Josh Earl says, “When I was a teenager, a late-summer lightning strike splintered the telephone pole that served our rural Ohio farmhouse. The power was out for three days in the sweltering August heat, and pretty quickly we ran out of water. The problem wasn’t our water supply — the well under our house was deep and swollen thanks to the thunderstorm that knocked out our electricity. But our plumbing system relied on an electric pump to pressurize the water and that pump needed electricity to run. The water was just feet from our pipes, but that well might as well have been bone... [...]

Jayson Demers says, “SEO is a popular online marketing strategy, and therefore, competitive, but I’m consistently amazed at how many business owners and marketers opt not to engage in an SEO strategy because of its perceived limitations or drawbacks. One of the biggest misperceptions is that SEO is expensive, and it’s driven by the fact that some agencies have higher-level packages that cost tens of thousands of dollars per month. Yes, SEO can be expensive for hyper-competitive, national-scale businesses, but that doesn’t mean it’s unaffordable for the average business owner. In... [...]

Sergey Stefoglo says, “WordPress is the most popular content management system (CMS) in the world. There’s a good chance you’ll need to optimize or work on a website that uses WordPress, if you haven’t already! Whether you’re a business owner, designer, developer, PPC expert, SEO consultant, or writer — getting familiar with WordPress is a smart move. When I started out in SEO, I worked with local businesses that hired smaller firms to design or develop their sites. Naturally, most people gravitated towards WordPress as their CMS of choice: it was easy to customize, even... [...]

MOZ team says, “Are you guilty of living in the past? Using methods that were once tried-and-true can be alluring, but it can also prove dangerous to your search strategy. In today’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand spells out eight old school SEO practices that you should ditch in favor of more effective and modern alternatives”. 8 Old School SEO Practices That Are No Longer Effective MOZ  [...]

Adam Feldstein says, “Just a few months back I wrote a blog post reviewing Moz Pro in 2015 and shared some of our lofty goals for 2016. Now that we’re a quarter of the way through the year, I wanted to share some of the progress we’ve made and offer a glimpse into other great SEO features we’ll be working on over the next three months. Want to learn more about Moz Pro? Campaign rankings leveled up We overhauled Moz Pro’s rankings architecture, dramatically improving response times and unlocking all kinds of new features. For the full scoop on the core release, check... [...]

Ian Harris says, “Search marketing evolves on a daily basis. The constant introduction of new and innovative processes means that strategies can shift frequently as SEOs and marketers try to work out the best way to deal with new online environments. From Google updates to advances in technology, the methods we use to measure the success of an SEO campaign, however, may not always be giving us the full picture. Many in the industry still cling to the growth of organic as the metric to measure success but, while it’s still very important, we’re not measuring like for like when comparing... [...]

Rand Fishkin says, “Yes. I’ve read the studies. I know the correlations. Long-form content, on average, earns more engagement, higher rankings, and more shares than their more concise brethren. But, that does not make long-form content the same as great content. It does not make long-form content the goal of every content effort. It certainly does not mean that longer content is better content. Confounding variables are, in my opinion, behind many of these correlations. Long-form content, at least the good stuff, intentionally targets searchers and browsers seeking lengthier, more... [...]

Daniel Marks says, “I initially started writing a post about how BuzzFeed tailors its content to different social networks. What image sizes do they use? What type of content works on one network but not another? What tactics do they employ? But as it turns out, there isn’t anything that revolutionary in the way BuzzFeed approaches their content on these social networks. There are a few interesting things they do, such as: Using silent, square videos on Facebook that work well on any device and don’t require sound to be understood”. The Buzzfeed Approach to Social Media Strategy MOZ... [...]

Sarah Patrick says, “As a small business owner or manager, growing your company can be challenging, especially when working with a somewhat limited budget and a lack of brand recognition. How do you get your services in front of the right people? To raise awareness about your company, it seems reasonable to invest in advertising and marketing. However, 69 percent of small businesses in the US dedicated less than $10,000 to advertising and marketing in 2015, and only 22 percent plan to increase their advertising and marketing spend in 2016, according to new survey data about the state of... [...]

MOZ team says, “Belief in the process can be the make-or-break factor when it comes to convincing small businesses they need SEO. Overcoming skepticism can be daunting, but there are strategic ways to go about pitching your case to potential clients that will smooth the way for you. In today’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand covers a 5-step process to making the SEO case to those small and medium businesses that need a little extra push to help you help them”. How to Make the SEO Case to Small Businesses MOZ Blog  [...]