#In this case it's english's lack of an imperative comparative to Far (to go)

[musanocturnis]

Far till Rhuidean, stridernas son Far till Rhuidean, upptågsmakare Far till Rhuidean, spelare FAR

#Wheel of Time #*Finns #is it the Aelfinn or the Eelfinn? #Who knows. Certainly not me #On my list of 'things that are superior in translation' #In this case it's english's lack of an imperative comparative to Far (to go) #'Go' comes in so many different weight values and forms #'Far' never dips below Decisive #So while the original english says he must go #The swedish version says 'go or else' #And go no matter what. No matter how hard or how harrowing #Just by that one word

[otogetranslations]

A Sasazuka Essay

Written by one of our most beloved translator: khikari AKA Kujouhikari!

She completed translating mostly all of Sasazuka route in our on-going translation project: Collar x Malice Unlimited!

Here is the link to the original post: Reddit

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LUA27Rhfe3vyf1Ug_Qi5U1RZXvzwMZ1dT8hX8bEy_RM/edit?usp=sharing

Greetings.

To discuss Ichika in donut's route, we would have to discuss donut himself as well. It is something unavoidable. I have a generally favourable opinion of donut, to be point of being extremely biased towards him. As such, this is purely opinion with that fact established. This post will also be long because I have trouble finding 'concise' in my dictionary.

I played the game in Japanese so my experience might also differ from yours in that respect.

Also, there will be spoilers.

1.) Hoshino Ichika as a person

Basic background (Just so we are on the same page): Hoshino Ichika is a newbie police officer, quite fresh off her graduation. She is only 21 and still does not have that much experience in the workforce. She has impressive accuracy in her aim and handling of guns, however she is not a professional in it (compared to others). Her family is implied, and is confirmed, to neglect and dismiss her diligence and will in a variety of ways. She is often compared with her brother, whom she loves but is on unsteady relations with, after he moved to Tokyo.

Personality: She is an ordinary person with an ordinary sense of justice and morale, is empathetic, and not especially talented. Her most significant trait is her strong will and diligence, working hard for her ideals to come true. She faces things head on, for the better for worse, and tries to confront things that she is uncomfortable with as well. Not being a complacent person, she constantly strives for a better reality within her abilities. She understands what she can do, and what she can't do, very well. She also has extremely low self-esteem due to her upbringing, and was under a lot of stress during the X-Day incidents due to being a newbie, not going well with her family, then the collar happening.

I admire her for all this. She might not be the most powerful, or greatest, or most active, but she does what she can and tries to be true towards herself. She might fail and fall on the way, and even be a hypocrite sometimes, but she is only human. She isn't trying to save the world, she only wants her family safe, and those that she care for to be alright. I admire people who try despite knowing their limits, just as much as I admire those who are active and cause real change.

Also, I find it strange to pick at her hypocrisy sometimes. Her low-self esteem means that she is constantly unable to accept praise as what it is, yet her upbringing makes her yearn for understanding of some sort that she never received from her parents. I think critisizing her for that can be unfair.

I also personally find realistic egotism in characters to be something beautiful, influenced by the many literature I have read. I empathise with them better.

2.) Sasazuka Takeru as a person

Background Summary: Sasazuka Takeru is 24, an extremely talented hacker who moved from America to Japan due to his trauma with his mother. (In the beginning) he resigned from the police due to despairing at the police and the government's methods, in hope of trying to do something himself. He is used to the merit-based system in America, where ability influenced your input in the situation. However, Japan is the opposite, where the number of years you have spent in a corporation is prized over your ability (this can be still quite relevant in modern Japan). The ability to present your argument can be more important than the substance of it in this case, where these incidents have shook up the entire country. Thus, he is highly frustrated and running short on time with little resources to try to solve something important to him.

Personality: I personally empathise a lot with Sasazuka, as I have a similar sewage personality diluted slightly with coke. (I just wrap it up slightly better thanks to books.) He is highly pragmatic and has his priorities on a rigid hierarchy according to his personal investment, and thus can be seen as egostical. In other words, he ranks his individual needs and morales higher than what is important for the 'greater good'.

This means that he sees practical solutions to problems as more important than the decorums and traditional methods of society, and cares little about feelings he trample on. He evaluates every decision he makes with cold harsh logic, and spends no effort on things he deem 'meaningless'. (For example, society values family relations. However, if he evaluates the relationship to have no future, he'd cut it off, even if it is family. He places value on his own judgement and not general consensus.) And thus he is the most morally grey of the main cast.

He is a true neutral, which diverts from the tradition lawful good or lawful neutral protagonists society tends to value. I cannot comment on him much due to the similarities I find. He is neither good, nor bad. You can only measure that compared with your own moral compass, and whether he is against you or with you. (That's how war works, really. Nobody fights for what they don't believe in. Being the enemy doesn't make them wrong, but it doesn't make them right. It's the same for allies. Imperically, right and wrong can only be decided on how many casualties one's actions result in.)

As a person, he is extremely guarded of other people, and does not give his trust easily. There is no point spending time and effort on someon who is either going to betray you or is not worth it. However, this means that once someone has earned his respect, he will always prioritise them over other things. He has time to spare because he has cut off unimportant people, after all. He will go the extra mile to make sure they grow and can be happy independent from him while he accomplishes his own goals. This is true for both friendships and romantice relationships. This makes his relationships either very shallow or very deep, but nobody has qualified for the latter in love so far.

He is also very honest and tries not to be a hypocrite. What he says are usually logical and sound. He just doesn't wrap it up and consider the other party's feeling as much, because he wants improvement. Babying people will cause no progress. He shows his most natural self to the world because of this. Pleasantries might make co-operation more smooth, but they don't solve the actual problem.

His good parts and extra effort are reserved only for those who he deems as deserving.

(Also, this might also help you understand why he chooses to be morally grey and result based. In Australia, the the first British settlers came across the native Aborigines and judged their standard of living to be 'low'. Feeling the Aborigine children to be 'abused' in such a 'lowly' environment, they decided to kidnap the children so that they could have a better life. They brought them to these 'schools' where they are taught the skills to be a servant so that they can have a job in the future and lift themselves out of the 'poverty cycle'. They had good intentions in their opinion, but for the Aborigines, this is just them stealing their children away and throwing poop on their culture.

Doing what seems 'good' depending on societal morals can lead to these situations, and thus the best a person can do is to not betray themselves. I'm rambling sorry, but in this case, Sasazuka would value the result and say that the good intentions are not excusable. Would this make sense?)

3)Finally answering the question (I made you wait long enough.)

Sasazuka's treatment of Ichika: Just would like to address this first. Sasazuka is cold towards Ichika, calling her 'baka neko' idiot cat the first time they meet. The Japanese wording is less harsh than the English equivalent. (There is even a saying that someone more cute the more baka they are.)

Sasazuka is harsh and cold throughout the beginning because of how badly their personalities clashed. Sasazuka is a person who doesn't value meaningless effort, while Ichika tries despite having little experience or ability. For Sasazuka, Ichika should be focusing on something else and not bother him and lower his efficiency. Explaining to her would be wasting time because she is very unlikely to grasp hold of the situation quickly and contribute to it. She may be a victim, but Adonis is a large organisation adept at manipulating the emotion of masses, so she might be just acting. The enemy formally nearly suceeded in bringing the president down...They must have had many spies in government to make that possible, so they have the resource for this little act.

Conclusion: Time spent on her is wasted, and keep information from her as much as possible. Giving her extra information might even cause her to poke into dangerous situations due to lack of experience, thus encourage her to rely on someone more capable and caring like Yanagi-san. It is a lose-lose situation to work with her.

Meanwhile, for Ichika, she knew that she was dead weight, so she wanted to try and help in whatever way she can. She wanted these incidents to stop, and her hope of restoring the gun law is her main motivation in this route. Sasazuka handled the August(?) case which was the reason for this to happen, and thus he was her best shot. Enomoto's cases were to do with internal police conflict, Shiraishi was most likely a dead end, and she knew that she didn't have the ability to keep up with all cases like Yanagi. Therefore she sorted her priorities and decided to try to help Sasazuka.

Having a lot more EQ than Sasazuka, she realised early on that he was trying to do both of them a favour by not involving her. She also knows that he is extremely independant and would find her help to be intrusive, so she opted to help in the only way that would not bother him or slow him down: health support. She tries to do what she can, and hopefully would gain his trust so that she could have other ways of helping, like gathering information the slow way. For her, it's not that she likes Sasazuka over the other people or anything, it's just that she rationally did what she could for her goal to be accomplished.

Here, there is extra tension because Sasazuka is extremely frustrated and rushed because working in the police meant slow results slow action, but working alone meant less resources. People are dying by the day and he understands those deaths as a victim himself, so he wants to do something about it but it's slow. Ichika is under a lot of pressure for reasons stated earlier. Both of them are types to bottle things up and thus they kind of take it out on each other, but Ichika is more mature about the whole thing.

The love part: As to where they both start getting drawn to each other.... Sasazuka slowly opens up to Ichika who constantly tries without overly disturbing him, which makes her comfortable to be with. She respects his abilities and knows her own limits, which he can respect in turn. She might not be talented, but she is doing what she can while taking his preferences in consideration. Her care for her brother is something he admires, because he can't do the same for someone who doesn't return his affections. She...might remind him of his own mother who treated him as more important than her own life, despite him having such a troublesome personality. Thus, he wanted to help her with her brother while getting to know Sera in the process. Win-win. He knows that he is generally disliked, and thus he could test Kazuki's reactions. If he loved his sister, great. If he doesn't, then he'll tell that to Ichika upfront.

He begins to like her because he can respect her, she is gaining his trust, and most importantly, he feels comfortable around her. The last quality is something rare for him to find. (Isn't the ideal relationship being able to eat potato chips together on the couch, watching the same movie and laugh while pointing out its ridiculousness? In real life at least.)

Thus...he kissed her. Not to start a romantic relationship. It is him trying to repay her with his earnest feelings mixed in. Words wouldn't console her, then. (He also has less reservations about it because, you know, America.)

Ichika grows to like him because of his kindness and honesty she sees through his actions. His words can be aloof, but he has never truly abandoned her or led her astray while she was partners with him. He might even remind her a little of Kazuki, who is aloof and tsun as well. Since Sasazuka is opening up to her, some of her big sisterly feelings of taking care of Kazuki seeps through. She grows fond of Sasazuka, who shows more and more of his softer parts the more she gets to know him. (Please remember that she has high EQ and has a pretty good read on him. He's not that hard to read because he is quite straightforward and doesn't lie.)

He is earnest and trying his best, and thus she can respect him too. She admires him for being both diligent and being talented, but on the other hand he is terrible at wrapping his words and taking care of health. Thus, she can't leave him alone, because she admires him and grows to like him.

His support of her helps these feelings grow, and the kiss reminded her that romance yes indeed could exist. With that in mind, she also slowly realises her own feelings of protectiveness and affection towards him.

For both of them, it isn't a sweet romance purely based on love. (Though this can be said for all of the main cast except Enomoto.) For Sasazuka, it is comfort, trust and respect which led to affection. For Ichika, it is admiration, trust and caring nature that led to affection.

However, it doesn't progress to actual romantic feelings as quickly because of this foundation. Just one step short. They have mutual respect, but haven't closed enough distance to reach a deeper relationship.

Therefore, the turning point was when Ichika tried to protect Sasazuka, Sasazuka tried to protect Ichika and his trauma was dug up. This set off the last chain reaction needed for them to close the distance. Later, when Sasazuka confesses that he was morally grey, he trusts her but is also half testing her. He would never change, and he knows that, so he wants to know if she'd be disgusted or appalled. Because of how invested he was, however, he couldn't bear for her to react negatively and cut it off completely, so he made her drunk first. So that he and her both had a way out.

But...she didn't do any of that. She said that he was kind. She asked him to not go down the dark path. She...accepted him. For Sasazuka, this is more than enough reason for his feelings to tilt to romantic affection.

Then she proceeds to cry and he panics. He doesn't want someone who did all this for him to cry, and thus this memory became important for him. Important enough that he could push down the feelings of revenge, because he doesn't want her to cry. He doesn't want to make her, who helped him and accepted him despite his sewage attitude and questionable morals, to cry again.

It is for this reason that he couldn't confess to her that easily, too, which would lead to the tragic love end. He knows that he isn't the best choice and isn't good enough for her to be happy. She makes him comfortable and is special in doing this, and thus deserves the best happiness she can get. He also has the priority of destroying the remainder of Adonis, and thus...

In the good end, his feelings overrode his other wishes and his reason. Love > Respect & Reason, basically. He planned to confess to her on christmas, but she did first, and you know the rest. From then on, his affections are more open, but at his core, he is a person who isn't made of honey, so he is honest, showing his natural dry self.

For Ichika, Sasazuka confessing is a sign of trust, but also something that panics her. Her feelings progressed to love earlier than him, and she called him an idiot for being so stupid. He calls himself mean and morally grey, but she knows the kindness hidden within him. He downplays all his positive sides and says all this to her, expecting her to push him away. Are you an idiot? (I already love you!) So, don't go off to do things that will hurt yourself!

Because of this, the...Sera event affected her deeply. She knew he was on the edge. She doesn't want Sasazuka to stray off. Desperate to keep him in the side of the light, she remembered how he was troubled by her crying, and the fact that he trusted her enough to confess all that. She then threatens him with her tears because...it's the only thing that made him halt and unsure.

But ye I don't have anything more to say on her front, the rest is all in the game, go play the game you heathen!

Ichika in comparison with other routes:

To discuss this, we have to discuss what part of Ichika shines in other routes. Enomoto - Cuteness, initiative, bravery and willing to confront what he was unwilling to face. Shiraishi - She showed her will strongly. Her EQ was high and saw right through him XD. She chooses not to give up on what is precious to her no matter what. She pointed out his wrongs actively. She was so...kind. And cute. Okazaki - High EQ, figured out what Kei actually wanted. Won't take his poop reasons for using her as a reason. Refuses to give up and self sacrificing without being overly so. Cuteness. Yanagi - Willing to face reality and not run away, whether it is with Yanagi or the last boss. High EQ. Takes initiative and does what she needs to do. Shows her compassionate nature and helps Yanagi forward, together. Cuteness.

As we can see, cuteness is the common factor in all of them. She shows the same in donut's route. Nuff said.

High EQ - As shown in my rambles, she shows this very well.

Compassion - yep.

Strong will - Yep, was willing to do anything to improve the situation, even if it meant buying donuts or doing other things.

One thing I think is special to Sasazuka's route is her grasp on her own limits. She knows what she can and can't do, and that's important. It's admirable. She doesn't shove her nose into matters that aren't hers, and she listens well. She is willing to admit that she isn't capable and that's important in the real world.

As for why she might not seem as exceptional...well. It's because Sasazuka is almost never doing the wrong thing, and is always trying to improve himself. Enomoto refused to accept reality. Shiraishi was blind to what he really wanted. Okazaki wanted meaning to his life in a destructive way. Yanagi was stuck in the past and is overly compassionate, so much that he could not move to act.

Sasazuka is always acting to solve the case, is self-motivated, and is grounded in reality. He is mostly a self-completing person. Though his words are sharp, he always does what is needed. He is honest. He doesn't hide his intentions. His main flaw is his true neutral alignment which does not mesh well with his trauma. Thus, he doesn't need to be changed or forced to change like the others. So she could never assume a super active role in this relationship.

For Sasazuka, Ichika represents comfort and somewhere he could properly breathe around. She is someone he respects, and he wishes her to grow into the best version of herself. They might not be equal in ability, but their mutual understanding, respect and admiration makes them treat each other as equals.

And isn't that enough? I find that to be admirable. I think she shines just as much as in other routes, just in a more realistic way rather than an active way. Valuing a more active and interactive heroine is great and all, but I think the writing in the game captures more realistic and...explicit? Not so pure? Love relatively well.

#takeru sasazuka #ichika hoshino #collar x malice

[lakelandseo]

What's Changed (and What Hasn't): The 2020 Moz Blog Reader Survey Results

Posted by morgan.mcmurray

You're tired of hearing it and I'm tired of saying it, but 2020 really has been a year like no other. SEOs and marketers around the world had to deal with their day-to-day work moving home, alongside a host of natural disasters, civil rights issues, and a pandemic that will alter our industry and global economy for years to come. 

We could have held off on launching this year's reader survey, but we decided to move forward anyway because we know your work and your interests have been impacted, and we wanted to know how much. 

I'm excited to share with you the results from that survey in this post. We'll go through what's changed — and what hasn't — for our readership since our last survey in 2017, and detail what those insights mean for the Moz Blog in 2021. 

Methodology

We published this survey in July 2020, with questions asking for details on the professional occupations of our readers, how those readers interact with the blog, and what those readers like to see from the blog. We also included COVID-19-specific questions to gauge the pandemic's impact on our readers. The survey was shared on the blog, through email blasts, and on our social media accounts.

The percentages shared in the sections below are part of a total of 388 responses we received over four months. This is actually our first data point, showing that engagement with surveys has shifted drastically since our 2017 survey, which got nearly 600 responses in just one month. Given the interruptive nature of 2020's events, we won't let that difference discourage us from utilizing surveys in the future. Where able, I've compared 2020's results to those of the 2017 survey, to better visualize the differences. 

Answers were not required for all questions, so if something did not apply to a respondent, they could leave the answer blank or choose a variety of "no opinion" or "N/A" options. 

We don't typically include demographic or geographic questions in our reader surveys, but given the overwhelmingly positive response to the Gender Gap in SEO and Diversity and Inclusion in SEO surveys published this year, we will do so moving forward. Understanding the struggles SEOs and marketers face in the industry due to race, gender, and sexual orientation is imperative to understanding how to best work with and for everyone, and we acknowledge that shortcoming in this year's survey. 

Who our readers are

Let's dive in. First up: the questions asking readers to tell us more about themselves. 

What is your job title?

The word cloud below is an amalgamation of the top-used words in response to this question, and the size of the word correlates to the number of mentions that word received. 

No surprises here: number one (by far) was "SEO". Our readership remains heavily SEO-focused in their occupations, with content marketers coming in close second.

What percentage of your day-to-day work involves SEO?

That said, 2020 saw an increase in respondents in the lower percentage brackets of readers who use SEO strategies in their daily work, specifically the 1-10% and 41-50% ranges. This could be due, in part, to the broadening of tasks assigned to SEOs in the marketing industry, as several respondents also mentioned a need to wear multiple hats in their organization. 

On a scale of 1-5, how advanced would you say your SEO knowledge is?

The majority of our readers remain intermediately knowledgeable about SEO concepts, leaving plenty of room for new learnings across skill levels.

Do you work in-house, or at an agency/consultancy?

While the majority of Moz Blog readers are still in-house SEOs and marketers, an interesting takeaway for us in 2020 is the increase of those who are independent consultants or freelancers from 11% in 2017 to just under 17% in 2020. We'll make sure to take that into account for our content strategy moving forward. 

What are some of the biggest challenges you face in your work today?

Far and away, the challenge most often mentioned in response to this question was the high volume and rapid cadence of new SEO information, new tools, and algorithm updates. Readers are struggling to determine what to focus on and when, what to prioritize, and what even applies to their work. We can certainly help you with that in 2021.

Other frequently-mentioned struggles were familiar to us from previous surveys, showing us that the SEO industry still needs to address these issues, and that the Moz Blog can continue offering up content in response. These issues included: 

Lack of resources and cross-functional collaboration at work.

SEO prioritization at work.

