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 behaviorGuided purchasing via smartphoneBefore 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... [...]

MOZ team says, “How are you gleaning your competitive insights? We’ve got a ton of resources and tools at our disposal, and one of the best ways to learn what’s working for your rivals and how you can build your own success on top of those insights is via the top pages report. In today’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand goes over how each data source can provide unique value and which questions you should be asking to get more out of that data”.How to Use Your Competition’s “Top Pages” Data to Bolster Your SEO EffortsMOZ [...]

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 qualityauthorityresponsivenesswebsite speedKnowing how exactly to improve... [...]

A sitemap is like a Table of Contents in a book. It shows where the major sections of your site are located and even what individual pages your site has.Some sitemaps are intended for human visitors; others are for search engines as they “crawl” your site. Those for humans are usually in text and contain links to the pages that are listed. Those for search engines are written in XML, a programming language that the search engines find easy to process.There are both kinds of sitemaps at IM NewsWatch, for example. At many, if not most, sites around the world, webmasters have been creating... [...]

Over the last 10 years or so, the influence of search engines, such as Google, has continued to grow. Marketers are scrambling to keep up.Techniques that worked to achieve a high ranking a few years ago now may actually lower a site’s ranking. Webmasters need to be on their toes to optimize their sites without antagnoizing the search engines.Chase Reiner is an SEO practitioner who has worked at keeping in sync with Google’s requirements. A while back he did a live stream presentaiton on what works in SEO today. You can watch his presentation here:YouTube [...]

The nice thing about local SEO is the reduced competition. A national company is competing with many other national companies and, often, with some local companies as well. But a local business is usually only competing weith a handful of othr businesses. This fact makes the job of optimization easier.Chase Reiner, an experienced professional in local search engine optimization has created a live stream on Google+ that is now recorded, in which he shows how he goes about doing SEO for a local business, in this case, a Personal Trainer.If you operate a local business or if you are a marketing... [...]

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... [...]

Khalid Saleh says, “Efforts to drive more traffic and rank better on search engines sometimes seem to be in conflict with those for increasing conversion rates for your website. But, as improved user experience becomes a stronger criterion for search engines, search engine optimization and conversion rate optimization are becoming a complementary, multistep process in marketing your business.Don’t sweat it: Your SEO efforts won’t ruin conversions on your site. And your CRO (conversion rate optimization) strategies won’t harm your findability, either.When setting your marketing plan,... [...]

Ronell Smith says, “Some of the best talks at MozCon each year come from the community speakers—those who’re able to make a pitch to grace the stage.This group enjoys the same privileges as the other speakers, including being able to deliver a keynote-style talk, and are always well-received by the audience.If you’re eager to be a member of this group, step right up.We’re now open for MozCon community speaker’s pitches.We’d be happy to have your best effort.The nuts & bolts:Submitting is as simple as filling out the form belowOnly submit one talk... [...]

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... [...]