MOZ team says, “From understanding the big-picture search trends to making sure your SEO goals jive with your CEO’s goals, there’s a lot to consider when planning for 2017. Next year promises to be huge for our industry, and in today’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand outlines how to craft a truly remarkable SEO strategy to help you sail through 2017”.How to Craft a Remarkable SEO Strategy for 2017MOZ Blog [...]

Jim Yu says, “As we begin 2017, the fusion of the search and content marketing disciplines has become increasingly more evident. A full 89 percent of B2B marketers (PDF) say that they use content marketing, as do 86 percent of B2C marketers, according to the Content Marketing Institute.Additionally, over 70 percent of marketers in both groups plan on producing more content in the new year than they did in 2016. However, content only has real value if it is found and optimized, and if it converts with effective search marketing.Search is the key driver that opens up opportunity in 2017Research... [...]

Joy Hawkins says, “Google’s Map Maker has often received bad press due to the amount of spam that originates from users of the product. In May of 2015, Map Maker was actually shut down to help prevent disasters like this one. So Google’s announcement that they’re shutting down Map Maker entirely in March of 2017 made a lot of people really happy.It’s the end of spam, right? We should all be celebrating, right?Nothing could be further from the truth.Allowing spammers to hide rather than vanquishing themThe truth is that users — some with less-than-virtuous motives — will still... [...]

Jason Parks says, “The current process of building backlinks to improve your SEO is outdated and it’s about to change. Enough with automated emails and random pitches to contribute content on external sites. While this can work, I’m going to share the secret sauce to differentiate your backlink strategy.Beware, this might be uncomfortable for many within the SEO community.Stop hiding behind a computer screen.You need to get away from your desk and make connections within the local community. You have to stop hiding behind your screen and start meeting with business owners face to face... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “Aloha, here we are again — coming down from the high of holiday e-commerce, the Q4 scurry of lead gen and the calm before year-end reporting starts churning. Let’s take a breather and look back on all of the changes in PPC that came flying at us in 2016.First, let’s get one thing out of the way. In last year’s year-end roundup, I said Yahoo might be worth paying attention to in 2016 due to the renegotiated search deal with Microsoft and CEO Marissa Mayer’s stated commitment to mobile search. So long ago. It did seem like Yahoo might just be able to gain steam... [...]

Kate Taylor Mighty says, “There’s no denying it: Blogging for your business works. According to our 2016 State of Inbound report, B2B marketers who blog receive 67% more leads than those who don’t, and marketers who have prioritized blogging are 13X more likely to enjoy positive ROI.Blogging is a crucial part of inbound marketing because it allows you to quickly disseminate helpful information to your followers and new site visitors, which, in turn, helps build credibility, SEO juice, and helps you become more of a thought leader in your industry. Best of all, blogging is super cost-effective,... [...]

Jeff Baum says, “A major shift I’ve observed taking place in both the paid search and social advertising industry is a move toward relationship marketing. Brands can no longer be available to customers only when they’re ready to convert. Advertisers must now be ready and willing to provide value to their customer’s days, weeks, or even months prior to a conversion taking place.The key to a successful relationship marketing program is to take customers on a buying journey. An effective paid search and social program must create brand awareness, generate demand, force a buying decision,... [...]

Jo Cameron says, “Welcome to the seventh installment of our educational Next Level series! In our last episode, Jo showed us how to better optimize our sites when we think we’ve done it all (but still aren’t ranking). This time around she’s giving us the tools and the knowledge to finally capture ourselves a SERP feature. Read on and level up!Are you within striking distance of traffic-bumping SERP features?The content on your freakin’ awesome site better be targeting the intent of the searcher.People of the world want different types of content depending on what... [...]

Chapman Lever says, “The GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) format was originally developed in 1987. Debuted by Steve Wilhite of Compuserve, GIFs improved on the black-and-white images in use during that time by allowing the use of 256 colors while maintaining a compressed format that could still be loaded by those utilizing slow modems. Furthermore, web developers and designers could create animations via timed delays. And to this day, little has changed regarding GIFs.Due to its simplicity, the widespread support for this format, and the ease with which it can be used to stream video clips,... [...]

Beth Hayden says, “Promoting your content has clear short-term benefits — like attracting new readers, social shares, and comments.But did you know it’s also a critical part of your search engine optimization strategy?Even the best on-page SEO efforts don’t work as well if no one links to your site, so one of your biggest jobs is spreading the word out about your content.Think of it this way:You’ve got to attract incoming links to rank well in search engines, and no one is going to link to you if they don’t know you exist.In this post, we’ll talk about why content promotion... [...]