Search marketing software provider Moz is asking SEO professionals to complete its 2013 Moz Industry Survey. According to the announcement on Moz’s blog, the survey should take only five to ten minutes and the data will be shared publicly once it’s published. This year’s survey is intended to gain insights on industry trends, including SEO […]
Moz announced the launch of a new link and SEO tool feature called Fresh Alerts. Fresh Alerts is kind of like Google Alerts but specifically designed for SEOs and marketers to keep track of not just new web mentions but also new links pointing to your site or a competitor’s site. Moz’s Cyrus Shepard said […]
Searchmetrics has released their SEO ranking factors for Bing, Microsoft’s search engine, today. Similar to their Google ranking factors, Searchmetrics analyzed 10,000 popular keywords and 300,000 websites appearing in the top 30 search results and looked at how various factors correlated with rankings. The top five key findings were: (1) Top brands rank higher on […]
Today, September 4th, and last week, August 21st, there were huge spikes in chatter amongst the SEO and webmasters about the Google search results shifting and changing. In short, many SEOs and webmasters were complaining that their rankings in the Google search results have declined drastically. In addition, many sent me images of their analytics, […]
Google tells us they make as many as 600 changes to their ranking algorithms every year. Some are major, typically named after disarmingly cute animals that can nonetheless severely damage or even destroy hard-won search result placement. Other changes are minor, but if your site happens to be subject to the “new rules” you need […]
Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, said once again that Google’s +1 data has no direct impact on their web search ranking algorithm. Moz published a story today named Amazing Correlation Between Google +1s and Higher Search Rankings in which Matt Cutts responded to in Hacker News thread saying, “correlation != causation.” He said […]
Despite the annual changes in the local search ecosystem, the ranking factors that Google uses to determine its local search results haven’t changed much over the past year. So say the 35 local search marketers that contributed to the 2013 Local Search Ranking Factors — organized again this year by David Mihm, and published this […]
Link building is a staple of most SEO campaigns. Some methods are scalable and automated, while others are similar to old-school public relations. One thing most can agree on is that methods always need to adapt to keep up with opportunity and algorithm changes. Building Links With Content Google has made it harder to build […]
Matt from Moz (formerly SEOmoz) has released a preview of some of the data from their search ranking factors survey they produce every other year or so. The preview shows us that SEOs still place the most value on links and then keywords on the page. But looking toward the future, content and authorship will […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: 50 Percent Of Companies Struggling With SEO Aren’t Integrating Social Media [Survey] What’s one key difference between companies that are successful with SEO and those that aren’t? According to a new […]
The Majestic SEO team announced today that they have made their Site Explorer tool free for verified domains. With that, they also announced improvements to the user interface, additional features and unlimited use for paid users of the tool. Free user accounts can get up to 2,500 links to their site, while paid users can […]
Over the past few days, the Webmaster and SEO community have been discussing significant shifts, fluctuations and updates in both the Google rankings and traffic patterns they have seen from Google’s organic search. I’ve asked Google if there was, indeed, an update, and Google would not confirm. Instead, they gave me the boilerplate response, “We […]
A study by Portent, an Internet marketing company, shows that Google’s tolerance of spammy links to trigger a Penguin algorithm ranking drop has declined by 30% since the Penguin algorithm launched. The study shows that of the 500,000 links found, Google has been steadily reducing its tolerance for webspam. Now, Google is likely to penalize […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: How Account Quality Score Can Guide AdWords Optimization Last month, I covered four ways to use AdWords Scripts to improve AdWords account management. I didn’t share any actual code for fear […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: A/B Testing From Search To Conversion As I mentioned in a previous post, search marketers should work on finding the middle ground between a high CTR (appealing ads) and a high […]
Last week, search marketing software provider Raven decided to stop using scraped data after Google’s AdWords API team threatened to revoke the company’s token. Now, a second tools provider, Ahrefs, says it, too, will remove functionality that uses scraped data, to maintain access to the AdWords API. A third provider, SEOmoz, has said it has […]
While there has been lots of talk about a Google crackdown on developer access to the AdWords API, there have been few details about what the disputed issues may be — and why they’re coming up now, with tools-makers like Raven and SEOmoz that have had access to the API for years. Now, Raven Tools, […]
In the last couple of weeks, two well-known search tool providers — Raven and SEOmoz — have had their access to the AdWords API revoked, with little public explanation, as was reported by Kahena Digital Marketing. But Google denies that this is a “crackdown” or widespread enforcement activity, saying it’s all in a day’s work […]
Google’s announced that another Panda Update is being unleashed on its results, one that it says will impact 0.7% of queries. We’re calling it Panda 3.92, through we’re wondering if it’s time to declare Panda 4.0 upon us. Here’s the official news from Google: Panda refresh is rolling out—expect some flux over the next few days. Fewer […]