Lack of consolidation in analytics and reporting tools.

Difficulty explaining the value of SEO to bosses/clients/non-SEOs.

Difficulty explaining what SEO CAN'T do to bosses/clients/non-SEOs.

Attracting new clients and customers.

Having to wear multiple hats.

How our readers read

Keeping in mind all that context of who our readers are, we dug into preferences in terms of formats, frequency, and subject matter on the blog.

How often do you read posts on the Moz Blog?

As an increasing number of readers rely on social media channels for their news and content consumption, the shift from frequent readers to "every once in a while" readers is not a surprise, but it is a concern. It also necessitates our incorporation of social media engagement as a top KPI for blog performance. 

Given the multiple off-blog distribution methods and frequency of prompts to take this year's survey, we saw a sharp increase in "non-reader" responses from 1% in 2017 to 6% in 2020. That said, it's interesting that Moz email and social media subscribers who weren't Moz Blog readers felt motivated to take a survey entitled "Moz Blog Reader Survey". We've taken note of the topics requested from those respondents, in the hopes of encouraging more engagement with the blog. 

On which types of devices do you prefer to read blog posts?

While desktop and laptop computers remain the most common way to consume blog content, mobile phone use saw an increase of nearly 10 percentage points. Mobile phones have only improved in the last three years, and it's no secret that we're using them more often for actions we'd normally take on a computer. As we move toward blog CMS improvements in 2021, mobile-friendliness will be a priority. 

Which other site(s), if any, do you regularly visit for information or education on SEO?

Across the board, we saw a decrease in the number of respondents listing other SEO news resources, as well as the first instance of a social media platform in the top 10 resources mentioned. This only serves as further evidence that social media is continuing its growth as a news and content medium. 

What our readers think of the blog

Here's where we get into more specific feedback about the Moz Blog, including whether it's relevant, how easy it is for readers to consume, and more. 

What percentage of the posts on the Moz Blog would you say are relevant to you and your work?

While the trends regarding readers' opinions on relevancy remained similar between 2017 and 2020, we saw about a 6% dip in respondents who said 81-90% of posts are relevant to them, and increases in the bottom four percentage brackets. These results, paired with the topic requests we'll cover later, indicate a need to shift and slightly narrow our content strategy to include more posts specific to core SEO disciplines, like on-page SEO and analytics. 

Do you feel the Moz Blog posts are generally too basic, too advanced, or about right?

Given the breadth of topics on the blog and the wide range of reader skill levels, we're happy to see that, for the most part, readers find our posts just about right on a scale of too easy to too advanced. 

In general, what do you think about the length of Moz Blog posts?

Similarly, it's great to see that readers continue to be satisfied with the amount of content served up in each post. 

How often do you comment on blog posts? 

RIP, comment section. A trend we've seen over the last several years continues its downward slope: 82% of readers who took part in the survey never comment on posts.

When asked for the reasons why they never comment, we saw some frequent responses: 

"I have nothing to add."

"It wouldn't add value."

"I'm still learning." 

"I never comment anywhere." 

"I don't have enough time." 

"Follow-up questions go unanswered." 

"I read posts in the RSS feed."

"English isn't my first language."

"I'm not signed in." 

Blog comment sections and forums used to be the place for online conversations, so this drop in engagement certainly signals the end of an era. However, these concerns also give us some areas of improvement, like working with our authors to be more responsive and improving comment accessibility. But sorry to those who prefer not to sign in — without that gate, we'd be inundated with spam.

In contrast, here were the reasons for commenting: 

"I have a question."

"I have a strong emotional connection to the material."

"I strongly agree or disagree." 

"I want to add my personal experience or advice." 

We definitely encourage readers who do have questions or concerns to continue commenting! 

What, if anything, would you like to see different about the Moz Blog?

Outside the responses along the lines of "No changes! Keep up the good work!" for which we thank you, these were the top asks from readers: 

More thoughtful feedback from and interaction with authors.

More variety and diversity in our author pool.

More video content.

More specific case studies, tests, and experiments.

More step-by-step guides with actionable insights showing how to solve problems.

Ability to filter or categorize by skill level.

Diversity in location (outside the US). 

These are great suggestions, some of which we've already begun to address! 

We also received only a few responses along the lines of "keep your politics out of SEO", specifically referencing our Black Lives Matter support and our posts on diversity. To those concerned, I will reiterate: human rights exist beyond politics. Our understanding of the experiences our co-workers and clients have had is essential to doing good, empathetic work with and for them. The Moz Blog will continue our practice of the Moz TAGFEE code in response to these ongoing issues. 

What our readers want to see

Which of the following topics would you like to learn more about?

Survey respondents could choose multiple topics from the list below in their answers, and the most-requested topics look very similar to 2017. A noticeable shift is in the desire for mobile SEO content, which dropped from being requested in 33% of responses in 2017 to just under 20% in 2020. 

In 2020, we certainly had more content addressing the broader marketing industry and local SEOs impacted by the pandemic. To better address the relevancy issue mentioned earlier, the top four core SEO subjects of on-page SEO, keyword research, link building, and analytics (all included in over 50% of responses) will become blog priorities in 2021.

Which of the following types of posts would you most like to see on the Moz Blog?

The way readers want to consume those topics hasn't changed much at all in the last three years — the desire for actionable, tactical insights is as strong as ever, with the request for tools, tips, and techniques remaining at 80% of respondents. These types of posts have been and will remain our go-to moving forward. 

COVID-19 

Moving into our last and newest section for the survey, we asked readers questions regarding the way in which they consume SEO-related content during the COVID-19 era. 

Has your consumption of SEO-related content changed due to COVID-19?

Only 34% of respondents said that their consumption of SEO-related content had changed as a result of the pandemic, a number we expected to be higher. It's encouraging to see that so many readers were able to maintain a sense of normalcy in this area.

Of those who did see a shift, these were the most common reasons why: 

Job loss and job hunting

Shift to work from home and being online 24-7

E-Commerce industry shifts

Online engagement shifts and ranking and traffic drops

Loss of clients and constricting budgets

More time to read paired with less time or opportunity to implement learnings

Would any of the following topics be helpful for you as a result of COVID-19 impacts? 

Along those same lines, the most popular topic requested as a result of COVID-19 impacts with 27% of responses was tracking/reporting on traffic and ranking drops. Content and marketing strategies during a crisis came in close second and third, with 24% and 21%, respectively. 



The answers to these questions show us that pivoting our content strategy in spring 2020 to address areas of concern was helpful for about a third of our readers, and probably contributed to the relevancy issue for the other two-thirds. We'll continue to include these topics (on a smaller scale) until we see the other side of this crisis.

What happens next?

Primary takeaways

You asked, and we hear you. Moving into 2021, we'll be writing on more technical, core SEO topics along with issues on the business side of SEO. We'll also be building out our Whiteboard Friday series to provide more fresh video content. And as always, we'll strive to provide you with actionable insights to apply to your daily work.

Given the steep decline in comment section engagement, we'll be encouraging our authors to be more responsive to questions, and to interact with you on social media. Make sure to follow Moz on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay up-to-date with the blog and our guest authors. 

Finally, stay tuned, as next year we're planning UX improvements to our blog CMS to address usability and accessibility concerns.

My genuine thanks goes out to those readers who took the time to give us their feedback. It is immeasurably valuable to us, and we're looking forward to applying it to all the amazing content we have coming your way in 2021.

Have a safe and healthy holiday season, Moz fans, and happy reading! 

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

[epackingvietnam]

What's Changed (and What Hasn't): The 2020 Moz Blog Reader Survey Results

Posted by morgan.mcmurray

You're tired of hearing it and I'm tired of saying it, but 2020 really has been a year like no other. SEOs and marketers around the world had to deal with their day-to-day work moving home, alongside a host of natural disasters, civil rights issues, and a pandemic that will alter our industry and global economy for years to come. 

We could have held off on launching this year's reader survey, but we decided to move forward anyway because we know your work and your interests have been impacted, and we wanted to know how much. 

I'm excited to share with you the results from that survey in this post. We'll go through what's changed — and what hasn't — for our readership since our last survey in 2017, and detail what those insights mean for the Moz Blog in 2021. 

Methodology

We published this survey in July 2020, with questions asking for details on the professional occupations of our readers, how those readers interact with the blog, and what those readers like to see from the blog. We also included COVID-19-specific questions to gauge the pandemic's impact on our readers. The survey was shared on the blog, through email blasts, and on our social media accounts.

The percentages shared in the sections below are part of a total of 388 responses we received over four months. This is actually our first data point, showing that engagement with surveys has shifted drastically since our 2017 survey, which got nearly 600 responses in just one month. Given the interruptive nature of 2020's events, we won't let that difference discourage us from utilizing surveys in the future. Where able, I've compared 2020's results to those of the 2017 survey, to better visualize the differences. 

Answers were not required for all questions, so if something did not apply to a respondent, they could leave the answer blank or choose a variety of "no opinion" or "N/A" options. 

We don't typically include demographic or geographic questions in our reader surveys, but given the overwhelmingly positive response to the Gender Gap in SEO and Diversity and Inclusion in SEO surveys published this year, we will do so moving forward. Understanding the struggles SEOs and marketers face in the industry due to race, gender, and sexual orientation is imperative to understanding how to best work with and for everyone, and we acknowledge that shortcoming in this year's survey. 

Who our readers are

Let's dive in. First up: the questions asking readers to tell us more about themselves. 

What is your job title?

The word cloud below is an amalgamation of the top-used words in response to this question, and the size of the word correlates to the number of mentions that word received. 

No surprises here: number one (by far) was "SEO". Our readership remains heavily SEO-focused in their occupations, with content marketers coming in close second.

What percentage of your day-to-day work involves SEO?

That said, 2020 saw an increase in respondents in the lower percentage brackets of readers who use SEO strategies in their daily work, specifically the 1-10% and 41-50% ranges. This could be due, in part, to the broadening of tasks assigned to SEOs in the marketing industry, as several respondents also mentioned a need to wear multiple hats in their organization. 

On a scale of 1-5, how advanced would you say your SEO knowledge is?

The majority of our readers remain intermediately knowledgeable about SEO concepts, leaving plenty of room for new learnings across skill levels.

Do you work in-house, or at an agency/consultancy?

While the majority of Moz Blog readers are still in-house SEOs and marketers, an interesting takeaway for us in 2020 is the increase of those who are independent consultants or freelancers from 11% in 2017 to just under 17% in 2020. We'll make sure to take that into account for our content strategy moving forward. 

What are some of the biggest challenges you face in your work today?

Far and away, the challenge most often mentioned in response to this question was the high volume and rapid cadence of new SEO information, new tools, and algorithm updates. Readers are struggling to determine what to focus on and when, what to prioritize, and what even applies to their work. We can certainly help you with that in 2021.

Other frequently-mentioned struggles were familiar to us from previous surveys, showing us that the SEO industry still needs to address these issues, and that the Moz Blog can continue offering up content in response. These issues included: 

Lack of resources and cross-functional collaboration at work.

SEO prioritization at work.

Lack of consolidation in analytics and reporting tools.

Difficulty explaining the value of SEO to bosses/clients/non-SEOs.

Difficulty explaining what SEO CAN'T do to bosses/clients/non-SEOs.

Attracting new clients and customers.

Having to wear multiple hats.

How our readers read

Keeping in mind all that context of who our readers are, we dug into preferences in terms of formats, frequency, and subject matter on the blog.

How often do you read posts on the Moz Blog?

As an increasing number of readers rely on social media channels for their news and content consumption, the shift from frequent readers to "every once in a while" readers is not a surprise, but it is a concern. It also necessitates our incorporation of social media engagement as a top KPI for blog performance. 

Given the multiple off-blog distribution methods and frequency of prompts to take this year's survey, we saw a sharp increase in "non-reader" responses from 1% in 2017 to 6% in 2020. That said, it's interesting that Moz email and social media subscribers who weren't Moz Blog readers felt motivated to take a survey entitled "Moz Blog Reader Survey". We've taken note of the topics requested from those respondents, in the hopes of encouraging more engagement with the blog. 

On which types of devices do you prefer to read blog posts?

While desktop and laptop computers remain the most common way to consume blog content, mobile phone use saw an increase of nearly 10 percentage points. Mobile phones have only improved in the last three years, and it's no secret that we're using them more often for actions we'd normally take on a computer. As we move toward blog CMS improvements in 2021, mobile-friendliness will be a priority. 

Which other site(s), if any, do you regularly visit for information or education on SEO?

Across the board, we saw a decrease in the number of respondents listing other SEO news resources, as well as the first instance of a social media platform in the top 10 resources mentioned. This only serves as further evidence that social media is continuing its growth as a news and content medium. 

What our readers think of the blog

Here's where we get into more specific feedback about the Moz Blog, including whether it's relevant, how easy it is for readers to consume, and more. 

What percentage of the posts on the Moz Blog would you say are relevant to you and your work?

While the trends regarding readers' opinions on relevancy remained similar between 2017 and 2020, we saw about a 6% dip in respondents who said 81-90% of posts are relevant to them, and increases in the bottom four percentage brackets. These results, paired with the topic requests we'll cover later, indicate a need to shift and slightly narrow our content strategy to include more posts specific to core SEO disciplines, like on-page SEO and analytics. 

Do you feel the Moz Blog posts are generally too basic, too advanced, or about right?

Given the breadth of topics on the blog and the wide range of reader skill levels, we're happy to see that, for the most part, readers find our posts just about right on a scale of too easy to too advanced. 

In general, what do you think about the length of Moz Blog posts?

Similarly, it's great to see that readers continue to be satisfied with the amount of content served up in each post. 

How often do you comment on blog posts? 

RIP, comment section. A trend we've seen over the last several years continues its downward slope: 82% of readers who took part in the survey never comment on posts.

When asked for the reasons why they never comment, we saw some frequent responses: 

"I have nothing to add."

"It wouldn't add value."

"I'm still learning." 

"I never comment anywhere." 

"I don't have enough time." 

"Follow-up questions go unanswered." 

"I read posts in the RSS feed."

"English isn't my first language."

"I'm not signed in." 

Blog comment sections and forums used to be the place for online conversations, so this drop in engagement certainly signals the end of an era. However, these concerns also give us some areas of improvement, like working with our authors to be more responsive and improving comment accessibility. But sorry to those who prefer not to sign in — without that gate, we'd be inundated with spam.

In contrast, here were the reasons for commenting: 

"I have a question."

"I have a strong emotional connection to the material."

"I strongly agree or disagree." 

"I want to add my personal experience or advice." 

We definitely encourage readers who do have questions or concerns to continue commenting! 

What, if anything, would you like to see different about the Moz Blog?

Outside the responses along the lines of "No changes! Keep up the good work!" for which we thank you, these were the top asks from readers: 

More thoughtful feedback from and interaction with authors.

More variety and diversity in our author pool.

More video content.

More specific case studies, tests, and experiments.

More step-by-step guides with actionable insights showing how to solve problems.

Ability to filter or categorize by skill level.

Diversity in location (outside the US). 

These are great suggestions, some of which we've already begun to address! 

We also received only a few responses along the lines of "keep your politics out of SEO", specifically referencing our Black Lives Matter support and our posts on diversity. To those concerned, I will reiterate: human rights exist beyond politics. Our understanding of the experiences our co-workers and clients have had is essential to doing good, empathetic work with and for them. The Moz Blog will continue our practice of the Moz TAGFEE code in response to these ongoing issues. 

What our readers want to see

Which of the following topics would you like to learn more about?

Survey respondents could choose multiple topics from the list below in their answers, and the most-requested topics look very similar to 2017. A noticeable shift is in the desire for mobile SEO content, which dropped from being requested in 33% of responses in 2017 to just under 20% in 2020. 

In 2020, we certainly had more content addressing the broader marketing industry and local SEOs impacted by the pandemic. To better address the relevancy issue mentioned earlier, the top four core SEO subjects of on-page SEO, keyword research, link building, and analytics (all included in over 50% of responses) will become blog priorities in 2021.

Which of the following types of posts would you most like to see on the Moz Blog?

The way readers want to consume those topics hasn't changed much at all in the last three years — the desire for actionable, tactical insights is as strong as ever, with the request for tools, tips, and techniques remaining at 80% of respondents. These types of posts have been and will remain our go-to moving forward. 

COVID-19 

Moving into our last and newest section for the survey, we asked readers questions regarding the way in which they consume SEO-related content during the COVID-19 era. 

Has your consumption of SEO-related content changed due to COVID-19?

Only 34% of respondents said that their consumption of SEO-related content had changed as a result of the pandemic, a number we expected to be higher. It's encouraging to see that so many readers were able to maintain a sense of normalcy in this area.

Of those who did see a shift, these were the most common reasons why: 

Job loss and job hunting

Shift to work from home and being online 24-7

E-Commerce industry shifts

Online engagement shifts and ranking and traffic drops

Loss of clients and constricting budgets

More time to read paired with less time or opportunity to implement learnings

Would any of the following topics be helpful for you as a result of COVID-19 impacts? 

Along those same lines, the most popular topic requested as a result of COVID-19 impacts with 27% of responses was tracking/reporting on traffic and ranking drops. Content and marketing strategies during a crisis came in close second and third, with 24% and 21%, respectively. 



The answers to these questions show us that pivoting our content strategy in spring 2020 to address areas of concern was helpful for about a third of our readers, and probably contributed to the relevancy issue for the other two-thirds. We'll continue to include these topics (on a smaller scale) until we see the other side of this crisis.

What happens next?

Primary takeaways

You asked, and we hear you. Moving into 2021, we'll be writing on more technical, core SEO topics along with issues on the business side of SEO. We'll also be building out our Whiteboard Friday series to provide more fresh video content. And as always, we'll strive to provide you with actionable insights to apply to your daily work.

Given the steep decline in comment section engagement, we'll be encouraging our authors to be more responsive to questions, and to interact with you on social media. Make sure to follow Moz on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay up-to-date with the blog and our guest authors. 

Finally, stay tuned, as next year we're planning UX improvements to our blog CMS to address usability and accessibility concerns.

My genuine thanks goes out to those readers who took the time to give us their feedback. It is immeasurably valuable to us, and we're looking forward to applying it to all the amazing content we have coming your way in 2021.

Have a safe and healthy holiday season, Moz fans, and happy reading! 

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

#túi_giấy_epacking_việt_nam #túi_giấy_epacking #in_túi_giấy_giá_rẻ #in_túi_giấy #epackingvietnam #tuigiayepacking

[bfxenon]

What's Changed (and What Hasn't): The 2020 Moz Blog Reader Survey Results

Posted by morgan.mcmurray

You're tired of hearing it and I'm tired of saying it, but 2020 really has been a year like no other. SEOs and marketers around the world had to deal with their day-to-day work moving home, alongside a host of natural disasters, civil rights issues, and a pandemic that will alter our industry and global economy for years to come. 

We could have held off on launching this year's reader survey, but we decided to move forward anyway because we know your work and your interests have been impacted, and we wanted to know how much. 

I'm excited to share with you the results from that survey in this post. We'll go through what's changed — and what hasn't — for our readership since our last survey in 2017, and detail what those insights mean for the Moz Blog in 2021. 

Methodology

We published this survey in July 2020, with questions asking for details on the professional occupations of our readers, how those readers interact with the blog, and what those readers like to see from the blog. We also included COVID-19-specific questions to gauge the pandemic's impact on our readers. The survey was shared on the blog, through email blasts, and on our social media accounts.

