Ryan Shelley says, “Keyword ranking is one of the most overrated and misused metrics in SEO. Yes, tracking your positions is important, but placing too much emphasis on this metric is problematic. When it comes to SEO, what you measure gets managed. That means that focusing on the right metrics will help you generate results that have a business impact, rather than an ego boost.So, let’s talk about the problem with obsessing over rank — and what metrics you’d be better off focusing on.The problem with rank trackingMeasuring keyword ranking is easy to get sucked into because... [...]

Patricio Robles says, “An email list can easily become one of a business’ most valued assets, but many companies fail to maximize their mailing list signups.Here are five ways companies can ensure they’re driving as many mailing list signups as possible.Include a signup form on every pageOne of the most effective ways to drive mailing list subscriptions is to invite users to subscribe on as frequent a basis as possible. A dead simple way to do this is to include a signup form on every page of your website.Location can vary; some sites feature signup forms in headers, sidebars... [...]

Nikki Gilliland says, “In 2016, almost half of Airbnb consumers were reported to be between the ages of 18 and 34. In contrast, only 28% of hotel guests who booked with Marriott online were millennials.So, with younger generations embracing the sharing economy, Marriott has decided to do something about it by turning to every millennial’s sort-of-favourite app – Snapchat.What’s it all about? Here’s a run-down of the campaign.Using the power of influencersInstead of a standard Snapchat ad, which is often just a 10 second clip, Marriott has created three-minute long ‘Snapisodes’... [...]

Patricio Robles says, “Facebook is reportedly experimenting with a second News Feed that would display content from sources users have’t Liked or followed.As detailed by TechCrunch, users of the social network’s iOS and Android apps have reported seeing a rocket ship icon under which content that Facebook thinks might be of interest is displayed.Here’s what you need to know.Facebook has acknowleged that it’s testing a new featureAccording to Facebook, “We are testing a complementary feed of popular articles, videos, and photos, customized for each person... [...]

Matt McGee says, “Bing has added a chatbot to help users with some of its local search results for restaurants in the Seattle area. After getting a tip from a reader, I was able to reproduce the chatbot option in Bing’s desktop search results, but not in its iOS app nor in the mobile browser search results.The new feature appears at the bottom of the listing for some individual restaurants in the cities of Redmond (where Microsoft is based) and nearby Bellevue, Washington — both are just outside of Seattle. I’ve seen it on about 6-8 different searches for specific restaurants, such... [...]

Eric Enge says, “The recent SMX West conference had many awesome sessions, and today I’m going to provide some compelling insights from “SEO and Social: A Match Made in Marketing Heaven.” One of the great things about this session is that all four speakers took a step back and provided fresh ideas on how to think about the integration of these two disciplines.Let’s dig in!Flexibility and a willingness to failLeading off the session we had Maggie Malek, head of PR and social at MMI agency out of Houston. She walked us through a process for getting search and social to work together.If... [...]

Alasdair Graham says, “While many businesses have been speedy adopters of emerging and disruptive technologies, banking and the financial services industry has been seen to lag behind.This could be chalked up to a myriad of factors including complex legacy systems or even the fact that a significant portion of high value clients, particularly for wealth management firms and IFAs, are more likely to belong to senior demographics and may have a higher propensity for non-digital communication such as calls or face-to-face meetings.Because of this, a significant proportion of FS businesses... [...]

Danny Sullivan says, “The past few months have been bad for Google’s search reputation. Long considered the “gold standard” in search, Google has seen its search results questioned as never before. It’s a body blow to a core service that should be safe as Google tries to grow in new directions.Recovering from that blow isn’t easy. What’s happened to Google search is on par with the Apple Maps fiasco or Samsung’s exploding Galaxy Note7 phones.To this day, people still joke about Apple Maps being bad, even though it’s greatly improved. As for Samsung, the phones might... [...]

Jeff Rajeck says, “Econsultancy recently surveyed nearly 1,000 marketing professionals about the progress they have made in understanding the customer journey.  In the resulting report, we found that there are five main steps toward doing so and nearly half of the marketers are stuck at one key stage.The results of cultivating a good understanding of customers and improving their experience are well understood. When excellent customer experience is achieved, marketers will better know how to engage with customers, consumers will be happier with our products and services, and, ideally,... [...]

Barry Schwartz says, “Google has confirmed to Search Engine Land that they are experimenting with a new feature in the search results. I happened to stumble upon a search results snippet in Google that showed “tags” within the snippet. The unusual part of this was that the “tags” didn’t offer any additional functionality.Google would list “tags” relevant to the page content in the actual search results listing snippets. You were not able to filter by those tags, click on them or anything. It just listed “tags” in the snippets without showing you anything more”.Google... [...]