The Moz Blog

5 Warning Signs of a Bad SEO Client

I just walked away from a lot of money. After two months of research, proposals, and negotiations I turned down a deal that would have brought my freelance income to a new level. But I would have been miserable. My prospective client had no shortage of funds. There was nothing shady about their business. I just didn't want to deal with them. I used to say "...

Make Facebook Comments Box Indexable by Search Engines

Dear SEO friends, Recently I considered implementing the Facebook Comments Box in several sites. I tried to consider the pros and cons. The obvious pros were (there are more): By default comments will be posted to the user's wall (though they can disable this)...

Google PageRank: Still Relevant After All These Years

When Larry Page and Sergey Brin invented the PageRank algorithm way back in the late 90s, they struck gold and were smart enough to found Google to capitalize on its very real potential to change search. For many years Google even told us the PageRank number for each web page...

Does Google Use Facebook Shares to Influence Search Rankings?

Does Google use Facebook shares to rank search results? This post examines some recent modeling and attempts to separate correlation from causation.

Why Clients Have the Same Issues/Questions - It's Not About SEO... But About the People!

I really enjoyed the recent Whiteboard Friday about Top 5 SEO Questions from SEOmoz customers and I was surprised by mainly two things: 1. Most of the questions were basic

11 Analytics Metrics That Are Actionable

Last month I spoke at SAScon in the UK on the topic of getting actions from analytics. It's something that I feel quite strongly about so I wanted to write a post on here to talk about it a little and expand upon what I talked about at SAScon.The key question I want to answer is -"What key metrics should I be tracking?"I can break the answer down pretty quick...

Link Building Management

I love freestyle link building. There is hardly anything more satisfying than getting in the zone and branching out into countless search iterations plucking opportunities one by one, thinking of great content ideas, implementing it, sending it out and watching it hatch. This article, however, is not about that. Instead I will take you through methodology evolved within ...

SMX Advanced: Andy Atkins-Kruger Talks International SEO and Yandex

When most of us talk about SEO, the search engines we implicitly refer to are Google and Bing/Yahoo, but that's about it. Do you know which of these search engines is most popular in Russia? Neither! The largest search engine in Russia is Yandex, with millions of users and more market share than eithe...

How To Sniff Out An SEO Rat: Protecting Your Brand and Your Wallet

With all the discussion of individuals ratting out websites and or certain SEO companies you probably think this post is about just that. Don't worry, you can breathe a sigh of relief, I wouldn't waste yours nor my time with such a post. However, I...

8 Methods + Lots of Tools for Getting to Know Your Audience

You provide something specific: That might be a product, a service, a trustworthy source of information, a community space… And you know exactly what your audiences may be searching for to find your wares. But do you know what they really want out of you? Do you know how they really feel? Do you know what they want more of or less of in your industry? Do you know what they like or don’t like on your site or your competitor’s sites? Do you know what they think about your new product launch? If you knew this information, how could you use it to improve your products or services?

New Edition of the Ranking Factors for 2011 is Now Live!

Since 2005, SEOmoz has released a new version of the Search Ranking Factors survey every two years, a piece of content that many in the SEO world have used and referenced. This year, we've continued that tradition and added a whole new element of research, comparing the aggregated opinions of 132 SEOs around the world with correla...

Schema.org - A New Approach to Structured Data for SEO

Just every now and again, search engines love to throw our merry band of SEO types the occasional curveball and keep us on our toes with new toys or updates. Yesterday was one such day for the world of structured data in web page design.