#but i thought i remembered something about the url so i searched the first keyword i could think of and well.

[joycequinn]

An Inside Check out the DigitalMarketer Editorial Refine

We yap right here about the content procedure for content marketing, specifically exactly how to record your messages in a content schedule. But we wished to break down what this looks like in practice. After all, we intend to instruct you reliable techniques, emphasis on the tried part.

And also because we have actually just recently settled a sleek new content procedure, I believed it was the best time to take you via it, reveal you some examples, and with any luck motivate you to take your content calendar to the next level.

But initially, I wish to discuss why this also important in any way.

Why an Editorial Schedule

 This is NOT the very first time DigitalMarketing has covered the advantages of a content calendar Consulting Selling. As well as directly, I am a significant, major fan. And creating an editorial schedule does not need to be complicated or difficult. Yet it is very important.

In fact, maintaining a well-organized content schedule can make or damage your material procedure, particularly if you are a larger group (or a one-person team), as well as even more if you are trying to integrate linking methods like the Material Cluster Method.

See, the technique is tracking points. The whole objective of a content schedule is monitoring the important things that are necessary to YOUR organization. By documenting vital information regarding your post or content, you enable on your own to:

1. Area as well as fill topic holes

2. Know what key words you've targeted in the past

3. Easily navigate to older articles

4. Locate old posts that are good to upgrade

5. Track relationships in between website traffic changes and what you have actually released

6. Plan days, weeks, as well as also months ahead of time

7. Conveniently discover articles for internal connecting

 Yet knowing something is very important as well as in fact doing that crucial point are 2 entirely various ball games. This is why I'm providing you the within scoop on just how we, the DigitalMarketer web content team, maintain our editorial schedule in line and our process running efficiently. Well, as efficiently as it can.

What We've Tried

But before we enter the meat of it, I wish to quickly break down a couple of the other things we have actually attempted in the past and why they really did not function. That way, you can pick up from our errors rather than needing to make them on your own.

1. Monday.com

Currently I have nothing versus Monday. It can be a really effective and also structured job management system. However when we attempted to integrate our content procedure right into Monday, it simply kind of failed.

Part of the problem was human (isn't it always?). Our group was merely bad at relocating things around, as well as considering that not every person on the web content group used the program routinely, we ran into an issue with maintaining it as much as date.

We likewise tried to get Monday to do something that it just had not been well matched for: long term paperwork. Trying to scroll through hundreds of concepts, and after that numerous already published articles was complicated and unpleasant. It simply really did not jive with us the method we desired it to.

So when you seek a software remedy, see to it you are discovering a program that your whole team is excited about and will utilize consistently.

2. Simply Making Use Of the Google Sheet

Remember the Ed Schedule sheet I showed you prior to? Yeah, there was a while, a long period of time actually, where that was all we had. And also it was really, actually fantastic for the specific thing Monday was not terrific for: long-term documents.

Yet trying to arrange the actual web content development procedure in a 1000-row Google Sheet was nearly impossible. And when we really did not have any other services, we simply really did not document the development procedure.

That was working with what as well as the status of any given blog post lived just in my head. And if you've ever before been in my head, it can be a messy and also chaotic place. So I would certainly-- extra frequently than I would love to admit-- lose track of articles or neglect whether an article had been modified.

Clearly, this was not sustainable.Then earlier this year, one of the content team members found this article, that talked about using Trello, a job administration software program, for an editorial calendar. Much of us had actually already been utilizing Trello for our very own individual order of business, but once we saw its operations abilities, we knew we had to try it.

And also now we're hooked.

What We Utilize Currently

I recognized, when we began our schedule in Trello, that I didn't intend to encounter the troubles we would certainly had with Monday, so I selected a 2 pronged method.

Then, we have our documentation archive in our preferred Google Sheet.

And also to demonstrate how this process works, we can comply with the actual course this specific message took in its development. It will obtain very meta.

Every one of our articles start in the exact same location. Ideation. Someone has a thought, or brings a client material demand, or I see a void in our web content, and we publish it in the ideation checklist in the Trello board.

When we decide that, yes, we are in fact going to write as well as release that message, it carries on to the rundown (usually if it is an external writer) or the writing stage. The card for that message obtains a little even more information in this stage, like a description and also a label (labels can be any classification you intend to track-- as an example we label content based on its end goal, like cluster or marketing or enjoyable) and a production checklist, so employee recognize when it is their rely on take the baton.

When the article is written, it keeps moving down the line to editing, obtains a publish day, and then mosts likely to Plan Development. The bundle is what we send out to the boss of uploading the blog post. It generally contains the SEO details, record file, and any type of images for the post.

Some of these use paid Power-Ups, like the due date (you'll see this in action momentarily) and the personalized areas. Yet I will show you exactly how you can do similar things without paying any type of money later in this post.

Then, the uploader puts it into WordPress and either schedules or immediately publishes the article, moving the Trello card down the line respectively.

When the message is all published, we ensure to record all of the essential information (URL, keyword phrase, web content collection, writer, day, CTA, and so on) in the Content Calendar Google Sheet. In this way, we can conveniently do a command-F search to find the post in the future.

When it involves arranging out messages in the future, we use the Schedule Powerup in Trello, which lets me establish the "due date" i.e. the release day.

That is our content process! This is still a fairly new process for us, so chances are, we will face kinks and find spaces as we continue to utilize it, yet no procedure needs to be fixed.

And given that some of our process included paid tools, I wished to break down some complimentary means to obtain the very same results.

Free vs Paid Company

Material marketing is something every brand name can as well as should succeed. Yet I know that for lots of organizations, the concept of investing a number of cash into something that is more of a long game when it comes to ROI can be far-fetched.

So in order to maintain the obstacle to entrance low, right here are a few ways you can obtain the very same results without investing a lots of cash (or in this instance, any kind of cash).

While we do utilize paid Power-Ups, like the Calendar, Custom Area, and also even Slack alerts, none of this is required for an operating Trello editorial calendar.

Rather than using customized fields for marking keyword phrases and also author as well as such, basically every one of that info in the Description area for an article card.

And also rather than making use of the calendar Power-Up, utilize a good-old-fashioned white board to write out when posts are releasing, or simply add them right into the archive Google Sheet ahead of time, if you like digital documentation.

 Whatever your spending plan, and regardless of what your company is, preserving your editorial process and documenting your content's info is mosting likely to assist you develop better content faster. So get out there as well as set up your very own editorial procedure so you can fly even additionally in your material marketing efforts.

[claraoswald81]

24 Hours to Improving SEO

SEO can be the complex subject. Because the requirement for Digital Advertising for business is aggressively developing, so does for SEO Developments too. One of the the majority of important parts of the SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION is creating unique content along with proper keywords. Key phrases are the foundation of effective SEO. Within SEO, we refer to the particular acquiring new backlinks as one way link And as many practitioners acknowledge, it's rather a challenging exercise. We can subdivide these SEO ranking facets into two sections: On-Page and Off-Page SEO. Make no error, a new website is your own first step to gaining loads of qualified traffic, and issue of fact, a great site will certainly help your visitors numbers increase once users discover your online location - yet until then, we recommend the great SEO campaign. Over the particular coming year, voice search is definitely an area SEO specialists plus marketers need to be conscious of, especially with featured thoughts. Site's speed will be of the heart in lookup engines and SEO trends 2018, be it in desktop or cellular. I needed in order to become an seo expert, this particular really is just awesome plus very helpful in knowing therefore much about Search Engine Search engine optimization. Proven SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION techniques such as for instance quality content, focused keywords plus link building are still since effective, yet there are numerous more trends emerging that may pressure us to change our technique of search engine optimization. For illustration, if you're a bakery, and you also want to rank highly with regard to the term chocolate coconut cookies, ” your SEO company may be sure to create content material based on that keyword plus include it in your titles and meta descriptions. Therefore, your Local SEO strategies should be to first target as many high quality and authoritative websites as you can. If you need to get more traffic through SEO in 2018, I suggest creating and optimizing content particularly for YouTube. Since the competition to obtain on top of search motors gets tougher, the need in order to adapt to these shifts within SEO also increases. Now SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION trends 2018 have to match with limited property, preliminary cable connections in addition to all they will already deal with. The shift toward long-tail keywords will be even more necessary to SEO success in 2018. I firstly read your own SEO strategy: #1 Ranking Along with Guestographics, I really liked therefore. And when you tailor your own on-page SEO around the perfect keywords, you'll watch your web site rocket to the top associated with Google — landing you even more traffic, leads, sales along the particular way. Analyze the top 3 search results with any keywords density tool or Chrome extension, like SEOquake This is enough to form a list of relevant keywords and synonyms. Intended for businesses looking to raise their particular search engine rankings, it signifies that a comprehensive social mass media strategy might be in purchase - in addition to almost all the usual SEO tactics. This used to be the bigger factor in SEO, however it still provides a high quality user experience when done nicely, increasing actions. Before you determine to find out the SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION trends 2018, it is furthermore necessary for you to realize what's trending on the internet right now. Fortunately, you can discover your own broken links upon site using the myriad of Equipment available. Right here are few SEO trends which usually are to be considered because these factors will be beneficial for the business growth simply by letting you shine among various. A professional web design and SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION person will advise a web site owner on a plan based on business objectives, human sources and funding. If you have got just started your SEO strategy for a brand-new website, after that you should concentrate on long-tail keywords. Listed here are nineteen advanced SEO techniques that a person could implement right away in order to increase your search traffic. Sign upward for the Single Grain blog page now for the latest articles on SEO, PPC, paid cultural, and the future of on the web marketing. Stop thinking in terms associated with SEO vs. content marketing” plus start exploring how well these people perform together. This takes ability, constant updating, plus pushiness to stay on best of the search results, which why many small businesses appear for elegant SEO services with regard to their site. Details are important for local SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION because it shows Google that will you're popular in your region. Joanna Gadel has been functioning as a search engine marketing and marketing expert since the particular last decade in a well-known Australian SEO company named simply by SEO Sydney Throughout this period, he has viewed many adjustments in the advance SEO strategies. You'll have to believe a lot more like the human while doing keyword study for your SEO campaigns. As a Social Media, SEO & SEM expert with over 8 years' experience in on line marketing, he uses his keen insight into customer behaviour to formulate innovative strategies that helps clients enhance their online presence & open up new business avenues. Lookup engine optimization, or SEO, will be constantly changing, and those that will practice it must keep upward up to now with these types of changes. Create sure you leverage each one of these SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION Trends to stay on best of the organic and included listings of Google SERPs. 50 Best On-Page SEO Strategies to rank in the first page with zero Back hyperlinks. Just remember to pay interest to solid content creation plus copywriting fundamentals, engage your audiences deeply, and stay abreast associated with technical trends like backlinks, SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION health, site speed, and schema. To get straight into the depths of this subject and know how SEO developments could affect the digital advertising industry in 2018, I searched for the responses of some associated with the industry leaders. For advanced entrepreneurs it looks something like this particular: you might have an SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION plan in place, you may have your list of high quality keywords, you're actively blogging plus your website is optimized. Now SEO developments 2018 have to contest along with limited real estate, preliminary contacts in addition to all they will already deal with. I actually m glade to see somebody taken you a chance in order to explain about mobile SEO and the PWA application, Nice Write-up sir. We are excited to listen to from you about ON-page SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION and OFF-page seo processes to position first. Nevertheless, this particular is not the real problem for Seo (SEO). There are LOTS of tone of voice searches in the world associated with local SEO. Search motor optimization (SEO) will be the process associated with affecting the online visibility associated with the website or a internet page in a web lookup engine 's unpaid results—often identified as "natural", " organic inches, or "earned" results. Every company and consultant has their very own SEO methodology; therefore they might use different methods to attain high organic rankings for sites. One associated with the best techniques for SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION is including search engine helpful URL links for every plus every page that you possess written or else you will write. Entering the dialog search outside of smartphones will open new opportunities for both SEO and content marketing, allowing users to interact with users within a unique, but still of use way for them. I believe that will 2018 is going to be the particular year where voice search changes how users search and SEOs need to optimize. The purpose of off-page SEO would certainly be to get links in order to your information. There are usually many tools on the internet to assist with basic key phrase research (including the Google Key word Planner tool and there are even more useful third party SEO tools in order to help you do this). Another important factor to add up to the particular checklist for local SEO within 2018 is UX. The consumer experience for Local SEO can become even more important within 2018. In the older times of SEO, Google didn't want to understand modifiers, meaning if I actually put in more keywords within like best” or new, ” I could outrank someone which failed to use those key phrases in the meta title. While the real difference, for the snippets, is not the method the information continues to become fetched by Google (as this particular works much like the great old SEO) but how the particular result is presented towards the particular user: these snippets answer the lot of questions, triggered simply by our voice. Still, the key word element of SEO is becoming progressively difficult with Google Adwords concealing volume data. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION specialists started to abuse Page rank to be able to raise the rankings. This blog uses the particular tagline Learn SEO Straight through the Search Engines, ” plus it doesn't tackle easy topics. Learn Search Engine Search engine optimization From The Basics Find the very good Keywords On Web page & Off Site SEO! Here's the exactly where we try to find plugs of Active Campaign, with simply no link to, utilizing the SERP Tool from the LinkResearchTools SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION toolkit. While this particular holistic approach will eventually get rid of a lot of the problems created by some SEO professionals through the years, I believe that search engines' engineers may initially overestimate the precision associated with their AI, leading to Penguin-level collateral damage. One important aspect associated with taking care of SEO will be identifying issues that are harming search engine rankings and decreasing the traffic you get through SERPs. Say, for example, I talk about this off-page SEO techniques blog post across my social channels. While videos are great with regard to SEO, make sure you may create video content just due to the fact the format works better. The rise associated with Google-featured-content has provided its very own challenges for SEO practitioners. Our evaluations of the 10 leading search engine optimization (SEO) tools help you choose the right solution. The phrase SEO, ” otherwise known because search engine optimization, ” provides increased in popularity over the particular past few years. The truth is that a person can get top Search Motor Rankings spending a little little bit of money and doing the particular work yourself or paying a good expert SEO company thousands associated with dollars to get your Internet site around the first page. When you stop plus take a look back with where seo (SEO) started, is actually pretty incredible how far it can come in the past several years — even the previous couple of months. On the various other hand, focusing on mobile SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION is a must, whereas cellular friendliness and user experience are usually considered as a major positioning factor in SEO Trends within 2018. Google is producing sure it will take longer to discover results from black and white hat SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION, and intent on ensuring the flux in its SERPs dependent largely on where the searcher is on the planet at the time associated with the search, and in which usually the business is located close to to that searcher. With voice search comes 2 regions of interest to SEO people desperate to connect with consumers: intention and context. I actually released our content strategy on SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION Hacker's blog to help many other SEOs improve their website's content material. Within this blog we will discuss away from page SEO is detail plus will learn some effective away page SEO techniques which a person must try in first associated with all we would like in order to discuss the importance of away from page SEO” and how this can be good for internet site owners. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION has more aspects related in order to your problem and it furthermore helps you know drawbacks associated with your website, so, promoting via SEO will not only assist you land on first webpages of Engines like google, but it furthermore lets you the find the particular defects on your website that will further assists with removing all of them. What SEO trends plus techniques does 2018 hold with regard to us? It appears that with YouTube once the channel is quite popular(as within big) in a given Specialized niche, you are able to nearly throw out a large amount from the SEO On web page off page optimizations, ect, plus the video will rank upward on page one(also on the internet search)…. Keywords have always been the particular heart of SEO. Backlinks are one associated with the foundations of good SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION. You should swap out your first image This video is usually ranking #3 for the key phrase โ€SEO strategyโ€… today your video clip is ranking #2 for that will keyword. In order to learn more, verify this infographic from Digital Marketing and advertising Philippines, which discusses the quite best developments that you should know when you want to improve your own SEO strategy this 2018. Yet without mobile SEO and AMPLIFIER we won't be in a position to attain organic traffic growth in 2017. SEO professionals is not going to have to be puzzled within search of that valuable SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION ranking factors anymore. Voice search is made to interpret user intent, therefore the challenge for SEO is usually to optimize content for queries searchers are likely to inquire. Just remember in order to focus upon solid content creation and copywriting fundamentals, engage your viewers profoundly, and stay abreast of specialized trends like backlinks, SEO wellness, site speed, and schema. All of us already see this trend within lots of places, like incredibly precise targeting of social advertisements - but a lot associated with brands still approach SEO plus content creation having a one-size-fits most attitude. Further SEO Wise links allows you to set up your own keywords and place of matching URLs. As Google acquires even more off-site information regarding businesses, SEOs require to be thinking read even more about optimizing a business regarding both on the web plus offline success. An excellent SEO option with regard to 2018 is the creation associated with video content for our customers. The services usually offered simply by an SEO consultant includes yet may not be restricted in order to keyword or key phrase analysis together with checking out the particular competition, SEO web design regarding the site and other internet pages connected to your blog, functioning with the necessary codes plus content for the site, develop link popularity for the web site and website SEO maintenance regarding the particular site. For this reason SEO work begins with discovering what phrases possible buyers enter into search motors like google. I really wished to understand SEO tricks used simply by the very best online marketing and advertising specialists myself, and share these types of details with other marketing professionals, bloggers. Change in SEO trends is a result of changing Google algorithms. Previously, all of us have rated the best equipment for digital marketing overall, yet we wanted to drill lower to review the best solutions for SEO and content advertising to assist readers this 12 months. Apart from perfecting these trends, competition analysis plus making a credible SEO procedure is very crucial, to obtain organic traffic on your web page. There are many factors to SEO, in the words upon your page to the method other sites link to a person on the internet. Rolled out on 1 saint August 2018, businesses and their own SEO teams would have seen the shift in rankings. Cell phone SEO will continue to become as relevant in 2018. Google focuses upon providing the best possible encounter for users, and you as well should do exactly the exact same. A website design revolving about the user will ensure visitors on your website and that will, in turn, will continue in order to gain SEO traction. These ‘quality updates' are very reminiscent of Search engines Panda updates and often effect many websites at the exact same time - and often these types of focus on demoting similar ‘low-quality' SEO techniques we have already been told Panda targets. Each SEO person was always speaking about long tail keywords These people are multi-word phrases that obtain a lot more fine-tuned or even even perhaps just various methods of saying the same point. Now that SEO is getting very popular among device users, it is usually safe to say that SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION on mobile platforms will improve and improve business to customer relationships in 2018. A brand new wrinkle within the SEO game is sociable networking or social media advertising, which not just helps your own company to be found, yet also allows your business in order to interact directly together with your potential clients. When it arrives to SEO Trends in 2018, Relevancy is still exactly the particular same. Good keyword research is the cornerstone of your SEO. But if if you're short on money, use these types of do-it-yourself SEO ideas to improve your own organic rankings. Whilst this holistic approach will ultimately eliminate a lot of the particular issues created by some SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION practitioners over the years, I actually realise that search engines' engineers may initially overestimate the precision associated with their AI, leading to Penguin-level collateral damage. Well, this particular is it. Hope this SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION Trends in 2018 will assist you to be on the particular track and beat your many other competitors. Today, a person are going to know several most important SEO techniques that will will help to enhance your own organic traffic, keywords ranking plus website optimization. On-page SEO intended for ecommerce is all about producing sure your keywords are within the best places. Location: A few businesses like knowing that they will could visit their SEO firm at any time to spending budget, campaign, and progress over espresso. Because they look issues up on visual search equipment, such as Google Images plus Pinterest, it's important to enhance SEO on all image plus video content. We have some great ratings, but we are always searching to improve and see exactly what the future holds for SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION. Fairly recently, I've observed a resurgence of on-page SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION factors making a difference within search engine rankings. Don't forget to incorporate the particular basics of SEO, featured thoughts, rich content (like videos), hyperlink earning, and UX in your own strategy. Based on how relevant these keywords are for your business, you can start shortlisting them for your own SEO optimisation process. I actually have a guide for Wp local SEO in my routing menu but most everything will be the same even for non-WordPress sites. This particular could create friction and the particular impression that many well-designed internet sites are very poorly optimized intended for SEO. Unfortunately, 95% of hyperlinks from SEO link building by no means bring a single new guest aimed at your website. The next SEO Methods in 2018 is to stick to Voice Search. I believed I'd offer some advice in order to stay ahead of SEO styles that are bound to create a big impact in 2018. Understanding consumer behavior - and how in order to create a great website knowledge for those users - may solve most, if not just about all, of your SEO problems shifting forward. While the research engines try and deliver the particular right answer to their consumer, it really is our work as SEOs to comprehend exactly what that user is looking intended for and deliver that answer intended for them with the search motor. Another reason to enhance your images for SEO: this gives search engines like search engines another clue of what your own page is about…which can assist it position in organic search. SEO is looking futuristic along with popular search engines like Search engines, Bing and Yahoo getting better, answering more queries related in order to page results and increasing the particular trend the of voice research. As internet online marketers, bloggers, and small business proprietors, SEO is essential. Therefore, today I'll list out 10 low-cost SEO tips that will certainly improve your ranking on the particular search engines. The keyword SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION tips and tricks was obtaining decent searches per month. Join Mark Mitchell of BrightEdge in a detailed explained preparing your SEO activity for 2018, which will include reflecting on the SEO performance from 2017, evaluating your existing resources, planning brand-new SEO 2019 Slide search technologies coming down the particular line in 2018, and even more. SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION includes strategies like keyword focusing on, article marketing, backlink building, plus more, which helps your web site rank better in search motors like Google. Within order to have an efficient website along with having solid content, responsiveness and also a strong site structure it is important in order to constantly stay updated with most recent SEO-techniques and your target marketplace.

[sbluemarketing]

Search Engines Ignoring Your Site? Tips To Boost Your Rankings!

Search optimization can turn your way. This process gets your site to the top of the search engines. Keep reading for some very helpful advice.

Keyword density is important when you optimize a web page for search engines. To avoid this, keep the total number of keywords on a certain page under 20%.

This is very true for the people who discover you through YouTube because it is easy to remember.

As you develop URL monikers for individual pages, it is important to realize that search engine spiders do not understand dynamic language or session identification names. This confuses search engines a great deal, especially if keywords are not incorporated.

Ask an educational website or a non-profit to link to your affiliate. Search engines look at results from these sites differently and rank them higher because they are considered reputable sources. Provide useful content that will encourage quality websites to feature your site. Create valuable content that reputable organizations will find useful and worthy.

Users won't spend a lot of time at your site unless they are able to get great information, so bettering your content is the simplest way to boost traffic.

Keep your pages to a single subject per page. Don't try to promote everything that you're trying to sell on one post. This can easily overwhelm your page visitors and on your page. A page that just focuses on one program will do well at getting people to visit.

Many times website owners forgot to proofread their sites, even though that is one of the most important things about owning a website. Make certain that your website is readable by both man and machine.

It is often thought that it happens automatically. Check often to ensure your website is still present and is being listed.

Try using video sitemaps and videos onto the homepage of your website's SEO. You can make use videos to familiarize your visitors with your staff and with your product. Post such videos to your site with the proper keywords. Once your video sitemap is done, Google Webmaster Tools can be used to submit your URL using Google Webmaster Central. This will attract a large amount of customers.

Use products such as AdWords or adbrite.DIY SEO does not be enough for some major ranking increases. Advertisers will help you get more visitors. Using a advertising can be a huge boon to your site grow.

The title tag is something that your main focuses. Your title tag is one of the very first things a visitor sees when they come to your site. It needs to be a unique description of the website and contain keywords that are related keywords.

The page's ranking will be improved, just like any other text content on your page.

The keywords in the title tags carry more weight with search engines than anything else on a page.

You will help your SEO by using off-site linking to reputable websites. This is by far an extremely vital part of your overall linking strategy. Search engines rank relevant off-site links full of good content higher than internal ones than just connect the various content of your site. To maximize the ranking impact, be sure to look for options that allow you to direct a hyperlink back to your own website.

A good thing to remember about marketing on the Internet is to always try to tie current events and topics that have relevance to your offerings. This helps to glean visitors who are not even have been looking for what you offer. It also keeps your site appear more informative to the regular audience.

Consider all of the techniques which will help get links to your site, such as article writing, press releases, message forums, and article writing.

Focus on phrases rather than single words. How often do you search with just using a single word? You need to choose phrases that will bring customers to your site who are searching for exactly what you're offering. " instead of something generic "Check out our sale! This will take away from the quality of your keyword phrases properly.

Be thorough in editing your site for errors and that is user-friendly. Visitors are misspelled words and poor grammar. You should also stay right on top of your links to make sure they are all active and actually take the visitor where s/he wants to go.

Create numerous gateway pages which pertain to your website. Gateway pages will help improve organic traffic on many types of search terms.

To better connect everything, place the name of your company right after the title tag link. People are not likely to search for your company by name unless it is truly well-known.

Include many keyword phrases throughout your site. This will allow you need to place them in image ALT tags and in the name of your domain now. Your site should be able to trace back to the keyword that was used to find it.

You need to have software ready to analyze your site metrics before you start any SEO work. This software can help you to identify which methods are effective and failure of your strategies.

There are some tricks that can do to ensure your site user and search friendly. Keep in mind that you have to have a website that's good looking to visitors and search engine crawlers. Your text should be easy to read with standard-size fonts that are easy on everyone's eyes. These are a few ways to get your site on the right path.

If you are running in difficulties producing good content for your blog or optimizing your website, there are a few things you can do. You need to focus on writing quality of your content and think about optimization later. If the content on your site is comprised of a long line of keywords, no visitor will come back.

You now see that SEO is an easy and very effective tool in attracting more visitors to your website, without added cost to you. Use the tips listed here to bring more people to your website. Use these tips to get ahead of the competition.

#seo #searchengineoptimization #marketing #business #google

[emmakidman727]

How to Create a YouTube Channel

If you haven't already, sign up for YouTube. They have almost taken over the free and governed globe, if I may say so. Their audience is in the millions. More than 1 billion unique users are registered each month. Acknowledge their Google affiliation. The mixture is fantastic. It's probably safe to assume they have quasi-government status. This is how you create a YouTube channel. The first step is to create an account.

You'll need to come up with a screen name. Make an effort to come up with a distinctive and simple name. Don't use a long and drawn-out screen name when you join up. People will forget your long and winding names. Have faith in me. The average person's attention span is short. 

On the internet, surfers are like flies. I'm one of them. The next step is to create a video. One is sufficient, but many are preferable. Boys and girls, it's time to produce a video. How tough is it to take a selfie with your phone camera? Maintain your composure and offer something intriguing. That's really all there is to it. You have a video now.

There are alternative options for producing video. A camera isn't even required. Almost any free or commercial programme may be used to create a slide show. It's a simple matter of download youtube videos android, or writing prose. Make your way through a timeline. 

Save the images as a video in one of the major formats. All major video formats are accepted by YouTube. Check to check if the file you're saving is compatible. Make a title for your video. This is where things may become more technical or difficult. Do not be alarmed. You should aim for a title that is related to your video.

Your title should also contain a commonly searched keyword or keyword phrase. It's crucial to know how much competition there is for your keyword or phrase. Your video will most likely go unnoticed if there is too much competition. Competing with others is a different science that merits more investigation. Look up the term "competition" in Google's Keyword Planner. 

Beginners can give their videos titles at random. When it comes to keywords, keyword phrases, and titles, you should ultimately learn to be picky. Titles are created by professional marketers by studying keywords and keyword phrases. After that, they create a video. It's a brilliant and widely used marketing strategy.

I'm guessing you want to be well-known. In the video description section, you'll want to include something. Include your URL as a standard practise. Add your affiliate link or a URL to your website. Get one if you don't already have one. Your URL will become clickable and live. You may type whatever you want up to a specific character limit. Your description section is like a classified ad. This is where you may make a quick pitch and provide a link that others can click on. It would behove you to make a tempting statement politely. Another minor science is that.

Remember, if your audience watches your video but can't click or do anything, they'll lose interest. After seeing your movie, I recommend giving your prospect something mechanical to perform. Encourage them to click your link, subscribe, or visit your website, among other things. 

I can't tell you how many times I've seen a wonderful video and wanted to buy something but couldn't find a link to do so. Some inexperienced marketers forget or are unsure how to incorporate their link. That is ludicrous. A clear call to action is required. Make it clear to your prospects what you want them to accomplish. Do not be afraid to speak up. "Click this link" is a traditional call to action.

You can still be with YouTube despite the fact that there are hundreds of firms providing a sales percentage. The concept is to utilise your YouTube channel to get people to join your affiliate programme. This is assuming you don't expect to generate money as a YouTube business partner.

 It's a whole different notion to get money from channel views. You can, in fact, do both. You can get compensated if your channel has at least 100,000 views. For channel views, YouTube only pays a tiny amount.

Some people are making huge commissions based only on channel views. Keep in mind that these people have millions of viewers. Getting a large number of channel views is a separate science. You may earn money as an affiliate without needing millions of views. You'll need a lot of channel views, but not millions. I recently discovered that you can be a YouTube Partner and an affiliate for other companies at the same time.

You can't ignore the reality that you need targeted traffic whether you're a YouTube Partner or not. Any method of generating money on YouTube necessitates the presence of traffic. There are various strategies to overcome traffic, which is an unavoidable fact. 

I do not recommend purchasing traffic. You can purchase traffic, but you'll lose your shirt in the process. You may simply be fascinating and YouTube will spotlight you. Article marketing is my preferred method. When you have the opportunity, learn about article marketing.

You'll discover that it can help you acquire free organic advertising over time. Organic advertising is how I refer to the ads and brief blurbs that appear in search engine results. 

On a search engine result page, the obvious sponsored advertising and the organic content will be displayed separately. I feel compelled to inform you that organic text necessitates continuous content input. It may be simpler to just produce a large amount of video. If you have the resources, go for it with article marketing.

The goal is to write articles about your video and send them to syndication directories. The thing that most self-proclaimed experts ignore is English grammar. You must use appropriate English language and submit to major article directories.

 This is an issue that you might be able to address. Writers should be hired. You may have an article written for a low price and syndicated with your affiliate link. Only hire writers if you are unable to write in appropriate English grammar. It is possible to promote your channel without using article marketing. I only recommend it as a more advanced method.