The percentages shared in the sections below are part of a total of 388 responses we received over four months. This is actually our first data point, showing that engagement with surveys has shifted drastically since our 2017 survey, which got nearly 600 responses in just one month. Given the interruptive nature of 2020's events, we won't let that difference discourage us from utilizing surveys in the future. Where able, I've compared 2020's results to those of the 2017 survey, to better visualize the differences. 

Answers were not required for all questions, so if something did not apply to a respondent, they could leave the answer blank or choose a variety of "no opinion" or "N/A" options. 

We don't typically include demographic or geographic questions in our reader surveys, but given the overwhelmingly positive response to the Gender Gap in SEO and Diversity and Inclusion in SEO surveys published this year, we will do so moving forward. Understanding the struggles SEOs and marketers face in the industry due to race, gender, and sexual orientation is imperative to understanding how to best work with and for everyone, and we acknowledge that shortcoming in this year's survey. 

Who our readers are

Let's dive in. First up: the questions asking readers to tell us more about themselves. 

What is your job title?

The word cloud below is an amalgamation of the top-used words in response to this question, and the size of the word correlates to the number of mentions that word received. 

No surprises here: number one (by far) was "SEO". Our readership remains heavily SEO-focused in their occupations, with content marketers coming in close second.

What percentage of your day-to-day work involves SEO?

That said, 2020 saw an increase in respondents in the lower percentage brackets of readers who use SEO strategies in their daily work, specifically the 1-10% and 41-50% ranges. This could be due, in part, to the broadening of tasks assigned to SEOs in the marketing industry, as several respondents also mentioned a need to wear multiple hats in their organization. 

On a scale of 1-5, how advanced would you say your SEO knowledge is?

The majority of our readers remain intermediately knowledgeable about SEO concepts, leaving plenty of room for new learnings across skill levels.

Do you work in-house, or at an agency/consultancy?

While the majority of Moz Blog readers are still in-house SEOs and marketers, an interesting takeaway for us in 2020 is the increase of those who are independent consultants or freelancers from 11% in 2017 to just under 17% in 2020. We'll make sure to take that into account for our content strategy moving forward. 

What are some of the biggest challenges you face in your work today?

Far and away, the challenge most often mentioned in response to this question was the high volume and rapid cadence of new SEO information, new tools, and algorithm updates. Readers are struggling to determine what to focus on and when, what to prioritize, and what even applies to their work. We can certainly help you with that in 2021.

Other frequently-mentioned struggles were familiar to us from previous surveys, showing us that the SEO industry still needs to address these issues, and that the Moz Blog can continue offering up content in response. These issues included: 

Lack of resources and cross-functional collaboration at work.

SEO prioritization at work.

Lack of consolidation in analytics and reporting tools.

Difficulty explaining the value of SEO to bosses/clients/non-SEOs.

Difficulty explaining what SEO CAN'T do to bosses/clients/non-SEOs.

Attracting new clients and customers.

Having to wear multiple hats.

How our readers read

Keeping in mind all that context of who our readers are, we dug into preferences in terms of formats, frequency, and subject matter on the blog.

How often do you read posts on the Moz Blog?

As an increasing number of readers rely on social media channels for their news and content consumption, the shift from frequent readers to "every once in a while" readers is not a surprise, but it is a concern. It also necessitates our incorporation of social media engagement as a top KPI for blog performance. 

Given the multiple off-blog distribution methods and frequency of prompts to take this year's survey, we saw a sharp increase in "non-reader" responses from 1% in 2017 to 6% in 2020. That said, it's interesting that Moz email and social media subscribers who weren't Moz Blog readers felt motivated to take a survey entitled "Moz Blog Reader Survey". We've taken note of the topics requested from those respondents, in the hopes of encouraging more engagement with the blog. 

On which types of devices do you prefer to read blog posts?

While desktop and laptop computers remain the most common way to consume blog content, mobile phone use saw an increase of nearly 10 percentage points. Mobile phones have only improved in the last three years, and it's no secret that we're using them more often for actions we'd normally take on a computer. As we move toward blog CMS improvements in 2021, mobile-friendliness will be a priority. 

Which other site(s), if any, do you regularly visit for information or education on SEO?

Across the board, we saw a decrease in the number of respondents listing other SEO news resources, as well as the first instance of a social media platform in the top 10 resources mentioned. This only serves as further evidence that social media is continuing its growth as a news and content medium. 

What our readers think of the blog

Here's where we get into more specific feedback about the Moz Blog, including whether it's relevant, how easy it is for readers to consume, and more. 

What percentage of the posts on the Moz Blog would you say are relevant to you and your work?

While the trends regarding readers' opinions on relevancy remained similar between 2017 and 2020, we saw about a 6% dip in respondents who said 81-90% of posts are relevant to them, and increases in the bottom four percentage brackets. These results, paired with the topic requests we'll cover later, indicate a need to shift and slightly narrow our content strategy to include more posts specific to core SEO disciplines, like on-page SEO and analytics. 

Do you feel the Moz Blog posts are generally too basic, too advanced, or about right?

Given the breadth of topics on the blog and the wide range of reader skill levels, we're happy to see that, for the most part, readers find our posts just about right on a scale of too easy to too advanced. 

In general, what do you think about the length of Moz Blog posts?

Similarly, it's great to see that readers continue to be satisfied with the amount of content served up in each post. 

How often do you comment on blog posts? 

RIP, comment section. A trend we've seen over the last several years continues its downward slope: 82% of readers who took part in the survey never comment on posts.

When asked for the reasons why they never comment, we saw some frequent responses: 

"I have nothing to add."

"It wouldn't add value."

"I'm still learning." 

"I never comment anywhere." 

"I don't have enough time." 

"Follow-up questions go unanswered." 

"I read posts in the RSS feed."

"English isn't my first language."

"I'm not signed in." 

Blog comment sections and forums used to be the place for online conversations, so this drop in engagement certainly signals the end of an era. However, these concerns also give us some areas of improvement, like working with our authors to be more responsive and improving comment accessibility. But sorry to those who prefer not to sign in — without that gate, we'd be inundated with spam.

In contrast, here were the reasons for commenting: 

"I have a question."

"I have a strong emotional connection to the material."

"I strongly agree or disagree." 

"I want to add my personal experience or advice." 

We definitely encourage readers who do have questions or concerns to continue commenting! 

What, if anything, would you like to see different about the Moz Blog?

Outside the responses along the lines of "No changes! Keep up the good work!" for which we thank you, these were the top asks from readers: 

More thoughtful feedback from and interaction with authors.

More variety and diversity in our author pool.

More video content.

More specific case studies, tests, and experiments.

More step-by-step guides with actionable insights showing how to solve problems.

Ability to filter or categorize by skill level.

Diversity in location (outside the US). 

These are great suggestions, some of which we've already begun to address! 

We also received only a few responses along the lines of "keep your politics out of SEO", specifically referencing our Black Lives Matter support and our posts on diversity. To those concerned, I will reiterate: human rights exist beyond politics. Our understanding of the experiences our co-workers and clients have had is essential to doing good, empathetic work with and for them. The Moz Blog will continue our practice of the Moz TAGFEE code in response to these ongoing issues. 

What our readers want to see

Which of the following topics would you like to learn more about?

Survey respondents could choose multiple topics from the list below in their answers, and the most-requested topics look very similar to 2017. A noticeable shift is in the desire for mobile SEO content, which dropped from being requested in 33% of responses in 2017 to just under 20% in 2020. 

In 2020, we certainly had more content addressing the broader marketing industry and local SEOs impacted by the pandemic. To better address the relevancy issue mentioned earlier, the top four core SEO subjects of on-page SEO, keyword research, link building, and analytics (all included in over 50% of responses) will become blog priorities in 2021.

Which of the following types of posts would you most like to see on the Moz Blog?

The way readers want to consume those topics hasn't changed much at all in the last three years — the desire for actionable, tactical insights is as strong as ever, with the request for tools, tips, and techniques remaining at 80% of respondents. These types of posts have been and will remain our go-to moving forward. 

COVID-19 

Moving into our last and newest section for the survey, we asked readers questions regarding the way in which they consume SEO-related content during the COVID-19 era. 

Has your consumption of SEO-related content changed due to COVID-19?

Only 34% of respondents said that their consumption of SEO-related content had changed as a result of the pandemic, a number we expected to be higher. It's encouraging to see that so many readers were able to maintain a sense of normalcy in this area.

Of those who did see a shift, these were the most common reasons why: 

Job loss and job hunting

Shift to work from home and being online 24-7

E-Commerce industry shifts

Online engagement shifts and ranking and traffic drops

Loss of clients and constricting budgets

More time to read paired with less time or opportunity to implement learnings

Would any of the following topics be helpful for you as a result of COVID-19 impacts? 

Along those same lines, the most popular topic requested as a result of COVID-19 impacts with 27% of responses was tracking/reporting on traffic and ranking drops. Content and marketing strategies during a crisis came in close second and third, with 24% and 21%, respectively. 



The answers to these questions show us that pivoting our content strategy in spring 2020 to address areas of concern was helpful for about a third of our readers, and probably contributed to the relevancy issue for the other two-thirds. We'll continue to include these topics (on a smaller scale) until we see the other side of this crisis.

What happens next?

Primary takeaways

You asked, and we hear you. Moving into 2021, we'll be writing on more technical, core SEO topics along with issues on the business side of SEO. We'll also be building out our Whiteboard Friday series to provide more fresh video content. And as always, we'll strive to provide you with actionable insights to apply to your daily work.

Given the steep decline in comment section engagement, we'll be encouraging our authors to be more responsive to questions, and to interact with you on social media. Make sure to follow Moz on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay up-to-date with the blog and our guest authors. 

Finally, stay tuned, as next year we're planning UX improvements to our blog CMS to address usability and accessibility concerns.

My genuine thanks goes out to those readers who took the time to give us their feedback. It is immeasurably valuable to us, and we're looking forward to applying it to all the amazing content we have coming your way in 2021.

Have a safe and healthy holiday season, Moz fans, and happy reading! 

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

[nutrifami]

What's Changed (and What Hasn't): The 2020 Moz Blog Reader Survey Results

Posted by morgan.mcmurray

You're tired of hearing it and I'm tired of saying it, but 2020 really has been a year like no other. SEOs and marketers around the world had to deal with their day-to-day work moving home, alongside a host of natural disasters, civil rights issues, and a pandemic that will alter our industry and global economy for years to come. 

We could have held off on launching this year's reader survey, but we decided to move forward anyway because we know your work and your interests have been impacted, and we wanted to know how much. 

I'm excited to share with you the results from that survey in this post. We'll go through what's changed — and what hasn't — for our readership since our last survey in 2017, and detail what those insights mean for the Moz Blog in 2021. 

Methodology

We published this survey in July 2020, with questions asking for details on the professional occupations of our readers, how those readers interact with the blog, and what those readers like to see from the blog. We also included COVID-19-specific questions to gauge the pandemic's impact on our readers. The survey was shared on the blog, through email blasts, and on our social media accounts.

The percentages shared in the sections below are part of a total of 388 responses we received over four months. This is actually our first data point, showing that engagement with surveys has shifted drastically since our 2017 survey, which got nearly 600 responses in just one month. Given the interruptive nature of 2020's events, we won't let that difference discourage us from utilizing surveys in the future. Where able, I've compared 2020's results to those of the 2017 survey, to better visualize the differences. 

Answers were not required for all questions, so if something did not apply to a respondent, they could leave the answer blank or choose a variety of "no opinion" or "N/A" options. 

We don't typically include demographic or geographic questions in our reader surveys, but given the overwhelmingly positive response to the Gender Gap in SEO and Diversity and Inclusion in SEO surveys published this year, we will do so moving forward. Understanding the struggles SEOs and marketers face in the industry due to race, gender, and sexual orientation is imperative to understanding how to best work with and for everyone, and we acknowledge that shortcoming in this year's survey. 

Who our readers are

Let's dive in. First up: the questions asking readers to tell us more about themselves. 

What is your job title?

The word cloud below is an amalgamation of the top-used words in response to this question, and the size of the word correlates to the number of mentions that word received. 

No surprises here: number one (by far) was "SEO". Our readership remains heavily SEO-focused in their occupations, with content marketers coming in close second.

What percentage of your day-to-day work involves SEO?

That said, 2020 saw an increase in respondents in the lower percentage brackets of readers who use SEO strategies in their daily work, specifically the 1-10% and 41-50% ranges. This could be due, in part, to the broadening of tasks assigned to SEOs in the marketing industry, as several respondents also mentioned a need to wear multiple hats in their organization. 

On a scale of 1-5, how advanced would you say your SEO knowledge is?

The majority of our readers remain intermediately knowledgeable about SEO concepts, leaving plenty of room for new learnings across skill levels.

Do you work in-house, or at an agency/consultancy?

While the majority of Moz Blog readers are still in-house SEOs and marketers, an interesting takeaway for us in 2020 is the increase of those who are independent consultants or freelancers from 11% in 2017 to just under 17% in 2020. We'll make sure to take that into account for our content strategy moving forward. 

What are some of the biggest challenges you face in your work today?

Far and away, the challenge most often mentioned in response to this question was the high volume and rapid cadence of new SEO information, new tools, and algorithm updates. Readers are struggling to determine what to focus on and when, what to prioritize, and what even applies to their work. We can certainly help you with that in 2021.

Other frequently-mentioned struggles were familiar to us from previous surveys, showing us that the SEO industry still needs to address these issues, and that the Moz Blog can continue offering up content in response. These issues included: 

Lack of resources and cross-functional collaboration at work.

SEO prioritization at work.

Lack of consolidation in analytics and reporting tools.

Difficulty explaining the value of SEO to bosses/clients/non-SEOs.

Difficulty explaining what SEO CAN'T do to bosses/clients/non-SEOs.

Attracting new clients and customers.

Having to wear multiple hats.

How our readers read

Keeping in mind all that context of who our readers are, we dug into preferences in terms of formats, frequency, and subject matter on the blog.

How often do you read posts on the Moz Blog?

As an increasing number of readers rely on social media channels for their news and content consumption, the shift from frequent readers to "every once in a while" readers is not a surprise, but it is a concern. It also necessitates our incorporation of social media engagement as a top KPI for blog performance. 

Given the multiple off-blog distribution methods and frequency of prompts to take this year's survey, we saw a sharp increase in "non-reader" responses from 1% in 2017 to 6% in 2020. That said, it's interesting that Moz email and social media subscribers who weren't Moz Blog readers felt motivated to take a survey entitled "Moz Blog Reader Survey". We've taken note of the topics requested from those respondents, in the hopes of encouraging more engagement with the blog. 

On which types of devices do you prefer to read blog posts?

While desktop and laptop computers remain the most common way to consume blog content, mobile phone use saw an increase of nearly 10 percentage points. Mobile phones have only improved in the last three years, and it's no secret that we're using them more often for actions we'd normally take on a computer. As we move toward blog CMS improvements in 2021, mobile-friendliness will be a priority. 

Which other site(s), if any, do you regularly visit for information or education on SEO?

Across the board, we saw a decrease in the number of respondents listing other SEO news resources, as well as the first instance of a social media platform in the top 10 resources mentioned. This only serves as further evidence that social media is continuing its growth as a news and content medium. 

What our readers think of the blog

Here's where we get into more specific feedback about the Moz Blog, including whether it's relevant, how easy it is for readers to consume, and more. 

What percentage of the posts on the Moz Blog would you say are relevant to you and your work?

While the trends regarding readers' opinions on relevancy remained similar between 2017 and 2020, we saw about a 6% dip in respondents who said 81-90% of posts are relevant to them, and increases in the bottom four percentage brackets. These results, paired with the topic requests we'll cover later, indicate a need to shift and slightly narrow our content strategy to include more posts specific to core SEO disciplines, like on-page SEO and analytics. 

Do you feel the Moz Blog posts are generally too basic, too advanced, or about right?

Given the breadth of topics on the blog and the wide range of reader skill levels, we're happy to see that, for the most part, readers find our posts just about right on a scale of too easy to too advanced. 

In general, what do you think about the length of Moz Blog posts?

Similarly, it's great to see that readers continue to be satisfied with the amount of content served up in each post. 

How often do you comment on blog posts? 

RIP, comment section. A trend we've seen over the last several years continues its downward slope: 82% of readers who took part in the survey never comment on posts.

When asked for the reasons why they never comment, we saw some frequent responses: 

"I have nothing to add."

"It wouldn't add value."

"I'm still learning." 

"I never comment anywhere." 

"I don't have enough time." 

"Follow-up questions go unanswered." 

"I read posts in the RSS feed."

"English isn't my first language."

"I'm not signed in." 

Blog comment sections and forums used to be the place for online conversations, so this drop in engagement certainly signals the end of an era. However, these concerns also give us some areas of improvement, like working with our authors to be more responsive and improving comment accessibility. But sorry to those who prefer not to sign in — without that gate, we'd be inundated with spam.

In contrast, here were the reasons for commenting: 

"I have a question."

"I have a strong emotional connection to the material."

"I strongly agree or disagree." 

"I want to add my personal experience or advice." 

We definitely encourage readers who do have questions or concerns to continue commenting! 

What, if anything, would you like to see different about the Moz Blog?

Outside the responses along the lines of "No changes! Keep up the good work!" for which we thank you, these were the top asks from readers: 

More thoughtful feedback from and interaction with authors.

More variety and diversity in our author pool.

More video content.

More specific case studies, tests, and experiments.

More step-by-step guides with actionable insights showing how to solve problems.

Ability to filter or categorize by skill level.

Diversity in location (outside the US). 

These are great suggestions, some of which we've already begun to address! 

We also received only a few responses along the lines of "keep your politics out of SEO", specifically referencing our Black Lives Matter support and our posts on diversity. To those concerned, I will reiterate: human rights exist beyond politics. Our understanding of the experiences our co-workers and clients have had is essential to doing good, empathetic work with and for them. The Moz Blog will continue our practice of the Moz TAGFEE code in response to these ongoing issues. 

What our readers want to see

Which of the following topics would you like to learn more about?

Survey respondents could choose multiple topics from the list below in their answers, and the most-requested topics look very similar to 2017. A noticeable shift is in the desire for mobile SEO content, which dropped from being requested in 33% of responses in 2017 to just under 20% in 2020. 

In 2020, we certainly had more content addressing the broader marketing industry and local SEOs impacted by the pandemic. To better address the relevancy issue mentioned earlier, the top four core SEO subjects of on-page SEO, keyword research, link building, and analytics (all included in over 50% of responses) will become blog priorities in 2021.

Which of the following types of posts would you most like to see on the Moz Blog?

The way readers want to consume those topics hasn't changed much at all in the last three years — the desire for actionable, tactical insights is as strong as ever, with the request for tools, tips, and techniques remaining at 80% of respondents. These types of posts have been and will remain our go-to moving forward. 

COVID-19 

Moving into our last and newest section for the survey, we asked readers questions regarding the way in which they consume SEO-related content during the COVID-19 era. 

Has your consumption of SEO-related content changed due to COVID-19?

Only 34% of respondents said that their consumption of SEO-related content had changed as a result of the pandemic, a number we expected to be higher. It's encouraging to see that so many readers were able to maintain a sense of normalcy in this area.

Of those who did see a shift, these were the most common reasons why: 

Job loss and job hunting

Shift to work from home and being online 24-7

E-Commerce industry shifts

Online engagement shifts and ranking and traffic drops

Loss of clients and constricting budgets

More time to read paired with less time or opportunity to implement learnings

Would any of the following topics be helpful for you as a result of COVID-19 impacts? 

