Tom Capper says, “In this post I’ll pull apart four of the most commonly used metrics in Google Analytics, how they are collected, and why they are so easily misinterpreted. Average Time on Page Average time on page should be a really useful metric, particularly if you’re interested in engagement with content that’s all on a single page. Unfortunately, this is actually its worst use case. To understand why, you need to understand how time on page is calculated in Google Analytics: Time on Page: Total across all pageviews of time from pageview to last engagement hit on that... [...]

MOZ team says, “A frequently asked question in the SEO world is whether or not branding plays a part in Google’s ranking algorithm. There’s a short answer with a big asterisk, and in today’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand explains what you need to know“. Is Brand a Google Ranking Factor? MOZ Blog  [...]

Trevor Klein says, “Last week, we began posting short (< 2-minute) video tutorials that help you all get the most out of Moz’s tools. Each tutorial is designed to solve a use case that we regularly hear about from Moz community members—a need or problem for which you all could use a solution. Today, we’ve got a brand-new roundup of the most recent videos: How to Examine and Analyze SERPs Using New MozBar Features How to Boost Your Rankings through On-Page Optimization How to Check Your Anchor Text Using Open Site Explorer How to Do Keyword Research with OSE and the Keyword... [...]

Matt Byrim says, “With spring comes showers and flowers, and the furry of conference hours. That’s right. It’s that time – conference season. In the last month, it feels like every other email I’ve received has a conference suggestion or round up review asking us to cover it. For those of you that don’t have budget set aside to attend fancy conferences, or just don’t have the time to attend, here’s a round up of the latest marketing conferences and access to all the content to view on your time. And some new ones coming up in case your schedule or funds open up“. PPC... [...]

Alex Walz says, “After seeing Rand’s “Mad Science Experiments in SEO” presented at last year’s MozCon, I was inspired to put on the lab coat and goggles and do a few experiments of my own—not in SEO, but in SEO’s up-and-coming younger sister, ASO (app store optimization). Working with Apptentive to guide enterprise apps and small startup apps alike to increase their discoverability in the app stores, I’ve learned a thing or two about app store optimization and what goes into an app’s ranking. It’s been my personal goal for some time now to... [...]

Hannah Smith says, “Most frequently, the content we create at Distilled is designed to attract press coverage, social shares, and exposure (and links) on sites our clients’ target audience reads. That’s a tall order. Over the years we’ve had our hits and misses, and through this we’ve recognised the value of learning about what makes a piece of content successful. Coming up with a great idea is difficult, and it can be tough to figure out where to begin. Today, rather than leaping headlong into brainstorming sessions, we start with creative content research“. Simple... [...]

MOZ team says, “We all know by now that not just any old content is going to help us rank in competitive SERPs. We often hear people talking about how it takes “good, unique content.” That’s the wrong bar. In today’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand talks about where we should be aiming, and how to get there“. Why Good Unique Content Needs to Die – Whiteboard Friday MOZ Blog  [...]

Bill Slawski says, “I often explore and read patents and papers from the search engines to try to get a sense of how they may approach different issues, and learn about the assumptions they make about search, searchers, and the Web. Lately, I’ve been keeping an eye open for papers and patents from the search engines where they talk about a metric known as the “long click.” A recently granted Google patent uses the metric of a “Long Click” as the center of a process Google may use to track results for queries that were selected by searchers for long visits in... [...]

Cyrus Shepard says, “Today we’re excited to make freely available the new Web Developer’s SEO Cheat Sheet 3.0. Ever since the indelible Danny Dover created the original version in 2008, the SEO Cheat Sheet has been downloaded tens of thousands of times by developers and marketers alike. Countless beginner and advanced SEOs have printed it out, laminated it, and hung it on their walls as a quick reference to the most impactful best practices in search engine optimization. Web developers and software engineers also find it handy to easily reference SEO technical standards. New... [...]

Eric Enge says, “In my last column, I wrote about how to use term frequency analysis in evaluating your content vs. the competition’s. Term frequency (TF) is only one part of the TF-IDF approach to information retrieval. The other part is inverse document frequency (IDF), which is what I plan to discuss today. Today’s post will use an explanation of how IDF works to show you the importance of creating content that has true uniqueness. There are reputation and visibility reasons for doing this, and it’s great for users, but there are also SEO benefits. If you wonder why... [...]