Ginny Marvin says, “Quality Score reporting in the AdWords interface leaves much to be desired. Only the current Quality Score is available, and granular details are contained in individual pop-ups that make analysis cumbersome. That could be changing. Avner Pinchover shared a blog post on the Israel version of the Inside AdWords blog with Search Engine Land that describes a series of new columns of Quality Score metrics coming to the AdWords UI. It was posted back on March 10 and seems to have received little attention. It was removed for some reason yesterday. (The archive can be found... [...]

Nate Dame says, “Effective content marketing is a vehicle for modern SEO. Just as wheels without an engine leaves you pedaling, content without an SEO strategy can’t keep up in a digital marketplace. And just like an engine with no wheels, SEO without content is a shiny machine that goes nowhere. Content needs SEO to stand out in the din of mediocre blog posts clogging up the internet these days, and Google has said that one of the top three ranking factors for organic search is “content.” But what does that mean? Not any content, surely. Unfortunately, search engines are not handing... [...]

Dave Davies says, “Two patents were recently granted to Google that paint a very interesting picture of the future of search. These patents are: Detecting and correcting potential errors in user behavior Guided purchasing via smartphone Before we dive in, I feel it’s necessary to point out that having a patent granted does not mean that Google will be implementing everything (or even anything) contained therein; however, it does illustrate areas they’re considering and willing to invest significant time and money into protecting. That said, these two patents contain ideas and technologies... [...]

Pratik Dholakiya says, “As all SEO experts know, ranking in the search engines is a notoriously unpredictable pursuit. Each update can result in a strong, unforeseeable impact. The days of ranking by simply adding keywords to your title tags, header tags and content to get a few backlinks are over. The harsh truth is that a great many businesses struggle to keep up with the changes. There are a lot of factors that the search engines take into account when determining your standing. Some of the big ones are: content quality authority responsiveness website speed Knowing how exactly to improve... [...]

Barry Schwartz says, “In November 2016, Google launched their mobile-first index experiment and hoped to do enough testing to launch it sometime in the near future. Well, it seems this mobile-first index has proven to be a challenge for Google, and they may not even launch it this year. At the Next10x Conference in Boston yesterday, Gary Illyes from Google said that while the team is hopeful that they will launch the mobile-first index by the end of the year, he feels that it is unlikely. We asked Gary to confirm, and he told us that he did indeed say that at the event. He said the team working... [...]

Nate Dame says, “There are at least 200 ranking factors in Google’s algorithm (not to mention RankBrain), which means a thorough SEO audit could lead to dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of SEO tasks. Few companies have the budget or resources to complete every potential SEO to-do item — and doing so would be an incredible waste of time and resources anyway. Some SEO tasks are critical and cannot be ignored; others just aren’t worth your time. Prioritizing an SEO task list is crucial. Focus your resources on SEO work that is actually going to improve rankings, increase clicks and... [...]

Ryan Shelley says, “Keyword ranking is one of the most overrated and misused metrics in SEO. Yes, tracking your positions is important, but placing too much emphasis on this metric is problematic. When it comes to SEO, what you measure gets managed. That means that focusing on the right metrics will help you generate results that have a business impact, rather than an ego boost. So, let’s talk about the problem with obsessing over rank — and what metrics you’d be better off focusing on. The problem with rank tracking Measuring keyword ranking is easy to get sucked into because... [...]

Matt McGee says, “Bing has added a chatbot to help users with some of its local search results for restaurants in the Seattle area. After getting a tip from a reader, I was able to reproduce the chatbot option in Bing’s desktop search results, but not in its iOS app nor in the mobile browser search results. The new feature appears at the bottom of the listing for some individual restaurants in the cities of Redmond (where Microsoft is based) and nearby Bellevue, Washington — both are just outside of Seattle. I’ve seen it on about 6-8 different searches for specific restaurants, such... [...]

Eric Enge says, “The recent SMX West conference had many awesome sessions, and today I’m going to provide some compelling insights from “SEO and Social: A Match Made in Marketing Heaven.” One of the great things about this session is that all four speakers took a step back and provided fresh ideas on how to think about the integration of these two disciplines. Let’s dig in! Flexibility and a willingness to fail Leading off the session we had Maggie Malek, head of PR and social at MMI agency out of Houston. She walked us through a process for getting search and social to work together. If... [...]

Danny Sullivan says, “The past few months have been bad for Google’s search reputation. Long considered the “gold standard” in search, Google has seen its search results questioned as never before. It’s a body blow to a core service that should be safe as Google tries to grow in new directions. Recovering from that blow isn’t easy. What’s happened to Google search is on par with the Apple Maps fiasco or Samsung’s exploding Galaxy Note7 phones. To this day, people still joke about Apple Maps being bad, even though it’s greatly improved. As for Samsung, the phones might... [...]