Along those same lines, the most popular topic requested as a result of COVID-19 impacts with 27% of responses was tracking/reporting on traffic and ranking drops. Content and marketing strategies during a crisis came in close second and third, with 24% and 21%, respectively. 



The answers to these questions show us that pivoting our content strategy in spring 2020 to address areas of concern was helpful for about a third of our readers, and probably contributed to the relevancy issue for the other two-thirds. We'll continue to include these topics (on a smaller scale) until we see the other side of this crisis.

What happens next?

Primary takeaways

You asked, and we hear you. Moving into 2021, we'll be writing on more technical, core SEO topics along with issues on the business side of SEO. We'll also be building out our Whiteboard Friday series to provide more fresh video content. And as always, we'll strive to provide you with actionable insights to apply to your daily work.

Given the steep decline in comment section engagement, we'll be encouraging our authors to be more responsive to questions, and to interact with you on social media. Make sure to follow Moz on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay up-to-date with the blog and our guest authors. 

Finally, stay tuned, as next year we're planning UX improvements to our blog CMS to address usability and accessibility concerns.

My genuine thanks goes out to those readers who took the time to give us their feedback. It is immeasurably valuable to us, and we're looking forward to applying it to all the amazing content we have coming your way in 2021.

Have a safe and healthy holiday season, Moz fans, and happy reading! 

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

[xaydungtruonggia]

What's Changed (and What Hasn't): The 2020 Moz Blog Reader Survey Results

Posted by morgan.mcmurray

You're tired of hearing it and I'm tired of saying it, but 2020 really has been a year like no other. SEOs and marketers around the world had to deal with their day-to-day work moving home, alongside a host of natural disasters, civil rights issues, and a pandemic that will alter our industry and global economy for years to come. 

We could have held off on launching this year's reader survey, but we decided to move forward anyway because we know your work and your interests have been impacted, and we wanted to know how much. 

I'm excited to share with you the results from that survey in this post. We'll go through what's changed — and what hasn't — for our readership since our last survey in 2017, and detail what those insights mean for the Moz Blog in 2021. 

Methodology

We published this survey in July 2020, with questions asking for details on the professional occupations of our readers, how those readers interact with the blog, and what those readers like to see from the blog. We also included COVID-19-specific questions to gauge the pandemic's impact on our readers. The survey was shared on the blog, through email blasts, and on our social media accounts.

The percentages shared in the sections below are part of a total of 388 responses we received over four months. This is actually our first data point, showing that engagement with surveys has shifted drastically since our 2017 survey, which got nearly 600 responses in just one month. Given the interruptive nature of 2020's events, we won't let that difference discourage us from utilizing surveys in the future. Where able, I've compared 2020's results to those of the 2017 survey, to better visualize the differences. 

Answers were not required for all questions, so if something did not apply to a respondent, they could leave the answer blank or choose a variety of "no opinion" or "N/A" options. 

We don't typically include demographic or geographic questions in our reader surveys, but given the overwhelmingly positive response to the Gender Gap in SEO and Diversity and Inclusion in SEO surveys published this year, we will do so moving forward. Understanding the struggles SEOs and marketers face in the industry due to race, gender, and sexual orientation is imperative to understanding how to best work with and for everyone, and we acknowledge that shortcoming in this year's survey. 

Who our readers are

Let's dive in. First up: the questions asking readers to tell us more about themselves. 

What is your job title?

The word cloud below is an amalgamation of the top-used words in response to this question, and the size of the word correlates to the number of mentions that word received. 

No surprises here: number one (by far) was "SEO". Our readership remains heavily SEO-focused in their occupations, with content marketers coming in close second.

What percentage of your day-to-day work involves SEO?

That said, 2020 saw an increase in respondents in the lower percentage brackets of readers who use SEO strategies in their daily work, specifically the 1-10% and 41-50% ranges. This could be due, in part, to the broadening of tasks assigned to SEOs in the marketing industry, as several respondents also mentioned a need to wear multiple hats in their organization. 

On a scale of 1-5, how advanced would you say your SEO knowledge is?

The majority of our readers remain intermediately knowledgeable about SEO concepts, leaving plenty of room for new learnings across skill levels.

Do you work in-house, or at an agency/consultancy?

While the majority of Moz Blog readers are still in-house SEOs and marketers, an interesting takeaway for us in 2020 is the increase of those who are independent consultants or freelancers from 11% in 2017 to just under 17% in 2020. We'll make sure to take that into account for our content strategy moving forward. 

What are some of the biggest challenges you face in your work today?

Far and away, the challenge most often mentioned in response to this question was the high volume and rapid cadence of new SEO information, new tools, and algorithm updates. Readers are struggling to determine what to focus on and when, what to prioritize, and what even applies to their work. We can certainly help you with that in 2021.

Other frequently-mentioned struggles were familiar to us from previous surveys, showing us that the SEO industry still needs to address these issues, and that the Moz Blog can continue offering up content in response. These issues included: 

Lack of resources and cross-functional collaboration at work.

SEO prioritization at work.

Lack of consolidation in analytics and reporting tools.

Difficulty explaining the value of SEO to bosses/clients/non-SEOs.

Difficulty explaining what SEO CAN'T do to bosses/clients/non-SEOs.

Attracting new clients and customers.

Having to wear multiple hats.

How our readers read

Keeping in mind all that context of who our readers are, we dug into preferences in terms of formats, frequency, and subject matter on the blog.

How often do you read posts on the Moz Blog?

As an increasing number of readers rely on social media channels for their news and content consumption, the shift from frequent readers to "every once in a while" readers is not a surprise, but it is a concern. It also necessitates our incorporation of social media engagement as a top KPI for blog performance. 

Given the multiple off-blog distribution methods and frequency of prompts to take this year's survey, we saw a sharp increase in "non-reader" responses from 1% in 2017 to 6% in 2020. That said, it's interesting that Moz email and social media subscribers who weren't Moz Blog readers felt motivated to take a survey entitled "Moz Blog Reader Survey". We've taken note of the topics requested from those respondents, in the hopes of encouraging more engagement with the blog. 

On which types of devices do you prefer to read blog posts?

While desktop and laptop computers remain the most common way to consume blog content, mobile phone use saw an increase of nearly 10 percentage points. Mobile phones have only improved in the last three years, and it's no secret that we're using them more often for actions we'd normally take on a computer. As we move toward blog CMS improvements in 2021, mobile-friendliness will be a priority. 

Which other site(s), if any, do you regularly visit for information or education on SEO?

Across the board, we saw a decrease in the number of respondents listing other SEO news resources, as well as the first instance of a social media platform in the top 10 resources mentioned. This only serves as further evidence that social media is continuing its growth as a news and content medium. 

What our readers think of the blog

Here's where we get into more specific feedback about the Moz Blog, including whether it's relevant, how easy it is for readers to consume, and more. 

What percentage of the posts on the Moz Blog would you say are relevant to you and your work?

While the trends regarding readers' opinions on relevancy remained similar between 2017 and 2020, we saw about a 6% dip in respondents who said 81-90% of posts are relevant to them, and increases in the bottom four percentage brackets. These results, paired with the topic requests we'll cover later, indicate a need to shift and slightly narrow our content strategy to include more posts specific to core SEO disciplines, like on-page SEO and analytics. 

Do you feel the Moz Blog posts are generally too basic, too advanced, or about right?

Given the breadth of topics on the blog and the wide range of reader skill levels, we're happy to see that, for the most part, readers find our posts just about right on a scale of too easy to too advanced. 

In general, what do you think about the length of Moz Blog posts?

Similarly, it's great to see that readers continue to be satisfied with the amount of content served up in each post. 

How often do you comment on blog posts? 

RIP, comment section. A trend we've seen over the last several years continues its downward slope: 82% of readers who took part in the survey never comment on posts.

When asked for the reasons why they never comment, we saw some frequent responses: 

"I have nothing to add."

"It wouldn't add value."

"I'm still learning." 

"I never comment anywhere." 

"I don't have enough time." 

"Follow-up questions go unanswered." 

"I read posts in the RSS feed."

"English isn't my first language."

"I'm not signed in." 

Blog comment sections and forums used to be the place for online conversations, so this drop in engagement certainly signals the end of an era. However, these concerns also give us some areas of improvement, like working with our authors to be more responsive and improving comment accessibility. But sorry to those who prefer not to sign in — without that gate, we'd be inundated with spam.

In contrast, here were the reasons for commenting: 

"I have a question."

"I have a strong emotional connection to the material."

"I strongly agree or disagree." 

"I want to add my personal experience or advice." 

We definitely encourage readers who do have questions or concerns to continue commenting! 

What, if anything, would you like to see different about the Moz Blog?

Outside the responses along the lines of "No changes! Keep up the good work!" for which we thank you, these were the top asks from readers: 

More thoughtful feedback from and interaction with authors.

More variety and diversity in our author pool.

More video content.

More specific case studies, tests, and experiments.

More step-by-step guides with actionable insights showing how to solve problems.

Ability to filter or categorize by skill level.

Diversity in location (outside the US). 

These are great suggestions, some of which we've already begun to address! 

We also received only a few responses along the lines of "keep your politics out of SEO", specifically referencing our Black Lives Matter support and our posts on diversity. To those concerned, I will reiterate: human rights exist beyond politics. Our understanding of the experiences our co-workers and clients have had is essential to doing good, empathetic work with and for them. The Moz Blog will continue our practice of the Moz TAGFEE code in response to these ongoing issues. 

What our readers want to see

Which of the following topics would you like to learn more about?

Survey respondents could choose multiple topics from the list below in their answers, and the most-requested topics look very similar to 2017. A noticeable shift is in the desire for mobile SEO content, which dropped from being requested in 33% of responses in 2017 to just under 20% in 2020. 

In 2020, we certainly had more content addressing the broader marketing industry and local SEOs impacted by the pandemic. To better address the relevancy issue mentioned earlier, the top four core SEO subjects of on-page SEO, keyword research, link building, and analytics (all included in over 50% of responses) will become blog priorities in 2021.

Which of the following types of posts would you most like to see on the Moz Blog?

The way readers want to consume those topics hasn't changed much at all in the last three years — the desire for actionable, tactical insights is as strong as ever, with the request for tools, tips, and techniques remaining at 80% of respondents. These types of posts have been and will remain our go-to moving forward. 

COVID-19 

Moving into our last and newest section for the survey, we asked readers questions regarding the way in which they consume SEO-related content during the COVID-19 era. 

Has your consumption of SEO-related content changed due to COVID-19?

Only 34% of respondents said that their consumption of SEO-related content had changed as a result of the pandemic, a number we expected to be higher. It's encouraging to see that so many readers were able to maintain a sense of normalcy in this area.

Of those who did see a shift, these were the most common reasons why: 

Job loss and job hunting

Shift to work from home and being online 24-7

E-Commerce industry shifts

Online engagement shifts and ranking and traffic drops

Loss of clients and constricting budgets

More time to read paired with less time or opportunity to implement learnings

Would any of the following topics be helpful for you as a result of COVID-19 impacts? 

Along those same lines, the most popular topic requested as a result of COVID-19 impacts with 27% of responses was tracking/reporting on traffic and ranking drops. Content and marketing strategies during a crisis came in close second and third, with 24% and 21%, respectively. 



The answers to these questions show us that pivoting our content strategy in spring 2020 to address areas of concern was helpful for about a third of our readers, and probably contributed to the relevancy issue for the other two-thirds. We'll continue to include these topics (on a smaller scale) until we see the other side of this crisis.

What happens next?

Primary takeaways

You asked, and we hear you. Moving into 2021, we'll be writing on more technical, core SEO topics along with issues on the business side of SEO. We'll also be building out our Whiteboard Friday series to provide more fresh video content. And as always, we'll strive to provide you with actionable insights to apply to your daily work.

Given the steep decline in comment section engagement, we'll be encouraging our authors to be more responsive to questions, and to interact with you on social media. Make sure to follow Moz on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay up-to-date with the blog and our guest authors. 

Finally, stay tuned, as next year we're planning UX improvements to our blog CMS to address usability and accessibility concerns.

My genuine thanks goes out to those readers who took the time to give us their feedback. It is immeasurably valuable to us, and we're looking forward to applying it to all the amazing content we have coming your way in 2021.

Have a safe and healthy holiday season, Moz fans, and happy reading! 

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

[camerasieunhovn]

What's Changed (and What Hasn't): The 2020 Moz Blog Reader Survey Results

Posted by morgan.mcmurray

You're tired of hearing it and I'm tired of saying it, but 2020 really has been a year like no other. SEOs and marketers around the world had to deal with their day-to-day work moving home, alongside a host of natural disasters, civil rights issues, and a pandemic that will alter our industry and global economy for years to come. 

We could have held off on launching this year's reader survey, but we decided to move forward anyway because we know your work and your interests have been impacted, and we wanted to know how much. 

I'm excited to share with you the results from that survey in this post. We'll go through what's changed — and what hasn't — for our readership since our last survey in 2017, and detail what those insights mean for the Moz Blog in 2021. 

Methodology

We published this survey in July 2020, with questions asking for details on the professional occupations of our readers, how those readers interact with the blog, and what those readers like to see from the blog. We also included COVID-19-specific questions to gauge the pandemic's impact on our readers. The survey was shared on the blog, through email blasts, and on our social media accounts.

The percentages shared in the sections below are part of a total of 388 responses we received over four months. This is actually our first data point, showing that engagement with surveys has shifted drastically since our 2017 survey, which got nearly 600 responses in just one month. Given the interruptive nature of 2020's events, we won't let that difference discourage us from utilizing surveys in the future. Where able, I've compared 2020's results to those of the 2017 survey, to better visualize the differences. 

Answers were not required for all questions, so if something did not apply to a respondent, they could leave the answer blank or choose a variety of "no opinion" or "N/A" options. 

We don't typically include demographic or geographic questions in our reader surveys, but given the overwhelmingly positive response to the Gender Gap in SEO and Diversity and Inclusion in SEO surveys published this year, we will do so moving forward. Understanding the struggles SEOs and marketers face in the industry due to race, gender, and sexual orientation is imperative to understanding how to best work with and for everyone, and we acknowledge that shortcoming in this year's survey. 

Who our readers are

Let's dive in. First up: the questions asking readers to tell us more about themselves. 

What is your job title?

The word cloud below is an amalgamation of the top-used words in response to this question, and the size of the word correlates to the number of mentions that word received. 

No surprises here: number one (by far) was "SEO". Our readership remains heavily SEO-focused in their occupations, with content marketers coming in close second.

What percentage of your day-to-day work involves SEO?

That said, 2020 saw an increase in respondents in the lower percentage brackets of readers who use SEO strategies in their daily work, specifically the 1-10% and 41-50% ranges. This could be due, in part, to the broadening of tasks assigned to SEOs in the marketing industry, as several respondents also mentioned a need to wear multiple hats in their organization. 

On a scale of 1-5, how advanced would you say your SEO knowledge is?

The majority of our readers remain intermediately knowledgeable about SEO concepts, leaving plenty of room for new learnings across skill levels.

Do you work in-house, or at an agency/consultancy?

While the majority of Moz Blog readers are still in-house SEOs and marketers, an interesting takeaway for us in 2020 is the increase of those who are independent consultants or freelancers from 11% in 2017 to just under 17% in 2020. We'll make sure to take that into account for our content strategy moving forward. 

What are some of the biggest challenges you face in your work today?

Far and away, the challenge most often mentioned in response to this question was the high volume and rapid cadence of new SEO information, new tools, and algorithm updates. Readers are struggling to determine what to focus on and when, what to prioritize, and what even applies to their work. We can certainly help you with that in 2021.

Other frequently-mentioned struggles were familiar to us from previous surveys, showing us that the SEO industry still needs to address these issues, and that the Moz Blog can continue offering up content in response. These issues included: 

Lack of resources and cross-functional collaboration at work.

SEO prioritization at work.

Lack of consolidation in analytics and reporting tools.

Difficulty explaining the value of SEO to bosses/clients/non-SEOs.

Difficulty explaining what SEO CAN'T do to bosses/clients/non-SEOs.

Attracting new clients and customers.

Having to wear multiple hats.

How our readers read

Keeping in mind all that context of who our readers are, we dug into preferences in terms of formats, frequency, and subject matter on the blog.

How often do you read posts on the Moz Blog?

As an increasing number of readers rely on social media channels for their news and content consumption, the shift from frequent readers to "every once in a while" readers is not a surprise, but it is a concern. It also necessitates our incorporation of social media engagement as a top KPI for blog performance. 

Given the multiple off-blog distribution methods and frequency of prompts to take this year's survey, we saw a sharp increase in "non-reader" responses from 1% in 2017 to 6% in 2020. That said, it's interesting that Moz email and social media subscribers who weren't Moz Blog readers felt motivated to take a survey entitled "Moz Blog Reader Survey". We've taken note of the topics requested from those respondents, in the hopes of encouraging more engagement with the blog. 

On which types of devices do you prefer to read blog posts?

While desktop and laptop computers remain the most common way to consume blog content, mobile phone use saw an increase of nearly 10 percentage points. Mobile phones have only improved in the last three years, and it's no secret that we're using them more often for actions we'd normally take on a computer. As we move toward blog CMS improvements in 2021, mobile-friendliness will be a priority. 

Which other site(s), if any, do you regularly visit for information or education on SEO?

Across the board, we saw a decrease in the number of respondents listing other SEO news resources, as well as the first instance of a social media platform in the top 10 resources mentioned. This only serves as further evidence that social media is continuing its growth as a news and content medium. 

What our readers think of the blog

Here's where we get into more specific feedback about the Moz Blog, including whether it's relevant, how easy it is for readers to consume, and more. 

What percentage of the posts on the Moz Blog would you say are relevant to you and your work?

While the trends regarding readers' opinions on relevancy remained similar between 2017 and 2020, we saw about a 6% dip in respondents who said 81-90% of posts are relevant to them, and increases in the bottom four percentage brackets. These results, paired with the topic requests we'll cover later, indicate a need to shift and slightly narrow our content strategy to include more posts specific to core SEO disciplines, like on-page SEO and analytics. 

Do you feel the Moz Blog posts are generally too basic, too advanced, or about right?

Given the breadth of topics on the blog and the wide range of reader skill levels, we're happy to see that, for the most part, readers find our posts just about right on a scale of too easy to too advanced. 

In general, what do you think about the length of Moz Blog posts?

Similarly, it's great to see that readers continue to be satisfied with the amount of content served up in each post. 

How often do you comment on blog posts? 

RIP, comment section. A trend we've seen over the last several years continues its downward slope: 82% of readers who took part in the survey never comment on posts.

When asked for the reasons why they never comment, we saw some frequent responses: 

"I have nothing to add."

"It wouldn't add value."

"I'm still learning." 

"I never comment anywhere." 

"I don't have enough time." 

"Follow-up questions go unanswered." 

"I read posts in the RSS feed."

"English isn't my first language."

"I'm not signed in." 

Blog comment sections and forums used to be the place for online conversations, so this drop in engagement certainly signals the end of an era. However, these concerns also give us some areas of improvement, like working with our authors to be more responsive and improving comment accessibility. But sorry to those who prefer not to sign in — without that gate, we'd be inundated with spam.

In contrast, here were the reasons for commenting: 

"I have a question."

"I have a strong emotional connection to the material."

"I strongly agree or disagree." 

"I want to add my personal experience or advice." 

We definitely encourage readers who do have questions or concerns to continue commenting! 