Having popular material is a common strategy to promote a YouTube channel. If you're good, soon everyone will notice. Of course, BBC News Tech, but the most important thing is to be excellent. This includes creating videos that people are interested in seeing. You may find examples on YouTube. 

This is how you create a YouTube channel. What you perceive may always be stimulated. It's something Hollywood does all the time. For years, professional TV and music producers have been simulating. I'm not referring to plagiarised material. Look at what you enjoy and put your own spin on it, that's all I'm saying. Don't take anything from anyone. It's always nice to have your own thoughts.

[adieka]

How Much Effectiveness is Social Media for SEO?

(1) How Much Effectiveness is Social Media for SEO? (2) Does Social Media affect SEO? Search Engine Optimization? (3) Do Social Signals Work for SEO? (4) How Important Are Social Signals to Rank? (5) Some Value of Displaying Social Share Numbers in SEO (6) Social Shares Help You Rank Higher in Google Is a Myth! (7) Can You Rank a Blog Post Purely on Social Signals With No Backlinks? (8) Do You Do Buying Social Links From Any Influencer Else? (9) A Social Media Content Strategy for a Niche of Maternity (10) Is Instagram Good for Backlinking? (1) How Much Effectiveness is Social Media for SEO? Christine I’m looking for information on link building using social media and how I can effectively use social media to grow our Search Engine Optimization (SEO). This is for a legit online business and I’m focused primarily on a North American and European audience. Anyone willing to point me to some useful reading? Anything from beginning to expert. 2 👍🏽 2 [filtered from 12 💬🗨]📰👈

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Peter Try “The Art of Social Media” by Guy Kawasaki. It’s not written from an SEO perspective, of course. It’s really about optimizing your social media channels and getting the most out of them, but it’s got useful tips on engagement on social. If you can be engaging on social, you can influence your rankings indirectly through all the traffic you send to your site from social posts.

Christine ✍️ Great! Thank you!

Jay You can't link build with social media, but you can have strategies for awareness and brand mentions which does help Search Engine Optimization (SEO) somewhat but only for your brand. If you don't have a brand and just have a generic web site… social media is not going to get you long lasting results.

Christine ✍️ Thanks for the reply and info. We are hoping to use social media to better establish and grow our brand. We have a number of things that we’d like to roll out over the next couple of months, so I’m trying to learn as much as possible so I don’t waste any opportunities. Do mentions have any direct effect or does that solely help awareness and traffic? Jay It's not direct, but I believe Google keeps an awareness of brand mention across the major social platforms. There's no way to know absolutely how their algorithm takes it into account, but from what I understand it does help. The problem with social media is that there's no link permanence and individual account values can't be corroborated easily by Google. However, it is a good way to both jump-start awareness as well as garnering opportunities for attracting web links that do matter in the long term. If you focus on social, your primary efforts will be: Page creation & maintenance on Facebook. Don't focus on post volume at first, focus on post quality and engagement. Make sure your posts are both attractive and interesting and trigger engagement from anyone seeing the post. This will fuel Facebook to show your page posts to more people more often. Facebook's algorithms are based primarily on engagement. If your brand/business has a visual angle to it take advantage of Instagram. Again, quality over quantity. Make people stop scrolling to want to look at your photos & like them. Pinterest is OK but doesn't usually drive social value. Twitter is good if you have truly interesting and unique things to say. All of these social platforms require regular attention, especially early on as you build up a following. Create a blog and add 2-3 posts to it weekly. Interesting topics, nothing bland. If you Google the topic you want to talk about and 8,000 other sites already have the same article with basically the same information you plan to post - write about something else. Or, if you have a truly distinct spin on a topic then go ahead, but you really need links to it to out-rank those who already have a foothold on the search terms related to the topic. As you build your main web site, also make sure to always focus on best practices. You don't need an SEO company to tell you what those best practices are, just Google for advice and you will find a million articles. SEO companies are good for helping you determine why you may not be ranking for specific terms, or how to lift your Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) a little higher, or to review your site to see if you are doing something wrong, or to look at technical stuff that you may not have familiarity with - like sitemap files, micro tagging, link building (the legit kind, don't fall for the mass backlink scams), HTML mark-up, etc. Christine ✍️ Thank you for such a thorough response. This is helpful info!

Chris Social media signals (e.g shares, comments likes on posts that mention your brand/on your page) directly help with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) but it's not a HUGE ranking factor. There's nothing amazing or special that you can genuinely read about. Getting specific ideas to help would be optimal, your business has a lot of viral potential, think voice over (VO) competitions, posting VO work/parodies , I remember the EA sports guy going viral a while back, stuff like that will help you get a lot of mentions and grow your brand. It's all about the content you produce and how normal people will interact with it. There's a lot of reading you can do out there, but ultimately doing actual SEO would probably help you a lot more, especially if you are targeting business owners.

Christine ✍️ Thanks for the response and info. We’ve been tossing around some viral video ideas, but you sparked a few new thoughts from my partner.

Doug Social media, at the moment, helps with traffic and branding if you have a large enough audience and/or wallet. Besides improving dwell rate, it does nothing to “help” with rankings on Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs).

Christine ✍️ So it sounds like rolling out a well planned social strategy going for brand awareness and traffic is what we should focus on. Thank you!

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(2) Does Social Media affect SEO? Search Engine Optimization? Horia created a poll. Cheers, everyone! Here's an interesting thought experiment: Does social media affect Search Engine Optimization (SEO)? More specifically, do your social media efforts (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram et. al.) have any impact on organic rankings? Would love to get everyone's verdict in the poll and your opinions in the comments. Thank you! 66 votes 15 votes 10 votes

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Marty Marion🎓 » Horia From my viewpoint, if one objective is to generate more searches for keywords or phrases that are important to you, then social media can have a massive impact on stimulating searches… and searches result in clicks… which definitely impact Search Engine Optimization (SEO)… so I would think social media CAN affect SEO, not that it DOES all the time… I always like to look at social media strategies as PART of a comprehensive SEO plan. 💟👍🏽4

Horia That's a great argument, Marty! So I take it you see the benefits of social media from a "social engineering" point of view, where you create momentum for phrases, which in turn stimulate queries. 💟👍🏽2 Marty Marion🎓 » Horia Yes, stimulate intrigue, questions, etc that make people search for the specific subjects (phrases) that are most important to you and make sure your pages are super optimized… 👍🏽2 Lees » Marty Marion Can you give us an example from the past in which you used this technique? Or is this just a theory? 👍🏽1 Marty Marion🎓 » Lees Sure. Have used it often. For a big ecommerce lingerie company we did social posts asking men to post their favorite "sexy celebrities" from the 1950s through 1980s. Searches for "sexy + lingerie type" etc went up and so did sales through organic. For a jeans company we asked "how skinny are skinny jeans for men?". Same results. Questions seem to provoke searches. 👍🏽3

Petter I do believe that some signals are included, but not to the extent that SEO users in general should have a great understanding on how to engage the public etc. there. I believe that SEO users should work with SoMe consultants, but Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a large enough field in itself, so for my part I'm happy to let SoMe consultants take the lead there, and just see how SEO can benefit from it in the ways Marty described above (open to any venue where my clients make more money). As I see it, there are two main issues with some of the "myths" going around on how social signals has an effect on Search Engine Optimization (SEO): 1: Engagement metrics is not a direct ranking impact. If it was, then the webpages that exists to spin shareable content would win in the Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs), but they don't. 2: Monitoring social media is possible, but it requires a lot of resources - and Google is already tasked with monitoring everything that can be monitored - so dedicating the amount of resources needed to be on top of this makes very little sense when there are so many other signals that aren't as "fleeting" and temporary. BUT: Google does tie in Facebook business profiles to businesses, so this might in some way somewhere feed into the algorithm, but from the little research I have done - I have yet to see any correlation between rankings and active, inactive or no business profiles on ie. FB - so if there is a signal there, then as of now it cannot be a strong one. The link from your business profile on FB is nofollow - so after march 1 2020, social media profile link might start to add value. However - visible links (written URL's that goes via redirects with nofollow) may count towards a mention when/if Google picks it up. Hashtag trends is fairly available, which could make sense for Google to tie into on queries that are fresh (I believe that at least their machine learning algorithm focusing on obtaining meaning to queries ties into this in some form or way - ie. "planking" made no sense before, but then suddenly became a trend - and I believe Google wants to be relevant on such queries and the only way to be that is to stay on top of what queries might mean). And again, like Marty stated above, Social Media has the ability to provide impact on amount of brand queries as well as other queries. So it is a valuable channel for the client to pursue. But again, I believe that our clients are better off if they have someone who solely focuses on these channels helping there, leaving us SEO users to cooperate with them but at the same time keep our focus on Search Engine Optimization (SEO). 📰👈

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(3) Do Social Signals Work for SEO? John Do Social Signals Work For SEO, Whats Your Opinion? 📰👈

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Kumar Yes...do work...do it on proper way.. After publishing new page or post...share it on social media..and do social signals on it.. Also after doing any guest post...do the same...👍3

John ✍️ Great Advice. Kobi » Kumar what do you mean by social signals? Kumar » Kobi most powerful social media's... Twitter - Retweets. Facebook - Shares. Pinterest.. - Repins. Share on all these platforms and do social signals...

Blair Yes they do work but for me best be Twitter signals overall if they come from popular accounts. John ✍️ Really? Do you think Twitter is better, why?

Kumar » John most powerful social media's... Twitter - Retweets. Facebook - Shares. Pinterest.. - Repins. Share on all and do social signals... You will see the positive response..👍2

Mike They only work in making your link building look less fake. No direct impact on rankings and I say this after buying 10’s of thousands of signals for numerous web pages.👍3

John ✍️ I Agree and Disagree......I seen someresults but nothing major.👍1 Tiwari » Mike It is all about quality and not the quantity. These 5 dollars bot-generated Fiverr social signal gigs are just worthless. Mike I’ve compared urls that I built links to with, and without social signals, never saw 1 case where a kw rank improved due to signals. Even on less competitive branded terms. If you know a vendor who can provide a better experience I’m all ears! Mike Nah, Ive used providers “recommended” by notable people in this group and others, never Fiverr...but I might as well have used Fiverr for the results.👍1 John ✍️ » Tiwari 👍.

Hays I've seen it work in for time-sensitive queries like events. I had a site ranking in the top 3 positions for a few top keywords after an event/raffle we had got shared a few hundred times and we had over 10,000 post engagements, that brought 7,000 visitors to the page in 3 days from Facebook. So within 24 hours from the post we were ranking for these keywords. 3 years later, after the event we still rank number 1 for our focus keyword which was the item we raffled. This last year's event ranks number 2 for same keyword and similar item.👍1📰👈

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(4) How Important Are Social Signals to Rank? ArtRos How important are social signals to rank? 3 👍🏽 3 [filtered from 25 💬🗨]📰👈

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Roland They can help in some areas but not a requirement for success. One very useful return from posting on social media is quicker indexing of the site promoted. Keith Webpages with a significant amounts of social engagement are likely quality pieces of content that have generated a number of other Google related signals that convinces Google to rank them higher. Doubting the causation to social signals impacting ranking that much as they are so easy to manipulate. Maggie it's part of trust and authority within your niche - but Google can tell fake social signals from true engagement. It won't affect your rank negatively if you don't have them, but they help to some extent. Peter You can indirectly influence your rankings through traffic to your site from social, so I’d say put out great content on social (or post links to good website content from social) that gets people wanting to visit your site. Steve Hi, it depends on what you mean by social signals, but as long as you mean getting likes/shares/etc for your content then I think it's definitely a positive factor. Here's a screenshot of a page of mine in the fitness niche: As you can see it has gathered over 2000 Fb shares and engagements over the years (I think 10k or more but Buzzsome has a 1 year limit to show, anyway… ) and this page ranks rather well in Google for its target keyword. Granted, I also managed to build a lot of white hat backlinks to it with outreach strategies and the Skyscraper Technique, but 1, even before I started link building to it I saw a nice little upward movement for it in the Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) after I started getting so many FB shares for it, so I think all those shares definitely sent a positive message to Google. 2, the social shares helped in one more way with Search Engine Optimization (SEO): I displayed a big Social Share Counter box on this page so that when I asked other people to link to it (you know with the outreach Skyscraper link building technique I mentioned earlier) it helped me get a "yes" from more people because they saw how popular the page was already. So I'd say bottom line: yes, social signals do help a lot with SEO both directly and indirectly. Steve P.s.: Unfortunately I got all those thousands of shares back when my site was http and not https, and since I switched to https the social signal counter doesn't really work, that's why I had to rely on Buzzsumo data as proof that you can see for yourself.📰👈

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(5) Some Value of Displaying Social Share Numbers in SEO Neil Is there 'value' in displaying social share numbers - yes or no? (and why) 3 👍🏽 3 [filtered from 30 💬🗨]📰👈

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Fleming No not for SEO purposes. It's more to show users that your website gets engagement and has value its more to create user engagement.. Imagine walking past 2 shops one has customers queuing even outside, while the other has no customers whatsoever, which one are you likely to want to go in? Now some people will go to the empty one to avoid the queue however most will want to know what that shop has the other doesn't. Hope that makes sense Neil it did in my head as I wrote it lol Its also worth noting that a lot of those plugins you can change the number of likes retweets so it doesn't even reflect the real shares etc half the time. 💟👍🏽5 Neil ✍️ On my own website I do display the shares which may look great on some urls that get shared a lot 1000+ shares etc BUT - some urls don't get shared and then potentially have the oppositive effect - 'this url has little value' (maybe it has). Also, I do wonder whether displaying what is your website's popular pages - is this giving valuable data to competitors… all this, without the effect of slowing down the load time (albeit hopefully minimally). Fleming I just see it as a vanity metric who cares if it was shared 1200 times if only 5 read the whole thing and got anything from it? Its kind of like when people go yeah my video was view 10k times but only 4 got past the 30 seconds. Daine » Christopher is right, it is a vanity metric to a degree. But, here’s the thing. It has value because: 1. Social Proof: It encourages other people to share it, thus expanding your reach, audience, and traffic. 2. It builds authority and credibility. It shows that the piece is popular. 3. It has a hidden SEO benefit, because when conducting link outreach, posts that have been shared a lot convey popularity, and value, in turn helping to increase the chances of gaining a link. People are more inclined to link to popular content. 4. It encourages people to read it more, due to social proof. Social proof is very powerful, psychologically. 5. Social signals MAY play a small part in ranking. 💟👍🏽12

Neil ✍️ THAT is my gut feeling - and why I have stuck with it… Hazi Social proof. Fleming Does it hold much value though? when social proof can be easily manipulated as most plugins you can add the share counts etc? Daine It’s more ‘perceived’ value, rather than real value. Fleming » Daine yeah more a trust signal kind of thing. Daine » Christopher , yeah, exactly. Lancaster Perception is reality and the only reality is the one your visitor chooses to believe when they are on your website.

Micha » Daine I’d go with on this one, with these additions: 6: each share is a potential batch of new readers, therefore, possible links 7: BuzzSumo recently did a study of over a million datapoints and discovered sharing on social media is half of what it used to be. Whether that’s an ongoing trend or not, FOMO, likeability, credibility and the “follow the herd” effects are all indisputable market persuaders.📰👈

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(6) Social Shares Help You Rank Higher in Google Is a Myth! Martin This guy disappointed me. Are social shares really unimportant in ranking? Myth #5 Social shares help you rank higher in Google [38 💬🗨]

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Janka You're disappointed by the truth? 👍🏽9

Shubham » Janka ✔️ Ronald » Janka lol, thats society in general though 👍🏽1

Fouad Why being disappointed? I think he explained it very well. 👍🏽1 Doug At the moment, there is no evidence to suggest that social shares directly help improve the ranking of a website. To my understanding, it might help with User engagement if it’s compelling content... which would likely help with rankings. (Arguably if it’s compelling content it would likely rank well anyway outside of social shares). Also, it might help get a page indexed that is currently not. Social Likes and Shares are too easy to spam and manipulate. The only thing I could see Google doing in the future is assigning authority or credibility to individuals who share content based on their voice within a certain community/industry... that might be an interesting (albeit somewhat concerning) progression on this topic. 👍🏽6 Bhati I have site which get traffic from Google and only links it has are from facebook shares. 👍🏽3

Owais » Bhati What type content the website shares? Bhati » Owais viral articles, political, national news. I have multiple sites. 👍🏽1

Farhat yup, social share is very important, it helps your URL to indexed and make engagement with the audience, which helps Google bot to understand your content is useful to users. 💟1

Carl » Farhat agreed i have a 50k sku ecommerce store we get lots of social shares

Kevin To explain it simply : Bot shares won't help SEO, because it won't drive traffic. But real human share will benefit to SEO BECAUSE it will drive traffric in the end. But this is not the number of shares / likes that matters but rather the fact that it drives traffic or no. In others words, you would better have a 1K shared post that drive 50% traffic than a 20k shared post driving 2% traffic. 👍🏽4 Smith There's no evidence that there's SEO traffic because of the social shares. He is right. It's the other way. You get more social shares because of your SEO traffic. And that makes sense. 👍🏽4 Suraj Only believe on your experience, there are share only there review. Toth They're an indirect factor. Way too easily gamed to be a direct factor, for Google anyhow. 👍🏽4 Hazra It certainly doesn't have any impact for info post. Social shares helps to gain more visibility which indirectly increases the chance of getting natural back links. That's it.. 👍🏽2 Homer He's wrong. Social shares are social signals, and will affect both indexing and ranking. It won't get you to page one alone, but it will make a difference. 👍🏽1

Hamid but you can't say that they are impacting directly to your rankings. 👍🏽1 Homer » Hamid Yes, because I have had sites move up from page 10 to page 5. They are. 👍🏽1 Hamid » Homer Great, so how do you monitor that really due to socials this happened? Homer » Hamid On the sites that this happened on, I only had social signals going to them. The content was also old and had quite jumping around in the SERPS. The site also had no real traffic going to it. I always start link building with social signals only, meaning that there was no other factor.

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(7) Can You Rank a Blog Post Purely on Social Signals With No Backlinks? Lyon Can you rank a blog post purely on social signals with no backlinks? [filtered from 22 💬🗨] 📰👈

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Nabil It depends on how hard to rank for the keyword yet how powerful and specific your website, last but not the least how's your website's technical Search Engine Optimization (SEO) status. Arif If you're not an instant-lover, or you're not in rush, well... yes you can. but if you are, well this method doesn't suit you. Roger You can rank an article with just dummy text and no backlist but, for that to happen, there are certain variables that need to occur and, one of the most important is keyword difficulty/competition. Oliver There is absolutely NO evidence that social signals are being used by Google as a direct ranking factor. 👍🏽1 Tanvir I think yes .. it depends on the content you have ... like if you have good content and people visit your site from the social site ... and then they create backlink ... then yes you can rank 😃 Joe Ive been doing this for 20 years and love the variety of opinions here. In various ways there is a tiny bit of truth to many of them, but Oliver states the truth. That being said other items on the page will affect the ranking. Social signals alone will do nothing for you. Social signals combined with other things like a great description in the social post or key technical aspects of the page will get additional people to click and visit so while you may think you did it with social signals, it is misleading. No one strategy is good all by itself. That is something Google frowns upon. you need multiple strategies and techniques. Above all you need kickass content which drives traffic and engagement. you might have zero backlinks and crappy technical but if your content rocks, you have people visiting, staying and engaging, Google will still rank you. their priority is the searcher and giving them the best results for their query 👍🏽1 Jim Ranked for this, no backlinks bro

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Oliver The website has 130 do-follow referring domains (according to Ahrefs), only ONE internal link (with a keyword-rich anchor text) from the homepage would be more than enough to rank #1 for that keyword, Google still uses PageRank internally. Your website looks awesome and from what I'm seeing you have a lot of useful content, reviews, case studies, and etc.. 👍🏽1 Jim » Oliver yeah but in terms of referring domains pointing directly to this page, there's none, so yeah.

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(8) Do You Do Buying Social Links From Any Influencer Else? Olga Hello! How often do you buy social links or blog posts for your projects? [filtered from 28 💬🗨] 📰👈

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Mike I never buy social links... at least not from an SEO perspective. I might approach someone with a significant following about advertising with them, but that is for the traffic, not any Search Engine Optimization (SEO) benefit. Not sure what you mean by buying blog posts. If you mean posts for your own site, I regularly pay writers to create content. If you mean guest posts on other sites, I pay for those frequently, but never through anyone selling them as a service. 👍🏽8

Wren » Mike wow so interesting. How do you go about advertising with someone with a significant following, do you get them to share your product and do they have to declare that it's a paid promotion? Mike » Wren Depends on the situation and what we are promoting. Sometimes, I might have a client willing to sponsor a YouTube video in exchange for the content creator doing one of those typical 15-30 second pitches you see on a lot of videos. In those cases, a sample of the product or a few products will be sent to them to use in the video. Stuff like that. It's never a video 100% devoted just to the product or service. Instead we sponsor one of their videos they are already doing. Wren » Mike ok, so does that mean they don't to say they have been paid for it. Mike » Wren They will say something like, "this video is sponsored by...." Wren » Mike ok cool. Cheers for sharing this with me. 👍🏽1

Singh It is not a good idea to buy a social link....in a long run it can affect your website very badly 👍🏽3

Olga ✍️ » Singh how's that? Singh The purchased social links are likely bots or inactive accounts, so they won't engage with your posts. This means your posts won't show up on Explore Pages, or on your real audience's newsfeeds. It will also make it hard to measure metrics. 👍🏽1 Olga ✍️ mm I see. That's true. Thank you! 👍🏽1 Singh Thanks for sharing

Laura Never. I share my links to my website's own social accounts. If pay-per-lead (ppl) wanna link to my pages or projects they can go ahead, I don't do any "link building" and don't find it necessary. 📰👈

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(9) A Social Media Content Strategy for a Niche of Maternity Ammar Hey SEO Pro's.. I've got a brand with a niche of maternity products.. I'm. regularly posting content on its social media platforms but I don't know why I'm unable to achieve any engagements or likes.. Could any of you experts please let me know what I'm doing wrong if possible please? Facebook link: https:/facebook.com/mamanmeofficial Instagram: instagram.com/mamanmeofficial Any type of help is appreciated, thanks a lot! 1 👍🏽 1 [filtered from 17 💬🗨]📰👈

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Shetty You do have a decent number of followers. What about your insights? How many people are you reaching and how many are taking action? Website clicks?

Ammar ✍️ Its not very good atm even after paid marketing as well..

Dielan Could be due to the fact you are only targeting consumers in Qatar? It’s not a very large country

Ammar ✍️ Tried removing Qatar, same results no effects :S

Lowry Try to engage your followers. Ask questions, post to articles & ask peoples opinion about them. Post a small fb survey about what baby merch products they want to see on the market. Eva You’re posting too much about your brand and products. Try posting 20% brand/product posts and 80% other. Who is your target audience? What are their challenges and interests? Share posts that solve a problem for them, that they can relate to, that they find useful. Particularly on Facebook, it’s about being social, not selling.

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Ammar ✍️ Tried posting tips - quotes- and stuffs like that but still no effect :s Eva » Ammar yes, you’ve posted tips and quotes but in the caption you’re selling. It’s the first thing Mums read as they scroll through their feed and they won’t even read the quote or tip in the image. You don’t have to sell in every post. Also, because you have small numbers, try sharing viral posts from similar parenting pages Ammar ✍️ Noted, What are your thoughts on post styling? are they good or do i need to change anything? Eva » Ammar I think the styling of the image is good. Just a couple of things. 1. This post, for example, [product image] I recommend that instead of writing about the business, you explain what this product actually is and how it can help a mum. 2. On Facebook don't use hashtags. 3. Try to limit the posts you have with links to an external website. Facebook likes to keep people on Facebook, not clicking out somewhere else. This one, for example, [quote image] Instead of writing about the business, write something that resonates with a mother, 'Do you feel like you need to keep your eyes open with matchsticks at the moment? Don't worry, babies start to figure out night and day by 3 weeks so (hopefully) you can get a little more sleep. Remember too, you'll have a different audience on Facebook and Instagram so try to share different content on each. Try and find a parenting group and ask mums with newborns what their challenges are and craft content around that. For each product you promote, relate it to the mother. What problem can it fix? How can it help them get more sleep? How can it help their baby sleep more? How can it fix their sore back? How can it help with breastfeeding and helping them get more milk? But also, share humor, Facebook users love humor that relates to their situation. With Instagram hashtags, look at what your competitors or similar businesses are using. Click into the hashtags, have a look at the content that is being shared and what's getting the best engagement. Ammar ✍️ These info's are gem, thanks a lot!

🔗🏹 Gergo My opinion: There are different tactics to use for different platform. Niche website built for organic traffic-turns into product selling, or other monetization methods. IG is not a platform for niche site-building, it is for entertainment! My point is, try to look for user intent perspective. People generally not using IG for finding any product to buy… imo. Another key issue is IG is full of bots, my friend tested and built 6000 followers in 3 months on a personal account with a simple code… yes it got banned, but we just wanted to see how far it goes… I assume your follower base probably full of those bots, commenting, like-ing anything, but its not a real audience with intent to buy. Haven't looked for deeper atm, but there is a huge different building a site and getting 2k traffic and converting into sales, as having as IG account and 2k followers… Sebastian Very interested. One very quickly look at the account. What comes first is mind. Is have your content made up by mother's. Join some library mother and baby groups and survey them for what are interested. Than post those on Instagram.📰👈

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(10) Is Instagram Good for Backlinking? Mikkel Is Instagram a good or necessary Backlink? [filtered from 24 💬🗨] 📰👈

🔗🏹

💬🗨

Andrei No, social media links are nofollow and do not pass link juice. Useless for SEO. 👍1

Ethan » Andrei that's not entirely true.The main argument being that social media doesn't directly affect your SEO. However, it does have an impact on the factors that do affect rankings such as traffic, meaning it indirectly affects your rankings. So, it may not directly increase your seo or provide backlinks but it definitely please a role in your seo ranking and should be utilized for best practices. 👍5 Andrei » Ethan sure, but that kind of argument can be made for any type of marketing, including paid ads. You gotta draw the line somewhere and say this is an SEO job and that is something else. Back to the question at hand, having a genuine, well maintained social media profile is a must for most businesses and will marginally contribute to your search performance. Having a backlinked social media account sitting idle is not going to contribute to your seo. 👍1 Ethan » Andrei true and I see your point there. However, social media plays a massive role indirectly with your SEO. I mean social platforms have there own search engines after all so this plays as another way to provide your company with more traffic to increase SEO. We all know how important local seo is and you might as well forget about it unless you have a social media presence. Social profiles will also ranking on Google so if you want to draw a line, then technically your now creating seo for your social profile and ranking on Google with it. Don't forget about how much content is shared through social media as well 👍2 Andrei » Ethan all good points! Although I think social media is not exactly critical for local seo. Is it? There is GMB and schema and some local directories. Never seen social media on this list. 👍1 Andrei » Ethan I feel like we are arguing, so I wanted to stress that I'm not, this is how I express curiosity. It might come off arguing-ish since my first language is russian 🙂 👍1 Ethan » Andrei I am not arguing either but I am glad that your clarified. I hate how facebook is used so much for that 🙄. I am curious as well and want to always better my skill and knowledge with SEO. I enjoy general conversations about it. True, but most if not all of those that rank without social media have been around since the dawn of google. If you take a new company and try to start ranking, it would be much much harder without social media platforms. If you were to take the same company and start with social media from day one, they are much more likely to start ranking on google faster and higher. 👍1 Swanson » Andrei I treat social media as another directory to update for locations. Will I manage your profile and post for you? No. But I want to make sure that your locations are listed correctly, that the descriptions and contact info is consistent with the rest of your web presence. I tell clients it’s just another channel you can use to present content they are adding for their site. 👍1

Ryan Let's say you are a taxidermist in a city of 1,000 people. You have one competitor.. All else being the same, your competitor has a website of the same quality as yours. If you have optimized Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and let's say you posted 50 posts, my guess is you would be ranking ahead of your competitor. It's not like an Instagram account will rank you, but in most cases it's common sense to have one, probably worth the 5 mins it takes to set it up. You're establishing your brand online. Could you go without it, of course. 👍2 Russ I just don't get why Instagram is so popular lol… You cannot put links in posts, which just seems daft and pointless… So if someone posts something that looks interesting, no way to find out more, you have to Google it for more info. So no backlink SEO benefit either. you cannot even share/re-post other people's posts from the app, you have to get another 3rd party app to do that. 📰👈

🔗🏹

This may satisfy you: Do You Reveal Yourself on Social Media that You are a Site Owner/Founder? Any Risk About it from Competitors, Haters?

#social media #social signals

[thanhtuandoan89]

Pack Up the Big Top: Insights from MozCon Virtual 2021's Grand Finale

And just like that, MozCon Virtual 2021 has come to an end. Over the past three days, we’ve seen incredibly insightful presentations on everything from content marketing, to machine learning, to new and exciting SEO tips and tricks. A big thank you to all our speakers, emcees, attendees, and volunteers in front of and behind the camera. It wouldn’t be MozCon without you!

Check out our recaps from day one and day two, and if you missed day three, read on for top-level takeaways! But to get the most out of this year’s MozCon content, make sure to access the video bundle when it goes on sale Friday, and stay tuned for details on MozCon 2022 —

You heard it here first, folks: #MozCon 2022 is slated to be LIVE in Seattle, in person! 🎉 https://t.co/3CKcI0N9l7

— Moz (@Moz) July 14, 2021

— that’s right! We’ll be back live and in-person next year in Seattle. Can’t wait to see you all there!

Tom Capper — The Fast & The Spurious: Core Web Vitals & SEO

“What if I told you that Core Web Vitals, and this update, are a bluff?”

Tom sure did kick off day three by blowing our minds with his opening line — the update everyone has been obsessing over for the last year isn’t actually all it’s cracked up to be?

Well, sort of.

It turns out we can’t afford to call Google’s bluff, but we can “sort of cheat”. Tom went on to lay out the flaws of Core Web Vitals, which all add up to the fact that they actually encourage terrible optimizations.

