Category: SEO

Stay ahead in these changing times. These transformative changes will likely have the biggest impacts in 2024. In 2023, we witnessed the rise of AI-powered search and significant evolution of the SERPs with the arrival of Google’s Search Generative Experience, as well as Bing Copilot (formerly Bing Chat). Google’s new AI model, Gemini, is its largest and most advanced, capable of understanding text, code, audio, images and video. We expect to see its full potential unleashed on Google Search in 2024.\ Meanwhile, Google continues to stress the importance of quality and…

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A few months ago, I asked you all to take a poll around if you have ever hurt a web site using spammy links to downgrade their rankings in Google search. The good news is that 66% of those who responded said they never tried to do so. But of those that did try, 59% said they were able to hurt a web site with spammy links and 41% said there were unsuccessful. We had 375 responses and 248 responded that they never tried doing this. But the other 127…

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So let’s say you are a big fan of writing content with quotes or brackets but all of a sudden you learn about this thing called SEO [search engine optimization] and you become paranoid that your “SEO” won’t be “optimal” if you use brackets a lot of quotes or brackets. Why? Because maybe, just maybe, Google will think that “SEO” means something different than [SEO] or (SEO)? The question came up on Twitter and Pete Meyers from Moz answered it and John Mueller responded to his answer with a thumbs…

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As if we didn’t already have enough to think about in any given SEO campaign, it is now imperative to separate and refine your approaches to mobile and desktop search. While mobile has become hugely significant over the last couple of years, this shouldn’t be to the neglect of desktop. Although SEO for mobile and desktop follow the same basic principles and best practices, there are nuances and discrepancies that need to be factored in to your overall strategy. Part of this is the keyword rankings: you won’t ever know…

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On e-commerce sites, faceted navigation plays a critical role in allowing consumers to find the products they want quickly. Major sites normally offer a variety of filters (show a subset of products), sort orders (show products in different orders) and pagination (break long lists of products into multiple pages). From a search engine optimization (SEO) perspective, creating more pages that break out different aspects of products users might search on is generally a good thing. Offering more pages enables you to compete more effectively for the long-tail of search for…

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Keyword classification is often the missing ingredient in SEO plans. Without understanding the reasons why people search, search engine optimizers will often misinterpret or improperly classify keyword phrases. How do we understand the “why” part of the optimization process? As search engine optimizers, we want to know as much as possible about our target audience so we can deliver the best search experience. To accomplish this, we address the following questions: Without understanding the reasons why people search, SEO professionals will often misinterpret or improperly classify keyword phrases. What are people…

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Have questions about local SEO? Columnist Andrew Shotland has anticipated these questions and is answering them, Reddit-style! Hi, everybody. I am Andrew Shotland, founder of Local SEO Guide. Seems like every day, we run into multi-location and small businesses having problems with their local and organic Google rankings. My guess is you are reading this because you’ve got some problems of your own. So go ahead. Ask me anything! Note to the uninitiated: This post is done in the style of a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything), in which users ask questions to people…

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When it comes to digital marketing, SEO and PR go together like peanut butter and jelly. Columnist Erin Everhart explains how these two teams can combine forces to benefit each other and the business as a whole. With a newly integrated and and constantly evolving digital landscape, marketing and communication channels are working together more closely than ever before. Granted, you’ll see variations in how well this is actually executed based on your business structure and the channels themselves, but the fact is: Channels can’t exist in silos. An easy collaboration…

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Columnist Janet Driscoll Miller explains why you might not be accurately accounting for organic search referrals since the upgrade to Universal Analytics — and details how to fix this issue. When doing search engine optimization, either for clients or as an in-house marketer, we must accurately measure the impact SEO is making on our websites, leads and revenue. Measuring our success in SEO helps us to justify the importance of its role in marketing, ensure budget allocation and solidify our roles in the organization. Tracking these statistics can literally mean…

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