Winston Burton says, “I recently attended a search conference and had the opportunity to converse with attendees from a wide range of fields, with varying SEO backgrounds and experiences. After many interesting and engaging conversations, a common takeaway stood out to me: People are hung up on technical SEO metrics. I remember multiple questions like, “What’s your minimum threshold for Trust Flow?” or, “Okay, you get relevant links, but what is the average Domain Authority?” I shared my observation with our sales team when I returned, and they confirmed this was a common theme... [...]

Winston Burton says, “Many SEOs these days are focused on content marketing. This involves building out high-quality content optimized for searcher intent, then amplifying that content through social to capture end users in their moment of need. But what are the right steps to prioritize and amplify content? Read on. SEO content prioritization & creation At one point in SEO, all we talked about was being “relevant” in order to rank. However, modern SEO is about being both relevant and useful; content that achieves this is exactly what Google is looking for. You can prioritize based... [...]

Christian Sculthorp says, “Did you know that only one-seventh of the world’s population speaks English? And only about 340 million speak it as their first language (source: Ethnologue). That leaves more than six billion people who won’t get the message if you have the English-only mindset. If you sell a product or service that’s available worldwide, localizing your content online can be a massive opportunity, especially if your website is close to maxing out its current SEO potential. SaaS is a good example of an industry that can benefit from this; they can serve customers around the... [...]

Neil Patel says, “The exact details of Google’s search algorithms aren’t public knowledge, making it somewhat difficult to know exactly what it is the search giant is looking for in quality websites. One of the most commonly misunderstood aspects of these quality rankings is the importance of “white-hat” link-building as part of a solid SEO strategy. The term refers to the desire to create a good product or a service that people will want to link to (the “white-hat” reference) and that over time may increase your search ranking. The confusion over white hat was... [...]

Jim Yu says, “By 2019, it is predicted that content marketing will become a $300 billion industry. However, this content will have limited value unless it is actually found by the right audience, optimized to achieve maximum impact and measured in relation to business results. Ensuring your content is search-engine-friendly and optimized across the buyer’s journey is critical to the success of both content and SEO teams. Major search algorithm updates, such as Google’s Panda and Penguin, are focused on delivering users the highest-quality results and the most relevant content. Brands... [...]

Dan Shure says, “Marketers: Add podcast promotion to your skill set Sure. This post is for podcasters. Hi Podcasters. You may find the below interesting, perhaps educational — and I hope you leave your insights for the Moz Community in the comments below (I’ll be reading and replying to all of them). But even if you never plan on having your own podcast, this post is for you, too! I see the marketing of podcasts will being an important addition to any marketer’s skill set in 2016 and beyond. So below, we’ll examine iTunes ranking factors, lay out promotional strategies... [...]

Eric Siu says, “Increasing your marketing return on investment (ROI) happens when you increase your returns, decrease your costs or both. Both, of course, is what most marketers aspire to, but it’s admittedly difficult to achieve. One of the easiest leverage points in the equation is to reduce costs, and that’s where free content comes in. No, I’m not talking about the older content models, where writers distributed content in exchange for backlinks. Those sites served a useful purpose at the time, but are no longer as appealing to marketers, thanks to changes in Google’s algorithm.... [...]

Josh Earl says, “When I was a teenager, a late-summer lightning strike splintered the telephone pole that served our rural Ohio farmhouse. The power was out for three days in the sweltering August heat, and pretty quickly we ran out of water. The problem wasn’t our water supply — the well under our house was deep and swollen thanks to the thunderstorm that knocked out our electricity. But our plumbing system relied on an electric pump to pressurize the water and that pump needed electricity to run. The water was just feet from our pipes, but that well might as well have been bone... [...]

Jayson Demers says, “SEO is a popular online marketing strategy, and therefore, competitive, but I’m consistently amazed at how many business owners and marketers opt not to engage in an SEO strategy because of its perceived limitations or drawbacks. One of the biggest misperceptions is that SEO is expensive, and it’s driven by the fact that some agencies have higher-level packages that cost tens of thousands of dollars per month. Yes, SEO can be expensive for hyper-competitive, national-scale businesses, but that doesn’t mean it’s unaffordable for the average business owner. In... [...]

Sergey Stefoglo says, “WordPress is the most popular content management system (CMS) in the world. There’s a good chance you’ll need to optimize or work on a website that uses WordPress, if you haven’t already! Whether you’re a business owner, designer, developer, PPC expert, SEO consultant, or writer — getting familiar with WordPress is a smart move. When I started out in SEO, I worked with local businesses that hired smaller firms to design or develop their sites. Naturally, most people gravitated towards WordPress as their CMS of choice: it was easy to customize, even... [...]