Core Web Vitals are all the rage, but do they live up to the hype? Here's @THCapper's take - SEO is like the prisoner's dilemma - Prioritize high traffic pages & page speed - Metrics can be gamed - Drop, delay unstable elements or move below fold - Rethink hero images#mozconpic.twitter.com/hgqeUZzKTP

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

So what’s taking so long? As we all know, this roll out has been delayed multiple times. Tom uses a brilliant example of the classic prisoner’s dilemma to explain why:

@THCapper pulling a #ChidiAnagonye by bringing moral philosophy into an SEO talk. #MozCon#TheGoodPlacepic.twitter.com/A7cx1GtKVy

— Sandi Pope Griffin (@sandpoper) July 14, 2021

As it turns out, Google has been contradicting themselves when talking about CWV because they can’t actually roll out updates that undermine the quality of their services — they’re relying on us, the SEOs, to act as the prisoners in their big dilemma of rankings.

On Google’s “There appears to be some confusion”: “Well, yes, you will notice some confusion if you directly contradict yourself.” @THCapper#MozCon

— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 14, 2021

Tom advised SEOs to take advantage of Google Discover, which is actually a massive, untapped traffic opportunity as it’s more responsive to speed than organic search.

"For most sites I see that are taking Google Discover even remotely seriously, they are getting more traffic from Discover than from organic search." - @THCapper dropping shocking stats. #MozConpic.twitter.com/kJSPDKCTTn

— Rob Ousbey (@RobOusbey) July 14, 2021

Before he signed off, Tom reiterated:

Prioritize high traffic pages

Metrics can be gamed/optimized

Don’t do any of this at the expense of speed

We won’t dig into the how for all of this here, so definitely check out his presentation in the video bundle!

Luke Carthy — The Ultimate How-To for Faceted Navigation SEO in E-Commerce

After an introduction that got the whole chat laughing (“Hi, I’m Morgan Freeman. Welcome to the afterlife.”), Luke Carthy showed us how he generated a 25% increase in organic traffic using faceted navigation.

Wait, what’s faceted navigation? You’ve definitely run into it if you’ve ever shopped online. Think about the stores that allow you to filter and sort your search. Behind that search is a faceted nav, defining, filtering, and sorting URLs on a website.

If it’s so common, what’s wrong with it? As Luke explains, faceted navs generate hundreds of long, parameterized, filtered URLs. It’s messy, it’s bloated, and bots can’t easily crawl them.

SEOs tend to counteract this bloat by “nofollowing the shit out of” faceted URLs. But when we do that, all of that long-tail gold disappears.

So what’s the solution? As Luke says, “It’s all about balance!”

(Side note: how cute is this photo??)

Luke shared some ways to “make facets sexy” by:

Understanding your site’s taxonomy

Using filters only to add granularity

Using “-” (dash) instead of “_” (underscore)

Filtering parameter URLs in GA to spot opportunities

Using a consistent structure

Limiting indexable parameter options

There were a bunch more actionable tips in this presentation, but we won’t spoil it all for you!

Okay, wow, this presentation is EXTREMELY actionable for anyone who handles e-commerce sites. But also, if you handle a blog - maybe try and use it for tags, categories, etc. Just a thought off the top of the dome 🤷‍♀️@MrLukeCarthy#MozCon

— Brie E Anderson (@brie_e_anderson) July 14, 2021

Miracle Inameti-Archibong — Harnessing the Natural Language Toolkit for More Productive SEO

In her quick presentation, MozCon newcomer Miracle walked us through ways to use Natural Language Processing to do our SEO tasks — like keyword research — and even shared some of her own resources to help us do it!

With Miracle’s comprehensive Natural Language Processor with Python, you can analyze up to 10,000 keywords with the click of a button and group them based on category, frequency, and search intent. Don’t worry — even if you aren’t a programmer, Miracle’s scripts are easy enough to plug and play so you can start analyzing immediately.

If you're not following @mira_inam yet, what are you doing? Miracle just shared SO many actionable keyword research takeaways!!! Thank you!!! 🤯🤯🤯 https://t.co/ESStpcLt5I

— Britney Muller (@BritneyMuller) July 14, 2021

Miracle then walked us through how to get the script up and running step-by-step. The results were mind-bending. In just a few short clicks, she produced a wealth of keyword data sure to fuel some brilliant strategies and ideas.

To be honest, there was so much information in such a short time frame, this is one we’ll have to revisit again to absorb every tip possible, but click below to access Miracle’s scripts:

http://bit.ly/keywordclassification

http://bit.ly/keywordcluster

Amanda Milligan — A Live Guide to Finding & Filling the Gaps in Your Link Strategy

Amanda kicked off her first MozCon presentation by reiterating the importance of quality over quantity, to the tune of enthusiastic cheers from the MozCon chat box. In today’s climate, quality content is what will get you that authority and trustworthiness today’s marketers (and Google) crave. Quantity may give you a short term boost, but it won’t last and it won’t compound.

@millanda on creating link-worthy content: "Always remember that it's not just about the link juice, but about the excellence you've created and the value you've provided as a result." #mozcon#SEO#linkbuildingpic.twitter.com/yT7uqIS7OL

— Katie Bradley (@KtBee21) July 14, 2021

But Google is just a robot and they base their assumptions on links: Who owns them and who links to whom? If your competitors are ranking on time.com and you aren’t, then Google will see your competitors more favorably and rank them higher in the SERP.

Amanda reminds us that these gaps are opportunities. If your competitor can get a link on Time.com, then so can you!

Amanda jumps straight to Moz Pro’s Link Intersect — “This tool was made for this kind of analysis!” — measuring up Chewy.com to competitors Petco.com and Petsmart.com to reveal the places where Chewy’s competitors link, but Chewy doesn’t.

One such article on CNN.com links to Petsmart and Petco and features a very cute guinea pig in a suit of armor — is it possible for Chewy to obtain a link to CNN? Yes!

Developing the content is only half the battle. Once you have something you think will resonate, it’s time to start pitching, which is arguably “where many link builders fall short.” In the pitching process, Amanda offers a fool proof plan of attack: “Pitch your content exclusively at first, and then once published, you can begin to take it elsewhere.” Publishers love exclusive content because they can leverage it to drive more views to their own content.

Amanda also drives home another link building golden rule: make sure you research and position your pitches and tailor them to the publisher. Gone are the days of mass outreach, and that won’t serve you well in the long run.

Once you’ve done the work, it’s time to track and record your progress. Take note of all the places your content shows up (anchor text, images, etc.) or whether it is do-follow or not.

Finding & filling gaps in your link strategy: 1/2 Finding - Identify brands building great links - See who links to them, but not to you (use a tool like Moz's link intersect) - Analyze the types of content earning links - Consider similar angles@millanda#MozConpic.twitter.com/lsH0DcbVfk

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

Check out Amanda’s Whiteboard Friday on crafting the perfect pitch email for more tips!

Lily Ray — From the Medic Update to Now: How the E-A-T Ecosystem Has Transformed Organic Search

Lily Ray has been studying the evolution of Google and E-A-T for a few years now, and in this presentation, she outlined key changes in how Google perceives content – specifically when it comes to the rise of misinformation.

Since 2016, and especially in the last year, more people turn to Google for information on things like politics, vaccines, COVID, and other important topics. This makes it increasingly necessary for Google to surface reliable information. In times of crisis, things become even more critical, and according to the data, Google begins to favor more authoritative sources versus relevant sources. We don’t know exactly how this is determined, but in her study, the data shows that Google favorably ranks content from reputable sources for potentially controversial keywords.

If there is one thing that Lily wants us to walk away with, it's the “E-A-T matters in crisis”, and is Google’s quality standard for evaluating content, authors, and websites.

As a result of this, Google saw a sharp decline in search visibility for questionable news sources, which then expanded to include health and science sites, regardless of the technical optimization on those sites.

@lilyraynyc explains E-A-T at #MozCon E-A-T was created in 2014 to make sure the quality of the content they are surfacing is meeting the needs of the users. @Moz In 2017 many of the fake news were wiped off the SERPs. Then this continued in 2018 with the YMYL sites pic.twitter.com/6PUCFwKrbV

— TurnDigi (@TurnDigi) July 14, 2021

Lily digs into keyword comparisons, showing how more authoritative sites became increasingly more visible between 2018 and 2021.

If you are wondering how E-A-T impacts search results - these slides by @lilyraynyc showing real life examples are sooo good #MozConpic.twitter.com/eQux45kKmm

— Casie Gillette (@Casieg) July 14, 2021

Most of the sites that lost visibility were doing some questionable things including:

Leveraging questionable authors

Had poor reputations

Published deceptive content

Lacked sufficient sources

Published dangerous medical advice

Included hate speech

Included excessive affiliate or sales links

“Winning sites make it really clear who they are, who writes for them, how they make money on the sites, why they should trust them […]—all of these great things that really instill trust in the user.” @lilyraynyc#MozCon

— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 14, 2021

From there, Lily dug into 10 key ways Google has changed, and we encourage you to check out her slides and take a look for yourself.

What do all these changes mean for SEO? The landscape is more complex and competitive than ever, so it’s important to be reasonable with your organic search goals and always put E-A-T at the forefront of your SEO Strategy.

Learn from the winners investing in EAT over the last few years of Google’s evolution: @lilyraynyc#mozcon@Healthline@NerdWallet@[email protected]/0TfFAoNWqc

— Amsive Digital (@Amsive_Digital) July 14, 2021

Kameron Jenkins — The Content Refresh: How to Do More With Less

Kameron Jenkins is no stranger to content. She manages multiple blogs and currently works for e-commerce powerhouse, Shopify.

When it comes to content, she knows that the best way to regain lost traffic and give your content new life is through a content refresh. In her presentation, she walked us through her exact process for identifying and updating old content. Surprisingly, most content marketers only dedicate 10-25% of their time to content refreshes, even though a content refresh can lead to more ROI in the long term.

Content people! About what % of your team's publishing calendar is *refreshes (vs. brand new content)? *taking something that was previously published and updating it.

— Kameron Jenkins 👋 (@Kammie_Jenkins) May 11, 2021

How do you identify the content that could benefit from a refresh? Look at your Google Analytics Landing Page report alongside Google Search Console, and prioritize content based on goal conversions, trending topics, and business priorities.

@Kammie_Jenkins Great deck and congrats on #mozcon!!! We're totally aligned on using the biggest movers for analysis. I love including impressions too to see the scope of opportunities. Kind of like this: pic.twitter.com/5hoaova2zL

— Noah Learner (He/Him) (@noahlearner) July 14, 2021

Oh heck, I loooove anyone who has a favorite GA view. But add in GSC data exports... I think I'm in heaven. Pageviews going down in GA + Losing rank for specific keywords in GSC = Opportunity for content revamp#MozCon

— Brie E Anderson (@brie_e_anderson) July 14, 2021

Next, it’s time to refresh. When moving into the execution, you’ll want to ask yourself three key questions:

What’s table stakes?

What will give you the competitive advantage?

And what will maximize conversions?

Other content refresh opportunities to look out for are consolidation, query targeting, and internal linking.

How can you stand out from the competition in your content refresh? Incorporate original research and expert quotes to beef up the authority and originality of your post.

Lastly, maximize your conversions by testing out your CTA placement and make your offers relevant to your audience.

She left us with some wise words of wisdom, ���SEO is like owning a car. Even when the car is paid off, you still need to conduct regular maintenance to keep that engine running.”

Some tips for getting more value from your existing content: - Refresh decaying content to rank faster, increase ROI & maintain brand credibility - Remember session loss ≠ Traffic loss - Leverage GA & GSC data - Prioritize by trend, conversions & value@Kammie_Jenkins#MozConpic.twitter.com/SAVTtAFMIC

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

Best quote of #MozCon by @Kammie_Jenkins of @Shopifypic.twitter.com/tNb6qvwRO6

— Barb Davids 🤓🏃‍♀️🍻 (@BarbDavids) July 14, 2021

Wil Reynolds — The 3 Most Important Search Marketing Tools…Your Heart, Your Brain, & Your [Small] Ego

Wil brought the energy yet again for his ninth MozCon presentation, closing out the conference with a bang. His message was simple yet powerful: Your top three tools are your heart, your brain, and your small ego. But what does that mean, exactly?

Small ego

Wil began by introducing the concept of intellectual humility, or the recognition that some of the things you believe just might be wrong. He urged us to listen to the people around us who say there's a better way — even brand-new coworkers or recent college grads whose ideas you might otherwise discount.

Sharing this with everyone I know 👏 #mozconhttps://t.co/f1x5gDp5is

— Casie Gillette (@Casieg) July 14, 2021

And don't feel badly that you might be wrong — Wil posits that not knowing your own ignorance is just part of the human condition. He shared a quote from Upton Sinclair that was especially poignant:

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.

Heart

A hundred years ago, no business needed SEO. They needed customers, profits, and sales. And as true then as it is now, they needed to know their customers.

One slide stood out loud and clear: The less you understand your customer, the more you spend to acquire them. And as Wil said, reports that lack dollar signs don't land on real decision makers' desks. Here's where your brain comes in.

“Best practices are a great start for those who lack data, or have data but can’t process it.” - @wilreynolds#MozCon#IntellectualHonestypic.twitter.com/91QiMy4ZDq

— Michael Tolosa (@TolosaSEO) July 14, 2021

Brain

Wil presented a bit of a conundrum: making decisions based on your gut may be easy and comfortable, but it's the data that gets you the insights you need to create and test hypotheses. However, exhaustive data — the kind of data where opportunity lives — is probably too big for your laptop to handle. What's an SEO to do?

Of course he had answers! Wil's suggestion was to harness the power of ngrams. With the help of a tool like PowerBI or BigQuery and using ngrams to examine all the search terms, you can find all your ranking results and see where your search term isn't in the title.

Transform your SEO data into winning insights: - Shrink your ego & question assumptions - Don't rely on best practices. - Tools are a start, not an end. - Business is about $ - Understanding your customer saves $ - What people do & say are different@wilreynolds#mozconpic.twitter.com/IB7CcQ4IpN

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

There's too much goodness to cram into a short recap, so you'll definitely want to get yourself a copy of the MozCon video bundle when it's ready for purchase. Until then, a few final suggestions from Wil:

Examining all your data is the only way to capture all your opportunities; resist the urge to pare it down to the top 20%. Every time you shrink your data down, you're missing out on opportunities that someone else can see.

See every data set through a competitive lens: if all else is the same, how do you create value?

Combine your paid and SEO data together — get the dollar signs in those reports and get in front of key decision makers

Learn SQL. You'll be able to search for exactly what you need within your own data, you won't have to rely on others, and your hypotheses will benefit from your newfound data freedom.

Be brave enough to suck at something new. Stop doing the thing that you feel comfortable with. Run your own experiments and validate your hypotheses. It'll be worth it in the end!

Hey #MozCon thank you! Remember: 1 - Surround yourself with people willing to show you a new way (show >> tell) - its easy to find people to tell you you are doing it wrong, find the people who build stuff to show you a new way.

— Wil Reynolds (@wilreynolds) July 14, 2021

Thanks everyone for a wonderful show! And we’ll see you in person next year!

#MozCon was freaking awesome! I learned so much and enjoyed meeting so many new colleagues! Thank you @Moz for such a wonderful event!

— Taylor Berg (@taylorannberg) July 15, 2021

[drummcarpentry]

Pack Up the Big Top: Insights from MozCon Virtual 2021's Grand Finale

And just like that, MozCon Virtual 2021 has come to an end. Over the past three days, we’ve seen incredibly insightful presentations on everything from content marketing, to machine learning, to new and exciting SEO tips and tricks. A big thank you to all our speakers, emcees, attendees, and volunteers in front of and behind the camera. It wouldn’t be MozCon without you!

Check out our recaps from day one and day two, and if you missed day three, read on for top-level takeaways! But to get the most out of this year’s MozCon content, make sure to access the video bundle when it goes on sale Friday, and stay tuned for details on MozCon 2022 —

You heard it here first, folks: #MozCon 2022 is slated to be LIVE in Seattle, in person! 🎉 https://t.co/3CKcI0N9l7

— Moz (@Moz) July 14, 2021

— that’s right! We’ll be back live and in-person next year in Seattle. Can’t wait to see you all there!

Tom Capper — The Fast & The Spurious: Core Web Vitals & SEO

“What if I told you that Core Web Vitals, and this update, are a bluff?”

Tom sure did kick off day three by blowing our minds with his opening line — the update everyone has been obsessing over for the last year isn’t actually all it’s cracked up to be?

Well, sort of.

It turns out we can’t afford to call Google’s bluff, but we can “sort of cheat”. Tom went on to lay out the flaws of Core Web Vitals, which all add up to the fact that they actually encourage terrible optimizations.

Core Web Vitals are all the rage, but do they live up to the hype? Here's @THCapper's take - SEO is like the prisoner's dilemma - Prioritize high traffic pages & page speed - Metrics can be gamed - Drop, delay unstable elements or move below fold - Rethink hero images#mozconpic.twitter.com/hgqeUZzKTP

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

So what’s taking so long? As we all know, this roll out has been delayed multiple times. Tom uses a brilliant example of the classic prisoner’s dilemma to explain why:

@THCapper pulling a #ChidiAnagonye by bringing moral philosophy into an SEO talk. #MozCon#TheGoodPlacepic.twitter.com/A7cx1GtKVy

— Sandi Pope Griffin (@sandpoper) July 14, 2021

As it turns out, Google has been contradicting themselves when talking about CWV because they can’t actually roll out updates that undermine the quality of their services — they’re relying on us, the SEOs, to act as the prisoners in their big dilemma of rankings.

On Google’s “There appears to be some confusion”: “Well, yes, you will notice some confusion if you directly contradict yourself.” @THCapper#MozCon

— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 14, 2021

Tom advised SEOs to take advantage of Google Discover, which is actually a massive, untapped traffic opportunity as it’s more responsive to speed than organic search.

"For most sites I see that are taking Google Discover even remotely seriously, they are getting more traffic from Discover than from organic search." - @THCapper dropping shocking stats. #MozConpic.twitter.com/kJSPDKCTTn

— Rob Ousbey (@RobOusbey) July 14, 2021

Before he signed off, Tom reiterated:

Prioritize high traffic pages

Metrics can be gamed/optimized

Don’t do any of this at the expense of speed

We won’t dig into the how for all of this here, so definitely check out his presentation in the video bundle!

Luke Carthy — The Ultimate How-To for Faceted Navigation SEO in E-Commerce

After an introduction that got the whole chat laughing (“Hi, I’m Morgan Freeman. Welcome to the afterlife.”), Luke Carthy showed us how he generated a 25% increase in organic traffic using faceted navigation.

Wait, what’s faceted navigation? You’ve definitely run into it if you’ve ever shopped online. Think about the stores that allow you to filter and sort your search. Behind that search is a faceted nav, defining, filtering, and sorting URLs on a website.

If it’s so common, what’s wrong with it? As Luke explains, faceted navs generate hundreds of long, parameterized, filtered URLs. It’s messy, it’s bloated, and bots can’t easily crawl them.

SEOs tend to counteract this bloat by “nofollowing the shit out of” faceted URLs. But when we do that, all of that long-tail gold disappears.

So what’s the solution? As Luke says, “It’s all about balance!”

(Side note: how cute is this photo??)

Luke shared some ways to “make facets sexy” by:

Understanding your site’s taxonomy

Using filters only to add granularity

Using “-” (dash) instead of “_” (underscore)

Filtering parameter URLs in GA to spot opportunities

Using a consistent structure

Limiting indexable parameter options

There were a bunch more actionable tips in this presentation, but we won’t spoil it all for you!

Okay, wow, this presentation is EXTREMELY actionable for anyone who handles e-commerce sites. But also, if you handle a blog - maybe try and use it for tags, categories, etc. Just a thought off the top of the dome 🤷‍♀️@MrLukeCarthy#MozCon

— Brie E Anderson (@brie_e_anderson) July 14, 2021

Miracle Inameti-Archibong — Harnessing the Natural Language Toolkit for More Productive SEO

In her quick presentation, MozCon newcomer Miracle walked us through ways to use Natural Language Processing to do our SEO tasks — like keyword research — and even shared some of her own resources to help us do it!

With Miracle’s comprehensive Natural Language Processor with Python, you can analyze up to 10,000 keywords with the click of a button and group them based on category, frequency, and search intent. Don’t worry — even if you aren’t a programmer, Miracle’s scripts are easy enough to plug and play so you can start analyzing immediately.

If you're not following @mira_inam yet, what are you doing? Miracle just shared SO many actionable keyword research takeaways!!! Thank you!!! 🤯🤯🤯 https://t.co/ESStpcLt5I

— Britney Muller (@BritneyMuller) July 14, 2021

Miracle then walked us through how to get the script up and running step-by-step. The results were mind-bending. In just a few short clicks, she produced a wealth of keyword data sure to fuel some brilliant strategies and ideas.

To be honest, there was so much information in such a short time frame, this is one we’ll have to revisit again to absorb every tip possible, but click below to access Miracle’s scripts:

http://bit.ly/keywordclassification

http://bit.ly/keywordcluster

Amanda Milligan — A Live Guide to Finding & Filling the Gaps in Your Link Strategy

Amanda kicked off her first MozCon presentation by reiterating the importance of quality over quantity, to the tune of enthusiastic cheers from the MozCon chat box. In today’s climate, quality content is what will get you that authority and trustworthiness today’s marketers (and Google) crave. Quantity may give you a short term boost, but it won’t last and it won’t compound.

@millanda on creating link-worthy content: "Always remember that it's not just about the link juice, but about the excellence you've created and the value you've provided as a result." #mozcon#SEO#linkbuildingpic.twitter.com/yT7uqIS7OL

— Katie Bradley (@KtBee21) July 14, 2021

But Google is just a robot and they base their assumptions on links: Who owns them and who links to whom? If your competitors are ranking on time.com and you aren’t, then Google will see your competitors more favorably and rank them higher in the SERP.

Amanda reminds us that these gaps are opportunities. If your competitor can get a link on Time.com, then so can you!

Amanda jumps straight to Moz Pro’s Link Intersect — “This tool was made for this kind of analysis!” — measuring up Chewy.com to competitors Petco.com and Petsmart.com to reveal the places where Chewy’s competitors link, but Chewy doesn’t.

One such article on CNN.com links to Petsmart and Petco and features a very cute guinea pig in a suit of armor — is it possible for Chewy to obtain a link to CNN? Yes!

Developing the content is only half the battle. Once you have something you think will resonate, it’s time to start pitching, which is arguably “where many link builders fall short.” In the pitching process, Amanda offers a fool proof plan of attack: “Pitch your content exclusively at first, and then once published, you can begin to take it elsewhere.” Publishers love exclusive content because they can leverage it to drive more views to their own content.

Amanda also drives home another link building golden rule: make sure you research and position your pitches and tailor them to the publisher. Gone are the days of mass outreach, and that won’t serve you well in the long run.

Once you’ve done the work, it’s time to track and record your progress. Take note of all the places your content shows up (anchor text, images, etc.) or whether it is do-follow or not.

Finding & filling gaps in your link strategy: 1/2 Finding - Identify brands building great links - See who links to them, but not to you (use a tool like Moz's link intersect) - Analyze the types of content earning links - Consider similar angles@millanda#MozConpic.twitter.com/lsH0DcbVfk

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

Check out Amanda’s Whiteboard Friday on crafting the perfect pitch email for more tips!

Lily Ray — From the Medic Update to Now: How the E-A-T Ecosystem Has Transformed Organic Search

Lily Ray has been studying the evolution of Google and E-A-T for a few years now, and in this presentation, she outlined key changes in how Google perceives content – specifically when it comes to the rise of misinformation.

Since 2016, and especially in the last year, more people turn to Google for information on things like politics, vaccines, COVID, and other important topics. This makes it increasingly necessary for Google to surface reliable information. In times of crisis, things become even more critical, and according to the data, Google begins to favor more authoritative sources versus relevant sources. We don’t know exactly how this is determined, but in her study, the data shows that Google favorably ranks content from reputable sources for potentially controversial keywords.

If there is one thing that Lily wants us to walk away with, it's the “E-A-T matters in crisis”, and is Google’s quality standard for evaluating content, authors, and websites.

As a result of this, Google saw a sharp decline in search visibility for questionable news sources, which then expanded to include health and science sites, regardless of the technical optimization on those sites.

@lilyraynyc explains E-A-T at #MozCon E-A-T was created in 2014 to make sure the quality of the content they are surfacing is meeting the needs of the users. @Moz In 2017 many of the fake news were wiped off the SERPs. Then this continued in 2018 with the YMYL sites pic.twitter.com/6PUCFwKrbV

— TurnDigi (@TurnDigi) July 14, 2021

Lily digs into keyword comparisons, showing how more authoritative sites became increasingly more visible between 2018 and 2021.

If you are wondering how E-A-T impacts search results - these slides by @lilyraynyc showing real life examples are sooo good #MozConpic.twitter.com/eQux45kKmm

— Casie Gillette (@Casieg) July 14, 2021

Most of the sites that lost visibility were doing some questionable things including:

Leveraging questionable authors

Had poor reputations

Published deceptive content

Lacked sufficient sources

Published dangerous medical advice

Included hate speech

Included excessive affiliate or sales links

“Winning sites make it really clear who they are, who writes for them, how they make money on the sites, why they should trust them […]—all of these great things that really instill trust in the user.” @lilyraynyc#MozCon

— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 14, 2021

From there, Lily dug into 10 key ways Google has changed, and we encourage you to check out her slides and take a look for yourself.

What do all these changes mean for SEO? The landscape is more complex and competitive than ever, so it’s important to be reasonable with your organic search goals and always put E-A-T at the forefront of your SEO Strategy.

Learn from the winners investing in EAT over the last few years of Google’s evolution: @lilyraynyc#mozcon@Healthline@NerdWallet@[email protected]/0TfFAoNWqc

— Amsive Digital (@Amsive_Digital) July 14, 2021

Kameron Jenkins — The Content Refresh: How to Do More With Less

Kameron Jenkins is no stranger to content. She manages multiple blogs and currently works for e-commerce powerhouse, Shopify.

When it comes to content, she knows that the best way to regain lost traffic and give your content new life is through a content refresh. In her presentation, she walked us through her exact process for identifying and updating old content. Surprisingly, most content marketers only dedicate 10-25% of their time to content refreshes, even though a content refresh can lead to more ROI in the long term.

Content people! About what % of your team's publishing calendar is *refreshes (vs. brand new content)? *taking something that was previously published and updating it.

— Kameron Jenkins 👋 (@Kammie_Jenkins) May 11, 2021

How do you identify the content that could benefit from a refresh? Look at your Google Analytics Landing Page report alongside Google Search Console, and prioritize content based on goal conversions, trending topics, and business priorities.

@Kammie_Jenkins Great deck and congrats on #mozcon!!! We're totally aligned on using the biggest movers for analysis. I love including impressions too to see the scope of opportunities. Kind of like this: pic.twitter.com/5hoaova2zL

— Noah Learner (He/Him) (@noahlearner) July 14, 2021

Oh heck, I loooove anyone who has a favorite GA view. But add in GSC data exports... I think I'm in heaven. Pageviews going down in GA + Losing rank for specific keywords in GSC = Opportunity for content revamp#MozCon

— Brie E Anderson (@brie_e_anderson) July 14, 2021

Next, it’s time to refresh. When moving into the execution, you’ll want to ask yourself three key questions:

What’s table stakes?

What will give you the competitive advantage?

And what will maximize conversions?

Other content refresh opportunities to look out for are consolidation, query targeting, and internal linking.

How can you stand out from the competition in your content refresh? Incorporate original research and expert quotes to beef up the authority and originality of your post.

Lastly, maximize your conversions by testing out your CTA placement and make your offers relevant to your audience.

She left us with some wise words of wisdom, “SEO is like owning a car. Even when the car is paid off, you still need to conduct regular maintenance to keep that engine running.”

Some tips for getting more value from your existing content: - Refresh decaying content to rank faster, increase ROI & maintain brand credibility - Remember session loss ≠ Traffic loss - Leverage GA & GSC data - Prioritize by trend, conversions & value@Kammie_Jenkins#MozConpic.twitter.com/SAVTtAFMIC

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

Best quote of #MozCon by @Kammie_Jenkins of @Shopifypic.twitter.com/tNb6qvwRO6

— Barb Davids 🤓🏃‍♀️🍻 (@BarbDavids) July 14, 2021

Wil Reynolds — The 3 Most Important Search Marketing Tools…Your Heart, Your Brain, & Your [Small] Ego

Wil brought the energy yet again for his ninth MozCon presentation, closing out the conference with a bang. His message was simple yet powerful: Your top three tools are your heart, your brain, and your small ego. But what does that mean, exactly?

Small ego

Wil began by introducing the concept of intellectual humility, or the recognition that some of the things you believe just might be wrong. He urged us to listen to the people around us who say there's a better way — even brand-new coworkers or recent college grads whose ideas you might otherwise discount.

Sharing this with everyone I know 👏 #mozconhttps://t.co/f1x5gDp5is

— Casie Gillette (@Casieg) July 14, 2021

And don't feel badly that you might be wrong — Wil posits that not knowing your own ignorance is just part of the human condition. He shared a quote from Upton Sinclair that was especially poignant:

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.

Heart

A hundred years ago, no business needed SEO. They needed customers, profits, and sales. And as true then as it is now, they needed to know their customers.

One slide stood out loud and clear: The less you understand your customer, the more you spend to acquire them. And as Wil said, reports that lack dollar signs don't land on real decision makers' desks. Here's where your brain comes in.

“Best practices are a great start for those who lack data, or have data but can’t process it.” - @wilreynolds#MozCon#IntellectualHonestypic.twitter.com/91QiMy4ZDq

— Michael Tolosa (@TolosaSEO) July 14, 2021

Brain

Wil presented a bit of a conundrum: making decisions based on your gut may be easy and comfortable, but it's the data that gets you the insights you need to create and test hypotheses. However, exhaustive data — the kind of data where opportunity lives — is probably too big for your laptop to handle. What's an SEO to do?

Of course he had answers! Wil's suggestion was to harness the power of ngrams. With the help of a tool like PowerBI or BigQuery and using ngrams to examine all the search terms, you can find all your ranking results and see where your search term isn't in the title.