What, if anything, would you like to see different about the Moz Blog?

Outside the responses along the lines of "No changes! Keep up the good work!" for which we thank you, these were the top asks from readers: 

More thoughtful feedback from and interaction with authors.

More variety and diversity in our author pool.

More video content.

More specific case studies, tests, and experiments.

More step-by-step guides with actionable insights showing how to solve problems.

Ability to filter or categorize by skill level.

Diversity in location (outside the US). 

These are great suggestions, some of which we've already begun to address! 

We also received only a few responses along the lines of "keep your politics out of SEO", specifically referencing our Black Lives Matter support and our posts on diversity. To those concerned, I will reiterate: human rights exist beyond politics. Our understanding of the experiences our co-workers and clients have had is essential to doing good, empathetic work with and for them. The Moz Blog will continue our practice of the Moz TAGFEE code in response to these ongoing issues. 

What our readers want to see

Which of the following topics would you like to learn more about?

Survey respondents could choose multiple topics from the list below in their answers, and the most-requested topics look very similar to 2017. A noticeable shift is in the desire for mobile SEO content, which dropped from being requested in 33% of responses in 2017 to just under 20% in 2020. 

In 2020, we certainly had more content addressing the broader marketing industry and local SEOs impacted by the pandemic. To better address the relevancy issue mentioned earlier, the top four core SEO subjects of on-page SEO, keyword research, link building, and analytics (all included in over 50% of responses) will become blog priorities in 2021.

Which of the following types of posts would you most like to see on the Moz Blog?

The way readers want to consume those topics hasn't changed much at all in the last three years — the desire for actionable, tactical insights is as strong as ever, with the request for tools, tips, and techniques remaining at 80% of respondents. These types of posts have been and will remain our go-to moving forward. 

COVID-19 

Moving into our last and newest section for the survey, we asked readers questions regarding the way in which they consume SEO-related content during the COVID-19 era. 

Has your consumption of SEO-related content changed due to COVID-19?

Only 34% of respondents said that their consumption of SEO-related content had changed as a result of the pandemic, a number we expected to be higher. It's encouraging to see that so many readers were able to maintain a sense of normalcy in this area.

Of those who did see a shift, these were the most common reasons why: 

Job loss and job hunting

Shift to work from home and being online 24-7

E-Commerce industry shifts

Online engagement shifts and ranking and traffic drops

Loss of clients and constricting budgets

More time to read paired with less time or opportunity to implement learnings

Would any of the following topics be helpful for you as a result of COVID-19 impacts? 

Along those same lines, the most popular topic requested as a result of COVID-19 impacts with 27% of responses was tracking/reporting on traffic and ranking drops. Content and marketing strategies during a crisis came in close second and third, with 24% and 21%, respectively. 



The answers to these questions show us that pivoting our content strategy in spring 2020 to address areas of concern was helpful for about a third of our readers, and probably contributed to the relevancy issue for the other two-thirds. We'll continue to include these topics (on a smaller scale) until we see the other side of this crisis.

What happens next?

Primary takeaways

You asked, and we hear you. Moving into 2021, we'll be writing on more technical, core SEO topics along with issues on the business side of SEO. We'll also be building out our Whiteboard Friday series to provide more fresh video content. And as always, we'll strive to provide you with actionable insights to apply to your daily work.

Given the steep decline in comment section engagement, we'll be encouraging our authors to be more responsive to questions, and to interact with you on social media. Make sure to follow Moz on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay up-to-date with the blog and our guest authors. 

Finally, stay tuned, as next year we're planning UX improvements to our blog CMS to address usability and accessibility concerns.

My genuine thanks goes out to those readers who took the time to give us their feedback. It is immeasurably valuable to us, and we're looking forward to applying it to all the amazing content we have coming your way in 2021.

Have a safe and healthy holiday season, Moz fans, and happy reading! 

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

[ductrungnguyen87]

What's Changed (and What Hasn't): The 2020 Moz Blog Reader Survey Results

Posted by morgan.mcmurray

You're tired of hearing it and I'm tired of saying it, but 2020 really has been a year like no other. SEOs and marketers around the world had to deal with their day-to-day work moving home, alongside a host of natural disasters, civil rights issues, and a pandemic that will alter our industry and global economy for years to come. 

We could have held off on launching this year's reader survey, but we decided to move forward anyway because we know your work and your interests have been impacted, and we wanted to know how much. 

I'm excited to share with you the results from that survey in this post. We'll go through what's changed — and what hasn't — for our readership since our last survey in 2017, and detail what those insights mean for the Moz Blog in 2021. 

Methodology

We published this survey in July 2020, with questions asking for details on the professional occupations of our readers, how those readers interact with the blog, and what those readers like to see from the blog. We also included COVID-19-specific questions to gauge the pandemic's impact on our readers. The survey was shared on the blog, through email blasts, and on our social media accounts.

The percentages shared in the sections below are part of a total of 388 responses we received over four months. This is actually our first data point, showing that engagement with surveys has shifted drastically since our 2017 survey, which got nearly 600 responses in just one month. Given the interruptive nature of 2020's events, we won't let that difference discourage us from utilizing surveys in the future. Where able, I've compared 2020's results to those of the 2017 survey, to better visualize the differences. 

Answers were not required for all questions, so if something did not apply to a respondent, they could leave the answer blank or choose a variety of "no opinion" or "N/A" options. 

We don't typically include demographic or geographic questions in our reader surveys, but given the overwhelmingly positive response to the Gender Gap in SEO and Diversity and Inclusion in SEO surveys published this year, we will do so moving forward. Understanding the struggles SEOs and marketers face in the industry due to race, gender, and sexual orientation is imperative to understanding how to best work with and for everyone, and we acknowledge that shortcoming in this year's survey. 

Who our readers are

Let's dive in. First up: the questions asking readers to tell us more about themselves. 

What is your job title?

The word cloud below is an amalgamation of the top-used words in response to this question, and the size of the word correlates to the number of mentions that word received. 

No surprises here: number one (by far) was "SEO". Our readership remains heavily SEO-focused in their occupations, with content marketers coming in close second.

What percentage of your day-to-day work involves SEO?

That said, 2020 saw an increase in respondents in the lower percentage brackets of readers who use SEO strategies in their daily work, specifically the 1-10% and 41-50% ranges. This could be due, in part, to the broadening of tasks assigned to SEOs in the marketing industry, as several respondents also mentioned a need to wear multiple hats in their organization. 

On a scale of 1-5, how advanced would you say your SEO knowledge is?

The majority of our readers remain intermediately knowledgeable about SEO concepts, leaving plenty of room for new learnings across skill levels.

Do you work in-house, or at an agency/consultancy?

While the majority of Moz Blog readers are still in-house SEOs and marketers, an interesting takeaway for us in 2020 is the increase of those who are independent consultants or freelancers from 11% in 2017 to just under 17% in 2020. We'll make sure to take that into account for our content strategy moving forward. 

What are some of the biggest challenges you face in your work today?

Far and away, the challenge most often mentioned in response to this question was the high volume and rapid cadence of new SEO information, new tools, and algorithm updates. Readers are struggling to determine what to focus on and when, what to prioritize, and what even applies to their work. We can certainly help you with that in 2021.

Other frequently-mentioned struggles were familiar to us from previous surveys, showing us that the SEO industry still needs to address these issues, and that the Moz Blog can continue offering up content in response. These issues included: 

Lack of resources and cross-functional collaboration at work.

SEO prioritization at work.

Lack of consolidation in analytics and reporting tools.

Difficulty explaining the value of SEO to bosses/clients/non-SEOs.

Difficulty explaining what SEO CAN'T do to bosses/clients/non-SEOs.

Attracting new clients and customers.

Having to wear multiple hats.

How our readers read

Keeping in mind all that context of who our readers are, we dug into preferences in terms of formats, frequency, and subject matter on the blog.

How often do you read posts on the Moz Blog?

As an increasing number of readers rely on social media channels for their news and content consumption, the shift from frequent readers to "every once in a while" readers is not a surprise, but it is a concern. It also necessitates our incorporation of social media engagement as a top KPI for blog performance. 

Given the multiple off-blog distribution methods and frequency of prompts to take this year's survey, we saw a sharp increase in "non-reader" responses from 1% in 2017 to 6% in 2020. That said, it's interesting that Moz email and social media subscribers who weren't Moz Blog readers felt motivated to take a survey entitled "Moz Blog Reader Survey". We've taken note of the topics requested from those respondents, in the hopes of encouraging more engagement with the blog. 

On which types of devices do you prefer to read blog posts?

While desktop and laptop computers remain the most common way to consume blog content, mobile phone use saw an increase of nearly 10 percentage points. Mobile phones have only improved in the last three years, and it's no secret that we're using them more often for actions we'd normally take on a computer. As we move toward blog CMS improvements in 2021, mobile-friendliness will be a priority. 

Which other site(s), if any, do you regularly visit for information or education on SEO?

Across the board, we saw a decrease in the number of respondents listing other SEO news resources, as well as the first instance of a social media platform in the top 10 resources mentioned. This only serves as further evidence that social media is continuing its growth as a news and content medium. 

What our readers think of the blog

Here's where we get into more specific feedback about the Moz Blog, including whether it's relevant, how easy it is for readers to consume, and more. 

What percentage of the posts on the Moz Blog would you say are relevant to you and your work?

While the trends regarding readers' opinions on relevancy remained similar between 2017 and 2020, we saw about a 6% dip in respondents who said 81-90% of posts are relevant to them, and increases in the bottom four percentage brackets. These results, paired with the topic requests we'll cover later, indicate a need to shift and slightly narrow our content strategy to include more posts specific to core SEO disciplines, like on-page SEO and analytics. 

Do you feel the Moz Blog posts are generally too basic, too advanced, or about right?

Given the breadth of topics on the blog and the wide range of reader skill levels, we're happy to see that, for the most part, readers find our posts just about right on a scale of too easy to too advanced. 

In general, what do you think about the length of Moz Blog posts?

Similarly, it's great to see that readers continue to be satisfied with the amount of content served up in each post. 

How often do you comment on blog posts? 

RIP, comment section. A trend we've seen over the last several years continues its downward slope: 82% of readers who took part in the survey never comment on posts.

When asked for the reasons why they never comment, we saw some frequent responses: 

"I have nothing to add."

"It wouldn't add value."

"I'm still learning." 

"I never comment anywhere." 

"I don't have enough time." 

"Follow-up questions go unanswered." 

"I read posts in the RSS feed."

"English isn't my first language."

"I'm not signed in." 

Blog comment sections and forums used to be the place for online conversations, so this drop in engagement certainly signals the end of an era. However, these concerns also give us some areas of improvement, like working with our authors to be more responsive and improving comment accessibility. But sorry to those who prefer not to sign in — without that gate, we'd be inundated with spam.

In contrast, here were the reasons for commenting: 

"I have a question."

"I have a strong emotional connection to the material."

"I strongly agree or disagree." 

"I want to add my personal experience or advice." 

We definitely encourage readers who do have questions or concerns to continue commenting! 

What, if anything, would you like to see different about the Moz Blog?

Outside the responses along the lines of "No changes! Keep up the good work!" for which we thank you, these were the top asks from readers: 

More thoughtful feedback from and interaction with authors.

More variety and diversity in our author pool.

More video content.

More specific case studies, tests, and experiments.

More step-by-step guides with actionable insights showing how to solve problems.

Ability to filter or categorize by skill level.

Diversity in location (outside the US). 

These are great suggestions, some of which we've already begun to address! 

We also received only a few responses along the lines of "keep your politics out of SEO", specifically referencing our Black Lives Matter support and our posts on diversity. To those concerned, I will reiterate: human rights exist beyond politics. Our understanding of the experiences our co-workers and clients have had is essential to doing good, empathetic work with and for them. The Moz Blog will continue our practice of the Moz TAGFEE code in response to these ongoing issues. 

What our readers want to see

Which of the following topics would you like to learn more about?

Survey respondents could choose multiple topics from the list below in their answers, and the most-requested topics look very similar to 2017. A noticeable shift is in the desire for mobile SEO content, which dropped from being requested in 33% of responses in 2017 to just under 20% in 2020. 

In 2020, we certainly had more content addressing the broader marketing industry and local SEOs impacted by the pandemic. To better address the relevancy issue mentioned earlier, the top four core SEO subjects of on-page SEO, keyword research, link building, and analytics (all included in over 50% of responses) will become blog priorities in 2021.

Which of the following types of posts would you most like to see on the Moz Blog?

The way readers want to consume those topics hasn't changed much at all in the last three years — the desire for actionable, tactical insights is as strong as ever, with the request for tools, tips, and techniques remaining at 80% of respondents. These types of posts have been and will remain our go-to moving forward. 

COVID-19 

Moving into our last and newest section for the survey, we asked readers questions regarding the way in which they consume SEO-related content during the COVID-19 era. 

Has your consumption of SEO-related content changed due to COVID-19?

Only 34% of respondents said that their consumption of SEO-related content had changed as a result of the pandemic, a number we expected to be higher. It's encouraging to see that so many readers were able to maintain a sense of normalcy in this area.

Of those who did see a shift, these were the most common reasons why: 

Job loss and job hunting

Shift to work from home and being online 24-7

E-Commerce industry shifts

Online engagement shifts and ranking and traffic drops

Loss of clients and constricting budgets

More time to read paired with less time or opportunity to implement learnings

Would any of the following topics be helpful for you as a result of COVID-19 impacts? 

Along those same lines, the most popular topic requested as a result of COVID-19 impacts with 27% of responses was tracking/reporting on traffic and ranking drops. Content and marketing strategies during a crisis came in close second and third, with 24% and 21%, respectively. 



The answers to these questions show us that pivoting our content strategy in spring 2020 to address areas of concern was helpful for about a third of our readers, and probably contributed to the relevancy issue for the other two-thirds. We'll continue to include these topics (on a smaller scale) until we see the other side of this crisis.

What happens next?

Primary takeaways

You asked, and we hear you. Moving into 2021, we'll be writing on more technical, core SEO topics along with issues on the business side of SEO. We'll also be building out our Whiteboard Friday series to provide more fresh video content. And as always, we'll strive to provide you with actionable insights to apply to your daily work.

Given the steep decline in comment section engagement, we'll be encouraging our authors to be more responsive to questions, and to interact with you on social media. Make sure to follow Moz on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay up-to-date with the blog and our guest authors. 

Finally, stay tuned, as next year we're planning UX improvements to our blog CMS to address usability and accessibility concerns.

My genuine thanks goes out to those readers who took the time to give us their feedback. It is immeasurably valuable to us, and we're looking forward to applying it to all the amazing content we have coming your way in 2021.

Have a safe and healthy holiday season, Moz fans, and happy reading! 

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

[gamebazu]

What's Changed (and What Hasn't): The 2020 Moz Blog Reader Survey Results

Posted by morgan.mcmurray

You're tired of hearing it and I'm tired of saying it, but 2020 really has been a year like no other. SEOs and marketers around the world had to deal with their day-to-day work moving home, alongside a host of natural disasters, civil rights issues, and a pandemic that will alter our industry and global economy for years to come. 

We could have held off on launching this year's reader survey, but we decided to move forward anyway because we know your work and your interests have been impacted, and we wanted to know how much. 

I'm excited to share with you the results from that survey in this post. We'll go through what's changed — and what hasn't — for our readership since our last survey in 2017, and detail what those insights mean for the Moz Blog in 2021. 

Methodology

We published this survey in July 2020, with questions asking for details on the professional occupations of our readers, how those readers interact with the blog, and what those readers like to see from the blog. We also included COVID-19-specific questions to gauge the pandemic's impact on our readers. The survey was shared on the blog, through email blasts, and on our social media accounts.

The percentages shared in the sections below are part of a total of 388 responses we received over four months. This is actually our first data point, showing that engagement with surveys has shifted drastically since our 2017 survey, which got nearly 600 responses in just one month. Given the interruptive nature of 2020's events, we won't let that difference discourage us from utilizing surveys in the future. Where able, I've compared 2020's results to those of the 2017 survey, to better visualize the differences. 

Answers were not required for all questions, so if something did not apply to a respondent, they could leave the answer blank or choose a variety of "no opinion" or "N/A" options. 

We don't typically include demographic or geographic questions in our reader surveys, but given the overwhelmingly positive response to the Gender Gap in SEO and Diversity and Inclusion in SEO surveys published this year, we will do so moving forward. Understanding the struggles SEOs and marketers face in the industry due to race, gender, and sexual orientation is imperative to understanding how to best work with and for everyone, and we acknowledge that shortcoming in this year's survey. 

Who our readers are

Let's dive in. First up: the questions asking readers to tell us more about themselves. 

What is your job title?

The word cloud below is an amalgamation of the top-used words in response to this question, and the size of the word correlates to the number of mentions that word received. 

No surprises here: number one (by far) was "SEO". Our readership remains heavily SEO-focused in their occupations, with content marketers coming in close second.

What percentage of your day-to-day work involves SEO?

That said, 2020 saw an increase in respondents in the lower percentage brackets of readers who use SEO strategies in their daily work, specifically the 1-10% and 41-50% ranges. This could be due, in part, to the broadening of tasks assigned to SEOs in the marketing industry, as several respondents also mentioned a need to wear multiple hats in their organization. 

On a scale of 1-5, how advanced would you say your SEO knowledge is?

The majority of our readers remain intermediately knowledgeable about SEO concepts, leaving plenty of room for new learnings across skill levels.

Do you work in-house, or at an agency/consultancy?

While the majority of Moz Blog readers are still in-house SEOs and marketers, an interesting takeaway for us in 2020 is the increase of those who are independent consultants or freelancers from 11% in 2017 to just under 17% in 2020. We'll make sure to take that into account for our content strategy moving forward. 

What are some of the biggest challenges you face in your work today?

Far and away, the challenge most often mentioned in response to this question was the high volume and rapid cadence of new SEO information, new tools, and algorithm updates. Readers are struggling to determine what to focus on and when, what to prioritize, and what even applies to their work. We can certainly help you with that in 2021.

Other frequently-mentioned struggles were familiar to us from previous surveys, showing us that the SEO industry still needs to address these issues, and that the Moz Blog can continue offering up content in response. These issues included: 

Lack of resources and cross-functional collaboration at work.

SEO prioritization at work.

Lack of consolidation in analytics and reporting tools.

Difficulty explaining the value of SEO to bosses/clients/non-SEOs.

Difficulty explaining what SEO CAN'T do to bosses/clients/non-SEOs.

Attracting new clients and customers.

Having to wear multiple hats.

How our readers read

Keeping in mind all that context of who our readers are, we dug into preferences in terms of formats, frequency, and subject matter on the blog.

How often do you read posts on the Moz Blog?

As an increasing number of readers rely on social media channels for their news and content consumption, the shift from frequent readers to "every once in a while" readers is not a surprise, but it is a concern. It also necessitates our incorporation of social media engagement as a top KPI for blog performance. 

Given the multiple off-blog distribution methods and frequency of prompts to take this year's survey, we saw a sharp increase in "non-reader" responses from 1% in 2017 to 6% in 2020. That said, it's interesting that Moz email and social media subscribers who weren't Moz Blog readers felt motivated to take a survey entitled "Moz Blog Reader Survey". We've taken note of the topics requested from those respondents, in the hopes of encouraging more engagement with the blog. 

On which types of devices do you prefer to read blog posts?

