Andrew Dennis says, “Penguin 4.0 was announced on September 23, and I couldn’t be more excited. I believe Penguin 4 will be a boon for (legitimate) SEO companies everywhere. We had to wait over 700 days for the newest iteration of Penguin; it was a long time coming, but now that it’s here, it’s more than I hoped. There a few reasons I welcome this new Penguin with open arms: The algorithm now devalues links rather than punishing sites. Penguin is baked into Google’s core algorithm, updating in real time. The feasibility of negative SEO is greatly diminished. The new Penguin is more... [...]

MOZ team says, “Web technologies and their adoption are advancing at a frenetic pace. Content is a game that every type of team and agency plays, so we’re all competing for a piece of that pie. Meanwhile, technical SEO is more complicated and more important than ever before and much of the SEO discussion has shied away from its growing technical components in favor of content marketing. As a result, SEO is going through a renaissance wherein the technical components are coming back to the forefront and we need to be prepared. At the same time, a number of thought leaders have made statements... [...]

Casie Gillette says, “Last month, my colleague Derek Edmond wrote a column here on Search Engine Land discussinghow to improve your value as a strategic SEO partner. The post included suggestions around reporting dashboards, software knowledge and industry-specific networking. What I liked about the piece was the implication that to show value, we have to do more than just provide recommendations. But it also got me thinking about the value of the recommendations themselves. If you search “show SEO value,” you’ll get a slew of posts discussing how to use data and reporting to make... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “After running expanded text ads in beta beginning in late August, Bing Ads rolled out expanded text ads to all markets on Tuesday. Advertisers can now set up and launch the longer text ad format in the web UI, Bing Ads Editor or via the Bing Ads API. It’s also possible to import expanded text ads from Google AdWords in the Bing Ads web interface or Bing Ads Editor. Additionally, third-party platforms Marin Software, Kenshoo, Adobe Media Optimizer, intelliAd, and Rakuten Marketing all support expanded text ads (ETAs) in Bing Ads. Other management platforms are slated... [...]

Diana Huff says, “The small manufacturers who are thriving in the face of global competition and other challenges have spent the last five to seven years improving productivity and process efficiencies. This focus has often meant that marketing activity was next to nonexistent — with much new business coming from word-of-mouth. Once a small manufacturer has their process down, however, they’re ready to begin a marketing program that includes SEO. The problem is, where to start? With so much information and so many moving parts, a small business owner can be easily overwhelmed. It’s... [...]

Tim Wailes says, “In my day-to-day role at Builtvisible, I build tools to break down marketing challenges and simplify tasks. One of the things we as marketers often need to do is pitch content concepts to sites. To make this easier, you want to pitch something on-topic. To do that more effectively, I decided to spend some time creating a process to help in the ideation stage. In the spirit of sharing, I thought I’d show you how that process was created and share it with you all. Tell me what you write The first challenge is making sure that your content will be on-topic. The starting... [...]

Ginny Marvin says, “Bing Ads has updated the campaign creation workflow; it’s now designed to make it easier for advertisers to get campaigns set up and activated. Throughout the process, more options are available so you won’t have to go back and remember to update settings and options after a campaign is created. Performance estimates are also built in along the way to help inform your settings from the outset. The new setup starts with the option of selecting a campaign goal or importing campaigns from Google, importing from a file or researching keywords. If you select a campaign... [...]

Todd Saunders says, ““OK Google, tell me how creepy things are going to get.” How would your 2006 selves respond to our advertising toolbox of today? You can target ads to people based on their income level who are also currently at the airportwith advanced geotargeting! You can follow your potential customers around with the very products they looked at but decided not to buy with dynamic remarketing. You can trigger ads to people based on what they say inside their emails with Gmail Ads. Much of what we internet users and advertisers deem as normal would have been considered creepy or... [...]

MOZ team says, “Have you ever considered gating your content to get leads? Whether you choose to have open-access content or gate it to gather information, there are benefits and drawbacks you should be aware of. In today’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand weighs the pros and cons of each approach and shares some tips for improving your process, regardless of whichever route you go”. Content Gating: When, Whether, and How to Put Your Content Behind an Email/Form Capture MOZ  [...]

Sherry Bonelli says, “Getting a local business to rank high on Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs) used to be as easy as having a website, getting listed on some online business directories/citation sites and claiming your Google My Business page. Once you did those few simple things, you had an incredible shot at ranking high on Google for local keywords like “plumbers in Austin.” But those days are long gone. Local SEO is much more competitive These days local SEO is more and more competitive. Why? Part of the reason is that many local businesses have finally realized the... [...]