Transform your SEO data into winning insights: - Shrink your ego & question assumptions - Don't rely on best practices. - Tools are a start, not an end. - Business is about $ - Understanding your customer saves $ - What people do & say are different@wilreynolds#mozconpic.twitter.com/IB7CcQ4IpN

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

There's too much goodness to cram into a short recap, so you'll definitely want to get yourself a copy of the MozCon video bundle when it's ready for purchase. Until then, a few final suggestions from Wil:

Examining all your data is the only way to capture all your opportunities; resist the urge to pare it down to the top 20%. Every time you shrink your data down, you're missing out on opportunities that someone else can see.

See every data set through a competitive lens: if all else is the same, how do you create value?

Combine your paid and SEO data together — get the dollar signs in those reports and get in front of key decision makers

Learn SQL. You'll be able to search for exactly what you need within your own data, you won't have to rely on others, and your hypotheses will benefit from your newfound data freedom.

Be brave enough to suck at something new. Stop doing the thing that you feel comfortable with. Run your own experiments and validate your hypotheses. It'll be worth it in the end!

Hey #MozCon thank you! Remember: 1 - Surround yourself with people willing to show you a new way (show >> tell) - its easy to find people to tell you you are doing it wrong, find the people who build stuff to show you a new way.

— Wil Reynolds (@wilreynolds) July 14, 2021

Thanks everyone for a wonderful show! And we’ll see you in person next year!

#MozCon was freaking awesome! I learned so much and enjoyed meeting so many new colleagues! Thank you @Moz for such a wonderful event!

— Taylor Berg (@taylorannberg) July 15, 2021

[lakelandseo]

Pack Up the Big Top: Insights from MozCon Virtual 2021's Grand Finale

And just like that, MozCon Virtual 2021 has come to an end. Over the past three days, we’ve seen incredibly insightful presentations on everything from content marketing, to machine learning, to new and exciting SEO tips and tricks. A big thank you to all our speakers, emcees, attendees, and volunteers in front of and behind the camera. It wouldn’t be MozCon without you!

Check out our recaps from day one and day two, and if you missed day three, read on for top-level takeaways! But to get the most out of this year’s MozCon content, make sure to access the video bundle when it goes on sale Friday, and stay tuned for details on MozCon 2022 —

You heard it here first, folks: #MozCon 2022 is slated to be LIVE in Seattle, in person! 🎉 https://t.co/3CKcI0N9l7

— Moz (@Moz) July 14, 2021

— that’s right! We’ll be back live and in-person next year in Seattle. Can’t wait to see you all there!

Tom Capper — The Fast & The Spurious: Core Web Vitals & SEO

“What if I told you that Core Web Vitals, and this update, are a bluff?”

Tom sure did kick off day three by blowing our minds with his opening line — the update everyone has been obsessing over for the last year isn’t actually all it’s cracked up to be?

Well, sort of.

It turns out we can’t afford to call Google’s bluff, but we can “sort of cheat”. Tom went on to lay out the flaws of Core Web Vitals, which all add up to the fact that they actually encourage terrible optimizations.

Core Web Vitals are all the rage, but do they live up to the hype? Here's @THCapper's take - SEO is like the prisoner's dilemma - Prioritize high traffic pages & page speed - Metrics can be gamed - Drop, delay unstable elements or move below fold - Rethink hero images#mozconpic.twitter.com/hgqeUZzKTP

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

So what’s taking so long? As we all know, this roll out has been delayed multiple times. Tom uses a brilliant example of the classic prisoner’s dilemma to explain why:

@THCapper pulling a #ChidiAnagonye by bringing moral philosophy into an SEO talk. #MozCon#TheGoodPlacepic.twitter.com/A7cx1GtKVy

— Sandi Pope Griffin (@sandpoper) July 14, 2021

As it turns out, Google has been contradicting themselves when talking about CWV because they can’t actually roll out updates that undermine the quality of their services — they’re relying on us, the SEOs, to act as the prisoners in their big dilemma of rankings.

On Google’s “There appears to be some confusion”: “Well, yes, you will notice some confusion if you directly contradict yourself.” @THCapper#MozCon

— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 14, 2021

Tom advised SEOs to take advantage of Google Discover, which is actually a massive, untapped traffic opportunity as it’s more responsive to speed than organic search.

"For most sites I see that are taking Google Discover even remotely seriously, they are getting more traffic from Discover than from organic search." - @THCapper dropping shocking stats. #MozConpic.twitter.com/kJSPDKCTTn

— Rob Ousbey (@RobOusbey) July 14, 2021

Before he signed off, Tom reiterated:

Prioritize high traffic pages

Metrics can be gamed/optimized

Don’t do any of this at the expense of speed

We won’t dig into the how for all of this here, so definitely check out his presentation in the video bundle!

Luke Carthy — The Ultimate How-To for Faceted Navigation SEO in E-Commerce

After an introduction that got the whole chat laughing (“Hi, I’m Morgan Freeman. Welcome to the afterlife.”), Luke Carthy showed us how he generated a 25% increase in organic traffic using faceted navigation.

Wait, what’s faceted navigation? You’ve definitely run into it if you’ve ever shopped online. Think about the stores that allow you to filter and sort your search. Behind that search is a faceted nav, defining, filtering, and sorting URLs on a website.

If it’s so common, what’s wrong with it? As Luke explains, faceted navs generate hundreds of long, parameterized, filtered URLs. It’s messy, it’s bloated, and bots can’t easily crawl them.

SEOs tend to counteract this bloat by “nofollowing the shit out of” faceted URLs. But when we do that, all of that long-tail gold disappears.

So what’s the solution? As Luke says, “It’s all about balance!”

(Side note: how cute is this photo??)

Luke shared some ways to “make facets sexy” by:

Understanding your site’s taxonomy

Using filters only to add granularity

Using “-” (dash) instead of “_” (underscore)

Filtering parameter URLs in GA to spot opportunities

Using a consistent structure

Limiting indexable parameter options

There were a bunch more actionable tips in this presentation, but we won’t spoil it all for you!

Okay, wow, this presentation is EXTREMELY actionable for anyone who handles e-commerce sites. But also, if you handle a blog - maybe try and use it for tags, categories, etc. Just a thought off the top of the dome 🤷‍♀️@MrLukeCarthy#MozCon

— Brie E Anderson (@brie_e_anderson) July 14, 2021

Miracle Inameti-Archibong — Harnessing the Natural Language Toolkit for More Productive SEO

In her quick presentation, MozCon newcomer Miracle walked us through ways to use Natural Language Processing to do our SEO tasks — like keyword research — and even shared some of her own resources to help us do it!

With Miracle’s comprehensive Natural Language Processor with Python, you can analyze up to 10,000 keywords with the click of a button and group them based on category, frequency, and search intent. Don’t worry — even if you aren’t a programmer, Miracle’s scripts are easy enough to plug and play so you can start analyzing immediately.

If you're not following @mira_inam yet, what are you doing? Miracle just shared SO many actionable keyword research takeaways!!! Thank you!!! 🤯🤯🤯 https://t.co/ESStpcLt5I

— Britney Muller (@BritneyMuller) July 14, 2021

Miracle then walked us through how to get the script up and running step-by-step. The results were mind-bending. In just a few short clicks, she produced a wealth of keyword data sure to fuel some brilliant strategies and ideas.

To be honest, there was so much information in such a short time frame, this is one we’ll have to revisit again to absorb every tip possible, but click below to access Miracle’s scripts:

http://bit.ly/keywordclassification

http://bit.ly/keywordcluster

Amanda Milligan — A Live Guide to Finding & Filling the Gaps in Your Link Strategy

Amanda kicked off her first MozCon presentation by reiterating the importance of quality over quantity, to the tune of enthusiastic cheers from the MozCon chat box. In today’s climate, quality content is what will get you that authority and trustworthiness today’s marketers (and Google) crave. Quantity may give you a short term boost, but it won’t last and it won’t compound.

@millanda on creating link-worthy content: "Always remember that it's not just about the link juice, but about the excellence you've created and the value you've provided as a result." #mozcon#SEO#linkbuildingpic.twitter.com/yT7uqIS7OL

— Katie Bradley (@KtBee21) July 14, 2021

But Google is just a robot and they base their assumptions on links: Who owns them and who links to whom? If your competitors are ranking on time.com and you aren’t, then Google will see your competitors more favorably and rank them higher in the SERP.

Amanda reminds us that these gaps are opportunities. If your competitor can get a link on Time.com, then so can you!

Amanda jumps straight to Moz Pro’s Link Intersect — “This tool was made for this kind of analysis!” — measuring up Chewy.com to competitors Petco.com and Petsmart.com to reveal the places where Chewy’s competitors link, but Chewy doesn’t.

One such article on CNN.com links to Petsmart and Petco and features a very cute guinea pig in a suit of armor — is it possible for Chewy to obtain a link to CNN? Yes!

Developing the content is only half the battle. Once you have something you think will resonate, it’s time to start pitching, which is arguably “where many link builders fall short.” In the pitching process, Amanda offers a fool proof plan of attack: “Pitch your content exclusively at first, and then once published, you can begin to take it elsewhere.” Publishers love exclusive content because they can leverage it to drive more views to their own content.

Amanda also drives home another link building golden rule: make sure you research and position your pitches and tailor them to the publisher. Gone are the days of mass outreach, and that won’t serve you well in the long run.

Once you’ve done the work, it’s time to track and record your progress. Take note of all the places your content shows up (anchor text, images, etc.) or whether it is do-follow or not.

Finding & filling gaps in your link strategy: 1/2 Finding - Identify brands building great links - See who links to them, but not to you (use a tool like Moz's link intersect) - Analyze the types of content earning links - Consider similar angles@millanda#MozConpic.twitter.com/lsH0DcbVfk

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

Check out Amanda’s Whiteboard Friday on crafting the perfect pitch email for more tips!

Lily Ray — From the Medic Update to Now: How the E-A-T Ecosystem Has Transformed Organic Search

Lily Ray has been studying the evolution of Google and E-A-T for a few years now, and in this presentation, she outlined key changes in how Google perceives content – specifically when it comes to the rise of misinformation.

Since 2016, and especially in the last year, more people turn to Google for information on things like politics, vaccines, COVID, and other important topics. This makes it increasingly necessary for Google to surface reliable information. In times of crisis, things become even more critical, and according to the data, Google begins to favor more authoritative sources versus relevant sources. We don’t know exactly how this is determined, but in her study, the data shows that Google favorably ranks content from reputable sources for potentially controversial keywords.

If there is one thing that Lily wants us to walk away with, it's the “E-A-T matters in crisis”, and is Google’s quality standard for evaluating content, authors, and websites.

As a result of this, Google saw a sharp decline in search visibility for questionable news sources, which then expanded to include health and science sites, regardless of the technical optimization on those sites.

@lilyraynyc explains E-A-T at #MozCon E-A-T was created in 2014 to make sure the quality of the content they are surfacing is meeting the needs of the users. @Moz In 2017 many of the fake news were wiped off the SERPs. Then this continued in 2018 with the YMYL sites pic.twitter.com/6PUCFwKrbV

— TurnDigi (@TurnDigi) July 14, 2021

Lily digs into keyword comparisons, showing how more authoritative sites became increasingly more visible between 2018 and 2021.

If you are wondering how E-A-T impacts search results - these slides by @lilyraynyc showing real life examples are sooo good #MozConpic.twitter.com/eQux45kKmm

— Casie Gillette (@Casieg) July 14, 2021

Most of the sites that lost visibility were doing some questionable things including:

Leveraging questionable authors

Had poor reputations

Published deceptive content

Lacked sufficient sources

Published dangerous medical advice

Included hate speech

Included excessive affiliate or sales links

“Winning sites make it really clear who they are, who writes for them, how they make money on the sites, why they should trust them […]—all of these great things that really instill trust in the user.” @lilyraynyc#MozCon

— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 14, 2021

From there, Lily dug into 10 key ways Google has changed, and we encourage you to check out her slides and take a look for yourself.

What do all these changes mean for SEO? The landscape is more complex and competitive than ever, so it’s important to be reasonable with your organic search goals and always put E-A-T at the forefront of your SEO Strategy.

Learn from the winners investing in EAT over the last few years of Google’s evolution: @lilyraynyc#mozcon@Healthline@NerdWallet@[email protected]/0TfFAoNWqc

— Amsive Digital (@Amsive_Digital) July 14, 2021

Kameron Jenkins — The Content Refresh: How to Do More With Less

Kameron Jenkins is no stranger to content. She manages multiple blogs and currently works for e-commerce powerhouse, Shopify.

When it comes to content, she knows that the best way to regain lost traffic and give your content new life is through a content refresh. In her presentation, she walked us through her exact process for identifying and updating old content. Surprisingly, most content marketers only dedicate 10-25% of their time to content refreshes, even though a content refresh can lead to more ROI in the long term.

Content people! About what % of your team's publishing calendar is *refreshes (vs. brand new content)? *taking something that was previously published and updating it.

— Kameron Jenkins 👋 (@Kammie_Jenkins) May 11, 2021

How do you identify the content that could benefit from a refresh? Look at your Google Analytics Landing Page report alongside Google Search Console, and prioritize content based on goal conversions, trending topics, and business priorities.

@Kammie_Jenkins Great deck and congrats on #mozcon!!! We're totally aligned on using the biggest movers for analysis. I love including impressions too to see the scope of opportunities. Kind of like this: pic.twitter.com/5hoaova2zL

— Noah Learner (He/Him) (@noahlearner) July 14, 2021

Oh heck, I loooove anyone who has a favorite GA view. But add in GSC data exports... I think I'm in heaven. Pageviews going down in GA + Losing rank for specific keywords in GSC = Opportunity for content revamp#MozCon

— Brie E Anderson (@brie_e_anderson) July 14, 2021

Next, it’s time to refresh. When moving into the execution, you’ll want to ask yourself three key questions:

What’s table stakes?

What will give you the competitive advantage?

And what will maximize conversions?

Other content refresh opportunities to look out for are consolidation, query targeting, and internal linking.

How can you stand out from the competition in your content refresh? Incorporate original research and expert quotes to beef up the authority and originality of your post.

Lastly, maximize your conversions by testing out your CTA placement and make your offers relevant to your audience.

She left us with some wise words of wisdom, “SEO is like owning a car. Even when the car is paid off, you still need to conduct regular maintenance to keep that engine running.”

Some tips for getting more value from your existing content: - Refresh decaying content to rank faster, increase ROI & maintain brand credibility - Remember session loss ≠ Traffic loss - Leverage GA & GSC data - Prioritize by trend, conversions & value@Kammie_Jenkins#MozConpic.twitter.com/SAVTtAFMIC

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

Best quote of #MozCon by @Kammie_Jenkins of @Shopifypic.twitter.com/tNb6qvwRO6

— Barb Davids 🤓🏃‍♀️🍻 (@BarbDavids) July 14, 2021

Wil Reynolds — The 3 Most Important Search Marketing Tools…Your Heart, Your Brain, & Your [Small] Ego

Wil brought the energy yet again for his ninth MozCon presentation, closing out the conference with a bang. His message was simple yet powerful: Your top three tools are your heart, your brain, and your small ego. But what does that mean, exactly?

Small ego

Wil began by introducing the concept of intellectual humility, or the recognition that some of the things you believe just might be wrong. He urged us to listen to the people around us who say there's a better way — even brand-new coworkers or recent college grads whose ideas you might otherwise discount.

Sharing this with everyone I know 👏 #mozconhttps://t.co/f1x5gDp5is

— Casie Gillette (@Casieg) July 14, 2021

And don't feel badly that you might be wrong — Wil posits that not knowing your own ignorance is just part of the human condition. He shared a quote from Upton Sinclair that was especially poignant:

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.

Heart

A hundred years ago, no business needed SEO. They needed customers, profits, and sales. And as true then as it is now, they needed to know their customers.

One slide stood out loud and clear: The less you understand your customer, the more you spend to acquire them. And as Wil said, reports that lack dollar signs don't land on real decision makers' desks. Here's where your brain comes in.

“Best practices are a great start for those who lack data, or have data but can’t process it.” - @wilreynolds#MozCon#IntellectualHonestypic.twitter.com/91QiMy4ZDq

— Michael Tolosa (@TolosaSEO) July 14, 2021

Brain

Wil presented a bit of a conundrum: making decisions based on your gut may be easy and comfortable, but it's the data that gets you the insights you need to create and test hypotheses. However, exhaustive data — the kind of data where opportunity lives — is probably too big for your laptop to handle. What's an SEO to do?

Of course he had answers! Wil's suggestion was to harness the power of ngrams. With the help of a tool like PowerBI or BigQuery and using ngrams to examine all the search terms, you can find all your ranking results and see where your search term isn't in the title.

Transform your SEO data into winning insights: - Shrink your ego & question assumptions - Don't rely on best practices. - Tools are a start, not an end. - Business is about $ - Understanding your customer saves $ - What people do & say are different@wilreynolds#mozconpic.twitter.com/IB7CcQ4IpN

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

There's too much goodness to cram into a short recap, so you'll definitely want to get yourself a copy of the MozCon video bundle when it's ready for purchase. Until then, a few final suggestions from Wil:

Examining all your data is the only way to capture all your opportunities; resist the urge to pare it down to the top 20%. Every time you shrink your data down, you're missing out on opportunities that someone else can see.

See every data set through a competitive lens: if all else is the same, how do you create value?

Combine your paid and SEO data together — get the dollar signs in those reports and get in front of key decision makers

Learn SQL. You'll be able to search for exactly what you need within your own data, you won't have to rely on others, and your hypotheses will benefit from your newfound data freedom.

Be brave enough to suck at something new. Stop doing the thing that you feel comfortable with. Run your own experiments and validate your hypotheses. It'll be worth it in the end!

Hey #MozCon thank you! Remember: 1 - Surround yourself with people willing to show you a new way (show >> tell) - its easy to find people to tell you you are doing it wrong, find the people who build stuff to show you a new way.

— Wil Reynolds (@wilreynolds) July 14, 2021

Thanks everyone for a wonderful show! And we’ll see you in person next year!

#MozCon was freaking awesome! I learned so much and enjoyed meeting so many new colleagues! Thank you @Moz for such a wonderful event!

— Taylor Berg (@taylorannberg) July 15, 2021

[epackingvietnam]

Pack Up the Big Top: Insights from MozCon Virtual 2021's Grand Finale

And just like that, MozCon Virtual 2021 has come to an end. Over the past three days, we’ve seen incredibly insightful presentations on everything from content marketing, to machine learning, to new and exciting SEO tips and tricks. A big thank you to all our speakers, emcees, attendees, and volunteers in front of and behind the camera. It wouldn’t be MozCon without you!

Check out our recaps from day one and day two, and if you missed day three, read on for top-level takeaways! But to get the most out of this year’s MozCon content, make sure to access the video bundle when it goes on sale Friday, and stay tuned for details on MozCon 2022 —

You heard it here first, folks: #MozCon 2022 is slated to be LIVE in Seattle, in person! 🎉 https://t.co/3CKcI0N9l7

— Moz (@Moz) July 14, 2021

— that’s right! We’ll be back live and in-person next year in Seattle. Can’t wait to see you all there!

Tom Capper — The Fast & The Spurious: Core Web Vitals & SEO

“What if I told you that Core Web Vitals, and this update, are a bluff?”

Tom sure did kick off day three by blowing our minds with his opening line — the update everyone has been obsessing over for the last year isn’t actually all it’s cracked up to be?

Well, sort of.

It turns out we can’t afford to call Google’s bluff, but we can “sort of cheat”. Tom went on to lay out the flaws of Core Web Vitals, which all add up to the fact that they actually encourage terrible optimizations.

Core Web Vitals are all the rage, but do they live up to the hype? Here's @THCapper's take - SEO is like the prisoner's dilemma - Prioritize high traffic pages & page speed - Metrics can be gamed - Drop, delay unstable elements or move below fold - Rethink hero images#mozconpic.twitter.com/hgqeUZzKTP

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

So what’s taking so long? As we all know, this roll out has been delayed multiple times. Tom uses a brilliant example of the classic prisoner’s dilemma to explain why:

@THCapper pulling a #ChidiAnagonye by bringing moral philosophy into an SEO talk. #MozCon#TheGoodPlacepic.twitter.com/A7cx1GtKVy

— Sandi Pope Griffin (@sandpoper) July 14, 2021

As it turns out, Google has been contradicting themselves when talking about CWV because they can’t actually roll out updates that undermine the quality of their services — they’re relying on us, the SEOs, to act as the prisoners in their big dilemma of rankings.

On Google’s “There appears to be some confusion”: “Well, yes, you will notice some confusion if you directly contradict yourself.” @THCapper#MozCon

— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 14, 2021

Tom advised SEOs to take advantage of Google Discover, which is actually a massive, untapped traffic opportunity as it’s more responsive to speed than organic search.

"For most sites I see that are taking Google Discover even remotely seriously, they are getting more traffic from Discover than from organic search." - @THCapper dropping shocking stats. #MozConpic.twitter.com/kJSPDKCTTn

— Rob Ousbey (@RobOusbey) July 14, 2021

Before he signed off, Tom reiterated:

Prioritize high traffic pages

Metrics can be gamed/optimized

Don’t do any of this at the expense of speed

We won’t dig into the how for all of this here, so definitely check out his presentation in the video bundle!

Luke Carthy — The Ultimate How-To for Faceted Navigation SEO in E-Commerce

After an introduction that got the whole chat laughing (“Hi, I’m Morgan Freeman. Welcome to the afterlife.”), Luke Carthy showed us how he generated a 25% increase in organic traffic using faceted navigation.

Wait, what’s faceted navigation? You’ve definitely run into it if you’ve ever shopped online. Think about the stores that allow you to filter and sort your search. Behind that search is a faceted nav, defining, filtering, and sorting URLs on a website.

If it’s so common, what’s wrong with it? As Luke explains, faceted navs generate hundreds of long, parameterized, filtered URLs. It’s messy, it’s bloated, and bots can’t easily crawl them.

SEOs tend to counteract this bloat by “nofollowing the shit out of” faceted URLs. But when we do that, all of that long-tail gold disappears.

So what’s the solution? As Luke says, “It’s all about balance!”

(Side note: how cute is this photo??)

Luke shared some ways to “make facets sexy” by:

Understanding your site’s taxonomy

Using filters only to add granularity

Using “-” (dash) instead of “_” (underscore)

Filtering parameter URLs in GA to spot opportunities

Using a consistent structure

Limiting indexable parameter options

There were a bunch more actionable tips in this presentation, but we won’t spoil it all for you!

Okay, wow, this presentation is EXTREMELY actionable for anyone who handles e-commerce sites. But also, if you handle a blog - maybe try and use it for tags, categories, etc. Just a thought off the top of the dome 🤷‍♀️@MrLukeCarthy#MozCon

— Brie E Anderson (@brie_e_anderson) July 14, 2021

Miracle Inameti-Archibong — Harnessing the Natural Language Toolkit for More Productive SEO

In her quick presentation, MozCon newcomer Miracle walked us through ways to use Natural Language Processing to do our SEO tasks — like keyword research — and even shared some of her own resources to help us do it!

With Miracle’s comprehensive Natural Language Processor with Python, you can analyze up to 10,000 keywords with the click of a button and group them based on category, frequency, and search intent. Don’t worry — even if you aren’t a programmer, Miracle’s scripts are easy enough to plug and play so you can start analyzing immediately.

If you're not following @mira_inam yet, what are you doing? Miracle just shared SO many actionable keyword research takeaways!!! Thank you!!! 🤯🤯🤯 https://t.co/ESStpcLt5I

— Britney Muller (@BritneyMuller) July 14, 2021

Miracle then walked us through how to get the script up and running step-by-step. The results were mind-bending. In just a few short clicks, she produced a wealth of keyword data sure to fuel some brilliant strategies and ideas.

To be honest, there was so much information in such a short time frame, this is one we’ll have to revisit again to absorb every tip possible, but click below to access Miracle’s scripts:

http://bit.ly/keywordclassification

http://bit.ly/keywordcluster

Amanda Milligan — A Live Guide to Finding & Filling the Gaps in Your Link Strategy

Amanda kicked off her first MozCon presentation by reiterating the importance of quality over quantity, to the tune of enthusiastic cheers from the MozCon chat box. In today’s climate, quality content is what will get you that authority and trustworthiness today’s marketers (and Google) crave. Quantity may give you a short term boost, but it won’t last and it won’t compound.

@millanda on creating link-worthy content: "Always remember that it's not just about the link juice, but about the excellence you've created and the value you've provided as a result." #mozcon#SEO#linkbuildingpic.twitter.com/yT7uqIS7OL

— Katie Bradley (@KtBee21) July 14, 2021

But Google is just a robot and they base their assumptions on links: Who owns them and who links to whom? If your competitors are ranking on time.com and you aren’t, then Google will see your competitors more favorably and rank them higher in the SERP.

Amanda reminds us that these gaps are opportunities. If your competitor can get a link on Time.com, then so can you!

Amanda jumps straight to Moz Pro’s Link Intersect — “This tool was made for this kind of analysis!” — measuring up Chewy.com to competitors Petco.com and Petsmart.com to reveal the places where Chewy’s competitors link, but Chewy doesn’t.

One such article on CNN.com links to Petsmart and Petco and features a very cute guinea pig in a suit of armor — is it possible for Chewy to obtain a link to CNN? Yes!

Developing the content is only half the battle. Once you have something you think will resonate, it’s time to start pitching, which is arguably “where many link builders fall short.” In the pitching process, Amanda offers a fool proof plan of attack: “Pitch your content exclusively at first, and then once published, you can begin to take it elsewhere.” Publishers love exclusive content because they can leverage it to drive more views to their own content.

Amanda also drives home another link building golden rule: make sure you research and position your pitches and tailor them to the publisher. Gone are the days of mass outreach, and that won’t serve you well in the long run.

Once you’ve done the work, it’s time to track and record your progress. Take note of all the places your content shows up (anchor text, images, etc.) or whether it is do-follow or not.

Finding & filling gaps in your link strategy: 1/2 Finding - Identify brands building great links - See who links to them, but not to you (use a tool like Moz's link intersect) - Analyze the types of content earning links - Consider similar angles@millanda#MozConpic.twitter.com/lsH0DcbVfk

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

Check out Amanda’s Whiteboard Friday on crafting the perfect pitch email for more tips!

Lily Ray — From the Medic Update to Now: How the E-A-T Ecosystem Has Transformed Organic Search

Lily Ray has been studying the evolution of Google and E-A-T for a few years now, and in this presentation, she outlined key changes in how Google perceives content – specifically when it comes to the rise of misinformation.

Since 2016, and especially in the last year, more people turn to Google for information on things like politics, vaccines, COVID, and other important topics. This makes it increasingly necessary for Google to surface reliable information. In times of crisis, things become even more critical, and according to the data, Google begins to favor more authoritative sources versus relevant sources. We don’t know exactly how this is determined, but in her study, the data shows that Google favorably ranks content from reputable sources for potentially controversial keywords.

If there is one thing that Lily wants us to walk away with, it's the “E-A-T matters in crisis”, and is Google’s quality standard for evaluating content, authors, and websites.

As a result of this, Google saw a sharp decline in search visibility for questionable news sources, which then expanded to include health and science sites, regardless of the technical optimization on those sites.

@lilyraynyc explains E-A-T at #MozCon E-A-T was created in 2014 to make sure the quality of the content they are surfacing is meeting the needs of the users. @Moz In 2017 many of the fake news were wiped off the SERPs. Then this continued in 2018 with the YMYL sites pic.twitter.com/6PUCFwKrbV

— TurnDigi (@TurnDigi) July 14, 2021

Lily digs into keyword comparisons, showing how more authoritative sites became increasingly more visible between 2018 and 2021.

If you are wondering how E-A-T impacts search results - these slides by @lilyraynyc showing real life examples are sooo good #MozConpic.twitter.com/eQux45kKmm

— Casie Gillette (@Casieg) July 14, 2021

Most of the sites that lost visibility were doing some questionable things including:

Leveraging questionable authors

Had poor reputations

Published deceptive content

Lacked sufficient sources

Published dangerous medical advice

Included hate speech

Included excessive affiliate or sales links

“Winning sites make it really clear who they are, who writes for them, how they make money on the sites, why they should trust them […]—all of these great things that really instill trust in the user.” @lilyraynyc#MozCon

— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 14, 2021

From there, Lily dug into 10 key ways Google has changed, and we encourage you to check out her slides and take a look for yourself.

What do all these changes mean for SEO? The landscape is more complex and competitive than ever, so it’s important to be reasonable with your organic search goals and always put E-A-T at the forefront of your SEO Strategy.

Learn from the winners investing in EAT over the last few years of Google’s evolution: @lilyraynyc#mozcon@Healthline@NerdWallet@[email protected]/0TfFAoNWqc

— Amsive Digital (@Amsive_Digital) July 14, 2021

Kameron Jenkins — The Content Refresh: How to Do More With Less

Kameron Jenkins is no stranger to content. She manages multiple blogs and currently works for e-commerce powerhouse, Shopify.

When it comes to content, she knows that the best way to regain lost traffic and give your content new life is through a content refresh. In her presentation, she walked us through her exact process for identifying and updating old content. Surprisingly, most content marketers only dedicate 10-25% of their time to content refreshes, even though a content refresh can lead to more ROI in the long term.

Content people! About what % of your team's publishing calendar is *refreshes (vs. brand new content)? *taking something that was previously published and updating it.

— Kameron Jenkins 👋 (@Kammie_Jenkins) May 11, 2021

How do you identify the content that could benefit from a refresh? Look at your Google Analytics Landing Page report alongside Google Search Console, and prioritize content based on goal conversions, trending topics, and business priorities.

@Kammie_Jenkins Great deck and congrats on #mozcon!!! We're totally aligned on using the biggest movers for analysis. I love including impressions too to see the scope of opportunities. Kind of like this: pic.twitter.com/5hoaova2zL

— Noah Learner (He/Him) (@noahlearner) July 14, 2021

Oh heck, I loooove anyone who has a favorite GA view. But add in GSC data exports... I think I'm in heaven. Pageviews going down in GA + Losing rank for specific keywords in GSC = Opportunity for content revamp#MozCon

— Brie E Anderson (@brie_e_anderson) July 14, 2021

Next, it’s time to refresh. When moving into the execution, you’ll want to ask yourself three key questions:

What’s table stakes?

