MOZ team says, “What’s the secret to earning site traffic from competitive keywords with decent search volume? The answer could be as easy as 1, 2, 3 — or more precisely, 2, 0, 1, 7. In today’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand lets you in on a relatively straightforward tactic that can help you compete in a tough space using very fresh content”. The Keyword + Year Content/Rankings Hack MOZ  [...]

Greg Sterling says, “In the past year, comScore has de-emphasized its search market share and mobile market share reports. Part of the reason is that the numbers don’t change that much anymore. In addition, for reasons that remain mysterious, the measurement firm has declined to present a consolidated view of the search marketplace that includes both desktop and mobile. Mobile search is now both larger and, in many respects, more important than desktop search. Across the board, desktop search queries are down vs. November. Google’s overall share remains basically stable at 63 percent... [...]

Danny Sullivan says, “As promised, Google is making a change to how it displays Accelerated Mobile Pages, so that users can easily view and share links that lead directly to publishers’ sites rather than to Google’s copy of the content. Google has been displaying AMP content by effectively making a copy of it and rendering it from its own servers, something that Google says makes AMP both faster and more secure for users. However, this has raised concerns with publishers and some users, who have found the system difficult for reaching content directly on a publisher’s site. The... [...]

Stacy DeBroff says, “While both Influencer Marketing and Content Marketing strategies generate rich, compelling storytelling, copy, images and video, their approaches and results couldn’t be more different. In today’s rapidly morphing marketing landscape, brands often find paid-for content confusing particularly when it comes to differentiating between content marketing and influencer marketing. With brands and their agency partners increasingly confusing the two, they risk diluting the powerful attributes that come with each. With content marketing, brands pay to have very specific content... [...]

Barry Schwartz says, “Google may have made some tweaks to their algorithms this week on how they target link spam and other forms of spam. Google would not confirm or deny there was an algorithm change, but based on the signals I am tracking, there appears to have been an algorithm update that has hit those who undergo more aggressive link building. The update seems to have happened around February 1, 2017. It may have been a tweak to how Google Penguin detects and discounts spammy links, or it may be a totally new algorithm — we are unsure. But many of the folks within the “black hat”... [...]

Ted Dhanik says, ““If you find yourself dumbfounded by the notion that 21-year-old Logan Paul could become a millionaire with goofy online videos like this, then you’re probably not a millennial,” correspondent Bill Whitaker said last fall during an edition of 60 Minutes. During the segment that followed, Whitaker explained the social media influencer phenomenon to a viewership that may know little-to-nothing about it. Influencer marketing — if you’re one of those viewers — is seen as a way, maybe even the way, to connect with Gen Y and millennials, the age groups... [...]

Emily Carrion says, “What if you didn’t have to wait months to find out how a new feature is resonating with your audience? What if you could hear from 25 percent of your audience on a regular basis — not just the vocal minority? I’m going to show you how you can leverage your mobile app audience for rapid feedback loops and why traditional focus groups are dead. The problem with focus groups Yes, focus groups are a great way to learn about how a potential demographic will respond to a yet-to-be released product. They can give you a sense of how your brand resonates in the market as... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “Google has been slowly building out the new AdWords interface, which was introduced last March. More accounts have been granted alpha access, and on Tuesday, Google’s head of search ads, Jerry Dischler, said it is rolling out to even more AdWords accounts in the next few months. When you first get access, you may be taken right to the new interface, or you may see a notification in the top right corner or at the bottom of the screen like the one below. Don’t worry about clicking it and never being able to get back to the land you know. You can toggle back and forth... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “Automation is nothing new in AdWords, but this month, Google launched a pilot that adds new text ads to advertisers’ accounts. Dubbed Ads Added by AdWords, the program started on January 26. Not surprisingly, this news has set off alarm bells among paid search managers that worry about Google usurping control over the ad creation and testing process. Here is what we know so far about this test. The initial set of advertisers were notified of the pilot on January 12. For those that chose to participate, ads were added to ad groups two weeks later, on January 26, at which... [...]

Barry Levine says, “Let’s say you create a mobile app. And you get it accepted into Apple’s and Google’s app stores. Now what? There are zillions of apps added to the app stores every week, so your biggest problem is simply getting found. Maybe you could luck out and get featured by the App Store. Or maybe you invest a considerable budget in ads encouraging users to install your app — even though they don’t really know it. Palo Alto, California-based Branch is out this week with a free solution that it believes could dramatically change these choices, by changing how app content... [...]