The Moz Blog

Booth Thoughts from Two Mozzers and an Irishman

With SMX West behind us, I thought it would be interesting to reflect back on something that we hadn't ever done at any other conference: operate a booth. I have to say that attending a conference when you have a booth is an entirely different experience than attending without one. Below I'll provide my input, Rand's thoughts, and some helpful tips from a cranky Irishman who's had plenty of experi...

RSS Feeds - Right and Wrong

Who Makes an Effort? Well, it turns out that it depends on what make means:42 SEO Feeds, 126 posts reviewed: 0% mangled text, 65% of posts had a graphic or something visual55 News Feeds, 165 posts reviewed: 10% mangled text, 0% grapics (excepting posted videos)25 Political News Feeds, 75 posts reviewed: 25% mangled text, 0% graphics (excepting...

Whiteboard Monday-SMX West Interviews: Will Critchlow on Ranking Foreign Domains

As promised, here's the first in our series of Whiteboard X-day videos direct from the floor of SMX West. Our first victim is our good friend and extremely active SEOmoz member, Will Critchlow of Distilled. Will and his business partner, Duncan Morris, came in from London for SMX West and it was great to see them both. As a Londo...

How to Improve Your AdWords Campaigns

In the first company, as I started to work with my Adwords campaigns, the only goal there was to get clicks (visitors) as most clients wishes. This was one of the 2 key figures that my boss was watching everyday. The other one was the CTR. If we were under 12%, the campaign was not good enough, and we had to work on the keywords or the ads. As I moved on to some other companies, im...

Happy Anniversary, Me! Searchfest is Next Week

Next Monday, March 10th, is Searchfest 2008, a day conference organized by SEMpdx, Portland's SEM community. I've created an event for Searchfest, so if you plan on going, sign up!...

How Screwed am I? Can Two Companies Have The Same Name?

How Screwed Am I? Some Other Business Has the Same Name As I Mine.

Trademark Problem: When Two Businesses Own the Same or Similar Mark

It is possible for two businesses to own the same or similar marks. Remember that the guiding principle is consumer confusion. If the two marks identify different products and oper...

Six Weird & Wacky Search Results Issues at Google

If you search enough at Google, you're bound to end up with some strange results, but as search marketers, we're often able to take a closer look and understand why something is ranking or appearing where it is. However... even I was stumped, surprised or just tickled to see some of the results below: ...

Whiteboard Friday: SMX West Interviews-Matt Cutts

Man-oh-man, it's been a busy week, folks. As many of you know, a big chunk of the Mozplex relocated to Santa Clara this week for SMX West. The show went off smashingly and we managed to get several guests to do Whiteboard videos with us on the Expo Hall floor. What's this mean for you? It means next week will be filled with Whiteboard Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and (...

Our New Phone Number is Jenny's 867-5309 and it's Not Funny Anymore!

Two days ago our office updated our phone system to a more professional business setup. The new system brought additional phone extensions and 23 new phone numbers. While it was a bit of a headache having our phones and internet down while the phone company upgraded our account, it was nothing compared to our new problem. When our awesome receptionist ...

Generation Google a General Disappointment

This morning I went running, hopped in the shower, and ran to the conference, hair still wet, because I didn't want to miss the Generation Google panel. I was excited to hear more about Harrison Gevirtz, a sixteen year old affiliate marketer, and Chloe Spencer, Stephan Spencer's daughter and a blogger who makes a good chunk of dough from AdSense earnings. Joining the...

URLs & Domains Made Fun and Interesting

I'm actually serious with the title here. This session was great. Honestly, I've been to more informative sessions here at SMX West than I've been to since Pubcon 2006, where I knew nothing about SEO and everything I heard was new. Unraveling URLs & Demystifying Domains had some good speakers who each provided...

Legal Issues, The Economics of Search, PPC Pitfalls, and the SMX Search Bowl

Yesterday I attended sessions, met some new folks, and attended Search Bowl. Below is a brief recap and my opinions of Day 1 of SMX West. Recent Legal News About Search Clarke Walton went over search ad trademark policies. Google has the easiest trademark policies to understand. They allow trademarks ...