What will give you the competitive advantage?

And what will maximize conversions?

Other content refresh opportunities to look out for are consolidation, query targeting, and internal linking.

How can you stand out from the competition in your content refresh? Incorporate original research and expert quotes to beef up the authority and originality of your post.

Lastly, maximize your conversions by testing out your CTA placement and make your offers relevant to your audience.

She left us with some wise words of wisdom, “SEO is like owning a car. Even when the car is paid off, you still need to conduct regular maintenance to keep that engine running.”

Some tips for getting more value from your existing content: - Refresh decaying content to rank faster, increase ROI & maintain brand credibility - Remember session loss ≠ Traffic loss - Leverage GA & GSC data - Prioritize by trend, conversions & value@Kammie_Jenkins#MozConpic.twitter.com/SAVTtAFMIC

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

Best quote of #MozCon by @Kammie_Jenkins of @Shopifypic.twitter.com/tNb6qvwRO6

— Barb Davids 🤓🏃‍♀️🍻 (@BarbDavids) July 14, 2021

Wil Reynolds — The 3 Most Important Search Marketing Tools…Your Heart, Your Brain, & Your [Small] Ego

Wil brought the energy yet again for his ninth MozCon presentation, closing out the conference with a bang. His message was simple yet powerful: Your top three tools are your heart, your brain, and your small ego. But what does that mean, exactly?

Small ego

Wil began by introducing the concept of intellectual humility, or the recognition that some of the things you believe just might be wrong. He urged us to listen to the people around us who say there's a better way — even brand-new coworkers or recent college grads whose ideas you might otherwise discount.

Sharing this with everyone I know 👏 #mozconhttps://t.co/f1x5gDp5is

— Casie Gillette (@Casieg) July 14, 2021

And don't feel badly that you might be wrong — Wil posits that not knowing your own ignorance is just part of the human condition. He shared a quote from Upton Sinclair that was especially poignant:

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.

Heart

A hundred years ago, no business needed SEO. They needed customers, profits, and sales. And as true then as it is now, they needed to know their customers.

One slide stood out loud and clear: The less you understand your customer, the more you spend to acquire them. And as Wil said, reports that lack dollar signs don't land on real decision makers' desks. Here's where your brain comes in.

“Best practices are a great start for those who lack data, or have data but can’t process it.” - @wilreynolds#MozCon#IntellectualHonestypic.twitter.com/91QiMy4ZDq

— Michael Tolosa (@TolosaSEO) July 14, 2021

Brain

Wil presented a bit of a conundrum: making decisions based on your gut may be easy and comfortable, but it's the data that gets you the insights you need to create and test hypotheses. However, exhaustive data — the kind of data where opportunity lives — is probably too big for your laptop to handle. What's an SEO to do?

Of course he had answers! Wil's suggestion was to harness the power of ngrams. With the help of a tool like PowerBI or BigQuery and using ngrams to examine all the search terms, you can find all your ranking results and see where your search term isn't in the title.

Transform your SEO data into winning insights: - Shrink your ego & question assumptions - Don't rely on best practices. - Tools are a start, not an end. - Business is about $ - Understanding your customer saves $ - What people do & say are different@wilreynolds#mozconpic.twitter.com/IB7CcQ4IpN

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

There's too much goodness to cram into a short recap, so you'll definitely want to get yourself a copy of the MozCon video bundle when it's ready for purchase. Until then, a few final suggestions from Wil:

Examining all your data is the only way to capture all your opportunities; resist the urge to pare it down to the top 20%. Every time you shrink your data down, you're missing out on opportunities that someone else can see.

See every data set through a competitive lens: if all else is the same, how do you create value?

Combine your paid and SEO data together — get the dollar signs in those reports and get in front of key decision makers

Learn SQL. You'll be able to search for exactly what you need within your own data, you won't have to rely on others, and your hypotheses will benefit from your newfound data freedom.

Be brave enough to suck at something new. Stop doing the thing that you feel comfortable with. Run your own experiments and validate your hypotheses. It'll be worth it in the end!

Hey #MozCon thank you! Remember: 1 - Surround yourself with people willing to show you a new way (show >> tell) - its easy to find people to tell you you are doing it wrong, find the people who build stuff to show you a new way.

— Wil Reynolds (@wilreynolds) July 14, 2021

Thanks everyone for a wonderful show! And we’ll see you in person next year!

#MozCon was freaking awesome! I learned so much and enjoyed meeting so many new colleagues! Thank you @Moz for such a wonderful event!

— Taylor Berg (@taylorannberg) July 15, 2021

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

[bfxenon]

Pack Up the Big Top: Insights from MozCon Virtual 2021's Grand Finale

And just like that, MozCon Virtual 2021 has come to an end. Over the past three days, we’ve seen incredibly insightful presentations on everything from content marketing, to machine learning, to new and exciting SEO tips and tricks. A big thank you to all our speakers, emcees, attendees, and volunteers in front of and behind the camera. It wouldn’t be MozCon without you!

Check out our recaps from day one and day two, and if you missed day three, read on for top-level takeaways! But to get the most out of this year’s MozCon content, make sure to access the video bundle when it goes on sale Friday, and stay tuned for details on MozCon 2022 —

You heard it here first, folks: #MozCon 2022 is slated to be LIVE in Seattle, in person! 🎉 https://t.co/3CKcI0N9l7

— Moz (@Moz) July 14, 2021

— that’s right! We’ll be back live and in-person next year in Seattle. Can’t wait to see you all there!

Tom Capper — The Fast & The Spurious: Core Web Vitals & SEO

“What if I told you that Core Web Vitals, and this update, are a bluff?”

Tom sure did kick off day three by blowing our minds with his opening line — the update everyone has been obsessing over for the last year isn’t actually all it’s cracked up to be?

Well, sort of.

It turns out we can’t afford to call Google’s bluff, but we can “sort of cheat”. Tom went on to lay out the flaws of Core Web Vitals, which all add up to the fact that they actually encourage terrible optimizations.

Core Web Vitals are all the rage, but do they live up to the hype? Here's @THCapper's take - SEO is like the prisoner's dilemma - Prioritize high traffic pages & page speed - Metrics can be gamed - Drop, delay unstable elements or move below fold - Rethink hero images#mozconpic.twitter.com/hgqeUZzKTP

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

So what’s taking so long? As we all know, this roll out has been delayed multiple times. Tom uses a brilliant example of the classic prisoner’s dilemma to explain why:

@THCapper pulling a #ChidiAnagonye by bringing moral philosophy into an SEO talk. #MozCon#TheGoodPlacepic.twitter.com/A7cx1GtKVy

— Sandi Pope Griffin (@sandpoper) July 14, 2021

As it turns out, Google has been contradicting themselves when talking about CWV because they can’t actually roll out updates that undermine the quality of their services — they’re relying on us, the SEOs, to act as the prisoners in their big dilemma of rankings.

On Google’s “There appears to be some confusion”: “Well, yes, you will notice some confusion if you directly contradict yourself.” @THCapper#MozCon

— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 14, 2021

Tom advised SEOs to take advantage of Google Discover, which is actually a massive, untapped traffic opportunity as it’s more responsive to speed than organic search.

"For most sites I see that are taking Google Discover even remotely seriously, they are getting more traffic from Discover than from organic search." - @THCapper dropping shocking stats. #MozConpic.twitter.com/kJSPDKCTTn

— Rob Ousbey (@RobOusbey) July 14, 2021

Before he signed off, Tom reiterated:

Prioritize high traffic pages

Metrics can be gamed/optimized

Don’t do any of this at the expense of speed

We won’t dig into the how for all of this here, so definitely check out his presentation in the video bundle!

Luke Carthy — The Ultimate How-To for Faceted Navigation SEO in E-Commerce

After an introduction that got the whole chat laughing (“Hi, I’m Morgan Freeman. Welcome to the afterlife.”), Luke Carthy showed us how he generated a 25% increase in organic traffic using faceted navigation.

Wait, what’s faceted navigation? You’ve definitely run into it if you’ve ever shopped online. Think about the stores that allow you to filter and sort your search. Behind that search is a faceted nav, defining, filtering, and sorting URLs on a website.

If it’s so common, what’s wrong with it? As Luke explains, faceted navs generate hundreds of long, parameterized, filtered URLs. It’s messy, it’s bloated, and bots can’t easily crawl them.

SEOs tend to counteract this bloat by “nofollowing the shit out of” faceted URLs. But when we do that, all of that long-tail gold disappears.

So what’s the solution? As Luke says, “It’s all about balance!”

(Side note: how cute is this photo??)

Luke shared some ways to “make facets sexy” by:

Understanding your site’s taxonomy

Using filters only to add granularity

Using “-” (dash) instead of “_” (underscore)

Filtering parameter URLs in GA to spot opportunities

Using a consistent structure

Limiting indexable parameter options

There were a bunch more actionable tips in this presentation, but we won’t spoil it all for you!

Okay, wow, this presentation is EXTREMELY actionable for anyone who handles e-commerce sites. But also, if you handle a blog - maybe try and use it for tags, categories, etc. Just a thought off the top of the dome 🤷‍♀️@MrLukeCarthy#MozCon

— Brie E Anderson (@brie_e_anderson) July 14, 2021

Miracle Inameti-Archibong — Harnessing the Natural Language Toolkit for More Productive SEO

In her quick presentation, MozCon newcomer Miracle walked us through ways to use Natural Language Processing to do our SEO tasks — like keyword research — and even shared some of her own resources to help us do it!

With Miracle’s comprehensive Natural Language Processor with Python, you can analyze up to 10,000 keywords with the click of a button and group them based on category, frequency, and search intent. Don’t worry — even if you aren’t a programmer, Miracle’s scripts are easy enough to plug and play so you can start analyzing immediately.

If you're not following @mira_inam yet, what are you doing? Miracle just shared SO many actionable keyword research takeaways!!! Thank you!!! 🤯🤯🤯 https://t.co/ESStpcLt5I

— Britney Muller (@BritneyMuller) July 14, 2021

Miracle then walked us through how to get the script up and running step-by-step. The results were mind-bending. In just a few short clicks, she produced a wealth of keyword data sure to fuel some brilliant strategies and ideas.

To be honest, there was so much information in such a short time frame, this is one we’ll have to revisit again to absorb every tip possible, but click below to access Miracle’s scripts:

http://bit.ly/keywordclassification

http://bit.ly/keywordcluster

Amanda Milligan — A Live Guide to Finding & Filling the Gaps in Your Link Strategy

Amanda kicked off her first MozCon presentation by reiterating the importance of quality over quantity, to the tune of enthusiastic cheers from the MozCon chat box. In today’s climate, quality content is what will get you that authority and trustworthiness today’s marketers (and Google) crave. Quantity may give you a short term boost, but it won’t last and it won’t compound.

@millanda on creating link-worthy content: "Always remember that it's not just about the link juice, but about the excellence you've created and the value you've provided as a result." #mozcon#SEO#linkbuildingpic.twitter.com/yT7uqIS7OL

— Katie Bradley (@KtBee21) July 14, 2021

But Google is just a robot and they base their assumptions on links: Who owns them and who links to whom? If your competitors are ranking on time.com and you aren’t, then Google will see your competitors more favorably and rank them higher in the SERP.

Amanda reminds us that these gaps are opportunities. If your competitor can get a link on Time.com, then so can you!

Amanda jumps straight to Moz Pro’s Link Intersect — “This tool was made for this kind of analysis!” — measuring up Chewy.com to competitors Petco.com and Petsmart.com to reveal the places where Chewy’s competitors link, but Chewy doesn’t.

One such article on CNN.com links to Petsmart and Petco and features a very cute guinea pig in a suit of armor — is it possible for Chewy to obtain a link to CNN? Yes!

Developing the content is only half the battle. Once you have something you think will resonate, it’s time to start pitching, which is arguably “where many link builders fall short.” In the pitching process, Amanda offers a fool proof plan of attack: “Pitch your content exclusively at first, and then once published, you can begin to take it elsewhere.” Publishers love exclusive content because they can leverage it to drive more views to their own content.

Amanda also drives home another link building golden rule: make sure you research and position your pitches and tailor them to the publisher. Gone are the days of mass outreach, and that won’t serve you well in the long run.

Once you’ve done the work, it’s time to track and record your progress. Take note of all the places your content shows up (anchor text, images, etc.) or whether it is do-follow or not.

Finding & filling gaps in your link strategy: 1/2 Finding - Identify brands building great links - See who links to them, but not to you (use a tool like Moz's link intersect) - Analyze the types of content earning links - Consider similar angles@millanda#MozConpic.twitter.com/lsH0DcbVfk

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

Check out Amanda’s Whiteboard Friday on crafting the perfect pitch email for more tips!

Lily Ray — From the Medic Update to Now: How the E-A-T Ecosystem Has Transformed Organic Search

Lily Ray has been studying the evolution of Google and E-A-T for a few years now, and in this presentation, she outlined key changes in how Google perceives content – specifically when it comes to the rise of misinformation.

Since 2016, and especially in the last year, more people turn to Google for information on things like politics, vaccines, COVID, and other important topics. This makes it increasingly necessary for Google to surface reliable information. In times of crisis, things become even more critical, and according to the data, Google begins to favor more authoritative sources versus relevant sources. We don’t know exactly how this is determined, but in her study, the data shows that Google favorably ranks content from reputable sources for potentially controversial keywords.

If there is one thing that Lily wants us to walk away with, it's the “E-A-T matters in crisis”, and is Google’s quality standard for evaluating content, authors, and websites.

As a result of this, Google saw a sharp decline in search visibility for questionable news sources, which then expanded to include health and science sites, regardless of the technical optimization on those sites.

@lilyraynyc explains E-A-T at #MozCon E-A-T was created in 2014 to make sure the quality of the content they are surfacing is meeting the needs of the users. @Moz In 2017 many of the fake news were wiped off the SERPs. Then this continued in 2018 with the YMYL sites pic.twitter.com/6PUCFwKrbV

— TurnDigi (@TurnDigi) July 14, 2021

Lily digs into keyword comparisons, showing how more authoritative sites became increasingly more visible between 2018 and 2021.

If you are wondering how E-A-T impacts search results - these slides by @lilyraynyc showing real life examples are sooo good #MozConpic.twitter.com/eQux45kKmm

— Casie Gillette (@Casieg) July 14, 2021

Most of the sites that lost visibility were doing some questionable things including:

Leveraging questionable authors

Had poor reputations

Published deceptive content

Lacked sufficient sources

Published dangerous medical advice

Included hate speech

Included excessive affiliate or sales links

“Winning sites make it really clear who they are, who writes for them, how they make money on the sites, why they should trust them […]—all of these great things that really instill trust in the user.” @lilyraynyc#MozCon

— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 14, 2021

From there, Lily dug into 10 key ways Google has changed, and we encourage you to check out her slides and take a look for yourself.

What do all these changes mean for SEO? The landscape is more complex and competitive than ever, so it’s important to be reasonable with your organic search goals and always put E-A-T at the forefront of your SEO Strategy.

Learn from the winners investing in EAT over the last few years of Google’s evolution: @lilyraynyc#mozcon@Healthline@NerdWallet@[email protected]/0TfFAoNWqc

— Amsive Digital (@Amsive_Digital) July 14, 2021

Kameron Jenkins — The Content Refresh: How to Do More With Less

Kameron Jenkins is no stranger to content. She manages multiple blogs and currently works for e-commerce powerhouse, Shopify.

When it comes to content, she knows that the best way to regain lost traffic and give your content new life is through a content refresh. In her presentation, she walked us through her exact process for identifying and updating old content. Surprisingly, most content marketers only dedicate 10-25% of their time to content refreshes, even though a content refresh can lead to more ROI in the long term.

Content people! About what % of your team's publishing calendar is *refreshes (vs. brand new content)? *taking something that was previously published and updating it.

— Kameron Jenkins 👋 (@Kammie_Jenkins) May 11, 2021

How do you identify the content that could benefit from a refresh? Look at your Google Analytics Landing Page report alongside Google Search Console, and prioritize content based on goal conversions, trending topics, and business priorities.

@Kammie_Jenkins Great deck and congrats on #mozcon!!! We're totally aligned on using the biggest movers for analysis. I love including impressions too to see the scope of opportunities. Kind of like this: pic.twitter.com/5hoaova2zL

— Noah Learner (He/Him) (@noahlearner) July 14, 2021

Oh heck, I loooove anyone who has a favorite GA view. But add in GSC data exports... I think I'm in heaven. Pageviews going down in GA + Losing rank for specific keywords in GSC = Opportunity for content revamp#MozCon

— Brie E Anderson (@brie_e_anderson) July 14, 2021

Next, it’s time to refresh. When moving into the execution, you’ll want to ask yourself three key questions:

What’s table stakes?

What will give you the competitive advantage?

And what will maximize conversions?

Other content refresh opportunities to look out for are consolidation, query targeting, and internal linking.

How can you stand out from the competition in your content refresh? Incorporate original research and expert quotes to beef up the authority and originality of your post.

Lastly, maximize your conversions by testing out your CTA placement and make your offers relevant to your audience.

She left us with some wise words of wisdom, “SEO is like owning a car. Even when the car is paid off, you still need to conduct regular maintenance to keep that engine running.”

Some tips for getting more value from your existing content: - Refresh decaying content to rank faster, increase ROI & maintain brand credibility - Remember session loss ≠ Traffic loss - Leverage GA & GSC data - Prioritize by trend, conversions & value@Kammie_Jenkins#MozConpic.twitter.com/SAVTtAFMIC

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

Best quote of #MozCon by @Kammie_Jenkins of @Shopifypic.twitter.com/tNb6qvwRO6

— Barb Davids 🤓🏃‍♀️🍻 (@BarbDavids) July 14, 2021

Wil Reynolds — The 3 Most Important Search Marketing Tools…Your Heart, Your Brain, & Your [Small] Ego

Wil brought the energy yet again for his ninth MozCon presentation, closing out the conference with a bang. His message was simple yet powerful: Your top three tools are your heart, your brain, and your small ego. But what does that mean, exactly?

Small ego

Wil began by introducing the concept of intellectual humility, or the recognition that some of the things you believe just might be wrong. He urged us to listen to the people around us who say there's a better way — even brand-new coworkers or recent college grads whose ideas you might otherwise discount.

Sharing this with everyone I know 👏 #mozconhttps://t.co/f1x5gDp5is

— Casie Gillette (@Casieg) July 14, 2021

And don't feel badly that you might be wrong — Wil posits that not knowing your own ignorance is just part of the human condition. He shared a quote from Upton Sinclair that was especially poignant:

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.

Heart

A hundred years ago, no business needed SEO. They needed customers, profits, and sales. And as true then as it is now, they needed to know their customers.

One slide stood out loud and clear: The less you understand your customer, the more you spend to acquire them. And as Wil said, reports that lack dollar signs don't land on real decision makers' desks. Here's where your brain comes in.

“Best practices are a great start for those who lack data, or have data but can’t process it.” - @wilreynolds#MozCon#IntellectualHonestypic.twitter.com/91QiMy4ZDq

— Michael Tolosa (@TolosaSEO) July 14, 2021

Brain

Wil presented a bit of a conundrum: making decisions based on your gut may be easy and comfortable, but it's the data that gets you the insights you need to create and test hypotheses. However, exhaustive data — the kind of data where opportunity lives — is probably too big for your laptop to handle. What's an SEO to do?

Of course he had answers! Wil's suggestion was to harness the power of ngrams. With the help of a tool like PowerBI or BigQuery and using ngrams to examine all the search terms, you can find all your ranking results and see where your search term isn't in the title.

Transform your SEO data into winning insights: - Shrink your ego & question assumptions - Don't rely on best practices. - Tools are a start, not an end. - Business is about $ - Understanding your customer saves $ - What people do & say are different@wilreynolds#mozconpic.twitter.com/IB7CcQ4IpN

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

There's too much goodness to cram into a short recap, so you'll definitely want to get yourself a copy of the MozCon video bundle when it's ready for purchase. Until then, a few final suggestions from Wil:

Examining all your data is the only way to capture all your opportunities; resist the urge to pare it down to the top 20%. Every time you shrink your data down, you're missing out on opportunities that someone else can see.

See every data set through a competitive lens: if all else is the same, how do you create value?

Combine your paid and SEO data together — get the dollar signs in those reports and get in front of key decision makers

Learn SQL. You'll be able to search for exactly what you need within your own data, you won't have to rely on others, and your hypotheses will benefit from your newfound data freedom.

Be brave enough to suck at something new. Stop doing the thing that you feel comfortable with. Run your own experiments and validate your hypotheses. It'll be worth it in the end!

Hey #MozCon thank you! Remember: 1 - Surround yourself with people willing to show you a new way (show >> tell) - its easy to find people to tell you you are doing it wrong, find the people who build stuff to show you a new way.

— Wil Reynolds (@wilreynolds) July 14, 2021

Thanks everyone for a wonderful show! And we’ll see you in person next year!

#MozCon was freaking awesome! I learned so much and enjoyed meeting so many new colleagues! Thank you @Moz for such a wonderful event!

— Taylor Berg (@taylorannberg) July 15, 2021

[nutrifami]

Pack Up the Big Top: Insights from MozCon Virtual 2021's Grand Finale

And just like that, MozCon Virtual 2021 has come to an end. Over the past three days, we’ve seen incredibly insightful presentations on everything from content marketing, to machine learning, to new and exciting SEO tips and tricks. A big thank you to all our speakers, emcees, attendees, and volunteers in front of and behind the camera. It wouldn’t be MozCon without you!

Check out our recaps from day one and day two, and if you missed day three, read on for top-level takeaways! But to get the most out of this year’s MozCon content, make sure to access the video bundle when it goes on sale Friday, and stay tuned for details on MozCon 2022 —

You heard it here first, folks: #MozCon 2022 is slated to be LIVE in Seattle, in person! 🎉 https://t.co/3CKcI0N9l7

— Moz (@Moz) July 14, 2021

— that’s right! We’ll be back live and in-person next year in Seattle. Can’t wait to see you all there!

Tom Capper — The Fast & The Spurious: Core Web Vitals & SEO

“What if I told you that Core Web Vitals, and this update, are a bluff?”

Tom sure did kick off day three by blowing our minds with his opening line — the update everyone has been obsessing over for the last year isn’t actually all it’s cracked up to be?

Well, sort of.

It turns out we can’t afford to call Google’s bluff, but we can “sort of cheat”. Tom went on to lay out the flaws of Core Web Vitals, which all add up to the fact that they actually encourage terrible optimizations.

Core Web Vitals are all the rage, but do they live up to the hype? Here's @THCapper's take - SEO is like the prisoner's dilemma - Prioritize high traffic pages & page speed - Metrics can be gamed - Drop, delay unstable elements or move below fold - Rethink hero images#mozconpic.twitter.com/hgqeUZzKTP

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

So what’s taking so long? As we all know, this roll out has been delayed multiple times. Tom uses a brilliant example of the classic prisoner’s dilemma to explain why:

@THCapper pulling a #ChidiAnagonye by bringing moral philosophy into an SEO talk. #MozCon#TheGoodPlacepic.twitter.com/A7cx1GtKVy

— Sandi Pope Griffin (@sandpoper) July 14, 2021

As it turns out, Google has been contradicting themselves when talking about CWV because they can’t actually roll out updates that undermine the quality of their services — they’re relying on us, the SEOs, to act as the prisoners in their big dilemma of rankings.

On Google’s “There appears to be some confusion”: “Well, yes, you will notice some confusion if you directly contradict yourself.” @THCapper#MozCon

— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 14, 2021

Tom advised SEOs to take advantage of Google Discover, which is actually a massive, untapped traffic opportunity as it’s more responsive to speed than organic search.

"For most sites I see that are taking Google Discover even remotely seriously, they are getting more traffic from Discover than from organic search." - @THCapper dropping shocking stats. #MozConpic.twitter.com/kJSPDKCTTn

— Rob Ousbey (@RobOusbey) July 14, 2021

Before he signed off, Tom reiterated:

Prioritize high traffic pages

Metrics can be gamed/optimized

Don’t do any of this at the expense of speed

We won’t dig into the how for all of this here, so definitely check out his presentation in the video bundle!

Luke Carthy — The Ultimate How-To for Faceted Navigation SEO in E-Commerce

After an introduction that got the whole chat laughing (“Hi, I’m Morgan Freeman. Welcome to the afterlife.”), Luke Carthy showed us how he generated a 25% increase in organic traffic using faceted navigation.

Wait, what’s faceted navigation? You’ve definitely run into it if you’ve ever shopped online. Think about the stores that allow you to filter and sort your search. Behind that search is a faceted nav, defining, filtering, and sorting URLs on a website.

If it’s so common, what’s wrong with it? As Luke explains, faceted navs generate hundreds of long, parameterized, filtered URLs. It’s messy, it’s bloated, and bots can’t easily crawl them.

SEOs tend to counteract this bloat by “nofollowing the shit out of” faceted URLs. But when we do that, all of that long-tail gold disappears.

So what’s the solution? As Luke says, “It’s all about balance!”

(Side note: how cute is this photo??)

Luke shared some ways to “make facets sexy” by:

Understanding your site’s taxonomy

Using filters only to add granularity

Using “-” (dash) instead of “_” (underscore)

Filtering parameter URLs in GA to spot opportunities

Using a consistent structure

Limiting indexable parameter options

There were a bunch more actionable tips in this presentation, but we won’t spoil it all for you!

Okay, wow, this presentation is EXTREMELY actionable for anyone who handles e-commerce sites. But also, if you handle a blog - maybe try and use it for tags, categories, etc. Just a thought off the top of the dome 🤷‍♀️@MrLukeCarthy#MozCon

— Brie E Anderson (@brie_e_anderson) July 14, 2021

Miracle Inameti-Archibong — Harnessing the Natural Language Toolkit for More Productive SEO

In her quick presentation, MozCon newcomer Miracle walked us through ways to use Natural Language Processing to do our SEO tasks — like keyword research — and even shared some of her own resources to help us do it!

With Miracle’s comprehensive Natural Language Processor with Python, you can analyze up to 10,000 keywords with the click of a button and group them based on category, frequency, and search intent. Don’t worry — even if you aren’t a programmer, Miracle’s scripts are easy enough to plug and play so you can start analyzing immediately.

If you're not following @mira_inam yet, what are you doing? Miracle just shared SO many actionable keyword research takeaways!!! Thank you!!! 🤯🤯🤯 https://t.co/ESStpcLt5I

— Britney Muller (@BritneyMuller) July 14, 2021

Miracle then walked us through how to get the script up and running step-by-step. The results were mind-bending. In just a few short clicks, she produced a wealth of keyword data sure to fuel some brilliant strategies and ideas.

To be honest, there was so much information in such a short time frame, this is one we’ll have to revisit again to absorb every tip possible, but click below to access Miracle’s scripts:

http://bit.ly/keywordclassification

http://bit.ly/keywordcluster

Amanda Milligan — A Live Guide to Finding & Filling the Gaps in Your Link Strategy

Amanda kicked off her first MozCon presentation by reiterating the importance of quality over quantity, to the tune of enthusiastic cheers from the MozCon chat box. In today’s climate, quality content is what will get you that authority and trustworthiness today’s marketers (and Google) crave. Quantity may give you a short term boost, but it won’t last and it won’t compound.

@millanda on creating link-worthy content: "Always remember that it's not just about the link juice, but about the excellence you've created and the value you've provided as a result." #mozcon#SEO#linkbuildingpic.twitter.com/yT7uqIS7OL

— Katie Bradley (@KtBee21) July 14, 2021

But Google is just a robot and they base their assumptions on links: Who owns them and who links to whom? If your competitors are ranking on time.com and you aren’t, then Google will see your competitors more favorably and rank them higher in the SERP.

Amanda reminds us that these gaps are opportunities. If your competitor can get a link on Time.com, then so can you!

Amanda jumps straight to Moz Pro’s Link Intersect — “This tool was made for this kind of analysis!” — measuring up Chewy.com to competitors Petco.com and Petsmart.com to reveal the places where Chewy’s competitors link, but Chewy doesn’t.

One such article on CNN.com links to Petsmart and Petco and features a very cute guinea pig in a suit of armor — is it possible for Chewy to obtain a link to CNN? Yes!

Developing the content is only half the battle. Once you have something you think will resonate, it’s time to start pitching, which is arguably “where many link builders fall short.” In the pitching process, Amanda offers a fool proof plan of attack: “Pitch your content exclusively at first, and then once published, you can begin to take it elsewhere.” Publishers love exclusive content because they can leverage it to drive more views to their own content.

Amanda also drives home another link building golden rule: make sure you research and position your pitches and tailor them to the publisher. Gone are the days of mass outreach, and that won’t serve you well in the long run.

Once you’ve done the work, it’s time to track and record your progress. Take note of all the places your content shows up (anchor text, images, etc.) or whether it is do-follow or not.

Finding & filling gaps in your link strategy: 1/2 Finding - Identify brands building great links - See who links to them, but not to you (use a tool like Moz's link intersect) - Analyze the types of content earning links - Consider similar angles@millanda#MozConpic.twitter.com/lsH0DcbVfk

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

Check out Amanda’s Whiteboard Friday on crafting the perfect pitch email for more tips!

Lily Ray — From the Medic Update to Now: How the E-A-T Ecosystem Has Transformed Organic Search

Lily Ray has been studying the evolution of Google and E-A-T for a few years now, and in this presentation, she outlined key changes in how Google perceives content – specifically when it comes to the rise of misinformation.

Since 2016, and especially in the last year, more people turn to Google for information on things like politics, vaccines, COVID, and other important topics. This makes it increasingly necessary for Google to surface reliable information. In times of crisis, things become even more critical, and according to the data, Google begins to favor more authoritative sources versus relevant sources. We don’t know exactly how this is determined, but in her study, the data shows that Google favorably ranks content from reputable sources for potentially controversial keywords.

If there is one thing that Lily wants us to walk away with, it's the “E-A-T matters in crisis”, and is Google’s quality standard for evaluating content, authors, and websites.

As a result of this, Google saw a sharp decline in search visibility for questionable news sources, which then expanded to include health and science sites, regardless of the technical optimization on those sites.