While desktop and laptop computers remain the most common way to consume blog content, mobile phone use saw an increase of nearly 10 percentage points. Mobile phones have only improved in the last three years, and it's no secret that we're using them more often for actions we'd normally take on a computer. As we move toward blog CMS improvements in 2021, mobile-friendliness will be a priority. 

Which other site(s), if any, do you regularly visit for information or education on SEO?

Across the board, we saw a decrease in the number of respondents listing other SEO news resources, as well as the first instance of a social media platform in the top 10 resources mentioned. This only serves as further evidence that social media is continuing its growth as a news and content medium. 

What our readers think of the blog

Here's where we get into more specific feedback about the Moz Blog, including whether it's relevant, how easy it is for readers to consume, and more. 

What percentage of the posts on the Moz Blog would you say are relevant to you and your work?

While the trends regarding readers' opinions on relevancy remained similar between 2017 and 2020, we saw about a 6% dip in respondents who said 81-90% of posts are relevant to them, and increases in the bottom four percentage brackets. These results, paired with the topic requests we'll cover later, indicate a need to shift and slightly narrow our content strategy to include more posts specific to core SEO disciplines, like on-page SEO and analytics. 

Do you feel the Moz Blog posts are generally too basic, too advanced, or about right?

Given the breadth of topics on the blog and the wide range of reader skill levels, we're happy to see that, for the most part, readers find our posts just about right on a scale of too easy to too advanced. 

In general, what do you think about the length of Moz Blog posts?

Similarly, it's great to see that readers continue to be satisfied with the amount of content served up in each post. 

How often do you comment on blog posts? 

RIP, comment section. A trend we've seen over the last several years continues its downward slope: 82% of readers who took part in the survey never comment on posts.

When asked for the reasons why they never comment, we saw some frequent responses: 

"I have nothing to add."

"It wouldn't add value."

"I'm still learning." 

"I never comment anywhere." 

"I don't have enough time." 

"Follow-up questions go unanswered." 

"I read posts in the RSS feed."

"English isn't my first language."

"I'm not signed in." 

Blog comment sections and forums used to be the place for online conversations, so this drop in engagement certainly signals the end of an era. However, these concerns also give us some areas of improvement, like working with our authors to be more responsive and improving comment accessibility. But sorry to those who prefer not to sign in — without that gate, we'd be inundated with spam.

In contrast, here were the reasons for commenting: 

"I have a question."

"I have a strong emotional connection to the material."

"I strongly agree or disagree." 

"I want to add my personal experience or advice." 

We definitely encourage readers who do have questions or concerns to continue commenting! 

What, if anything, would you like to see different about the Moz Blog?

Outside the responses along the lines of "No changes! Keep up the good work!" for which we thank you, these were the top asks from readers: 

More thoughtful feedback from and interaction with authors.

More variety and diversity in our author pool.

More video content.

More specific case studies, tests, and experiments.

More step-by-step guides with actionable insights showing how to solve problems.

Ability to filter or categorize by skill level.

Diversity in location (outside the US). 

These are great suggestions, some of which we've already begun to address! 

We also received only a few responses along the lines of "keep your politics out of SEO", specifically referencing our Black Lives Matter support and our posts on diversity. To those concerned, I will reiterate: human rights exist beyond politics. Our understanding of the experiences our co-workers and clients have had is essential to doing good, empathetic work with and for them. The Moz Blog will continue our practice of the Moz TAGFEE code in response to these ongoing issues. 

What our readers want to see

Which of the following topics would you like to learn more about?

Survey respondents could choose multiple topics from the list below in their answers, and the most-requested topics look very similar to 2017. A noticeable shift is in the desire for mobile SEO content, which dropped from being requested in 33% of responses in 2017 to just under 20% in 2020. 

In 2020, we certainly had more content addressing the broader marketing industry and local SEOs impacted by the pandemic. To better address the relevancy issue mentioned earlier, the top four core SEO subjects of on-page SEO, keyword research, link building, and analytics (all included in over 50% of responses) will become blog priorities in 2021.

Which of the following types of posts would you most like to see on the Moz Blog?

The way readers want to consume those topics hasn't changed much at all in the last three years — the desire for actionable, tactical insights is as strong as ever, with the request for tools, tips, and techniques remaining at 80% of respondents. These types of posts have been and will remain our go-to moving forward. 

COVID-19 

Moving into our last and newest section for the survey, we asked readers questions regarding the way in which they consume SEO-related content during the COVID-19 era. 

Has your consumption of SEO-related content changed due to COVID-19?

Only 34% of respondents said that their consumption of SEO-related content had changed as a result of the pandemic, a number we expected to be higher. It's encouraging to see that so many readers were able to maintain a sense of normalcy in this area.

Of those who did see a shift, these were the most common reasons why: 

Job loss and job hunting

Shift to work from home and being online 24-7

E-Commerce industry shifts

Online engagement shifts and ranking and traffic drops

Loss of clients and constricting budgets

More time to read paired with less time or opportunity to implement learnings

Would any of the following topics be helpful for you as a result of COVID-19 impacts? 

Along those same lines, the most popular topic requested as a result of COVID-19 impacts with 27% of responses was tracking/reporting on traffic and ranking drops. Content and marketing strategies during a crisis came in close second and third, with 24% and 21%, respectively. 



The answers to these questions show us that pivoting our content strategy in spring 2020 to address areas of concern was helpful for about a third of our readers, and probably contributed to the relevancy issue for the other two-thirds. We'll continue to include these topics (on a smaller scale) until we see the other side of this crisis.

What happens next?

Primary takeaways

You asked, and we hear you. Moving into 2021, we'll be writing on more technical, core SEO topics along with issues on the business side of SEO. We'll also be building out our Whiteboard Friday series to provide more fresh video content. And as always, we'll strive to provide you with actionable insights to apply to your daily work.

Given the steep decline in comment section engagement, we'll be encouraging our authors to be more responsive to questions, and to interact with you on social media. Make sure to follow Moz on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay up-to-date with the blog and our guest authors. 

Finally, stay tuned, as next year we're planning UX improvements to our blog CMS to address usability and accessibility concerns.

My genuine thanks goes out to those readers who took the time to give us their feedback. It is immeasurably valuable to us, and we're looking forward to applying it to all the amazing content we have coming your way in 2021.

Have a safe and healthy holiday season, Moz fans, and happy reading! 

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

https://ift.tt/3moXOQN

[kjt-lawyers]

What's Changed (and What Hasn't): The 2020 Moz Blog Reader Survey Results

Posted by morgan.mcmurray

You're tired of hearing it and I'm tired of saying it, but 2020 really has been a year like no other. SEOs and marketers around the world had to deal with their day-to-day work moving home, alongside a host of natural disasters, civil rights issues, and a pandemic that will alter our industry and global economy for years to come. 

We could have held off on launching this year's reader survey, but we decided to move forward anyway because we know your work and your interests have been impacted, and we wanted to know how much. 

I'm excited to share with you the results from that survey in this post. We'll go through what's changed — and what hasn't — for our readership since our last survey in 2017, and detail what those insights mean for the Moz Blog in 2021. 

Methodology

We published this survey in July 2020, with questions asking for details on the professional occupations of our readers, how those readers interact with the blog, and what those readers like to see from the blog. We also included COVID-19-specific questions to gauge the pandemic's impact on our readers. The survey was shared on the blog, through email blasts, and on our social media accounts.

The percentages shared in the sections below are part of a total of 388 responses we received over four months. This is actually our first data point, showing that engagement with surveys has shifted drastically since our 2017 survey, which got nearly 600 responses in just one month. Given the interruptive nature of 2020's events, we won't let that difference discourage us from utilizing surveys in the future. Where able, I've compared 2020's results to those of the 2017 survey, to better visualize the differences. 

Answers were not required for all questions, so if something did not apply to a respondent, they could leave the answer blank or choose a variety of "no opinion" or "N/A" options. 

We don't typically include demographic or geographic questions in our reader surveys, but given the overwhelmingly positive response to the Gender Gap in SEO and Diversity and Inclusion in SEO surveys published this year, we will do so moving forward. Understanding the struggles SEOs and marketers face in the industry due to race, gender, and sexual orientation is imperative to understanding how to best work with and for everyone, and we acknowledge that shortcoming in this year's survey. 

Who our readers are

Let's dive in. First up: the questions asking readers to tell us more about themselves. 

What is your job title?

The word cloud below is an amalgamation of the top-used words in response to this question, and the size of the word correlates to the number of mentions that word received. 

No surprises here: number one (by far) was "SEO". Our readership remains heavily SEO-focused in their occupations, with content marketers coming in close second.

What percentage of your day-to-day work involves SEO?

That said, 2020 saw an increase in respondents in the lower percentage brackets of readers who use SEO strategies in their daily work, specifically the 1-10% and 41-50% ranges. This could be due, in part, to the broadening of tasks assigned to SEOs in the marketing industry, as several respondents also mentioned a need to wear multiple hats in their organization. 

On a scale of 1-5, how advanced would you say your SEO knowledge is?

The majority of our readers remain intermediately knowledgeable about SEO concepts, leaving plenty of room for new learnings across skill levels.

Do you work in-house, or at an agency/consultancy?

While the majority of Moz Blog readers are still in-house SEOs and marketers, an interesting takeaway for us in 2020 is the increase of those who are independent consultants or freelancers from 11% in 2017 to just under 17% in 2020. We'll make sure to take that into account for our content strategy moving forward. 

What are some of the biggest challenges you face in your work today?

Far and away, the challenge most often mentioned in response to this question was the high volume and rapid cadence of new SEO information, new tools, and algorithm updates. Readers are struggling to determine what to focus on and when, what to prioritize, and what even applies to their work. We can certainly help you with that in 2021.

Other frequently-mentioned struggles were familiar to us from previous surveys, showing us that the SEO industry still needs to address these issues, and that the Moz Blog can continue offering up content in response. These issues included: 

Lack of resources and cross-functional collaboration at work.

SEO prioritization at work.

Lack of consolidation in analytics and reporting tools.

Difficulty explaining the value of SEO to bosses/clients/non-SEOs.

Difficulty explaining what SEO CAN'T do to bosses/clients/non-SEOs.

Attracting new clients and customers.

Having to wear multiple hats.

How our readers read

Keeping in mind all that context of who our readers are, we dug into preferences in terms of formats, frequency, and subject matter on the blog.

How often do you read posts on the Moz Blog?

As an increasing number of readers rely on social media channels for their news and content consumption, the shift from frequent readers to "every once in a while" readers is not a surprise, but it is a concern. It also necessitates our incorporation of social media engagement as a top KPI for blog performance. 

Given the multiple off-blog distribution methods and frequency of prompts to take this year's survey, we saw a sharp increase in "non-reader" responses from 1% in 2017 to 6% in 2020. That said, it's interesting that Moz email and social media subscribers who weren't Moz Blog readers felt motivated to take a survey entitled "Moz Blog Reader Survey". We've taken note of the topics requested from those respondents, in the hopes of encouraging more engagement with the blog. 

On which types of devices do you prefer to read blog posts?

While desktop and laptop computers remain the most common way to consume blog content, mobile phone use saw an increase of nearly 10 percentage points. Mobile phones have only improved in the last three years, and it's no secret that we're using them more often for actions we'd normally take on a computer. As we move toward blog CMS improvements in 2021, mobile-friendliness will be a priority. 

Which other site(s), if any, do you regularly visit for information or education on SEO?

Across the board, we saw a decrease in the number of respondents listing other SEO news resources, as well as the first instance of a social media platform in the top 10 resources mentioned. This only serves as further evidence that social media is continuing its growth as a news and content medium. 

What our readers think of the blog

Here's where we get into more specific feedback about the Moz Blog, including whether it's relevant, how easy it is for readers to consume, and more. 

What percentage of the posts on the Moz Blog would you say are relevant to you and your work?

While the trends regarding readers' opinions on relevancy remained similar between 2017 and 2020, we saw about a 6% dip in respondents who said 81-90% of posts are relevant to them, and increases in the bottom four percentage brackets. These results, paired with the topic requests we'll cover later, indicate a need to shift and slightly narrow our content strategy to include more posts specific to core SEO disciplines, like on-page SEO and analytics. 

Do you feel the Moz Blog posts are generally too basic, too advanced, or about right?

Given the breadth of topics on the blog and the wide range of reader skill levels, we're happy to see that, for the most part, readers find our posts just about right on a scale of too easy to too advanced. 

In general, what do you think about the length of Moz Blog posts?

Similarly, it's great to see that readers continue to be satisfied with the amount of content served up in each post. 

How often do you comment on blog posts? 

RIP, comment section. A trend we've seen over the last several years continues its downward slope: 82% of readers who took part in the survey never comment on posts.

When asked for the reasons why they never comment, we saw some frequent responses: 

"I have nothing to add."

"It wouldn't add value."

"I'm still learning." 

"I never comment anywhere." 

"I don't have enough time." 

"Follow-up questions go unanswered." 

"I read posts in the RSS feed."

"English isn't my first language."

"I'm not signed in." 

Blog comment sections and forums used to be the place for online conversations, so this drop in engagement certainly signals the end of an era. However, these concerns also give us some areas of improvement, like working with our authors to be more responsive and improving comment accessibility. But sorry to those who prefer not to sign in — without that gate, we'd be inundated with spam.

In contrast, here were the reasons for commenting: 

"I have a question."

"I have a strong emotional connection to the material."

"I strongly agree or disagree." 

"I want to add my personal experience or advice." 

We definitely encourage readers who do have questions or concerns to continue commenting! 

What, if anything, would you like to see different about the Moz Blog?

Outside the responses along the lines of "No changes! Keep up the good work!" for which we thank you, these were the top asks from readers: 

More thoughtful feedback from and interaction with authors.

More variety and diversity in our author pool.

More video content.

More specific case studies, tests, and experiments.

More step-by-step guides with actionable insights showing how to solve problems.

Ability to filter or categorize by skill level.

Diversity in location (outside the US). 

These are great suggestions, some of which we've already begun to address! 

We also received only a few responses along the lines of "keep your politics out of SEO", specifically referencing our Black Lives Matter support and our posts on diversity. To those concerned, I will reiterate: human rights exist beyond politics. Our understanding of the experiences our co-workers and clients have had is essential to doing good, empathetic work with and for them. The Moz Blog will continue our practice of the Moz TAGFEE code in response to these ongoing issues. 

What our readers want to see

Which of the following topics would you like to learn more about?

Survey respondents could choose multiple topics from the list below in their answers, and the most-requested topics look very similar to 2017. A noticeable shift is in the desire for mobile SEO content, which dropped from being requested in 33% of responses in 2017 to just under 20% in 2020. 

In 2020, we certainly had more content addressing the broader marketing industry and local SEOs impacted by the pandemic. To better address the relevancy issue mentioned earlier, the top four core SEO subjects of on-page SEO, keyword research, link building, and analytics (all included in over 50% of responses) will become blog priorities in 2021.

Which of the following types of posts would you most like to see on the Moz Blog?

The way readers want to consume those topics hasn't changed much at all in the last three years — the desire for actionable, tactical insights is as strong as ever, with the request for tools, tips, and techniques remaining at 80% of respondents. These types of posts have been and will remain our go-to moving forward. 

COVID-19 

Moving into our last and newest section for the survey, we asked readers questions regarding the way in which they consume SEO-related content during the COVID-19 era. 

Has your consumption of SEO-related content changed due to COVID-19?

Only 34% of respondents said that their consumption of SEO-related content had changed as a result of the pandemic, a number we expected to be higher. It's encouraging to see that so many readers were able to maintain a sense of normalcy in this area.

Of those who did see a shift, these were the most common reasons why: 

Job loss and job hunting

Shift to work from home and being online 24-7

E-Commerce industry shifts

Online engagement shifts and ranking and traffic drops

Loss of clients and constricting budgets

More time to read paired with less time or opportunity to implement learnings

Would any of the following topics be helpful for you as a result of COVID-19 impacts? 

Along those same lines, the most popular topic requested as a result of COVID-19 impacts with 27% of responses was tracking/reporting on traffic and ranking drops. Content and marketing strategies during a crisis came in close second and third, with 24% and 21%, respectively. 



The answers to these questions show us that pivoting our content strategy in spring 2020 to address areas of concern was helpful for about a third of our readers, and probably contributed to the relevancy issue for the other two-thirds. We'll continue to include these topics (on a smaller scale) until we see the other side of this crisis.

What happens next?

Primary takeaways

You asked, and we hear you. Moving into 2021, we'll be writing on more technical, core SEO topics along with issues on the business side of SEO. We'll also be building out our Whiteboard Friday series to provide more fresh video content. And as always, we'll strive to provide you with actionable insights to apply to your daily work.

Given the steep decline in comment section engagement, we'll be encouraging our authors to be more responsive to questions, and to interact with you on social media. Make sure to follow Moz on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay up-to-date with the blog and our guest authors. 

Finally, stay tuned, as next year we're planning UX improvements to our blog CMS to address usability and accessibility concerns.

My genuine thanks goes out to those readers who took the time to give us their feedback. It is immeasurably valuable to us, and we're looking forward to applying it to all the amazing content we have coming your way in 2021.

Have a safe and healthy holiday season, Moz fans, and happy reading! 

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

[noithatotoaz]

What's Changed (and What Hasn't): The 2020 Moz Blog Reader Survey Results

Posted by morgan.mcmurray

You're tired of hearing it and I'm tired of saying it, but 2020 really has been a year like no other. SEOs and marketers around the world had to deal with their day-to-day work moving home, alongside a host of natural disasters, civil rights issues, and a pandemic that will alter our industry and global economy for years to come. 

We could have held off on launching this year's reader survey, but we decided to move forward anyway because we know your work and your interests have been impacted, and we wanted to know how much. 

I'm excited to share with you the results from that survey in this post. We'll go through what's changed — and what hasn't — for our readership since our last survey in 2017, and detail what those insights mean for the Moz Blog in 2021. 

Methodology

We published this survey in July 2020, with questions asking for details on the professional occupations of our readers, how those readers interact with the blog, and what those readers like to see from the blog. We also included COVID-19-specific questions to gauge the pandemic's impact on our readers. The survey was shared on the blog, through email blasts, and on our social media accounts.

The percentages shared in the sections below are part of a total of 388 responses we received over four months. This is actually our first data point, showing that engagement with surveys has shifted drastically since our 2017 survey, which got nearly 600 responses in just one month. Given the interruptive nature of 2020's events, we won't let that difference discourage us from utilizing surveys in the future. Where able, I've compared 2020's results to those of the 2017 survey, to better visualize the differences. 

Answers were not required for all questions, so if something did not apply to a respondent, they could leave the answer blank or choose a variety of "no opinion" or "N/A" options. 

We don't typically include demographic or geographic questions in our reader surveys, but given the overwhelmingly positive response to the Gender Gap in SEO and Diversity and Inclusion in SEO surveys published this year, we will do so moving forward. Understanding the struggles SEOs and marketers face in the industry due to race, gender, and sexual orientation is imperative to understanding how to best work with and for everyone, and we acknowledge that shortcoming in this year's survey. 

Who our readers are

Let's dive in. First up: the questions asking readers to tell us more about themselves. 

What is your job title?

The word cloud below is an amalgamation of the top-used words in response to this question, and the size of the word correlates to the number of mentions that word received. 

No surprises here: number one (by far) was "SEO". Our readership remains heavily SEO-focused in their occupations, with content marketers coming in close second.

What percentage of your day-to-day work involves SEO?

