Search Engine Optimization
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What marketers need to know about Google's Helpful Content Update. Tips for creating content that stays competitive.
Google's Helpful Content Update, and what to do about it
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How to track content performance on the level of topic groups, in order to answer macro-level questions. No new data required.
Tracking performance by topic
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Sites that you rely on for backlink equity might actually be blocking you altogether. Let's look at 'nofollow' links and how to deal with them.
Nofollow tags and a smarter backlink strategy
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Internal links offer a kindness for your readers and a better conversion rate for your site. They help with organic performance, too. Here's how to get started.
How to build an internal link strategy
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A look at how image files influence user experience (UX) and search performance. Tips for how to use images. Plus a checklist for optimizing blog page UX.
How images can drag down search and content performance
🍿 Newsletter
Optimizing a blog post begins with making sure structure and language (especially keywords) are consistent. Our action item checklist will get your started.
#22: Getting aligned
📗 Field Note
How to start analyzing and updating your content library. We made a tool for it. No data expertise required. We'll walk you through Google Analytics, too.
A strategy for optimizing old content
📗 Field Note
Bounce Rate is how many visits start on a page, then end without another pageview. Exit Rate is how many views of a page are the last one in a visit.
What’s the difference between bounce rate and exit rate?
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Google's latest computational update is MUM (Multitask Unified Model). MUM will be better than its predecessors at understanding topics, beyond keywords. And for organic search marketing, this could be a huge opportunity.
What to do with MUM, Google's latest computational model
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A keyword strategy is a prioritized list of which specific keywords you’re aiming to rank for in search.
What is a keyword strategy?
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Your pages might start looking different on search result pages. If Google thinks your title tags aren't clear, concise, and accurate, they're going to change its appearance.
Google is changing your page titles on SERPs
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Are you still pursuing a backlink acquisition strategy? Google is not a fan. But more importantly, it might not be the best use of your time. That's where inferred linking comes in.
Goodbye backlinks, hello inferred links
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Some JavaScript can be useful. But too much JavaScript will slow down your site, frustrate your visitors, and hurt your rankings and conversions.
Clean up your Javascript
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Google Tag Manager is a way of putting JavaScript tags on your site – and managing them – more easily. Activating (or re-activating) it for your site can lead to some quick wins for your site performance and lead tracking.
Google Tag Manager, Schmoogle Tag Manager
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Share of search is a relatively new metric. It helps you make the case for visibility in organic search – and therefore, in investment in content – in a way that should get your colleagues excited.
What is "share of search"?
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Determining the relevance of a topic to your brand is a core marketing skill, and it's overshadowed these days by big data metrics like search volume and competition.
Why keywords need a relevance metric
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Lots of ways to serve language-specific sites, but just one that we recommend.
How to serve language-specific sites
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A big culprit we're seeing for slow site speed these days is oversized images.
Attack of the giant .jpgs
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Aside from its importance as a marketing channel in general, organic search creates trust, doesn't depend on spend, and is a helpful lever for thinking about your strategy and site in general.
Why invest in organic search?
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You don't have to spend a lot of time to build a really high-quality keyword strategy.
Building keyword strategies efficiently
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A lot of content marketers freak out about duplicate content, but they don't need to. Here's why.
Don't worry too much about duplicate content
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Choosing a CMS is one of the most important decisions you’ll make with your marketing tech stack.
How small companies and startups should choose a content management system
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How to put together a page comparing your product to your competitors.
Comparison page best practices
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Why does Google do what it does? Self-interest. Make peace with this fact and you can start building a more robust web presence on (and beyond) Google.
Google's motivations
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How to focus on SEO fundamentals.
The 5-minute SEO audit
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The most important things to do on your 404 page.
404 page checklist
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A better way to think about the term "SEO".
Search experience optimization
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The content stack involves production, distribution, conversion, strategy, and analytics; here's how these layers work together.
What is the content stack?
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