The Moz Blog

Ranking for Keyword + Cityname in Multiple Geographies

I've been having a lot of conversations recently with websites in need of better rankings for keyword + cityname combinations in cities across the country (or around the world). This is one of the most challenging tasks in the SEO field, for four big reasons: Maps Results Bias Against Multi-City Domains Google's local/maps results are far more ch...

Serious Robots.txt Misuse & High Impact Solutions

Some of the Internet's most important pages from many of the most linked-to domains, are blocked by a robots.txt file. Does your website misuse the robots.txt file, too? Find out how search engines really treat robots.txt blocked files, entertain yourself with a few seriously flawed live examples, and learn how to avoid the same mistakes yourself.

Using YouTube as a Keyword Research Tool for SEO

This isn't a post about keyword research for video content on YouTube, but exploring the ways in which it can be used to find relevant data, information and keywords in topics where you have a low understanding of the services and industry. Now for an example... ...

Making "Reference" Content Rank Well in the SERPs

I've always liked encyclopedias; when I was in middle school I started using Encarta on CD-ROM, and sure, I usually needed it for "help" with my homework, but sometimes I would stray to non-copy-and-pasting-from-encyclopedia activities and watch terribly animated videos of war battles or Shakespearean plays. My poor children will never know the joys of a succinct five page article on the American Revolution with an accompanying 30-second 160 X 200 resolution video! Anyways, if my aforementioned future kids do end up needing to write about the American Revolution, and you have a great site about it, how can you make sure they end up seeing your content? This week, Rand discusses some great ways to get your reference content to the top of the SERPs.

SEOmoz Meetups Coming to New York, Sofia, Las Vegas, Dublin, San Diego and More

You've probably already noticed that here at SEOmoz, we tend to travel quite a bit. Often times we're speaking at a conference or covering it on the blog, but sometimes we find ourselves wishing we had more time to hang out with the community. We needed to come up with a way to spend some quality time with you. So, we're sending mozzers out to cities all over the world to have Meetups and give us a chance to get to know you in a more intimate setting.

Reputation Management SEO: 6 Advanced Tactics

Last week I visited Milan, Italy thanks to the generosity of the US State Department and Marco Montemagno, organizer of Social Media Week. I was, first off, impressed that the State Dept. had a formal program to encourage digital entrepreneurship and the promotion of Internet use as part of their m...

Why Most Conference Presentations Suck

I tend towards the uncontroversial when I write. I haven't been the author of many posts that have caused debate. But I've had enough. I need to speak up. Most conference presentations suck

How to Turn Google Analytics Into Your Own Rank Tracker Using Custom Variables

Today I want to talk about tracking organic ranking in Google Analytics. Previously, we were able to determine the page from which a Google organic click was coming, but with a change to the Google referral URL it has become much easier to track exact rank. Combined with Google Analytics custom variables we have a powerful new way to pull exact organic rankings into GA.

The Danger of Overdoing SEO

During my first few years in the SEO field, half of the sites I'd visit - those my SEO brethren in the forums or over email owned - were what today we'd call "over-optimized." They tended to have features like:Keyword after keyword stuffed into the title element of every pageOverly-lengthy and keyword rich URL stringsPage filled with "SEO'd" con...

Replace Yahoo Linkdomain with Google Custom Search Engine

With the transition of Yahoo! to Microsoft’s Bing backend, webmasters have lost the ability to perform advanced searches using the link: and linkdomain: parameters. Rand Fishkin wrote a post about replacing the Yahoo! linkdomain: data with other data sources. Although Linkscape and Open Site Explorer provide a great data source, there is some functionality missing. The primary functionali...

Video SEO Basics

Video SEO isn't something we always think about when optimizing, but we really should. In this week's Whiteboard Friday, Danny Dover reviews some of the video SEO basics that every SEO should know about. After all, it's a largely untapped market, unlike the Canadian maple tree market. Which is very tapped.

So You Call Yourself an Analyst? Part 1: Asking the Right Questions

Today I am going to talk about something that plagues companies and consultants everywhere--half baked analysis. It's something we've all done at some point, and something a lot of us still do on a regular basis. It's unfortunate because as online marketers we all understand the power of good data mining, but time and time again we revert to generic inquiry, at best, and default report tem...