Rand Fishkin says, “Today I’m going to make a crazy claim—that in modern SEO, there are times, situations, and types of analyses where correlation is actually MORE interesting and useful than causality. I know that sounds insane, but stick with me until the end and at least give the argument a chance. And for those of you who like visuals, our friend AJ Ghergich and his intrepid team of designers created some nifty graphics to accompany the piece. Once upon a time, SEO professionals had a reasonable sense of many (or perhaps even most) of the inputs into the search engine’s... [...]

Syed Irfan Ajmal says, “Yes, Bing! You really need to take Bing SEO more seriously this year. Here are 5 biggest reasons why I think you need Bing in Your SEO strategy: 1. Bing Is Getting Bigger The Big Bing Theory has come to fruition! With Mozilla making Yahoo its default search engine on Firefox browser, and Yahoo already being powered by Bing Search, the combined US Search Share for the Bing-Yahoo Alliance amounted to 22.9% in December 2014. Moreover, Google ‘s US search share has dropped from 77.3% to 75.2% in the same month making it the biggest drop in its share ever since Statcounter... [...]

Geoff Kenyon says, “Back in 2011, I wrote a technical site audit checklist, and while it was thorough, there have been a lot of additions to what is encompassed in a site audit. I have gone through and updated that old checklist for 2015. Some of the biggest changes were the addition of sections for mobile, international, and site speed. This checklist should help you put together a thorough site audit and determine what is holding back the organic performance of your site. At the end of your audit, don’t write a document that says what’s wrong with the website. Instead, create... [...]

Rand Fishkin says, “Depending on your industry, the more obvious and conversion-focused keywords you might target could be few and far between. With Google continuing to evolve, though, there’s a whole host of other areas you might look: interest-based keywords. In today’s Whiteboard Friday, Rand shows you how to find them“. Hacking Keyword Targeting by Serving Interest-Based Searches – Whiteboard Friday MOZ Blog  [...]

Alan Coleman says, “Being a digital marketer, I spend my day knee-deep in data. The time I don’t spend analysing it, I spend explaining its significance to a client or junior colleague or arguing its significance with a client or senior colleague. But after many debates over the importance of bounce rate, time on site, mobile conversion rate and the colour grey for buttons (our designer partook in that last one), we’re never much closer to an agreement on significance. Our industry is swimming in data (thanks Google Analytics), but at times we’re drowning in it. Numbers... [...]

Adam Hansen says, “Have you noticed the popularity of one-page websites these days? They seem to be popping up everywhere, and for good reason. Done right, one-page websites can look super creative, clean and classy. These sites also help keep users engaged because they never have to click around a site and risk hitting a dead end that makes them bounce back to the search results. But before you start remodeling all of your websites, there’s a little secret the one-page evangelists aren’t telling”. Is Your One-Page Website Killing Your SEO? Mark Ling’s  ’Affilorama’ Blog  [...]

Erica McGillivray says, “Slide decks are a powerful way to back up any type of presentation from team meetings and sales pitches to conference keynotes and workshops. We’ve all seen presentations with poor design that takes away from talks, and at worse, completely distracts the intended audience. However, most presenters aren’t graphic designers. Slide decks can be frustrating to build, and great slide decks help communicate what an audience needs to hear. At Moz, I’ve had the pleasure of working with many speakers on their decks, whether for a  biweekly webinar or for MozCon.... [...]

Cyrus Shepard says, “How big is local SEO? Our latest Industry Survey revealed over 67% of online marketers report spending time on local search. We’ve witnessed demand for local SEO expertise grow as Google’s competitive landscape continues to evolve. Last year, Moz introduced the SEO Expert Quiz, which to date over 40,000 people have attempted to conquer. Today, we’re proud to announce the Local Search Expert Quiz. Written by local search expert Miriam Ellis, the quiz contains 40 questions and only takes less than 10 minutes to complete”. Local Search Expert Quiz:... [...]

David Moth says, “While compiling our annual end-of-year round up of search trends I noted that several of our esteemed experts mentioned negative SEO.  This refers to a sneaky tactic where people create a load of spammy links to a competitor’s site so they end up being penalised by Google. It can be seen as a reaction to Google’s success in clamping down on dodgy linkbuilding – it’s now more difficult for spammers to game the system in their own favour so they have to attack the competition instead. One of the contributors to the search trends article was Nick Fettiplace, SEO director... [...]

John Lincoln says, “In online marketing, having the right analytics tools and software can make a major difference. A good program can save you time and help demonstrate the value of your work to supervisors or clients. Over the last couple of months, while preparing the syllabus for my next UC San Diego class and doing research for clients, I compiled and reviewed an extensive list of analytics programs for SEO and social media. I’m sharing what resulted in this column. (Editor’s note: be sure to check out the 2015 Martech landscape for the latest developments in software for marketing.) A... [...]