That said, 2020 saw an increase in respondents in the lower percentage brackets of readers who use SEO strategies in their daily work, specifically the 1-10% and 41-50% ranges. This could be due, in part, to the broadening of tasks assigned to SEOs in the marketing industry, as several respondents also mentioned a need to wear multiple hats in their organization. 

On a scale of 1-5, how advanced would you say your SEO knowledge is?

The majority of our readers remain intermediately knowledgeable about SEO concepts, leaving plenty of room for new learnings across skill levels.

Do you work in-house, or at an agency/consultancy?

While the majority of Moz Blog readers are still in-house SEOs and marketers, an interesting takeaway for us in 2020 is the increase of those who are independent consultants or freelancers from 11% in 2017 to just under 17% in 2020. We'll make sure to take that into account for our content strategy moving forward. 

What are some of the biggest challenges you face in your work today?

Far and away, the challenge most often mentioned in response to this question was the high volume and rapid cadence of new SEO information, new tools, and algorithm updates. Readers are struggling to determine what to focus on and when, what to prioritize, and what even applies to their work. We can certainly help you with that in 2021.

Other frequently-mentioned struggles were familiar to us from previous surveys, showing us that the SEO industry still needs to address these issues, and that the Moz Blog can continue offering up content in response. These issues included: 

Lack of resources and cross-functional collaboration at work.

SEO prioritization at work.

Lack of consolidation in analytics and reporting tools.

Difficulty explaining the value of SEO to bosses/clients/non-SEOs.

Difficulty explaining what SEO CAN'T do to bosses/clients/non-SEOs.

Attracting new clients and customers.

Having to wear multiple hats.

How our readers read

Keeping in mind all that context of who our readers are, we dug into preferences in terms of formats, frequency, and subject matter on the blog.

How often do you read posts on the Moz Blog?

As an increasing number of readers rely on social media channels for their news and content consumption, the shift from frequent readers to "every once in a while" readers is not a surprise, but it is a concern. It also necessitates our incorporation of social media engagement as a top KPI for blog performance. 

Given the multiple off-blog distribution methods and frequency of prompts to take this year's survey, we saw a sharp increase in "non-reader" responses from 1% in 2017 to 6% in 2020. That said, it's interesting that Moz email and social media subscribers who weren't Moz Blog readers felt motivated to take a survey entitled "Moz Blog Reader Survey". We've taken note of the topics requested from those respondents, in the hopes of encouraging more engagement with the blog. 

On which types of devices do you prefer to read blog posts?

While desktop and laptop computers remain the most common way to consume blog content, mobile phone use saw an increase of nearly 10 percentage points. Mobile phones have only improved in the last three years, and it's no secret that we're using them more often for actions we'd normally take on a computer. As we move toward blog CMS improvements in 2021, mobile-friendliness will be a priority. 

Which other site(s), if any, do you regularly visit for information or education on SEO?

Across the board, we saw a decrease in the number of respondents listing other SEO news resources, as well as the first instance of a social media platform in the top 10 resources mentioned. This only serves as further evidence that social media is continuing its growth as a news and content medium. 

What our readers think of the blog

Here's where we get into more specific feedback about the Moz Blog, including whether it's relevant, how easy it is for readers to consume, and more. 

What percentage of the posts on the Moz Blog would you say are relevant to you and your work?

While the trends regarding readers' opinions on relevancy remained similar between 2017 and 2020, we saw about a 6% dip in respondents who said 81-90% of posts are relevant to them, and increases in the bottom four percentage brackets. These results, paired with the topic requests we'll cover later, indicate a need to shift and slightly narrow our content strategy to include more posts specific to core SEO disciplines, like on-page SEO and analytics. 

Do you feel the Moz Blog posts are generally too basic, too advanced, or about right?

Given the breadth of topics on the blog and the wide range of reader skill levels, we're happy to see that, for the most part, readers find our posts just about right on a scale of too easy to too advanced. 

In general, what do you think about the length of Moz Blog posts?

Similarly, it's great to see that readers continue to be satisfied with the amount of content served up in each post. 

How often do you comment on blog posts? 

RIP, comment section. A trend we've seen over the last several years continues its downward slope: 82% of readers who took part in the survey never comment on posts.

When asked for the reasons why they never comment, we saw some frequent responses: 

"I have nothing to add."

"It wouldn't add value."

"I'm still learning." 

"I never comment anywhere." 

"I don't have enough time." 

"Follow-up questions go unanswered." 

"I read posts in the RSS feed."

"English isn't my first language."

"I'm not signed in." 

Blog comment sections and forums used to be the place for online conversations, so this drop in engagement certainly signals the end of an era. However, these concerns also give us some areas of improvement, like working with our authors to be more responsive and improving comment accessibility. But sorry to those who prefer not to sign in — without that gate, we'd be inundated with spam.

In contrast, here were the reasons for commenting: 

"I have a question."

"I have a strong emotional connection to the material."

"I strongly agree or disagree." 

"I want to add my personal experience or advice." 

We definitely encourage readers who do have questions or concerns to continue commenting! 

What, if anything, would you like to see different about the Moz Blog?

Outside the responses along the lines of "No changes! Keep up the good work!" for which we thank you, these were the top asks from readers: 

More thoughtful feedback from and interaction with authors.

More variety and diversity in our author pool.

More video content.

More specific case studies, tests, and experiments.

More step-by-step guides with actionable insights showing how to solve problems.

Ability to filter or categorize by skill level.

Diversity in location (outside the US). 

These are great suggestions, some of which we've already begun to address! 

We also received only a few responses along the lines of "keep your politics out of SEO", specifically referencing our Black Lives Matter support and our posts on diversity. To those concerned, I will reiterate: human rights exist beyond politics. Our understanding of the experiences our co-workers and clients have had is essential to doing good, empathetic work with and for them. The Moz Blog will continue our practice of the Moz TAGFEE code in response to these ongoing issues. 

What our readers want to see

Which of the following topics would you like to learn more about?

Survey respondents could choose multiple topics from the list below in their answers, and the most-requested topics look very similar to 2017. A noticeable shift is in the desire for mobile SEO content, which dropped from being requested in 33% of responses in 2017 to just under 20% in 2020. 

In 2020, we certainly had more content addressing the broader marketing industry and local SEOs impacted by the pandemic. To better address the relevancy issue mentioned earlier, the top four core SEO subjects of on-page SEO, keyword research, link building, and analytics (all included in over 50% of responses) will become blog priorities in 2021.

Which of the following types of posts would you most like to see on the Moz Blog?

The way readers want to consume those topics hasn't changed much at all in the last three years — the desire for actionable, tactical insights is as strong as ever, with the request for tools, tips, and techniques remaining at 80% of respondents. These types of posts have been and will remain our go-to moving forward. 

COVID-19 

Moving into our last and newest section for the survey, we asked readers questions regarding the way in which they consume SEO-related content during the COVID-19 era. 

Has your consumption of SEO-related content changed due to COVID-19?

Only 34% of respondents said that their consumption of SEO-related content had changed as a result of the pandemic, a number we expected to be higher. It's encouraging to see that so many readers were able to maintain a sense of normalcy in this area.

Of those who did see a shift, these were the most common reasons why: 

Job loss and job hunting

Shift to work from home and being online 24-7

E-Commerce industry shifts

Online engagement shifts and ranking and traffic drops

Loss of clients and constricting budgets

More time to read paired with less time or opportunity to implement learnings

Would any of the following topics be helpful for you as a result of COVID-19 impacts? 

Along those same lines, the most popular topic requested as a result of COVID-19 impacts with 27% of responses was tracking/reporting on traffic and ranking drops. Content and marketing strategies during a crisis came in close second and third, with 24% and 21%, respectively. 



The answers to these questions show us that pivoting our content strategy in spring 2020 to address areas of concern was helpful for about a third of our readers, and probably contributed to the relevancy issue for the other two-thirds. We'll continue to include these topics (on a smaller scale) until we see the other side of this crisis.

What happens next?

Primary takeaways

You asked, and we hear you. Moving into 2021, we'll be writing on more technical, core SEO topics along with issues on the business side of SEO. We'll also be building out our Whiteboard Friday series to provide more fresh video content. And as always, we'll strive to provide you with actionable insights to apply to your daily work.

Given the steep decline in comment section engagement, we'll be encouraging our authors to be more responsive to questions, and to interact with you on social media. Make sure to follow Moz on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay up-to-date with the blog and our guest authors. 

Finally, stay tuned, as next year we're planning UX improvements to our blog CMS to address usability and accessibility concerns.

My genuine thanks goes out to those readers who took the time to give us their feedback. It is immeasurably valuable to us, and we're looking forward to applying it to all the amazing content we have coming your way in 2021.

Have a safe and healthy holiday season, Moz fans, and happy reading! 

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

[thanhtuandoan89]

What's Changed (and What Hasn't): The 2020 Moz Blog Reader Survey Results

Posted by morgan.mcmurray

You're tired of hearing it and I'm tired of saying it, but 2020 really has been a year like no other. SEOs and marketers around the world had to deal with their day-to-day work moving home, alongside a host of natural disasters, civil rights issues, and a pandemic that will alter our industry and global economy for years to come. 

We could have held off on launching this year's reader survey, but we decided to move forward anyway because we know your work and your interests have been impacted, and we wanted to know how much. 

I'm excited to share with you the results from that survey in this post. We'll go through what's changed — and what hasn't — for our readership since our last survey in 2017, and detail what those insights mean for the Moz Blog in 2021. 

Methodology

We published this survey in July 2020, with questions asking for details on the professional occupations of our readers, how those readers interact with the blog, and what those readers like to see from the blog. We also included COVID-19-specific questions to gauge the pandemic's impact on our readers. The survey was shared on the blog, through email blasts, and on our social media accounts.

The percentages shared in the sections below are part of a total of 388 responses we received over four months. This is actually our first data point, showing that engagement with surveys has shifted drastically since our 2017 survey, which got nearly 600 responses in just one month. Given the interruptive nature of 2020's events, we won't let that difference discourage us from utilizing surveys in the future. Where able, I've compared 2020's results to those of the 2017 survey, to better visualize the differences. 

Answers were not required for all questions, so if something did not apply to a respondent, they could leave the answer blank or choose a variety of "no opinion" or "N/A" options. 

We don't typically include demographic or geographic questions in our reader surveys, but given the overwhelmingly positive response to the Gender Gap in SEO and Diversity and Inclusion in SEO surveys published this year, we will do so moving forward. Understanding the struggles SEOs and marketers face in the industry due to race, gender, and sexual orientation is imperative to understanding how to best work with and for everyone, and we acknowledge that shortcoming in this year's survey. 

Who our readers are

Let's dive in. First up: the questions asking readers to tell us more about themselves. 

What is your job title?

The word cloud below is an amalgamation of the top-used words in response to this question, and the size of the word correlates to the number of mentions that word received. 

No surprises here: number one (by far) was "SEO". Our readership remains heavily SEO-focused in their occupations, with content marketers coming in close second.

What percentage of your day-to-day work involves SEO?

That said, 2020 saw an increase in respondents in the lower percentage brackets of readers who use SEO strategies in their daily work, specifically the 1-10% and 41-50% ranges. This could be due, in part, to the broadening of tasks assigned to SEOs in the marketing industry, as several respondents also mentioned a need to wear multiple hats in their organization. 

On a scale of 1-5, how advanced would you say your SEO knowledge is?

The majority of our readers remain intermediately knowledgeable about SEO concepts, leaving plenty of room for new learnings across skill levels.

Do you work in-house, or at an agency/consultancy?

While the majority of Moz Blog readers are still in-house SEOs and marketers, an interesting takeaway for us in 2020 is the increase of those who are independent consultants or freelancers from 11% in 2017 to just under 17% in 2020. We'll make sure to take that into account for our content strategy moving forward. 

What are some of the biggest challenges you face in your work today?

Far and away, the challenge most often mentioned in response to this question was the high volume and rapid cadence of new SEO information, new tools, and algorithm updates. Readers are struggling to determine what to focus on and when, what to prioritize, and what even applies to their work. We can certainly help you with that in 2021.

Other frequently-mentioned struggles were familiar to us from previous surveys, showing us that the SEO industry still needs to address these issues, and that the Moz Blog can continue offering up content in response. These issues included: 

Lack of resources and cross-functional collaboration at work.

SEO prioritization at work.

Lack of consolidation in analytics and reporting tools.

Difficulty explaining the value of SEO to bosses/clients/non-SEOs.

Difficulty explaining what SEO CAN'T do to bosses/clients/non-SEOs.

Attracting new clients and customers.

Having to wear multiple hats.

How our readers read

Keeping in mind all that context of who our readers are, we dug into preferences in terms of formats, frequency, and subject matter on the blog.

How often do you read posts on the Moz Blog?

As an increasing number of readers rely on social media channels for their news and content consumption, the shift from frequent readers to "every once in a while" readers is not a surprise, but it is a concern. It also necessitates our incorporation of social media engagement as a top KPI for blog performance. 

Given the multiple off-blog distribution methods and frequency of prompts to take this year's survey, we saw a sharp increase in "non-reader" responses from 1% in 2017 to 6% in 2020. That said, it's interesting that Moz email and social media subscribers who weren't Moz Blog readers felt motivated to take a survey entitled "Moz Blog Reader Survey". We've taken note of the topics requested from those respondents, in the hopes of encouraging more engagement with the blog. 

On which types of devices do you prefer to read blog posts?

While desktop and laptop computers remain the most common way to consume blog content, mobile phone use saw an increase of nearly 10 percentage points. Mobile phones have only improved in the last three years, and it's no secret that we're using them more often for actions we'd normally take on a computer. As we move toward blog CMS improvements in 2021, mobile-friendliness will be a priority. 

Which other site(s), if any, do you regularly visit for information or education on SEO?

Across the board, we saw a decrease in the number of respondents listing other SEO news resources, as well as the first instance of a social media platform in the top 10 resources mentioned. This only serves as further evidence that social media is continuing its growth as a news and content medium. 

What our readers think of the blog

Here's where we get into more specific feedback about the Moz Blog, including whether it's relevant, how easy it is for readers to consume, and more. 

What percentage of the posts on the Moz Blog would you say are relevant to you and your work?

While the trends regarding readers' opinions on relevancy remained similar between 2017 and 2020, we saw about a 6% dip in respondents who said 81-90% of posts are relevant to them, and increases in the bottom four percentage brackets. These results, paired with the topic requests we'll cover later, indicate a need to shift and slightly narrow our content strategy to include more posts specific to core SEO disciplines, like on-page SEO and analytics. 

Do you feel the Moz Blog posts are generally too basic, too advanced, or about right?

Given the breadth of topics on the blog and the wide range of reader skill levels, we're happy to see that, for the most part, readers find our posts just about right on a scale of too easy to too advanced. 

In general, what do you think about the length of Moz Blog posts?

Similarly, it's great to see that readers continue to be satisfied with the amount of content served up in each post. 

How often do you comment on blog posts? 

RIP, comment section. A trend we've seen over the last several years continues its downward slope: 82% of readers who took part in the survey never comment on posts.

When asked for the reasons why they never comment, we saw some frequent responses: 

"I have nothing to add."

"It wouldn't add value."

"I'm still learning." 

"I never comment anywhere." 

"I don't have enough time." 

"Follow-up questions go unanswered." 

"I read posts in the RSS feed."

"English isn't my first language."

"I'm not signed in." 

Blog comment sections and forums used to be the place for online conversations, so this drop in engagement certainly signals the end of an era. However, these concerns also give us some areas of improvement, like working with our authors to be more responsive and improving comment accessibility. But sorry to those who prefer not to sign in — without that gate, we'd be inundated with spam.

In contrast, here were the reasons for commenting: 

"I have a question."

"I have a strong emotional connection to the material."

"I strongly agree or disagree." 

"I want to add my personal experience or advice." 

We definitely encourage readers who do have questions or concerns to continue commenting! 

What, if anything, would you like to see different about the Moz Blog?

Outside the responses along the lines of "No changes! Keep up the good work!" for which we thank you, these were the top asks from readers: 

More thoughtful feedback from and interaction with authors.

More variety and diversity in our author pool.

More video content.

More specific case studies, tests, and experiments.

More step-by-step guides with actionable insights showing how to solve problems.

Ability to filter or categorize by skill level.

Diversity in location (outside the US). 

These are great suggestions, some of which we've already begun to address! 

We also received only a few responses along the lines of "keep your politics out of SEO", specifically referencing our Black Lives Matter support and our posts on diversity. To those concerned, I will reiterate: human rights exist beyond politics. Our understanding of the experiences our co-workers and clients have had is essential to doing good, empathetic work with and for them. The Moz Blog will continue our practice of the Moz TAGFEE code in response to these ongoing issues. 

What our readers want to see

Which of the following topics would you like to learn more about?

Survey respondents could choose multiple topics from the list below in their answers, and the most-requested topics look very similar to 2017. A noticeable shift is in the desire for mobile SEO content, which dropped from being requested in 33% of responses in 2017 to just under 20% in 2020. 

In 2020, we certainly had more content addressing the broader marketing industry and local SEOs impacted by the pandemic. To better address the relevancy issue mentioned earlier, the top four core SEO subjects of on-page SEO, keyword research, link building, and analytics (all included in over 50% of responses) will become blog priorities in 2021.

Which of the following types of posts would you most like to see on the Moz Blog?

The way readers want to consume those topics hasn't changed much at all in the last three years — the desire for actionable, tactical insights is as strong as ever, with the request for tools, tips, and techniques remaining at 80% of respondents. These types of posts have been and will remain our go-to moving forward. 

COVID-19 

Moving into our last and newest section for the survey, we asked readers questions regarding the way in which they consume SEO-related content during the COVID-19 era. 

Has your consumption of SEO-related content changed due to COVID-19?

Only 34% of respondents said that their consumption of SEO-related content had changed as a result of the pandemic, a number we expected to be higher. It's encouraging to see that so many readers were able to maintain a sense of normalcy in this area.

Of those who did see a shift, these were the most common reasons why: 

Job loss and job hunting

Shift to work from home and being online 24-7

E-Commerce industry shifts

Online engagement shifts and ranking and traffic drops

Loss of clients and constricting budgets

More time to read paired with less time or opportunity to implement learnings

Would any of the following topics be helpful for you as a result of COVID-19 impacts? 

Along those same lines, the most popular topic requested as a result of COVID-19 impacts with 27% of responses was tracking/reporting on traffic and ranking drops. Content and marketing strategies during a crisis came in close second and third, with 24% and 21%, respectively. 



The answers to these questions show us that pivoting our content strategy in spring 2020 to address areas of concern was helpful for about a third of our readers, and probably contributed to the relevancy issue for the other two-thirds. We'll continue to include these topics (on a smaller scale) until we see the other side of this crisis.

What happens next?

Primary takeaways

You asked, and we hear you. Moving into 2021, we'll be writing on more technical, core SEO topics along with issues on the business side of SEO. We'll also be building out our Whiteboard Friday series to provide more fresh video content. And as always, we'll strive to provide you with actionable insights to apply to your daily work.

Given the steep decline in comment section engagement, we'll be encouraging our authors to be more responsive to questions, and to interact with you on social media. Make sure to follow Moz on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay up-to-date with the blog and our guest authors. 

Finally, stay tuned, as next year we're planning UX improvements to our blog CMS to address usability and accessibility concerns.

My genuine thanks goes out to those readers who took the time to give us their feedback. It is immeasurably valuable to us, and we're looking forward to applying it to all the amazing content we have coming your way in 2021.

