scott says, “My first marketing job was in porn. After leaving my journalism career and having studied marketing in an M.B.A. program in Boston, I moved to Israel some years ago to pursue a marcom career in the so-called “Startup Nation.” My first job, however, turned out to be at a pornography website that broadcast live “shows” for $1 a minute. Yeah, it’s a little embarrassing. But I learned a lot – about what not to do. Every day, I would write fake porn stories that would be stuffed with keywords and then published on an “independent”... [...]

Lisa Furgison says, “When you’re looking for a answer, what do you do? You Google it, right? Most of us pull out our smartphone or laptop and head to Google, or a similar search engine to find answers. It’s so common that “google” is listed as a verb in the Oxford English Dictionary. Of course, as a business owner, you want your own website to come up when people are searching for your product or service. So, how do you make sure your website appears in relevant search results? Your website has to be attractive to search engines. You need all the right ingredients to earn high rankings.... [...]