@lilyraynyc explains E-A-T at #MozCon E-A-T was created in 2014 to make sure the quality of the content they are surfacing is meeting the needs of the users. @Moz In 2017 many of the fake news were wiped off the SERPs. Then this continued in 2018 with the YMYL sites pic.twitter.com/6PUCFwKrbV

— TurnDigi (@TurnDigi) July 14, 2021

Lily digs into keyword comparisons, showing how more authoritative sites became increasingly more visible between 2018 and 2021.

If you are wondering how E-A-T impacts search results - these slides by @lilyraynyc showing real life examples are sooo good #MozConpic.twitter.com/eQux45kKmm

— Casie Gillette (@Casieg) July 14, 2021

Most of the sites that lost visibility were doing some questionable things including:

Leveraging questionable authors

Had poor reputations

Published deceptive content

Lacked sufficient sources

Published dangerous medical advice

Included hate speech

Included excessive affiliate or sales links

“Winning sites make it really clear who they are, who writes for them, how they make money on the sites, why they should trust them […]—all of these great things that really instill trust in the user.” @lilyraynyc#MozCon

— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 14, 2021

From there, Lily dug into 10 key ways Google has changed, and we encourage you to check out her slides and take a look for yourself.

What do all these changes mean for SEO? The landscape is more complex and competitive than ever, so it’s important to be reasonable with your organic search goals and always put E-A-T at the forefront of your SEO Strategy.

Learn from the winners investing in EAT over the last few years of Google’s evolution: @lilyraynyc#mozcon@Healthline@NerdWallet@[email protected]/0TfFAoNWqc

— Amsive Digital (@Amsive_Digital) July 14, 2021

Kameron Jenkins — The Content Refresh: How to Do More With Less

Kameron Jenkins is no stranger to content. She manages multiple blogs and currently works for e-commerce powerhouse, Shopify.

When it comes to content, she knows that the best way to regain lost traffic and give your content new life is through a content refresh. In her presentation, she walked us through her exact process for identifying and updating old content. Surprisingly, most content marketers only dedicate 10-25% of their time to content refreshes, even though a content refresh can lead to more ROI in the long term.

Content people! About what % of your team's publishing calendar is *refreshes (vs. brand new content)? *taking something that was previously published and updating it.

— Kameron Jenkins 👋 (@Kammie_Jenkins) May 11, 2021

How do you identify the content that could benefit from a refresh? Look at your Google Analytics Landing Page report alongside Google Search Console, and prioritize content based on goal conversions, trending topics, and business priorities.

@Kammie_Jenkins Great deck and congrats on #mozcon!!! We're totally aligned on using the biggest movers for analysis. I love including impressions too to see the scope of opportunities. Kind of like this: pic.twitter.com/5hoaova2zL

— Noah Learner (He/Him) (@noahlearner) July 14, 2021

Oh heck, I loooove anyone who has a favorite GA view. But add in GSC data exports... I think I'm in heaven. Pageviews going down in GA + Losing rank for specific keywords in GSC = Opportunity for content revamp#MozCon

— Brie E Anderson (@brie_e_anderson) July 14, 2021

Next, it’s time to refresh. When moving into the execution, you’ll want to ask yourself three key questions:

What’s table stakes?

What will give you the competitive advantage?

And what will maximize conversions?

Other content refresh opportunities to look out for are consolidation, query targeting, and internal linking.

How can you stand out from the competition in your content refresh? Incorporate original research and expert quotes to beef up the authority and originality of your post.

Lastly, maximize your conversions by testing out your CTA placement and make your offers relevant to your audience.

She left us with some wise words of wisdom, “SEO is like owning a car. Even when the car is paid off, you still need to conduct regular maintenance to keep that engine running.”

Some tips for getting more value from your existing content: - Refresh decaying content to rank faster, increase ROI & maintain brand credibility - Remember session loss ≠ Traffic loss - Leverage GA & GSC data - Prioritize by trend, conversions & value@Kammie_Jenkins#MozConpic.twitter.com/SAVTtAFMIC

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

Best quote of #MozCon by @Kammie_Jenkins of @Shopifypic.twitter.com/tNb6qvwRO6

— Barb Davids 🤓🏃‍♀️🍻 (@BarbDavids) July 14, 2021

Wil Reynolds — The 3 Most Important Search Marketing Tools…Your Heart, Your Brain, & Your [Small] Ego

Wil brought the energy yet again for his ninth MozCon presentation, closing out the conference with a bang. His message was simple yet powerful: Your top three tools are your heart, your brain, and your small ego. But what does that mean, exactly?

Small ego

Wil began by introducing the concept of intellectual humility, or the recognition that some of the things you believe just might be wrong. He urged us to listen to the people around us who say there's a better way — even brand-new coworkers or recent college grads whose ideas you might otherwise discount.

Sharing this with everyone I know 👏 #mozconhttps://t.co/f1x5gDp5is

— Casie Gillette (@Casieg) July 14, 2021

And don't feel badly that you might be wrong — Wil posits that not knowing your own ignorance is just part of the human condition. He shared a quote from Upton Sinclair that was especially poignant:

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.

Heart

A hundred years ago, no business needed SEO. They needed customers, profits, and sales. And as true then as it is now, they needed to know their customers.

One slide stood out loud and clear: The less you understand your customer, the more you spend to acquire them. And as Wil said, reports that lack dollar signs don't land on real decision makers' desks. Here's where your brain comes in.

“Best practices are a great start for those who lack data, or have data but can’t process it.” - @wilreynolds#MozCon#IntellectualHonestypic.twitter.com/91QiMy4ZDq

— Michael Tolosa (@TolosaSEO) July 14, 2021

Brain

Wil presented a bit of a conundrum: making decisions based on your gut may be easy and comfortable, but it's the data that gets you the insights you need to create and test hypotheses. However, exhaustive data — the kind of data where opportunity lives — is probably too big for your laptop to handle. What's an SEO to do?

Of course he had answers! Wil's suggestion was to harness the power of ngrams. With the help of a tool like PowerBI or BigQuery and using ngrams to examine all the search terms, you can find all your ranking results and see where your search term isn't in the title.

Transform your SEO data into winning insights: - Shrink your ego & question assumptions - Don't rely on best practices. - Tools are a start, not an end. - Business is about $ - Understanding your customer saves $ - What people do & say are different@wilreynolds#mozconpic.twitter.com/IB7CcQ4IpN

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

There's too much goodness to cram into a short recap, so you'll definitely want to get yourself a copy of the MozCon video bundle when it's ready for purchase. Until then, a few final suggestions from Wil:

Examining all your data is the only way to capture all your opportunities; resist the urge to pare it down to the top 20%. Every time you shrink your data down, you're missing out on opportunities that someone else can see.

See every data set through a competitive lens: if all else is the same, how do you create value?

Combine your paid and SEO data together — get the dollar signs in those reports and get in front of key decision makers

Learn SQL. You'll be able to search for exactly what you need within your own data, you won't have to rely on others, and your hypotheses will benefit from your newfound data freedom.

Be brave enough to suck at something new. Stop doing the thing that you feel comfortable with. Run your own experiments and validate your hypotheses. It'll be worth it in the end!

Hey #MozCon thank you! Remember: 1 - Surround yourself with people willing to show you a new way (show >> tell) - its easy to find people to tell you you are doing it wrong, find the people who build stuff to show you a new way.

— Wil Reynolds (@wilreynolds) July 14, 2021

Thanks everyone for a wonderful show! And we’ll see you in person next year!

#MozCon was freaking awesome! I learned so much and enjoyed meeting so many new colleagues! Thank you @Moz for such a wonderful event!

— Taylor Berg (@taylorannberg) July 15, 2021

[xaydungtruonggia]

Pack Up the Big Top: Insights from MozCon Virtual 2021's Grand Finale

And just like that, MozCon Virtual 2021 has come to an end. Over the past three days, we’ve seen incredibly insightful presentations on everything from content marketing, to machine learning, to new and exciting SEO tips and tricks. A big thank you to all our speakers, emcees, attendees, and volunteers in front of and behind the camera. It wouldn’t be MozCon without you!

Check out our recaps from day one and day two, and if you missed day three, read on for top-level takeaways! But to get the most out of this year’s MozCon content, make sure to access the video bundle when it goes on sale Friday, and stay tuned for details on MozCon 2022 —

You heard it here first, folks: #MozCon 2022 is slated to be LIVE in Seattle, in person! 🎉 https://t.co/3CKcI0N9l7

— Moz (@Moz) July 14, 2021

— that’s right! We’ll be back live and in-person next year in Seattle. Can’t wait to see you all there!

Tom Capper — The Fast & The Spurious: Core Web Vitals & SEO

“What if I told you that Core Web Vitals, and this update, are a bluff?”

Tom sure did kick off day three by blowing our minds with his opening line — the update everyone has been obsessing over for the last year isn’t actually all it’s cracked up to be?

Well, sort of.

It turns out we can’t afford to call Google’s bluff, but we can “sort of cheat”. Tom went on to lay out the flaws of Core Web Vitals, which all add up to the fact that they actually encourage terrible optimizations.

Core Web Vitals are all the rage, but do they live up to the hype? Here's @THCapper's take - SEO is like the prisoner's dilemma - Prioritize high traffic pages & page speed - Metrics can be gamed - Drop, delay unstable elements or move below fold - Rethink hero images#mozconpic.twitter.com/hgqeUZzKTP

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

So what’s taking so long? As we all know, this roll out has been delayed multiple times. Tom uses a brilliant example of the classic prisoner’s dilemma to explain why:

@THCapper pulling a #ChidiAnagonye by bringing moral philosophy into an SEO talk. #MozCon#TheGoodPlacepic.twitter.com/A7cx1GtKVy

— Sandi Pope Griffin (@sandpoper) July 14, 2021

As it turns out, Google has been contradicting themselves when talking about CWV because they can’t actually roll out updates that undermine the quality of their services — they’re relying on us, the SEOs, to act as the prisoners in their big dilemma of rankings.

On Google’s “There appears to be some confusion”: “Well, yes, you will notice some confusion if you directly contradict yourself.” @THCapper#MozCon

— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 14, 2021

Tom advised SEOs to take advantage of Google Discover, which is actually a massive, untapped traffic opportunity as it’s more responsive to speed than organic search.

"For most sites I see that are taking Google Discover even remotely seriously, they are getting more traffic from Discover than from organic search." - @THCapper dropping shocking stats. #MozConpic.twitter.com/kJSPDKCTTn

— Rob Ousbey (@RobOusbey) July 14, 2021

Before he signed off, Tom reiterated:

Prioritize high traffic pages

Metrics can be gamed/optimized

Don’t do any of this at the expense of speed

We won’t dig into the how for all of this here, so definitely check out his presentation in the video bundle!

Luke Carthy — The Ultimate How-To for Faceted Navigation SEO in E-Commerce

After an introduction that got the whole chat laughing (“Hi, I’m Morgan Freeman. Welcome to the afterlife.”), Luke Carthy showed us how he generated a 25% increase in organic traffic using faceted navigation.

Wait, what’s faceted navigation? You’ve definitely run into it if you’ve ever shopped online. Think about the stores that allow you to filter and sort your search. Behind that search is a faceted nav, defining, filtering, and sorting URLs on a website.

If it’s so common, what’s wrong with it? As Luke explains, faceted navs generate hundreds of long, parameterized, filtered URLs. It’s messy, it’s bloated, and bots can’t easily crawl them.

SEOs tend to counteract this bloat by “nofollowing the shit out of” faceted URLs. But when we do that, all of that long-tail gold disappears.

So what’s the solution? As Luke says, “It’s all about balance!”

(Side note: how cute is this photo??)

Luke shared some ways to “make facets sexy” by:

Understanding your site’s taxonomy

Using filters only to add granularity

Using “-” (dash) instead of “_” (underscore)

Filtering parameter URLs in GA to spot opportunities

Using a consistent structure

Limiting indexable parameter options

There were a bunch more actionable tips in this presentation, but we won’t spoil it all for you!

Okay, wow, this presentation is EXTREMELY actionable for anyone who handles e-commerce sites. But also, if you handle a blog - maybe try and use it for tags, categories, etc. Just a thought off the top of the dome 🤷‍♀️@MrLukeCarthy#MozCon

— Brie E Anderson (@brie_e_anderson) July 14, 2021

Miracle Inameti-Archibong — Harnessing the Natural Language Toolkit for More Productive SEO

In her quick presentation, MozCon newcomer Miracle walked us through ways to use Natural Language Processing to do our SEO tasks — like keyword research — and even shared some of her own resources to help us do it!

With Miracle’s comprehensive Natural Language Processor with Python, you can analyze up to 10,000 keywords with the click of a button and group them based on category, frequency, and search intent. Don’t worry — even if you aren’t a programmer, Miracle’s scripts are easy enough to plug and play so you can start analyzing immediately.

If you're not following @mira_inam yet, what are you doing? Miracle just shared SO many actionable keyword research takeaways!!! Thank you!!! 🤯🤯🤯 https://t.co/ESStpcLt5I

— Britney Muller (@BritneyMuller) July 14, 2021

Miracle then walked us through how to get the script up and running step-by-step. The results were mind-bending. In just a few short clicks, she produced a wealth of keyword data sure to fuel some brilliant strategies and ideas.

To be honest, there was so much information in such a short time frame, this is one we’ll have to revisit again to absorb every tip possible, but click below to access Miracle’s scripts:

http://bit.ly/keywordclassification

http://bit.ly/keywordcluster

Amanda Milligan — A Live Guide to Finding & Filling the Gaps in Your Link Strategy

Amanda kicked off her first MozCon presentation by reiterating the importance of quality over quantity, to the tune of enthusiastic cheers from the MozCon chat box. In today’s climate, quality content is what will get you that authority and trustworthiness today’s marketers (and Google) crave. Quantity may give you a short term boost, but it won’t last and it won’t compound.

@millanda on creating link-worthy content: "Always remember that it's not just about the link juice, but about the excellence you've created and the value you've provided as a result." #mozcon#SEO#linkbuildingpic.twitter.com/yT7uqIS7OL

— Katie Bradley (@KtBee21) July 14, 2021

But Google is just a robot and they base their assumptions on links: Who owns them and who links to whom? If your competitors are ranking on time.com and you aren’t, then Google will see your competitors more favorably and rank them higher in the SERP.

Amanda reminds us that these gaps are opportunities. If your competitor can get a link on Time.com, then so can you!

Amanda jumps straight to Moz Pro’s Link Intersect — “This tool was made for this kind of analysis!” — measuring up Chewy.com to competitors Petco.com and Petsmart.com to reveal the places where Chewy’s competitors link, but Chewy doesn’t.

One such article on CNN.com links to Petsmart and Petco and features a very cute guinea pig in a suit of armor — is it possible for Chewy to obtain a link to CNN? Yes!

Developing the content is only half the battle. Once you have something you think will resonate, it’s time to start pitching, which is arguably “where many link builders fall short.” In the pitching process, Amanda offers a fool proof plan of attack: “Pitch your content exclusively at first, and then once published, you can begin to take it elsewhere.” Publishers love exclusive content because they can leverage it to drive more views to their own content.

Amanda also drives home another link building golden rule: make sure you research and position your pitches and tailor them to the publisher. Gone are the days of mass outreach, and that won’t serve you well in the long run.

Once you’ve done the work, it’s time to track and record your progress. Take note of all the places your content shows up (anchor text, images, etc.) or whether it is do-follow or not.

Finding & filling gaps in your link strategy: 1/2 Finding - Identify brands building great links - See who links to them, but not to you (use a tool like Moz's link intersect) - Analyze the types of content earning links - Consider similar angles@millanda#MozConpic.twitter.com/lsH0DcbVfk

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

Check out Amanda’s Whiteboard Friday on crafting the perfect pitch email for more tips!

Lily Ray — From the Medic Update to Now: How the E-A-T Ecosystem Has Transformed Organic Search

Lily Ray has been studying the evolution of Google and E-A-T for a few years now, and in this presentation, she outlined key changes in how Google perceives content – specifically when it comes to the rise of misinformation.

Since 2016, and especially in the last year, more people turn to Google for information on things like politics, vaccines, COVID, and other important topics. This makes it increasingly necessary for Google to surface reliable information. In times of crisis, things become even more critical, and according to the data, Google begins to favor more authoritative sources versus relevant sources. We don’t know exactly how this is determined, but in her study, the data shows that Google favorably ranks content from reputable sources for potentially controversial keywords.

If there is one thing that Lily wants us to walk away with, it's the “E-A-T matters in crisis”, and is Google’s quality standard for evaluating content, authors, and websites.

As a result of this, Google saw a sharp decline in search visibility for questionable news sources, which then expanded to include health and science sites, regardless of the technical optimization on those sites.

@lilyraynyc explains E-A-T at #MozCon E-A-T was created in 2014 to make sure the quality of the content they are surfacing is meeting the needs of the users. @Moz In 2017 many of the fake news were wiped off the SERPs. Then this continued in 2018 with the YMYL sites pic.twitter.com/6PUCFwKrbV

— TurnDigi (@TurnDigi) July 14, 2021

Lily digs into keyword comparisons, showing how more authoritative sites became increasingly more visible between 2018 and 2021.

If you are wondering how E-A-T impacts search results - these slides by @lilyraynyc showing real life examples are sooo good #MozConpic.twitter.com/eQux45kKmm

— Casie Gillette (@Casieg) July 14, 2021

Most of the sites that lost visibility were doing some questionable things including:

Leveraging questionable authors

Had poor reputations

Published deceptive content

Lacked sufficient sources

Published dangerous medical advice

Included hate speech

Included excessive affiliate or sales links

“Winning sites make it really clear who they are, who writes for them, how they make money on the sites, why they should trust them […]—all of these great things that really instill trust in the user.” @lilyraynyc#MozCon

— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 14, 2021

From there, Lily dug into 10 key ways Google has changed, and we encourage you to check out her slides and take a look for yourself.

What do all these changes mean for SEO? The landscape is more complex and competitive than ever, so it’s important to be reasonable with your organic search goals and always put E-A-T at the forefront of your SEO Strategy.

Learn from the winners investing in EAT over the last few years of Google’s evolution: @lilyraynyc#mozcon@Healthline@NerdWallet@[email protected]/0TfFAoNWqc

— Amsive Digital (@Amsive_Digital) July 14, 2021

Kameron Jenkins — The Content Refresh: How to Do More With Less

Kameron Jenkins is no stranger to content. She manages multiple blogs and currently works for e-commerce powerhouse, Shopify.

When it comes to content, she knows that the best way to regain lost traffic and give your content new life is through a content refresh. In her presentation, she walked us through her exact process for identifying and updating old content. Surprisingly, most content marketers only dedicate 10-25% of their time to content refreshes, even though a content refresh can lead to more ROI in the long term.

Content people! About what % of your team's publishing calendar is *refreshes (vs. brand new content)? *taking something that was previously published and updating it.

— Kameron Jenkins 👋 (@Kammie_Jenkins) May 11, 2021

How do you identify the content that could benefit from a refresh? Look at your Google Analytics Landing Page report alongside Google Search Console, and prioritize content based on goal conversions, trending topics, and business priorities.

@Kammie_Jenkins Great deck and congrats on #mozcon!!! We're totally aligned on using the biggest movers for analysis. I love including impressions too to see the scope of opportunities. Kind of like this: pic.twitter.com/5hoaova2zL

— Noah Learner (He/Him) (@noahlearner) July 14, 2021

Oh heck, I loooove anyone who has a favorite GA view. But add in GSC data exports... I think I'm in heaven. Pageviews going down in GA + Losing rank for specific keywords in GSC = Opportunity for content revamp#MozCon

— Brie E Anderson (@brie_e_anderson) July 14, 2021

Next, it’s time to refresh. When moving into the execution, you’ll want to ask yourself three key questions:

What’s table stakes?

What will give you the competitive advantage?

And what will maximize conversions?

Other content refresh opportunities to look out for are consolidation, query targeting, and internal linking.

How can you stand out from the competition in your content refresh? Incorporate original research and expert quotes to beef up the authority and originality of your post.

Lastly, maximize your conversions by testing out your CTA placement and make your offers relevant to your audience.

She left us with some wise words of wisdom, “SEO is like owning a car. Even when the car is paid off, you still need to conduct regular maintenance to keep that engine running.”

Some tips for getting more value from your existing content: - Refresh decaying content to rank faster, increase ROI & maintain brand credibility - Remember session loss ≠ Traffic loss - Leverage GA & GSC data - Prioritize by trend, conversions & value@Kammie_Jenkins#MozConpic.twitter.com/SAVTtAFMIC

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

Best quote of #MozCon by @Kammie_Jenkins of @Shopifypic.twitter.com/tNb6qvwRO6

— Barb Davids 🤓🏃‍♀️🍻 (@BarbDavids) July 14, 2021

Wil Reynolds — The 3 Most Important Search Marketing Tools…Your Heart, Your Brain, & Your [Small] Ego

Wil brought the energy yet again for his ninth MozCon presentation, closing out the conference with a bang. His message was simple yet powerful: Your top three tools are your heart, your brain, and your small ego. But what does that mean, exactly?

Small ego

Wil began by introducing the concept of intellectual humility, or the recognition that some of the things you believe just might be wrong. He urged us to listen to the people around us who say there's a better way — even brand-new coworkers or recent college grads whose ideas you might otherwise discount.

Sharing this with everyone I know 👏 #mozconhttps://t.co/f1x5gDp5is

— Casie Gillette (@Casieg) July 14, 2021

And don't feel badly that you might be wrong — Wil posits that not knowing your own ignorance is just part of the human condition. He shared a quote from Upton Sinclair that was especially poignant:

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.

Heart

A hundred years ago, no business needed SEO. They needed customers, profits, and sales. And as true then as it is now, they needed to know their customers.

One slide stood out loud and clear: The less you understand your customer, the more you spend to acquire them. And as Wil said, reports that lack dollar signs don't land on real decision makers' desks. Here's where your brain comes in.

“Best practices are a great start for those who lack data, or have data but can’t process it.” - @wilreynolds#MozCon#IntellectualHonestypic.twitter.com/91QiMy4ZDq

— Michael Tolosa (@TolosaSEO) July 14, 2021

Brain

Wil presented a bit of a conundrum: making decisions based on your gut may be easy and comfortable, but it's the data that gets you the insights you need to create and test hypotheses. However, exhaustive data — the kind of data where opportunity lives — is probably too big for your laptop to handle. What's an SEO to do?

Of course he had answers! Wil's suggestion was to harness the power of ngrams. With the help of a tool like PowerBI or BigQuery and using ngrams to examine all the search terms, you can find all your ranking results and see where your search term isn't in the title.

Transform your SEO data into winning insights: - Shrink your ego & question assumptions - Don't rely on best practices. - Tools are a start, not an end. - Business is about $ - Understanding your customer saves $ - What people do & say are different@wilreynolds#mozconpic.twitter.com/IB7CcQ4IpN

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

There's too much goodness to cram into a short recap, so you'll definitely want to get yourself a copy of the MozCon video bundle when it's ready for purchase. Until then, a few final suggestions from Wil:

Examining all your data is the only way to capture all your opportunities; resist the urge to pare it down to the top 20%. Every time you shrink your data down, you're missing out on opportunities that someone else can see.

See every data set through a competitive lens: if all else is the same, how do you create value?

Combine your paid and SEO data together — get the dollar signs in those reports and get in front of key decision makers

Learn SQL. You'll be able to search for exactly what you need within your own data, you won't have to rely on others, and your hypotheses will benefit from your newfound data freedom.

Be brave enough to suck at something new. Stop doing the thing that you feel comfortable with. Run your own experiments and validate your hypotheses. It'll be worth it in the end!

Hey #MozCon thank you! Remember: 1 - Surround yourself with people willing to show you a new way (show >> tell) - its easy to find people to tell you you are doing it wrong, find the people who build stuff to show you a new way.

— Wil Reynolds (@wilreynolds) July 14, 2021

Thanks everyone for a wonderful show! And we’ll see you in person next year!

#MozCon was freaking awesome! I learned so much and enjoyed meeting so many new colleagues! Thank you @Moz for such a wonderful event!

— Taylor Berg (@taylorannberg) July 15, 2021

[camerasieunhovn]

Pack Up the Big Top: Insights from MozCon Virtual 2021's Grand Finale

And just like that, MozCon Virtual 2021 has come to an end. Over the past three days, we’ve seen incredibly insightful presentations on everything from content marketing, to machine learning, to new and exciting SEO tips and tricks. A big thank you to all our speakers, emcees, attendees, and volunteers in front of and behind the camera. It wouldn’t be MozCon without you!

Check out our recaps from day one and day two, and if you missed day three, read on for top-level takeaways! But to get the most out of this year’s MozCon content, make sure to access the video bundle when it goes on sale Friday, and stay tuned for details on MozCon 2022 —

You heard it here first, folks: #MozCon 2022 is slated to be LIVE in Seattle, in person! 🎉 https://t.co/3CKcI0N9l7

— Moz (@Moz) July 14, 2021

— that’s right! We’ll be back live and in-person next year in Seattle. Can’t wait to see you all there!

Tom Capper — The Fast & The Spurious: Core Web Vitals & SEO

“What if I told you that Core Web Vitals, and this update, are a bluff?”

Tom sure did kick off day three by blowing our minds with his opening line — the update everyone has been obsessing over for the last year isn’t actually all it’s cracked up to be?

Well, sort of.

It turns out we can’t afford to call Google’s bluff, but we can “sort of cheat”. Tom went on to lay out the flaws of Core Web Vitals, which all add up to the fact that they actually encourage terrible optimizations.

Core Web Vitals are all the rage, but do they live up to the hype? Here's @THCapper's take - SEO is like the prisoner's dilemma - Prioritize high traffic pages & page speed - Metrics can be gamed - Drop, delay unstable elements or move below fold - Rethink hero images#mozconpic.twitter.com/hgqeUZzKTP

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

So what’s taking so long? As we all know, this roll out has been delayed multiple times. Tom uses a brilliant example of the classic prisoner’s dilemma to explain why:

@THCapper pulling a #ChidiAnagonye by bringing moral philosophy into an SEO talk. #MozCon#TheGoodPlacepic.twitter.com/A7cx1GtKVy

— Sandi Pope Griffin (@sandpoper) July 14, 2021

As it turns out, Google has been contradicting themselves when talking about CWV because they can’t actually roll out updates that undermine the quality of their services — they’re relying on us, the SEOs, to act as the prisoners in their big dilemma of rankings.

On Google’s “There appears to be some confusion”: “Well, yes, you will notice some confusion if you directly contradict yourself.” @THCapper#MozCon

— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 14, 2021

Tom advised SEOs to take advantage of Google Discover, which is actually a massive, untapped traffic opportunity as it’s more responsive to speed than organic search.

"For most sites I see that are taking Google Discover even remotely seriously, they are getting more traffic from Discover than from organic search." - @THCapper dropping shocking stats. #MozConpic.twitter.com/kJSPDKCTTn

— Rob Ousbey (@RobOusbey) July 14, 2021

Before he signed off, Tom reiterated:

Prioritize high traffic pages

Metrics can be gamed/optimized

Don’t do any of this at the expense of speed

We won’t dig into the how for all of this here, so definitely check out his presentation in the video bundle!

Luke Carthy — The Ultimate How-To for Faceted Navigation SEO in E-Commerce

After an introduction that got the whole chat laughing (“Hi, I’m Morgan Freeman. Welcome to the afterlife.”), Luke Carthy showed us how he generated a 25% increase in organic traffic using faceted navigation.

Wait, what’s faceted navigation? You’ve definitely run into it if you’ve ever shopped online. Think about the stores that allow you to filter and sort your search. Behind that search is a faceted nav, defining, filtering, and sorting URLs on a website.

If it’s so common, what’s wrong with it? As Luke explains, faceted navs generate hundreds of long, parameterized, filtered URLs. It’s messy, it’s bloated, and bots can’t easily crawl them.

SEOs tend to counteract this bloat by “nofollowing the shit out of” faceted URLs. But when we do that, all of that long-tail gold disappears.

So what’s the solution? As Luke says, “It’s all about balance!”

(Side note: how cute is this photo??)

Luke shared some ways to “make facets sexy” by:

Understanding your site’s taxonomy

Using filters only to add granularity

Using “-” (dash) instead of “_” (underscore)

Filtering parameter URLs in GA to spot opportunities

Using a consistent structure

Limiting indexable parameter options

There were a bunch more actionable tips in this presentation, but we won’t spoil it all for you!

Okay, wow, this presentation is EXTREMELY actionable for anyone who handles e-commerce sites. But also, if you handle a blog - maybe try and use it for tags, categories, etc. Just a thought off the top of the dome 🤷‍♀️@MrLukeCarthy#MozCon

— Brie E Anderson (@brie_e_anderson) July 14, 2021

Miracle Inameti-Archibong — Harnessing the Natural Language Toolkit for More Productive SEO

In her quick presentation, MozCon newcomer Miracle walked us through ways to use Natural Language Processing to do our SEO tasks — like keyword research — and even shared some of her own resources to help us do it!

With Miracle’s comprehensive Natural Language Processor with Python, you can analyze up to 10,000 keywords with the click of a button and group them based on category, frequency, and search intent. Don’t worry — even if you aren’t a programmer, Miracle’s scripts are easy enough to plug and play so you can start analyzing immediately.

If you're not following @mira_inam yet, what are you doing? Miracle just shared SO many actionable keyword research takeaways!!! Thank you!!! 🤯🤯🤯 https://t.co/ESStpcLt5I

— Britney Muller (@BritneyMuller) July 14, 2021

Miracle then walked us through how to get the script up and running step-by-step. The results were mind-bending. In just a few short clicks, she produced a wealth of keyword data sure to fuel some brilliant strategies and ideas.

To be honest, there was so much information in such a short time frame, this is one we’ll have to revisit again to absorb every tip possible, but click below to access Miracle’s scripts:

http://bit.ly/keywordclassification

http://bit.ly/keywordcluster

Amanda Milligan — A Live Guide to Finding & Filling the Gaps in Your Link Strategy

Amanda kicked off her first MozCon presentation by reiterating the importance of quality over quantity, to the tune of enthusiastic cheers from the MozCon chat box. In today’s climate, quality content is what will get you that authority and trustworthiness today’s marketers (and Google) crave. Quantity may give you a short term boost, but it won’t last and it won’t compound.