Have a safe and healthy holiday season, Moz fans, and happy reading! 

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

[drummcarpentry]

What's Changed (and What Hasn't): The 2020 Moz Blog Reader Survey Results

Posted by morgan.mcmurray

You're tired of hearing it and I'm tired of saying it, but 2020 really has been a year like no other. SEOs and marketers around the world had to deal with their day-to-day work moving home, alongside a host of natural disasters, civil rights issues, and a pandemic that will alter our industry and global economy for years to come. 

We could have held off on launching this year's reader survey, but we decided to move forward anyway because we know your work and your interests have been impacted, and we wanted to know how much. 

I'm excited to share with you the results from that survey in this post. We'll go through what's changed — and what hasn't — for our readership since our last survey in 2017, and detail what those insights mean for the Moz Blog in 2021. 

Methodology

We published this survey in July 2020, with questions asking for details on the professional occupations of our readers, how those readers interact with the blog, and what those readers like to see from the blog. We also included COVID-19-specific questions to gauge the pandemic's impact on our readers. The survey was shared on the blog, through email blasts, and on our social media accounts.

The percentages shared in the sections below are part of a total of 388 responses we received over four months. This is actually our first data point, showing that engagement with surveys has shifted drastically since our 2017 survey, which got nearly 600 responses in just one month. Given the interruptive nature of 2020's events, we won't let that difference discourage us from utilizing surveys in the future. Where able, I've compared 2020's results to those of the 2017 survey, to better visualize the differences. 

Answers were not required for all questions, so if something did not apply to a respondent, they could leave the answer blank or choose a variety of "no opinion" or "N/A" options. 

We don't typically include demographic or geographic questions in our reader surveys, but given the overwhelmingly positive response to the Gender Gap in SEO and Diversity and Inclusion in SEO surveys published this year, we will do so moving forward. Understanding the struggles SEOs and marketers face in the industry due to race, gender, and sexual orientation is imperative to understanding how to best work with and for everyone, and we acknowledge that shortcoming in this year's survey. 

Who our readers are

Let's dive in. First up: the questions asking readers to tell us more about themselves. 

What is your job title?

The word cloud below is an amalgamation of the top-used words in response to this question, and the size of the word correlates to the number of mentions that word received. 

No surprises here: number one (by far) was "SEO". Our readership remains heavily SEO-focused in their occupations, with content marketers coming in close second.

What percentage of your day-to-day work involves SEO?

That said, 2020 saw an increase in respondents in the lower percentage brackets of readers who use SEO strategies in their daily work, specifically the 1-10% and 41-50% ranges. This could be due, in part, to the broadening of tasks assigned to SEOs in the marketing industry, as several respondents also mentioned a need to wear multiple hats in their organization. 

On a scale of 1-5, how advanced would you say your SEO knowledge is?

The majority of our readers remain intermediately knowledgeable about SEO concepts, leaving plenty of room for new learnings across skill levels.

Do you work in-house, or at an agency/consultancy?

While the majority of Moz Blog readers are still in-house SEOs and marketers, an interesting takeaway for us in 2020 is the increase of those who are independent consultants or freelancers from 11% in 2017 to just under 17% in 2020. We'll make sure to take that into account for our content strategy moving forward. 

What are some of the biggest challenges you face in your work today?

Far and away, the challenge most often mentioned in response to this question was the high volume and rapid cadence of new SEO information, new tools, and algorithm updates. Readers are struggling to determine what to focus on and when, what to prioritize, and what even applies to their work. We can certainly help you with that in 2021.

Other frequently-mentioned struggles were familiar to us from previous surveys, showing us that the SEO industry still needs to address these issues, and that the Moz Blog can continue offering up content in response. These issues included: 

Lack of resources and cross-functional collaboration at work.

SEO prioritization at work.

Lack of consolidation in analytics and reporting tools.

Difficulty explaining the value of SEO to bosses/clients/non-SEOs.

Difficulty explaining what SEO CAN'T do to bosses/clients/non-SEOs.

Attracting new clients and customers.

Having to wear multiple hats.

How our readers read

Keeping in mind all that context of who our readers are, we dug into preferences in terms of formats, frequency, and subject matter on the blog.

How often do you read posts on the Moz Blog?

As an increasing number of readers rely on social media channels for their news and content consumption, the shift from frequent readers to "every once in a while" readers is not a surprise, but it is a concern. It also necessitates our incorporation of social media engagement as a top KPI for blog performance. 

Given the multiple off-blog distribution methods and frequency of prompts to take this year's survey, we saw a sharp increase in "non-reader" responses from 1% in 2017 to 6% in 2020. That said, it's interesting that Moz email and social media subscribers who weren't Moz Blog readers felt motivated to take a survey entitled "Moz Blog Reader Survey". We've taken note of the topics requested from those respondents, in the hopes of encouraging more engagement with the blog. 

On which types of devices do you prefer to read blog posts?

While desktop and laptop computers remain the most common way to consume blog content, mobile phone use saw an increase of nearly 10 percentage points. Mobile phones have only improved in the last three years, and it's no secret that we're using them more often for actions we'd normally take on a computer. As we move toward blog CMS improvements in 2021, mobile-friendliness will be a priority. 

Which other site(s), if any, do you regularly visit for information or education on SEO?

Across the board, we saw a decrease in the number of respondents listing other SEO news resources, as well as the first instance of a social media platform in the top 10 resources mentioned. This only serves as further evidence that social media is continuing its growth as a news and content medium. 

What our readers think of the blog

Here's where we get into more specific feedback about the Moz Blog, including whether it's relevant, how easy it is for readers to consume, and more. 

What percentage of the posts on the Moz Blog would you say are relevant to you and your work?

While the trends regarding readers' opinions on relevancy remained similar between 2017 and 2020, we saw about a 6% dip in respondents who said 81-90% of posts are relevant to them, and increases in the bottom four percentage brackets. These results, paired with the topic requests we'll cover later, indicate a need to shift and slightly narrow our content strategy to include more posts specific to core SEO disciplines, like on-page SEO and analytics. 

Do you feel the Moz Blog posts are generally too basic, too advanced, or about right?

Given the breadth of topics on the blog and the wide range of reader skill levels, we're happy to see that, for the most part, readers find our posts just about right on a scale of too easy to too advanced. 

In general, what do you think about the length of Moz Blog posts?

Similarly, it's great to see that readers continue to be satisfied with the amount of content served up in each post. 

How often do you comment on blog posts? 

RIP, comment section. A trend we've seen over the last several years continues its downward slope: 82% of readers who took part in the survey never comment on posts.

When asked for the reasons why they never comment, we saw some frequent responses: 

"I have nothing to add."

"It wouldn't add value."

"I'm still learning." 

"I never comment anywhere." 

"I don't have enough time." 

"Follow-up questions go unanswered." 

"I read posts in the RSS feed."

"English isn't my first language."

"I'm not signed in." 

Blog comment sections and forums used to be the place for online conversations, so this drop in engagement certainly signals the end of an era. However, these concerns also give us some areas of improvement, like working with our authors to be more responsive and improving comment accessibility. But sorry to those who prefer not to sign in — without that gate, we'd be inundated with spam.

In contrast, here were the reasons for commenting: 

"I have a question."

"I have a strong emotional connection to the material."

"I strongly agree or disagree." 

"I want to add my personal experience or advice." 

We definitely encourage readers who do have questions or concerns to continue commenting! 

What, if anything, would you like to see different about the Moz Blog?

Outside the responses along the lines of "No changes! Keep up the good work!" for which we thank you, these were the top asks from readers: 

More thoughtful feedback from and interaction with authors.

More variety and diversity in our author pool.

More video content.

More specific case studies, tests, and experiments.

More step-by-step guides with actionable insights showing how to solve problems.

Ability to filter or categorize by skill level.

Diversity in location (outside the US). 

These are great suggestions, some of which we've already begun to address! 

We also received only a few responses along the lines of "keep your politics out of SEO", specifically referencing our Black Lives Matter support and our posts on diversity. To those concerned, I will reiterate: human rights exist beyond politics. Our understanding of the experiences our co-workers and clients have had is essential to doing good, empathetic work with and for them. The Moz Blog will continue our practice of the Moz TAGFEE code in response to these ongoing issues. 

What our readers want to see

Which of the following topics would you like to learn more about?

Survey respondents could choose multiple topics from the list below in their answers, and the most-requested topics look very similar to 2017. A noticeable shift is in the desire for mobile SEO content, which dropped from being requested in 33% of responses in 2017 to just under 20% in 2020. 

In 2020, we certainly had more content addressing the broader marketing industry and local SEOs impacted by the pandemic. To better address the relevancy issue mentioned earlier, the top four core SEO subjects of on-page SEO, keyword research, link building, and analytics (all included in over 50% of responses) will become blog priorities in 2021.

Which of the following types of posts would you most like to see on the Moz Blog?

The way readers want to consume those topics hasn't changed much at all in the last three years — the desire for actionable, tactical insights is as strong as ever, with the request for tools, tips, and techniques remaining at 80% of respondents. These types of posts have been and will remain our go-to moving forward. 

COVID-19 

Moving into our last and newest section for the survey, we asked readers questions regarding the way in which they consume SEO-related content during the COVID-19 era. 

Has your consumption of SEO-related content changed due to COVID-19?

Only 34% of respondents said that their consumption of SEO-related content had changed as a result of the pandemic, a number we expected to be higher. It's encouraging to see that so many readers were able to maintain a sense of normalcy in this area.

Of those who did see a shift, these were the most common reasons why: 

Job loss and job hunting

Shift to work from home and being online 24-7

E-Commerce industry shifts

Online engagement shifts and ranking and traffic drops

Loss of clients and constricting budgets

More time to read paired with less time or opportunity to implement learnings

Would any of the following topics be helpful for you as a result of COVID-19 impacts? 

Along those same lines, the most popular topic requested as a result of COVID-19 impacts with 27% of responses was tracking/reporting on traffic and ranking drops. Content and marketing strategies during a crisis came in close second and third, with 24% and 21%, respectively. 



The answers to these questions show us that pivoting our content strategy in spring 2020 to address areas of concern was helpful for about a third of our readers, and probably contributed to the relevancy issue for the other two-thirds. We'll continue to include these topics (on a smaller scale) until we see the other side of this crisis.

What happens next?

Primary takeaways

You asked, and we hear you. Moving into 2021, we'll be writing on more technical, core SEO topics along with issues on the business side of SEO. We'll also be building out our Whiteboard Friday series to provide more fresh video content. And as always, we'll strive to provide you with actionable insights to apply to your daily work.

Given the steep decline in comment section engagement, we'll be encouraging our authors to be more responsive to questions, and to interact with you on social media. Make sure to follow Moz on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay up-to-date with the blog and our guest authors. 

Finally, stay tuned, as next year we're planning UX improvements to our blog CMS to address usability and accessibility concerns.

My genuine thanks goes out to those readers who took the time to give us their feedback. It is immeasurably valuable to us, and we're looking forward to applying it to all the amazing content we have coming your way in 2021.

Have a safe and healthy holiday season, Moz fans, and happy reading! 

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

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Premature Ejaculation Treatment Kolkata Astounding Diy Ideas

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Home Remedies For Premature Ejaculation

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Early Ejaculation Reasons And Solutions

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#Premature Ejaculation Treatment Kolkata Astounding Diy Ideas #Can I Premature Ejaculation

[cecillewhite]

How to Choose the Right LMS? Ask a Learning Tech Analyst

When modern archaeologists excavated the ancient city of Pompeii from the ashes of Mt. Vesuvius, they found a shop sign that said, “Caveat emptor” (or as we say in English, “Buyer beware”). Although 2000 years have passed since that sign was created, the advice is still relevant – especially if you’re trying to choose the right LMS.

How exactly can you avoid missteps when selecting a learning system? As an independent learning tech consultant, I hear questions like that all the time.

That’s why I’m launching an “Ask Me Anything” column. Today we’re tackling LMS selection. And over time, I’ll explore a variety of other popular topics.

Got questions? If you need advice about learning technology (especially for extended enterprise needs), submit your question here. You might just be featured in a future post!

  Ask Me Anything: How to Choose the Right LMS

1) When does it make sense to hire a software selection consultant?

The learning systems market has become remarkably broad and diverse. In fact, nearly 1000 vendors are on our radar! For five years, we’ve been evaluating these solutions one-by-one. And to-date, we’ve completed about 225 in-depth reviews.

Many organizations attempt to do the same thing when selecting an LMS. But they soon discover just how unrealistic a DIY approach can be.

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The clock runs out before they can determine which vendors are truly relevant. So they pick from a batch of mismatched solutions or take their chances with only a few options they had time to research.

A good consultant can make the whole process faster, easier and more successful by:

Clarifying your needs

Selecting a small group of appropriate solutions, and

Helping you pick the best fit from that shortlist of vendors.

2) With so many learning systems, how do you keep track of them all?

It’s both an art and a science!

We study the market and document our findings in a thorough, systematic way. And because the extended enterprise space is so diverse, we research a broader spectrum of technologies than other LMS analysts.

For each solution, we conduct executive briefings, product demonstrations and customer interviews. In addition, vendors submit a comprehensive capabilities survey and anecdotal success stories.

We use all of this information to create a complete vendor profile. Plus, because things are always changing, we update each profile on a regular basis.

3) What’s your process for finding the perfect match?

We start by defining your unique requirements in detail. This includes business and use cases, functional and technical specifications, professional services requirements and expected usage levels.

Next, we recommend qualified vendors that match your precise needs. This ensures that your requirements will be met, no matter which solution you choose.

The key to success is a process that compares qualified vendors on an apples-to-apples basis. That’s why we communicate requirements in a structured request for proposal (RFP).

If qualified vendors want to be considered, they must reply to the RFP in full. After scoring and ranking the responses, we invite the best-of-the-best to present their solutions within the context of the specified requirements and use cases.

4) Isn’t that a lot of work?

It’s important to sweat these details because so much is at stake.

Buyers should feel confident that they’ve considered the right solutions, conducted a complete and rigorous comparative analysis, and selected a solution that will work best for them. This approach minimizes risk while dramatically improving outcomes.

5) How much time does it take to choose the right LMS?

Typically, it takes 90-120 days to define requirements and use cases, develop an RFP and gather responses, organize product presentations with finalists, select a solution and negotiate a contract.

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Many buyers underestimate the time needed to complete a successful selection process. Often they spend too much time meeting vendors and getting caught up in the sales process, rather than driving selection forward.

Good consultants help you avoid distractions, so you can focus your time on what matters most.

6) Can we choose the right LMS without issuing a formal RFP?

Yes. But I don’t recommend this unless your company, needs and budget are very small.

If you intend to invest $25,000, $50,000 or millions, choosing a learning system without an RFP is a recipe for disaster. There are just too many moving parts and potential points of failure.

Additionally, you will inevitably pay way too much!

7) We’re not even sure what our requirements are. How can we get started on the right foot?

If you don’t know where you want to go and why, it really doesn’t matter which foot you put forward first. That why we recommend you begin by answering some strategic questions:

What you are doing now?

What’s working?

What isn’t working?

Where do you want to go?

How does success look different?

Why is this important to your audience?

What are the implications for your organization?

8) For example…?

Well, let’s say you want to replace your existing learning system because users don’t like your interface. That makes sense. But you should dig deeper:

Precisely what is lacking in your interface?

What learning experience issues does this create?

How does this substandard design affect your business?

What kind of improvements are essential?

Which criteria will you use to gauge your success?

9) We’ve had bad experiences with systems in the past. Will vendors guarantee satisfaction?

Truth is, when a deployment goes sideways or fails outright, it usually ties back to LMS selection mistakes or shortcuts. Certainly, sellers hold some responsibility and often get blamed.  But there are no guarantees, and the success responsibility is primarily the job of the buyer.

The best way to protect yourself is to be sure you make a fully informed decision based on a foundation of use cases, requirements and apples-to-apples vendor comparison.

10) We’re building an online learning business, so we can’t afford a bad fit. How can we be sure our choice will work?

No one can afford a bad enterprise software deployment. The costs are just too high – not just in terms of financial investment, but also in the time, effort, political capital and career aspirations of everyone involved.

The stakes are even higher when those systems are core to your business. It’s imperative not to jeopardize the future of your organization or your brand.

When you don’t have room for error, a proven LMS selection partner can give you a strategic advantage. It’s as simple as that.

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The value of getting it right at the outset far outweighs the costs of a consultant or getting it wrong.

11) How expensive are extended enterprise learning systems?

Among true extended enterprise systems, pricing is typically based on some kind of consumption license model. In other words, you pay only for what you actually use.

With these systems, vendors expect that the volume of learners, records, content and usage will grow over time. However, different vendors define “usage” differently.

For example, some will base their pricing on log-ons, course registrations, completions or purchases.

Bottom line: For an accurate price estimate and aligned license model, you’ll want to clearly define your usage scenarios, and determine the best approach for your business, and compare all vendor solutions through that lens.

12) How should I budget for growth?

This is tricky. To avoid paying more than you should, it’s important to define usage carefully, in a language that aligns with a vendor’s logic. Here’s my strategy:

I identify the buyer’s optimum license approach. Then I calculate the current baseline, as well as a realistic 3-year growth plan based on real business expectations. In the RFP, I require all vendors to submit pricing built on that scenario.

This is the only way to:

Compare prices on an apples-to-apples basis

Determine the long-term total cost of ownership and

Avoid future surprises.

13) Vendor salespeople can be so aggressive. What do you recommend?

I get it. During the LMS selection process, communication with vendors is essential. But too often, that’s accompanied by shameless selling, requests for extra meetings, unauthorized outreach to other team members and the like.

It’s not just an eye-rolling pain. It’s also a colossal waste of your precious time.

Fortunately, I speak “LMS vendor sales” fluently. In fact, I’m a recovering LMS sales guy. In 14 years, I sold more than $50-million worth of high-end extended enterprise learning solutions for two leading vendors. I know all too well what salespeople want, ask and do.

That’s why I manage all communication and scheduling with shortlisted sales teams. This keeps them on-track with our selection process, gives them the best chance for success and eliminates rogue sales efforts.

14) What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned from LMS buyers over the years?

This one is easy to answer. Hands-down, the best buyers are always the most prepared.

If you aren’t up on today’s learning systems market, modern functionality and technology ecosystems capabilities, you need to get ahead of the curve.

Similarly, if you can’t articulate your precise needs, budget parameters or available resources, vendors will eat you alive.

There’s no need to put yourself in a vulnerable, reactive position. As I’ve seen again and again with our clients, it pays to do your homework and buy proactively. (And if you want an advocate in your corner, let’s talk.)

  Want more insights? Watch our on-demand webinar:

The Competitive Advantage of an Externally Facing LMS

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Today’s learning management systems are highly diverse. And when customer education is a top priority, it pays to choose the right LMS for that purpose.

What exactly are the business benefits of choosing a specialized learning management system (rather than an employee-oriented LMS) for customer learning initiatives?

Join John Leh, CEO and Lead Analyst at Talented Learning, and Terry Lydon, VP of Training Operations Projects at Litmos, as they explain the value of choosing an externally focused LMS. You’ll learn: 

How to quantify the benefits of customer learning

Which factors set a customer LMS apart from employee-focused platforms

What case studies reveal about the value of customer learning technology

How to choose the right LMS for your customers’ needs

5 areas of innovation unique to customer LMS solutions

Replay this free webinar now!

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How to Choose the Right LMS? Ask a Learning Tech Analyst original post at Talented Learning