Blekko has changed its previously free SEO tools into a paid service, putting it in competition with the likes of SEOmoz.org, Ahrefs.com, MajesticSEO.com, SEMrush.com and other SEO data/tool providers. There’s been no official announcement of the change, but Blekko CEO Rich Skrenta confirmed to us that the company’s SEO tools and data now require a […]
SEOmoz announced a new neat service that aims at providing insight into if Google has run a major search index/algorithm update in the past by tracking 1,000 keywords every 24 hours from a select number of web sites. The service is called MozCast and literally shows a weather report based on ranking fluctuations. It is […]
Dear Google. Please don’t send out any further link warnings to publishers. Your latest round yesterday, intended to clarify the confusion sparked by ones sent last week, is likely going to make things worse, not better. No more warnings, not until you get some fundamental clarity in place. Dear Publishers. Here’s our latest news on […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Official Google Panda Update Version 3.8 On June 25th Google has announced they pushed out a new refresh to the Panda algorithm recently. This update “noticeably affects only ~1% of queries […]
Majestic SEO announced a new set of link metrics they came up with that should give Google’s PageRank metric and SEOmoz’s MozRank a run for their money. Majestic SEO’s new metrics are named Flow Metrics and are grouped into two categories; trust flow and citation flow. Citation Flow is a number of predicting how influential […]
Get up to speed on the basics of search marketing with our special training videos that cover the fundamentals: Keyword Research and Copywriting Search Engine Friendly Web Design Link Building Fundamentals Paid Search Fundamentals Keyword Research and Copywriting Christine Churchill The first step to success with any marketing campaign is to know your message. With […]
Welcome back to the first Link Week of 2012, I hope you enjoyed the holidays and had a great New Year celebration! Next up in our tool review series: Ontolo Internet Marketing Tools The current Ontolo toolset is owned by partners Ben Wills and Andy Davidoff and has been a work in progress since 2008. The tool is […]
As expected Yahoo will be closing down Yahoo Site Explorer this year. Yahoo has just announced the date for the closure. This coming Monday, November 21, 2011, Site Explorer will cease to exist. The short Yahoo blog post reads: With the completion of algorithmic transition to Bing, Yahoo! Search has merged Site Explorer into Bing […]
Second in our review series are the link building tools from SEOmoz Pro; I was excited to review this tool set since it’s not one I use. Let’s start with a quick overview of what’s in the program and then focus on the link building tools. SEOmoz PRO SEOmoz PRO is a set of “software, tools and resources to maximize […]
Yes, Virginia, Tweeting Is SEO Presentations from SMX Advanced, June 2011 Still think Twitter is a waste of time? Think again. Tweets impact how regular search results rank. Good “TwitterBait” can be a major and easily gained source of relevant links. Tweets also get you into a variety of social search engines. This session covers […]
SEOmoz announced they have published the Google Algorithm Change document detailing all “major updates” that happened since the Boston update in 2003. SEOmoz did it with style in this graphical document: While I agree with a lot of the updates listed here, I had worked up a list of my own a few months ago. […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google’s Matt Cutts Offering More Detailed Video Search Tips The Google Webmaster Blog announced a new format for Google’s Matt Cutts video tutorials. Instead of the short minute or so videos, […]
In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and more.
So you have finally made the decision to get off of the paid links crack and go straight. Do you go cold turkey? Do you take this in stages? There are great questions and the ones I will take on in today’s post. There are two major reasons why you should make this switch, one […]
SEO — search engine optimization — is one of the most important marketing activities available to companies and publishers, but it’s too often considered some murky “dark art” or a sinful practice that should be avoided. It’s not. To help clear away some of the mystery and fear for those new to SEO, and provide […]
Today, Forrester Research unveiled a 6- page report on the utility of SEO automation tools for use in larger enterprises. Six vendors were covered in the landscape report, including Altruik, BrightEdge, Conductor, Covario, SEOmoz PRO, and Yield Software. The report mainly covers key issues in scaling automation across larger enterprises, integration of IT services and […]
Bing Webmaster Tools has relaunched inbound link reports for verified site owners (as announced at SMX East back in October). I dove in to check out what the new reports include. Google has recently revamped their inbound link reports, so I made note of those changes well. Read on for more details. Want a quick summary? […]
I’m frequently asked what resources I read to keep up with the latest trends and information on link building. While it’s an easy question, answering it takes a while since I follow a long list of sites. Here’s a list of resources I find invaluable and try to review every day. I’ve grouped them by […]
The new search engine Blekko just launched, and it’s making SEO-related data that it has found during its crawling and indexing of the web available for all sites. Just what does it include and how useful is it? Accessing SEO Data You can access SEO data for any domain or URL by clicking the SEO […]
SEOmoz, the well-known, Seattle-based SEO agency, is getting out of the agency business. In a blog post today, CEO Rand Fishkin says the company will focus instead on SEO-related software and tools. SEOmoz recently launched Open Site Explorer and has offered a variety of SEO tools for several years now. SEOmoz also says it’s strengthening […]
At SMX East today, Linkdex is introducing its new SearchDNA tool — a link analysis tool that the company says goes deeper than the already crowded field that it’s competing against. While some link tools only show up to 1,000 links (think Yahoo Site Explorer), Linkdex says SearchDNA has a database of about one trillion […]