@millanda on creating link-worthy content: "Always remember that it's not just about the link juice, but about the excellence you've created and the value you've provided as a result." #mozcon#SEO#linkbuildingpic.twitter.com/yT7uqIS7OL

— Katie Bradley (@KtBee21) July 14, 2021

But Google is just a robot and they base their assumptions on links: Who owns them and who links to whom? If your competitors are ranking on time.com and you aren’t, then Google will see your competitors more favorably and rank them higher in the SERP.

Amanda reminds us that these gaps are opportunities. If your competitor can get a link on Time.com, then so can you!

Amanda jumps straight to Moz Pro’s Link Intersect — “This tool was made for this kind of analysis!” — measuring up Chewy.com to competitors Petco.com and Petsmart.com to reveal the places where Chewy’s competitors link, but Chewy doesn’t.

One such article on CNN.com links to Petsmart and Petco and features a very cute guinea pig in a suit of armor — is it possible for Chewy to obtain a link to CNN? Yes!

Developing the content is only half the battle. Once you have something you think will resonate, it’s time to start pitching, which is arguably “where many link builders fall short.” In the pitching process, Amanda offers a fool proof plan of attack: “Pitch your content exclusively at first, and then once published, you can begin to take it elsewhere.” Publishers love exclusive content because they can leverage it to drive more views to their own content.

Amanda also drives home another link building golden rule: make sure you research and position your pitches and tailor them to the publisher. Gone are the days of mass outreach, and that won’t serve you well in the long run.

Once you’ve done the work, it’s time to track and record your progress. Take note of all the places your content shows up (anchor text, images, etc.) or whether it is do-follow or not.

Finding & filling gaps in your link strategy: 1/2 Finding - Identify brands building great links - See who links to them, but not to you (use a tool like Moz's link intersect) - Analyze the types of content earning links - Consider similar angles@millanda#MozConpic.twitter.com/lsH0DcbVfk

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

Check out Amanda’s Whiteboard Friday on crafting the perfect pitch email for more tips!

Lily Ray — From the Medic Update to Now: How the E-A-T Ecosystem Has Transformed Organic Search

Lily Ray has been studying the evolution of Google and E-A-T for a few years now, and in this presentation, she outlined key changes in how Google perceives content – specifically when it comes to the rise of misinformation.

Since 2016, and especially in the last year, more people turn to Google for information on things like politics, vaccines, COVID, and other important topics. This makes it increasingly necessary for Google to surface reliable information. In times of crisis, things become even more critical, and according to the data, Google begins to favor more authoritative sources versus relevant sources. We don’t know exactly how this is determined, but in her study, the data shows that Google favorably ranks content from reputable sources for potentially controversial keywords.

If there is one thing that Lily wants us to walk away with, it's the “E-A-T matters in crisis”, and is Google’s quality standard for evaluating content, authors, and websites.

As a result of this, Google saw a sharp decline in search visibility for questionable news sources, which then expanded to include health and science sites, regardless of the technical optimization on those sites.

@lilyraynyc explains E-A-T at #MozCon E-A-T was created in 2014 to make sure the quality of the content they are surfacing is meeting the needs of the users. @Moz In 2017 many of the fake news were wiped off the SERPs. Then this continued in 2018 with the YMYL sites pic.twitter.com/6PUCFwKrbV

— TurnDigi (@TurnDigi) July 14, 2021

Lily digs into keyword comparisons, showing how more authoritative sites became increasingly more visible between 2018 and 2021.

If you are wondering how E-A-T impacts search results - these slides by @lilyraynyc showing real life examples are sooo good #MozConpic.twitter.com/eQux45kKmm

— Casie Gillette (@Casieg) July 14, 2021

Most of the sites that lost visibility were doing some questionable things including:

Leveraging questionable authors

Had poor reputations

Published deceptive content

Lacked sufficient sources

Published dangerous medical advice

Included hate speech

Included excessive affiliate or sales links

“Winning sites make it really clear who they are, who writes for them, how they make money on the sites, why they should trust them […]—all of these great things that really instill trust in the user.” @lilyraynyc#MozCon

— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 14, 2021

From there, Lily dug into 10 key ways Google has changed, and we encourage you to check out her slides and take a look for yourself.

What do all these changes mean for SEO? The landscape is more complex and competitive than ever, so it’s important to be reasonable with your organic search goals and always put E-A-T at the forefront of your SEO Strategy.

Learn from the winners investing in EAT over the last few years of Google’s evolution: @lilyraynyc#mozcon@Healthline@NerdWallet@[email protected]/0TfFAoNWqc

— Amsive Digital (@Amsive_Digital) July 14, 2021

Kameron Jenkins — The Content Refresh: How to Do More With Less

Kameron Jenkins is no stranger to content. She manages multiple blogs and currently works for e-commerce powerhouse, Shopify.

When it comes to content, she knows that the best way to regain lost traffic and give your content new life is through a content refresh. In her presentation, she walked us through her exact process for identifying and updating old content. Surprisingly, most content marketers only dedicate 10-25% of their time to content refreshes, even though a content refresh can lead to more ROI in the long term.

Content people! About what % of your team's publishing calendar is *refreshes (vs. brand new content)? *taking something that was previously published and updating it.

— Kameron Jenkins 👋 (@Kammie_Jenkins) May 11, 2021

How do you identify the content that could benefit from a refresh? Look at your Google Analytics Landing Page report alongside Google Search Console, and prioritize content based on goal conversions, trending topics, and business priorities.

@Kammie_Jenkins Great deck and congrats on #mozcon!!! We're totally aligned on using the biggest movers for analysis. I love including impressions too to see the scope of opportunities. Kind of like this: pic.twitter.com/5hoaova2zL

— Noah Learner (He/Him) (@noahlearner) July 14, 2021

Oh heck, I loooove anyone who has a favorite GA view. But add in GSC data exports... I think I'm in heaven. Pageviews going down in GA + Losing rank for specific keywords in GSC = Opportunity for content revamp#MozCon

— Brie E Anderson (@brie_e_anderson) July 14, 2021

Next, it’s time to refresh. When moving into the execution, you’ll want to ask yourself three key questions:

What’s table stakes?

What will give you the competitive advantage?

And what will maximize conversions?

Other content refresh opportunities to look out for are consolidation, query targeting, and internal linking.

How can you stand out from the competition in your content refresh? Incorporate original research and expert quotes to beef up the authority and originality of your post.

Lastly, maximize your conversions by testing out your CTA placement and make your offers relevant to your audience.

She left us with some wise words of wisdom, “SEO is like owning a car. Even when the car is paid off, you still need to conduct regular maintenance to keep that engine running.”

Some tips for getting more value from your existing content: - Refresh decaying content to rank faster, increase ROI & maintain brand credibility - Remember session loss ≠ Traffic loss - Leverage GA & GSC data - Prioritize by trend, conversions & value@Kammie_Jenkins#MozConpic.twitter.com/SAVTtAFMIC

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

Best quote of #MozCon by @Kammie_Jenkins of @Shopifypic.twitter.com/tNb6qvwRO6

— Barb Davids 🤓🏃‍♀️🍻 (@BarbDavids) July 14, 2021

Wil Reynolds — The 3 Most Important Search Marketing Tools…Your Heart, Your Brain, & Your [Small] Ego

Wil brought the energy yet again for his ninth MozCon presentation, closing out the conference with a bang. His message was simple yet powerful: Your top three tools are your heart, your brain, and your small ego. But what does that mean, exactly?

Small ego

Wil began by introducing the concept of intellectual humility, or the recognition that some of the things you believe just might be wrong. He urged us to listen to the people around us who say there's a better way — even brand-new coworkers or recent college grads whose ideas you might otherwise discount.

Sharing this with everyone I know 👏 #mozconhttps://t.co/f1x5gDp5is

— Casie Gillette (@Casieg) July 14, 2021

And don't feel badly that you might be wrong — Wil posits that not knowing your own ignorance is just part of the human condition. He shared a quote from Upton Sinclair that was especially poignant:

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.

Heart

A hundred years ago, no business needed SEO. They needed customers, profits, and sales. And as true then as it is now, they needed to know their customers.

One slide stood out loud and clear: The less you understand your customer, the more you spend to acquire them. And as Wil said, reports that lack dollar signs don't land on real decision makers' desks. Here's where your brain comes in.

“Best practices are a great start for those who lack data, or have data but can’t process it.” - @wilreynolds#MozCon#IntellectualHonestypic.twitter.com/91QiMy4ZDq

— Michael Tolosa (@TolosaSEO) July 14, 2021

Brain

Wil presented a bit of a conundrum: making decisions based on your gut may be easy and comfortable, but it's the data that gets you the insights you need to create and test hypotheses. However, exhaustive data — the kind of data where opportunity lives — is probably too big for your laptop to handle. What's an SEO to do?

Of course he had answers! Wil's suggestion was to harness the power of ngrams. With the help of a tool like PowerBI or BigQuery and using ngrams to examine all the search terms, you can find all your ranking results and see where your search term isn't in the title.

Transform your SEO data into winning insights: - Shrink your ego & question assumptions - Don't rely on best practices. - Tools are a start, not an end. - Business is about $ - Understanding your customer saves $ - What people do & say are different@wilreynolds#mozconpic.twitter.com/IB7CcQ4IpN

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

There's too much goodness to cram into a short recap, so you'll definitely want to get yourself a copy of the MozCon video bundle when it's ready for purchase. Until then, a few final suggestions from Wil:

Examining all your data is the only way to capture all your opportunities; resist the urge to pare it down to the top 20%. Every time you shrink your data down, you're missing out on opportunities that someone else can see.

See every data set through a competitive lens: if all else is the same, how do you create value?

Combine your paid and SEO data together — get the dollar signs in those reports and get in front of key decision makers

Learn SQL. You'll be able to search for exactly what you need within your own data, you won't have to rely on others, and your hypotheses will benefit from your newfound data freedom.

Be brave enough to suck at something new. Stop doing the thing that you feel comfortable with. Run your own experiments and validate your hypotheses. It'll be worth it in the end!

Hey #MozCon thank you! Remember: 1 - Surround yourself with people willing to show you a new way (show >> tell) - its easy to find people to tell you you are doing it wrong, find the people who build stuff to show you a new way.

— Wil Reynolds (@wilreynolds) July 14, 2021

Thanks everyone for a wonderful show! And we’ll see you in person next year!

#MozCon was freaking awesome! I learned so much and enjoyed meeting so many new colleagues! Thank you @Moz for such a wonderful event!

— Taylor Berg (@taylorannberg) July 15, 2021

[ductrungnguyen87]

Pack Up the Big Top: Insights from MozCon Virtual 2021's Grand Finale

And just like that, MozCon Virtual 2021 has come to an end. Over the past three days, we’ve seen incredibly insightful presentations on everything from content marketing, to machine learning, to new and exciting SEO tips and tricks. A big thank you to all our speakers, emcees, attendees, and volunteers in front of and behind the camera. It wouldn’t be MozCon without you!

Check out our recaps from day one and day two, and if you missed day three, read on for top-level takeaways! But to get the most out of this year’s MozCon content, make sure to access the video bundle when it goes on sale Friday, and stay tuned for details on MozCon 2022 —

You heard it here first, folks: #MozCon 2022 is slated to be LIVE in Seattle, in person! 🎉 https://t.co/3CKcI0N9l7

— Moz (@Moz) July 14, 2021

— that’s right! We’ll be back live and in-person next year in Seattle. Can’t wait to see you all there!

Tom Capper — The Fast & The Spurious: Core Web Vitals & SEO

“What if I told you that Core Web Vitals, and this update, are a bluff?”

Tom sure did kick off day three by blowing our minds with his opening line — the update everyone has been obsessing over for the last year isn’t actually all it’s cracked up to be?

Well, sort of.

It turns out we can’t afford to call Google’s bluff, but we can “sort of cheat”. Tom went on to lay out the flaws of Core Web Vitals, which all add up to the fact that they actually encourage terrible optimizations.

Core Web Vitals are all the rage, but do they live up to the hype? Here's @THCapper's take - SEO is like the prisoner's dilemma - Prioritize high traffic pages & page speed - Metrics can be gamed - Drop, delay unstable elements or move below fold - Rethink hero images#mozconpic.twitter.com/hgqeUZzKTP

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

So what’s taking so long? As we all know, this roll out has been delayed multiple times. Tom uses a brilliant example of the classic prisoner’s dilemma to explain why:

@THCapper pulling a #ChidiAnagonye by bringing moral philosophy into an SEO talk. #MozCon#TheGoodPlacepic.twitter.com/A7cx1GtKVy

— Sandi Pope Griffin (@sandpoper) July 14, 2021

As it turns out, Google has been contradicting themselves when talking about CWV because they can’t actually roll out updates that undermine the quality of their services — they’re relying on us, the SEOs, to act as the prisoners in their big dilemma of rankings.

On Google’s “There appears to be some confusion”: “Well, yes, you will notice some confusion if you directly contradict yourself.” @THCapper#MozCon

— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 14, 2021

Tom advised SEOs to take advantage of Google Discover, which is actually a massive, untapped traffic opportunity as it’s more responsive to speed than organic search.

"For most sites I see that are taking Google Discover even remotely seriously, they are getting more traffic from Discover than from organic search." - @THCapper dropping shocking stats. #MozConpic.twitter.com/kJSPDKCTTn

— Rob Ousbey (@RobOusbey) July 14, 2021

Before he signed off, Tom reiterated:

Prioritize high traffic pages

Metrics can be gamed/optimized

Don’t do any of this at the expense of speed

We won’t dig into the how for all of this here, so definitely check out his presentation in the video bundle!

Luke Carthy — The Ultimate How-To for Faceted Navigation SEO in E-Commerce

After an introduction that got the whole chat laughing (“Hi, I’m Morgan Freeman. Welcome to the afterlife.”), Luke Carthy showed us how he generated a 25% increase in organic traffic using faceted navigation.

Wait, what’s faceted navigation? You’ve definitely run into it if you’ve ever shopped online. Think about the stores that allow you to filter and sort your search. Behind that search is a faceted nav, defining, filtering, and sorting URLs on a website.

If it’s so common, what’s wrong with it? As Luke explains, faceted navs generate hundreds of long, parameterized, filtered URLs. It’s messy, it’s bloated, and bots can’t easily crawl them.

SEOs tend to counteract this bloat by “nofollowing the shit out of” faceted URLs. But when we do that, all of that long-tail gold disappears.

So what’s the solution? As Luke says, “It’s all about balance!”

(Side note: how cute is this photo??)

Luke shared some ways to “make facets sexy” by:

Understanding your site’s taxonomy

Using filters only to add granularity

Using “-” (dash) instead of “_” (underscore)

Filtering parameter URLs in GA to spot opportunities

Using a consistent structure

Limiting indexable parameter options

There were a bunch more actionable tips in this presentation, but we won’t spoil it all for you!

Okay, wow, this presentation is EXTREMELY actionable for anyone who handles e-commerce sites. But also, if you handle a blog - maybe try and use it for tags, categories, etc. Just a thought off the top of the dome 🤷‍♀️@MrLukeCarthy#MozCon

— Brie E Anderson (@brie_e_anderson) July 14, 2021

Miracle Inameti-Archibong — Harnessing the Natural Language Toolkit for More Productive SEO

In her quick presentation, MozCon newcomer Miracle walked us through ways to use Natural Language Processing to do our SEO tasks — like keyword research — and even shared some of her own resources to help us do it!

With Miracle’s comprehensive Natural Language Processor with Python, you can analyze up to 10,000 keywords with the click of a button and group them based on category, frequency, and search intent. Don’t worry — even if you aren’t a programmer, Miracle’s scripts are easy enough to plug and play so you can start analyzing immediately.

If you're not following @mira_inam yet, what are you doing? Miracle just shared SO many actionable keyword research takeaways!!! Thank you!!! 🤯🤯🤯 https://t.co/ESStpcLt5I

— Britney Muller (@BritneyMuller) July 14, 2021

Miracle then walked us through how to get the script up and running step-by-step. The results were mind-bending. In just a few short clicks, she produced a wealth of keyword data sure to fuel some brilliant strategies and ideas.

To be honest, there was so much information in such a short time frame, this is one we’ll have to revisit again to absorb every tip possible, but click below to access Miracle’s scripts:

http://bit.ly/keywordclassification

http://bit.ly/keywordcluster

Amanda Milligan — A Live Guide to Finding & Filling the Gaps in Your Link Strategy

Amanda kicked off her first MozCon presentation by reiterating the importance of quality over quantity, to the tune of enthusiastic cheers from the MozCon chat box. In today’s climate, quality content is what will get you that authority and trustworthiness today’s marketers (and Google) crave. Quantity may give you a short term boost, but it won’t last and it won’t compound.

@millanda on creating link-worthy content: "Always remember that it's not just about the link juice, but about the excellence you've created and the value you've provided as a result." #mozcon#SEO#linkbuildingpic.twitter.com/yT7uqIS7OL

— Katie Bradley (@KtBee21) July 14, 2021

But Google is just a robot and they base their assumptions on links: Who owns them and who links to whom? If your competitors are ranking on time.com and you aren’t, then Google will see your competitors more favorably and rank them higher in the SERP.

Amanda reminds us that these gaps are opportunities. If your competitor can get a link on Time.com, then so can you!

Amanda jumps straight to Moz Pro’s Link Intersect — “This tool was made for this kind of analysis!” — measuring up Chewy.com to competitors Petco.com and Petsmart.com to reveal the places where Chewy’s competitors link, but Chewy doesn’t.

One such article on CNN.com links to Petsmart and Petco and features a very cute guinea pig in a suit of armor — is it possible for Chewy to obtain a link to CNN? Yes!

Developing the content is only half the battle. Once you have something you think will resonate, it’s time to start pitching, which is arguably “where many link builders fall short.” In the pitching process, Amanda offers a fool proof plan of attack: “Pitch your content exclusively at first, and then once published, you can begin to take it elsewhere.” Publishers love exclusive content because they can leverage it to drive more views to their own content.

Amanda also drives home another link building golden rule: make sure you research and position your pitches and tailor them to the publisher. Gone are the days of mass outreach, and that won’t serve you well in the long run.

Once you’ve done the work, it’s time to track and record your progress. Take note of all the places your content shows up (anchor text, images, etc.) or whether it is do-follow or not.

Finding & filling gaps in your link strategy: 1/2 Finding - Identify brands building great links - See who links to them, but not to you (use a tool like Moz's link intersect) - Analyze the types of content earning links - Consider similar angles@millanda#MozConpic.twitter.com/lsH0DcbVfk

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

Check out Amanda’s Whiteboard Friday on crafting the perfect pitch email for more tips!

Lily Ray — From the Medic Update to Now: How the E-A-T Ecosystem Has Transformed Organic Search

Lily Ray has been studying the evolution of Google and E-A-T for a few years now, and in this presentation, she outlined key changes in how Google perceives content – specifically when it comes to the rise of misinformation.

Since 2016, and especially in the last year, more people turn to Google for information on things like politics, vaccines, COVID, and other important topics. This makes it increasingly necessary for Google to surface reliable information. In times of crisis, things become even more critical, and according to the data, Google begins to favor more authoritative sources versus relevant sources. We don’t know exactly how this is determined, but in her study, the data shows that Google favorably ranks content from reputable sources for potentially controversial keywords.

If there is one thing that Lily wants us to walk away with, it's the “E-A-T matters in crisis”, and is Google’s quality standard for evaluating content, authors, and websites.

As a result of this, Google saw a sharp decline in search visibility for questionable news sources, which then expanded to include health and science sites, regardless of the technical optimization on those sites.

@lilyraynyc explains E-A-T at #MozCon E-A-T was created in 2014 to make sure the quality of the content they are surfacing is meeting the needs of the users. @Moz In 2017 many of the fake news were wiped off the SERPs. Then this continued in 2018 with the YMYL sites pic.twitter.com/6PUCFwKrbV

— TurnDigi (@TurnDigi) July 14, 2021

Lily digs into keyword comparisons, showing how more authoritative sites became increasingly more visible between 2018 and 2021.

If you are wondering how E-A-T impacts search results - these slides by @lilyraynyc showing real life examples are sooo good #MozConpic.twitter.com/eQux45kKmm

— Casie Gillette (@Casieg) July 14, 2021

Most of the sites that lost visibility were doing some questionable things including:

Leveraging questionable authors

Had poor reputations

Published deceptive content

Lacked sufficient sources

Published dangerous medical advice

Included hate speech

Included excessive affiliate or sales links

“Winning sites make it really clear who they are, who writes for them, how they make money on the sites, why they should trust them […]—all of these great things that really instill trust in the user.” @lilyraynyc#MozCon

— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 14, 2021

From there, Lily dug into 10 key ways Google has changed, and we encourage you to check out her slides and take a look for yourself.

What do all these changes mean for SEO? The landscape is more complex and competitive than ever, so it’s important to be reasonable with your organic search goals and always put E-A-T at the forefront of your SEO Strategy.

Learn from the winners investing in EAT over the last few years of Google’s evolution: @lilyraynyc#mozcon@Healthline@NerdWallet@[email protected]/0TfFAoNWqc

— Amsive Digital (@Amsive_Digital) July 14, 2021

Kameron Jenkins — The Content Refresh: How to Do More With Less

Kameron Jenkins is no stranger to content. She manages multiple blogs and currently works for e-commerce powerhouse, Shopify.

When it comes to content, she knows that the best way to regain lost traffic and give your content new life is through a content refresh. In her presentation, she walked us through her exact process for identifying and updating old content. Surprisingly, most content marketers only dedicate 10-25% of their time to content refreshes, even though a content refresh can lead to more ROI in the long term.

Content people! About what % of your team's publishing calendar is *refreshes (vs. brand new content)? *taking something that was previously published and updating it.

— Kameron Jenkins 👋 (@Kammie_Jenkins) May 11, 2021

How do you identify the content that could benefit from a refresh? Look at your Google Analytics Landing Page report alongside Google Search Console, and prioritize content based on goal conversions, trending topics, and business priorities.

@Kammie_Jenkins Great deck and congrats on #mozcon!!! We're totally aligned on using the biggest movers for analysis. I love including impressions too to see the scope of opportunities. Kind of like this: pic.twitter.com/5hoaova2zL

— Noah Learner (He/Him) (@noahlearner) July 14, 2021

Oh heck, I loooove anyone who has a favorite GA view. But add in GSC data exports... I think I'm in heaven. Pageviews going down in GA + Losing rank for specific keywords in GSC = Opportunity for content revamp#MozCon

— Brie E Anderson (@brie_e_anderson) July 14, 2021

Next, it’s time to refresh. When moving into the execution, you’ll want to ask yourself three key questions:

What’s table stakes?

What will give you the competitive advantage?

And what will maximize conversions?

Other content refresh opportunities to look out for are consolidation, query targeting, and internal linking.

How can you stand out from the competition in your content refresh? Incorporate original research and expert quotes to beef up the authority and originality of your post.

Lastly, maximize your conversions by testing out your CTA placement and make your offers relevant to your audience.

She left us with some wise words of wisdom, “SEO is like owning a car. Even when the car is paid off, you still need to conduct regular maintenance to keep that engine running.”

Some tips for getting more value from your existing content: - Refresh decaying content to rank faster, increase ROI & maintain brand credibility - Remember session loss ≠ Traffic loss - Leverage GA & GSC data - Prioritize by trend, conversions & value@Kammie_Jenkins#MozConpic.twitter.com/SAVTtAFMIC

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

Best quote of #MozCon by @Kammie_Jenkins of @Shopifypic.twitter.com/tNb6qvwRO6

— Barb Davids 🤓🏃‍♀️🍻 (@BarbDavids) July 14, 2021

Wil Reynolds — The 3 Most Important Search Marketing Tools…Your Heart, Your Brain, & Your [Small] Ego

Wil brought the energy yet again for his ninth MozCon presentation, closing out the conference with a bang. His message was simple yet powerful: Your top three tools are your heart, your brain, and your small ego. But what does that mean, exactly?

Small ego

Wil began by introducing the concept of intellectual humility, or the recognition that some of the things you believe just might be wrong. He urged us to listen to the people around us who say there's a better way — even brand-new coworkers or recent college grads whose ideas you might otherwise discount.

Sharing this with everyone I know 👏 #mozconhttps://t.co/f1x5gDp5is

— Casie Gillette (@Casieg) July 14, 2021

And don't feel badly that you might be wrong — Wil posits that not knowing your own ignorance is just part of the human condition. He shared a quote from Upton Sinclair that was especially poignant:

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.

Heart

A hundred years ago, no business needed SEO. They needed customers, profits, and sales. And as true then as it is now, they needed to know their customers.

One slide stood out loud and clear: The less you understand your customer, the more you spend to acquire them. And as Wil said, reports that lack dollar signs don't land on real decision makers' desks. Here's where your brain comes in.

“Best practices are a great start for those who lack data, or have data but can’t process it.” - @wilreynolds#MozCon#IntellectualHonestypic.twitter.com/91QiMy4ZDq

— Michael Tolosa (@TolosaSEO) July 14, 2021

Brain

Wil presented a bit of a conundrum: making decisions based on your gut may be easy and comfortable, but it's the data that gets you the insights you need to create and test hypotheses. However, exhaustive data — the kind of data where opportunity lives — is probably too big for your laptop to handle. What's an SEO to do?

Of course he had answers! Wil's suggestion was to harness the power of ngrams. With the help of a tool like PowerBI or BigQuery and using ngrams to examine all the search terms, you can find all your ranking results and see where your search term isn't in the title.

Transform your SEO data into winning insights: - Shrink your ego & question assumptions - Don't rely on best practices. - Tools are a start, not an end. - Business is about $ - Understanding your customer saves $ - What people do & say are different@wilreynolds#mozconpic.twitter.com/IB7CcQ4IpN

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

There's too much goodness to cram into a short recap, so you'll definitely want to get yourself a copy of the MozCon video bundle when it's ready for purchase. Until then, a few final suggestions from Wil:

Examining all your data is the only way to capture all your opportunities; resist the urge to pare it down to the top 20%. Every time you shrink your data down, you're missing out on opportunities that someone else can see.

See every data set through a competitive lens: if all else is the same, how do you create value?

Combine your paid and SEO data together — get the dollar signs in those reports and get in front of key decision makers

Learn SQL. You'll be able to search for exactly what you need within your own data, you won't have to rely on others, and your hypotheses will benefit from your newfound data freedom.

Be brave enough to suck at something new. Stop doing the thing that you feel comfortable with. Run your own experiments and validate your hypotheses. It'll be worth it in the end!

Hey #MozCon thank you! Remember: 1 - Surround yourself with people willing to show you a new way (show >> tell) - its easy to find people to tell you you are doing it wrong, find the people who build stuff to show you a new way.

— Wil Reynolds (@wilreynolds) July 14, 2021

Thanks everyone for a wonderful show! And we’ll see you in person next year!

#MozCon was freaking awesome! I learned so much and enjoyed meeting so many new colleagues! Thank you @Moz for such a wonderful event!

— Taylor Berg (@taylorannberg) July 15, 2021

[gamebazu]

Pack Up the Big Top: Insights from MozCon Virtual 2021's Grand Finale

And just like that, MozCon Virtual 2021 has come to an end. Over the past three days, we’ve seen incredibly insightful presentations on everything from content marketing, to machine learning, to new and exciting SEO tips and tricks. A big thank you to all our speakers, emcees, attendees, and volunteers in front of and behind the camera. It wouldn’t be MozCon without you!

Check out our recaps from day one and day two, and if you missed day three, read on for top-level takeaways! But to get the most out of this year’s MozCon content, make sure to access the video bundle when it goes on sale Friday, and stay tuned for details on MozCon 2022 —

You heard it here first, folks: #MozCon 2022 is slated to be LIVE in Seattle, in person! 🎉 https://t.co/3CKcI0N9l7

— Moz (@Moz) July 14, 2021

— that’s right! We’ll be back live and in-person next year in Seattle. Can’t wait to see you all there!

Tom Capper — The Fast & The Spurious: Core Web Vitals & SEO

“What if I told you that Core Web Vitals, and this update, are a bluff?”

Tom sure did kick off day three by blowing our minds with his opening line — the update everyone has been obsessing over for the last year isn’t actually all it’s cracked up to be?

Well, sort of.

It turns out we can’t afford to call Google’s bluff, but we can “sort of cheat”. Tom went on to lay out the flaws of Core Web Vitals, which all add up to the fact that they actually encourage terrible optimizations.

Core Web Vitals are all the rage, but do they live up to the hype? Here's @THCapper's take - SEO is like the prisoner's dilemma - Prioritize high traffic pages & page speed - Metrics can be gamed - Drop, delay unstable elements or move below fold - Rethink hero images#mozconpic.twitter.com/hgqeUZzKTP

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

So what’s taking so long? As we all know, this roll out has been delayed multiple times. Tom uses a brilliant example of the classic prisoner’s dilemma to explain why:

@THCapper pulling a #ChidiAnagonye by bringing moral philosophy into an SEO talk. #MozCon#TheGoodPlacepic.twitter.com/A7cx1GtKVy

— Sandi Pope Griffin (@sandpoper) July 14, 2021

As it turns out, Google has been contradicting themselves when talking about CWV because they can’t actually roll out updates that undermine the quality of their services — they’re relying on us, the SEOs, to act as the prisoners in their big dilemma of rankings.

On Google’s “There appears to be some confusion”: “Well, yes, you will notice some confusion if you directly contradict yourself.” @THCapper#MozCon

— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 14, 2021

Tom advised SEOs to take advantage of Google Discover, which is actually a massive, untapped traffic opportunity as it’s more responsive to speed than organic search.

"For most sites I see that are taking Google Discover even remotely seriously, they are getting more traffic from Discover than from organic search." - @THCapper dropping shocking stats. #MozConpic.twitter.com/kJSPDKCTTn

— Rob Ousbey (@RobOusbey) July 14, 2021

Before he signed off, Tom reiterated:

Prioritize high traffic pages

Metrics can be gamed/optimized

Don’t do any of this at the expense of speed

We won’t dig into the how for all of this here, so definitely check out his presentation in the video bundle!

Luke Carthy — The Ultimate How-To for Faceted Navigation SEO in E-Commerce

After an introduction that got the whole chat laughing (“Hi, I’m Morgan Freeman. Welcome to the afterlife.”), Luke Carthy showed us how he generated a 25% increase in organic traffic using faceted navigation.

Wait, what’s faceted navigation? You’ve definitely run into it if you’ve ever shopped online. Think about the stores that allow you to filter and sort your search. Behind that search is a faceted nav, defining, filtering, and sorting URLs on a website.

If it’s so common, what’s wrong with it? As Luke explains, faceted navs generate hundreds of long, parameterized, filtered URLs. It’s messy, it’s bloated, and bots can’t easily crawl them.

SEOs tend to counteract this bloat by “nofollowing the shit out of” faceted URLs. But when we do that, all of that long-tail gold disappears.

So what’s the solution? As Luke says, “It’s all about balance!”

(Side note: how cute is this photo??)

Luke shared some ways to “make facets sexy” by:

Understanding your site’s taxonomy

Using filters only to add granularity

Using “-” (dash) instead of “_” (underscore)

Filtering parameter URLs in GA to spot opportunities

Using a consistent structure

Limiting indexable parameter options

There were a bunch more actionable tips in this presentation, but we won’t spoil it all for you!

Okay, wow, this presentation is EXTREMELY actionable for anyone who handles e-commerce sites. But also, if you handle a blog - maybe try and use it for tags, categories, etc. Just a thought off the top of the dome 🤷‍♀️@MrLukeCarthy#MozCon

— Brie E Anderson (@brie_e_anderson) July 14, 2021

Miracle Inameti-Archibong — Harnessing the Natural Language Toolkit for More Productive SEO

In her quick presentation, MozCon newcomer Miracle walked us through ways to use Natural Language Processing to do our SEO tasks — like keyword research — and even shared some of her own resources to help us do it!

With Miracle’s comprehensive Natural Language Processor with Python, you can analyze up to 10,000 keywords with the click of a button and group them based on category, frequency, and search intent. Don’t worry — even if you aren’t a programmer, Miracle’s scripts are easy enough to plug and play so you can start analyzing immediately.

If you're not following @mira_inam yet, what are you doing? Miracle just shared SO many actionable keyword research takeaways!!! Thank you!!! 🤯🤯🤯 https://t.co/ESStpcLt5I

— Britney Muller (@BritneyMuller) July 14, 2021

Miracle then walked us through how to get the script up and running step-by-step. The results were mind-bending. In just a few short clicks, she produced a wealth of keyword data sure to fuel some brilliant strategies and ideas.

To be honest, there was so much information in such a short time frame, this is one we’ll have to revisit again to absorb every tip possible, but click below to access Miracle’s scripts:

http://bit.ly/keywordclassification

http://bit.ly/keywordcluster

Amanda Milligan — A Live Guide to Finding & Filling the Gaps in Your Link Strategy

Amanda kicked off her first MozCon presentation by reiterating the importance of quality over quantity, to the tune of enthusiastic cheers from the MozCon chat box. In today’s climate, quality content is what will get you that authority and trustworthiness today’s marketers (and Google) crave. Quantity may give you a short term boost, but it won’t last and it won’t compound.

@millanda on creating link-worthy content: "Always remember that it's not just about the link juice, but about the excellence you've created and the value you've provided as a result." #mozcon#SEO#linkbuildingpic.twitter.com/yT7uqIS7OL

— Katie Bradley (@KtBee21) July 14, 2021

But Google is just a robot and they base their assumptions on links: Who owns them and who links to whom? If your competitors are ranking on time.com and you aren’t, then Google will see your competitors more favorably and rank them higher in the SERP.

Amanda reminds us that these gaps are opportunities. If your competitor can get a link on Time.com, then so can you!

Amanda jumps straight to Moz Pro’s Link Intersect — “This tool was made for this kind of analysis!” — measuring up Chewy.com to competitors Petco.com and Petsmart.com to reveal the places where Chewy’s competitors link, but Chewy doesn’t.

One such article on CNN.com links to Petsmart and Petco and features a very cute guinea pig in a suit of armor — is it possible for Chewy to obtain a link to CNN? Yes!

Developing the content is only half the battle. Once you have something you think will resonate, it’s time to start pitching, which is arguably “where many link builders fall short.” In the pitching process, Amanda offers a fool proof plan of attack: “Pitch your content exclusively at first, and then once published, you can begin to take it elsewhere.” Publishers love exclusive content because they can leverage it to drive more views to their own content.

Amanda also drives home another link building golden rule: make sure you research and position your pitches and tailor them to the publisher. Gone are the days of mass outreach, and that won’t serve you well in the long run.

Once you’ve done the work, it’s time to track and record your progress. Take note of all the places your content shows up (anchor text, images, etc.) or whether it is do-follow or not.

Finding & filling gaps in your link strategy: 1/2 Finding - Identify brands building great links - See who links to them, but not to you (use a tool like Moz's link intersect) - Analyze the types of content earning links - Consider similar angles@millanda#MozConpic.twitter.com/lsH0DcbVfk

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

Check out Amanda’s Whiteboard Friday on crafting the perfect pitch email for more tips!

Lily Ray — From the Medic Update to Now: How the E-A-T Ecosystem Has Transformed Organic Search

Lily Ray has been studying the evolution of Google and E-A-T for a few years now, and in this presentation, she outlined key changes in how Google perceives content – specifically when it comes to the rise of misinformation.

Since 2016, and especially in the last year, more people turn to Google for information on things like politics, vaccines, COVID, and other important topics. This makes it increasingly necessary for Google to surface reliable information. In times of crisis, things become even more critical, and according to the data, Google begins to favor more authoritative sources versus relevant sources. We don’t know exactly how this is determined, but in her study, the data shows that Google favorably ranks content from reputable sources for potentially controversial keywords.

If there is one thing that Lily wants us to walk away with, it's the “E-A-T matters in crisis”, and is Google’s quality standard for evaluating content, authors, and websites.

As a result of this, Google saw a sharp decline in search visibility for questionable news sources, which then expanded to include health and science sites, regardless of the technical optimization on those sites.

@lilyraynyc explains E-A-T at #MozCon E-A-T was created in 2014 to make sure the quality of the content they are surfacing is meeting the needs of the users. @Moz In 2017 many of the fake news were wiped off the SERPs. Then this continued in 2018 with the YMYL sites pic.twitter.com/6PUCFwKrbV

— TurnDigi (@TurnDigi) July 14, 2021

Lily digs into keyword comparisons, showing how more authoritative sites became increasingly more visible between 2018 and 2021.

If you are wondering how E-A-T impacts search results - these slides by @lilyraynyc showing real life examples are sooo good #MozConpic.twitter.com/eQux45kKmm

— Casie Gillette (@Casieg) July 14, 2021

Most of the sites that lost visibility were doing some questionable things including:

Leveraging questionable authors

Had poor reputations

Published deceptive content

Lacked sufficient sources

Published dangerous medical advice

Included hate speech

Included excessive affiliate or sales links

“Winning sites make it really clear who they are, who writes for them, how they make money on the sites, why they should trust them […]—all of these great things that really instill trust in the user.” @lilyraynyc#MozCon

— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 14, 2021

From there, Lily dug into 10 key ways Google has changed, and we encourage you to check out her slides and take a look for yourself.

What do all these changes mean for SEO? The landscape is more complex and competitive than ever, so it’s important to be reasonable with your organic search goals and always put E-A-T at the forefront of your SEO Strategy.

Learn from the winners investing in EAT over the last few years of Google’s evolution: @lilyraynyc#mozcon@Healthline@NerdWallet@[email protected]/0TfFAoNWqc

— Amsive Digital (@Amsive_Digital) July 14, 2021

Kameron Jenkins — The Content Refresh: How to Do More With Less

Kameron Jenkins is no stranger to content. She manages multiple blogs and currently works for e-commerce powerhouse, Shopify.

When it comes to content, she knows that the best way to regain lost traffic and give your content new life is through a content refresh. In her presentation, she walked us through her exact process for identifying and updating old content. Surprisingly, most content marketers only dedicate 10-25% of their time to content refreshes, even though a content refresh can lead to more ROI in the long term.

Content people! About what % of your team's publishing calendar is *refreshes (vs. brand new content)? *taking something that was previously published and updating it.

— Kameron Jenkins 👋 (@Kammie_Jenkins) May 11, 2021

How do you identify the content that could benefit from a refresh? Look at your Google Analytics Landing Page report alongside Google Search Console, and prioritize content based on goal conversions, trending topics, and business priorities.

@Kammie_Jenkins Great deck and congrats on #mozcon!!! We're totally aligned on using the biggest movers for analysis. I love including impressions too to see the scope of opportunities. Kind of like this: pic.twitter.com/5hoaova2zL

— Noah Learner (He/Him) (@noahlearner) July 14, 2021

Oh heck, I loooove anyone who has a favorite GA view. But add in GSC data exports... I think I'm in heaven. Pageviews going down in GA + Losing rank for specific keywords in GSC = Opportunity for content revamp#MozCon

— Brie E Anderson (@brie_e_anderson) July 14, 2021

Next, it’s time to refresh. When moving into the execution, you’ll want to ask yourself three key questions:

What’s table stakes?

What will give you the competitive advantage?

And what will maximize conversions?

Other content refresh opportunities to look out for are consolidation, query targeting, and internal linking.

How can you stand out from the competition in your content refresh? Incorporate original research and expert quotes to beef up the authority and originality of your post.

Lastly, maximize your conversions by testing out your CTA placement and make your offers relevant to your audience.

She left us with some wise words of wisdom, “SEO is like owning a car. Even when the car is paid off, you still need to conduct regular maintenance to keep that engine running.”

Some tips for getting more value from your existing content: - Refresh decaying content to rank faster, increase ROI & maintain brand credibility - Remember session loss ≠ Traffic loss - Leverage GA & GSC data - Prioritize by trend, conversions & value@Kammie_Jenkins#MozConpic.twitter.com/SAVTtAFMIC

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

Best quote of #MozCon by @Kammie_Jenkins of @Shopifypic.twitter.com/tNb6qvwRO6

— Barb Davids 🤓🏃‍♀️🍻 (@BarbDavids) July 14, 2021

Wil Reynolds — The 3 Most Important Search Marketing Tools…Your Heart, Your Brain, & Your [Small] Ego

Wil brought the energy yet again for his ninth MozCon presentation, closing out the conference with a bang. His message was simple yet powerful: Your top three tools are your heart, your brain, and your small ego. But what does that mean, exactly?

Small ego

Wil began by introducing the concept of intellectual humility, or the recognition that some of the things you believe just might be wrong. He urged us to listen to the people around us who say there's a better way — even brand-new coworkers or recent college grads whose ideas you might otherwise discount.

Sharing this with everyone I know 👏 #mozconhttps://t.co/f1x5gDp5is

— Casie Gillette (@Casieg) July 14, 2021

And don't feel badly that you might be wrong — Wil posits that not knowing your own ignorance is just part of the human condition. He shared a quote from Upton Sinclair that was especially poignant:

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.

Heart

A hundred years ago, no business needed SEO. They needed customers, profits, and sales. And as true then as it is now, they needed to know their customers.

One slide stood out loud and clear: The less you understand your customer, the more you spend to acquire them. And as Wil said, reports that lack dollar signs don't land on real decision makers' desks. Here's where your brain comes in.

“Best practices are a great start for those who lack data, or have data but can’t process it.” - @wilreynolds#MozCon#IntellectualHonestypic.twitter.com/91QiMy4ZDq

— Michael Tolosa (@TolosaSEO) July 14, 2021

Brain

Wil presented a bit of a conundrum: making decisions based on your gut may be easy and comfortable, but it's the data that gets you the insights you need to create and test hypotheses. However, exhaustive data — the kind of data where opportunity lives — is probably too big for your laptop to handle. What's an SEO to do?

Of course he had answers! Wil's suggestion was to harness the power of ngrams. With the help of a tool like PowerBI or BigQuery and using ngrams to examine all the search terms, you can find all your ranking results and see where your search term isn't in the title.

Transform your SEO data into winning insights: - Shrink your ego & question assumptions - Don't rely on best practices. - Tools are a start, not an end. - Business is about $ - Understanding your customer saves $ - What people do & say are different@wilreynolds#mozconpic.twitter.com/IB7CcQ4IpN

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

There's too much goodness to cram into a short recap, so you'll definitely want to get yourself a copy of the MozCon video bundle when it's ready for purchase. Until then, a few final suggestions from Wil:

Examining all your data is the only way to capture all your opportunities; resist the urge to pare it down to the top 20%. Every time you shrink your data down, you're missing out on opportunities that someone else can see.

See every data set through a competitive lens: if all else is the same, how do you create value?

Combine your paid and SEO data together — get the dollar signs in those reports and get in front of key decision makers

Learn SQL. You'll be able to search for exactly what you need within your own data, you won't have to rely on others, and your hypotheses will benefit from your newfound data freedom.

Be brave enough to suck at something new. Stop doing the thing that you feel comfortable with. Run your own experiments and validate your hypotheses. It'll be worth it in the end!

Hey #MozCon thank you! Remember: 1 - Surround yourself with people willing to show you a new way (show >> tell) - its easy to find people to tell you you are doing it wrong, find the people who build stuff to show you a new way.

— Wil Reynolds (@wilreynolds) July 14, 2021

Thanks everyone for a wonderful show! And we’ll see you in person next year!

#MozCon was freaking awesome! I learned so much and enjoyed meeting so many new colleagues! Thank you @Moz for such a wonderful event!

— Taylor Berg (@taylorannberg) July 15, 2021

https://ift.tt/2UgE5L9

[kjt-lawyers]

Pack Up the Big Top: Insights from MozCon Virtual 2021's Grand Finale

And just like that, MozCon Virtual 2021 has come to an end. Over the past three days, we’ve seen incredibly insightful presentations on everything from content marketing, to machine learning, to new and exciting SEO tips and tricks. A big thank you to all our speakers, emcees, attendees, and volunteers in front of and behind the camera. It wouldn’t be MozCon without you!

Check out our recaps from day one and day two, and if you missed day three, read on for top-level takeaways! But to get the most out of this year’s MozCon content, make sure to access the video bundle when it goes on sale Friday, and stay tuned for details on MozCon 2022 —

You heard it here first, folks: #MozCon 2022 is slated to be LIVE in Seattle, in person! 🎉 https://t.co/3CKcI0N9l7

— Moz (@Moz) July 14, 2021

— that’s right! We’ll be back live and in-person next year in Seattle. Can’t wait to see you all there!

Tom Capper — The Fast & The Spurious: Core Web Vitals & SEO

“What if I told you that Core Web Vitals, and this update, are a bluff?”

Tom sure did kick off day three by blowing our minds with his opening line — the update everyone has been obsessing over for the last year isn’t actually all it’s cracked up to be?

Well, sort of.

It turns out we can’t afford to call Google’s bluff, but we can “sort of cheat”. Tom went on to lay out the flaws of Core Web Vitals, which all add up to the fact that they actually encourage terrible optimizations.

Core Web Vitals are all the rage, but do they live up to the hype? Here's @THCapper's take - SEO is like the prisoner's dilemma - Prioritize high traffic pages & page speed - Metrics can be gamed - Drop, delay unstable elements or move below fold - Rethink hero images#mozconpic.twitter.com/hgqeUZzKTP

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

So what’s taking so long? As we all know, this roll out has been delayed multiple times. Tom uses a brilliant example of the classic prisoner’s dilemma to explain why:

@THCapper pulling a #ChidiAnagonye by bringing moral philosophy into an SEO talk. #MozCon#TheGoodPlacepic.twitter.com/A7cx1GtKVy

— Sandi Pope Griffin (@sandpoper) July 14, 2021

As it turns out, Google has been contradicting themselves when talking about CWV because they can’t actually roll out updates that undermine the quality of their services — they’re relying on us, the SEOs, to act as the prisoners in their big dilemma of rankings.

On Google’s “There appears to be some confusion”: “Well, yes, you will notice some confusion if you directly contradict yourself.” @THCapper#MozCon

— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 14, 2021

Tom advised SEOs to take advantage of Google Discover, which is actually a massive, untapped traffic opportunity as it’s more responsive to speed than organic search.

"For most sites I see that are taking Google Discover even remotely seriously, they are getting more traffic from Discover than from organic search." - @THCapper dropping shocking stats. #MozConpic.twitter.com/kJSPDKCTTn

— Rob Ousbey (@RobOusbey) July 14, 2021

Before he signed off, Tom reiterated:

Prioritize high traffic pages

Metrics can be gamed/optimized

Don’t do any of this at the expense of speed

We won’t dig into the how for all of this here, so definitely check out his presentation in the video bundle!

Luke Carthy — The Ultimate How-To for Faceted Navigation SEO in E-Commerce

After an introduction that got the whole chat laughing (“Hi, I’m Morgan Freeman. Welcome to the afterlife.”), Luke Carthy showed us how he generated a 25% increase in organic traffic using faceted navigation.

Wait, what’s faceted navigation? You’ve definitely run into it if you’ve ever shopped online. Think about the stores that allow you to filter and sort your search. Behind that search is a faceted nav, defining, filtering, and sorting URLs on a website.

If it’s so common, what’s wrong with it? As Luke explains, faceted navs generate hundreds of long, parameterized, filtered URLs. It’s messy, it’s bloated, and bots can’t easily crawl them.

SEOs tend to counteract this bloat by “nofollowing the shit out of” faceted URLs. But when we do that, all of that long-tail gold disappears.

So what’s the solution? As Luke says, “It’s all about balance!”

(Side note: how cute is this photo??)

Luke shared some ways to “make facets sexy” by:

Understanding your site’s taxonomy

Using filters only to add granularity

Using “-” (dash) instead of “_” (underscore)

Filtering parameter URLs in GA to spot opportunities

Using a consistent structure

Limiting indexable parameter options

There were a bunch more actionable tips in this presentation, but we won’t spoil it all for you!

Okay, wow, this presentation is EXTREMELY actionable for anyone who handles e-commerce sites. But also, if you handle a blog - maybe try and use it for tags, categories, etc. Just a thought off the top of the dome 🤷‍♀️@MrLukeCarthy#MozCon

— Brie E Anderson (@brie_e_anderson) July 14, 2021

Miracle Inameti-Archibong — Harnessing the Natural Language Toolkit for More Productive SEO

In her quick presentation, MozCon newcomer Miracle walked us through ways to use Natural Language Processing to do our SEO tasks — like keyword research — and even shared some of her own resources to help us do it!

With Miracle’s comprehensive Natural Language Processor with Python, you can analyze up to 10,000 keywords with the click of a button and group them based on category, frequency, and search intent. Don’t worry — even if you aren’t a programmer, Miracle’s scripts are easy enough to plug and play so you can start analyzing immediately.

If you're not following @mira_inam yet, what are you doing? Miracle just shared SO many actionable keyword research takeaways!!! Thank you!!! 🤯🤯🤯 https://t.co/ESStpcLt5I

— Britney Muller (@BritneyMuller) July 14, 2021

Miracle then walked us through how to get the script up and running step-by-step. The results were mind-bending. In just a few short clicks, she produced a wealth of keyword data sure to fuel some brilliant strategies and ideas.

To be honest, there was so much information in such a short time frame, this is one we’ll have to revisit again to absorb every tip possible, but click below to access Miracle’s scripts:

http://bit.ly/keywordclassification

http://bit.ly/keywordcluster

Amanda Milligan — A Live Guide to Finding & Filling the Gaps in Your Link Strategy

Amanda kicked off her first MozCon presentation by reiterating the importance of quality over quantity, to the tune of enthusiastic cheers from the MozCon chat box. In today’s climate, quality content is what will get you that authority and trustworthiness today’s marketers (and Google) crave. Quantity may give you a short term boost, but it won’t last and it won’t compound.

@millanda on creating link-worthy content: "Always remember that it's not just about the link juice, but about the excellence you've created and the value you've provided as a result." #mozcon#SEO#linkbuildingpic.twitter.com/yT7uqIS7OL

— Katie Bradley (@KtBee21) July 14, 2021

But Google is just a robot and they base their assumptions on links: Who owns them and who links to whom? If your competitors are ranking on time.com and you aren’t, then Google will see your competitors more favorably and rank them higher in the SERP.

Amanda reminds us that these gaps are opportunities. If your competitor can get a link on Time.com, then so can you!

Amanda jumps straight to Moz Pro’s Link Intersect — “This tool was made for this kind of analysis!” — measuring up Chewy.com to competitors Petco.com and Petsmart.com to reveal the places where Chewy’s competitors link, but Chewy doesn’t.

One such article on CNN.com links to Petsmart and Petco and features a very cute guinea pig in a suit of armor — is it possible for Chewy to obtain a link to CNN? Yes!

Developing the content is only half the battle. Once you have something you think will resonate, it’s time to start pitching, which is arguably “where many link builders fall short.” In the pitching process, Amanda offers a fool proof plan of attack: “Pitch your content exclusively at first, and then once published, you can begin to take it elsewhere.” Publishers love exclusive content because they can leverage it to drive more views to their own content.

Amanda also drives home another link building golden rule: make sure you research and position your pitches and tailor them to the publisher. Gone are the days of mass outreach, and that won’t serve you well in the long run.

Once you’ve done the work, it’s time to track and record your progress. Take note of all the places your content shows up (anchor text, images, etc.) or whether it is do-follow or not.

Finding & filling gaps in your link strategy: 1/2 Finding - Identify brands building great links - See who links to them, but not to you (use a tool like Moz's link intersect) - Analyze the types of content earning links - Consider similar angles@millanda#MozConpic.twitter.com/lsH0DcbVfk

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

Check out Amanda’s Whiteboard Friday on crafting the perfect pitch email for more tips!

Lily Ray — From the Medic Update to Now: How the E-A-T Ecosystem Has Transformed Organic Search

Lily Ray has been studying the evolution of Google and E-A-T for a few years now, and in this presentation, she outlined key changes in how Google perceives content – specifically when it comes to the rise of misinformation.

Since 2016, and especially in the last year, more people turn to Google for information on things like politics, vaccines, COVID, and other important topics. This makes it increasingly necessary for Google to surface reliable information. In times of crisis, things become even more critical, and according to the data, Google begins to favor more authoritative sources versus relevant sources. We don’t know exactly how this is determined, but in her study, the data shows that Google favorably ranks content from reputable sources for potentially controversial keywords.

If there is one thing that Lily wants us to walk away with, it's the “E-A-T matters in crisis”, and is Google’s quality standard for evaluating content, authors, and websites.

As a result of this, Google saw a sharp decline in search visibility for questionable news sources, which then expanded to include health and science sites, regardless of the technical optimization on those sites.

@lilyraynyc explains E-A-T at #MozCon E-A-T was created in 2014 to make sure the quality of the content they are surfacing is meeting the needs of the users. @Moz In 2017 many of the fake news were wiped off the SERPs. Then this continued in 2018 with the YMYL sites pic.twitter.com/6PUCFwKrbV

— TurnDigi (@TurnDigi) July 14, 2021

Lily digs into keyword comparisons, showing how more authoritative sites became increasingly more visible between 2018 and 2021.

If you are wondering how E-A-T impacts search results - these slides by @lilyraynyc showing real life examples are sooo good #MozConpic.twitter.com/eQux45kKmm

— Casie Gillette (@Casieg) July 14, 2021

Most of the sites that lost visibility were doing some questionable things including:

Leveraging questionable authors

Had poor reputations

Published deceptive content

Lacked sufficient sources

Published dangerous medical advice

Included hate speech

Included excessive affiliate or sales links

“Winning sites make it really clear who they are, who writes for them, how they make money on the sites, why they should trust them […]—all of these great things that really instill trust in the user.” @lilyraynyc#MozCon

— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 14, 2021

From there, Lily dug into 10 key ways Google has changed, and we encourage you to check out her slides and take a look for yourself.

What do all these changes mean for SEO? The landscape is more complex and competitive than ever, so it’s important to be reasonable with your organic search goals and always put E-A-T at the forefront of your SEO Strategy.

Learn from the winners investing in EAT over the last few years of Google’s evolution: @lilyraynyc#mozcon@Healthline@NerdWallet@[email protected]/0TfFAoNWqc

— Amsive Digital (@Amsive_Digital) July 14, 2021

Kameron Jenkins — The Content Refresh: How to Do More With Less

Kameron Jenkins is no stranger to content. She manages multiple blogs and currently works for e-commerce powerhouse, Shopify.

When it comes to content, she knows that the best way to regain lost traffic and give your content new life is through a content refresh. In her presentation, she walked us through her exact process for identifying and updating old content. Surprisingly, most content marketers only dedicate 10-25% of their time to content refreshes, even though a content refresh can lead to more ROI in the long term.

Content people! About what % of your team's publishing calendar is *refreshes (vs. brand new content)? *taking something that was previously published and updating it.

— Kameron Jenkins 👋 (@Kammie_Jenkins) May 11, 2021

How do you identify the content that could benefit from a refresh? Look at your Google Analytics Landing Page report alongside Google Search Console, and prioritize content based on goal conversions, trending topics, and business priorities.

@Kammie_Jenkins Great deck and congrats on #mozcon!!! We're totally aligned on using the biggest movers for analysis. I love including impressions too to see the scope of opportunities. Kind of like this: pic.twitter.com/5hoaova2zL

— Noah Learner (He/Him) (@noahlearner) July 14, 2021

Oh heck, I loooove anyone who has a favorite GA view. But add in GSC data exports... I think I'm in heaven. Pageviews going down in GA + Losing rank for specific keywords in GSC = Opportunity for content revamp#MozCon

— Brie E Anderson (@brie_e_anderson) July 14, 2021

Next, it’s time to refresh. When moving into the execution, you’ll want to ask yourself three key questions:

What’s table stakes?

What will give you the competitive advantage?

And what will maximize conversions?

Other content refresh opportunities to look out for are consolidation, query targeting, and internal linking.

How can you stand out from the competition in your content refresh? Incorporate original research and expert quotes to beef up the authority and originality of your post.

Lastly, maximize your conversions by testing out your CTA placement and make your offers relevant to your audience.

She left us with some wise words of wisdom, “SEO is like owning a car. Even when the car is paid off, you still need to conduct regular maintenance to keep that engine running.”

Some tips for getting more value from your existing content: - Refresh decaying content to rank faster, increase ROI & maintain brand credibility - Remember session loss ≠ Traffic loss - Leverage GA & GSC data - Prioritize by trend, conversions & value@Kammie_Jenkins#MozConpic.twitter.com/SAVTtAFMIC

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

Best quote of #MozCon by @Kammie_Jenkins of @Shopifypic.twitter.com/tNb6qvwRO6

— Barb Davids 🤓🏃‍♀️🍻 (@BarbDavids) July 14, 2021

Wil Reynolds — The 3 Most Important Search Marketing Tools…Your Heart, Your Brain, & Your [Small] Ego

Wil brought the energy yet again for his ninth MozCon presentation, closing out the conference with a bang. His message was simple yet powerful: Your top three tools are your heart, your brain, and your small ego. But what does that mean, exactly?

Small ego

Wil began by introducing the concept of intellectual humility, or the recognition that some of the things you believe just might be wrong. He urged us to listen to the people around us who say there's a better way — even brand-new coworkers or recent college grads whose ideas you might otherwise discount.

Sharing this with everyone I know 👏 #mozconhttps://t.co/f1x5gDp5is

— Casie Gillette (@Casieg) July 14, 2021

And don't feel badly that you might be wrong — Wil posits that not knowing your own ignorance is just part of the human condition. He shared a quote from Upton Sinclair that was especially poignant:

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.

Heart

A hundred years ago, no business needed SEO. They needed customers, profits, and sales. And as true then as it is now, they needed to know their customers.

One slide stood out loud and clear: The less you understand your customer, the more you spend to acquire them. And as Wil said, reports that lack dollar signs don't land on real decision makers' desks. Here's where your brain comes in.

“Best practices are a great start for those who lack data, or have data but can’t process it.” - @wilreynolds#MozCon#IntellectualHonestypic.twitter.com/91QiMy4ZDq

— Michael Tolosa (@TolosaSEO) July 14, 2021

Brain

Wil presented a bit of a conundrum: making decisions based on your gut may be easy and comfortable, but it's the data that gets you the insights you need to create and test hypotheses. However, exhaustive data — the kind of data where opportunity lives — is probably too big for your laptop to handle. What's an SEO to do?

Of course he had answers! Wil's suggestion was to harness the power of ngrams. With the help of a tool like PowerBI or BigQuery and using ngrams to examine all the search terms, you can find all your ranking results and see where your search term isn't in the title.

Transform your SEO data into winning insights: - Shrink your ego & question assumptions - Don't rely on best practices. - Tools are a start, not an end. - Business is about $ - Understanding your customer saves $ - What people do & say are different@wilreynolds#mozconpic.twitter.com/IB7CcQ4IpN

— Ọla King (@justolaking) July 14, 2021

There's too much goodness to cram into a short recap, so you'll definitely want to get yourself a copy of the MozCon video bundle when it's ready for purchase. Until then, a few final suggestions from Wil:

Examining all your data is the only way to capture all your opportunities; resist the urge to pare it down to the top 20%. Every time you shrink your data down, you're missing out on opportunities that someone else can see.

See every data set through a competitive lens: if all else is the same, how do you create value?

Combine your paid and SEO data together — get the dollar signs in those reports and get in front of key decision makers

Learn SQL. You'll be able to search for exactly what you need within your own data, you won't have to rely on others, and your hypotheses will benefit from your newfound data freedom.

Be brave enough to suck at something new. Stop doing the thing that you feel comfortable with. Run your own experiments and validate your hypotheses. It'll be worth it in the end!

Hey #MozCon thank you! Remember: 1 - Surround yourself with people willing to show you a new way (show >> tell) - its easy to find people to tell you you are doing it wrong, find the people who build stuff to show you a new way.

— Wil Reynolds (@wilreynolds) July 14, 2021

Thanks everyone for a wonderful show! And we’ll see you in person next year!

#MozCon was freaking awesome! I learned so much and enjoyed meeting so many new colleagues! Thank you @Moz for such a wonderful event!

— Taylor Berg (@taylorannberg) July 15, 2021