Are you up to speed with the latest news from the world of SEO? In Relevance’s latest summary of Moz’s top 10, we cover trust in Google, dark traffic and everything in between. So block out some time in your diary, lock your office door, sit back and enjoy.
1. Improve your keyword research in 30 minutes
If the words ‘keyword research’ make the hairs on the back of your neck bristle with worry and conjure up visions of days staring at a screen with no end in sight then this article is for you. Britney Muller’s lazy writer’s guide to 30-minute keyword research is packed full of useful and effective research tips to help speed things up. You can thank her later.
2. Direct traffic isn’t what you think it is
There’s still a widely held belief that “Direct traffic” comes from someone either typing in the web address by hand or clicking on a bookmark. But Sayf Sharif’s Seer article points out that there’s way more to it than that. Read his article and put your mind at rest.
3. What to do when big data gets massive
If, like us, you’ve ever been in the position where our trusty friend Excel can’t handle your million plus rows of data then this useful ‘how to’ is a must-read. All hail Mike King.
4. Does Google feed its own index with Analytics?
If ever there’s a new theory on SEO then you can bet that our friends at Stone Temple will put that theory to the test. This time they’ve devised a cunning plan to see whether the search giant uses Google Analytics to discover new URLs for crawling. See what they found out in the link.
5. Google’s organic quality score (or something like it)
Where would any of us be without Whiteboard Fridays? This week Ron Fishking discusses the idea that Google (almost definitely) has an organic quality score and tells us why and how we should optimize for it. Enjoy.
6. Again with the featured snippets
Featured snippets have been the talk of SEO for a long time now, and the buzz still hasn’t died down. The team at STAT are here with a ton of the latest snippet statistics so we’ve all got a good sense for them in today’s SERPs. A must read.
According to 52% of people, the answer is yes. This fascinating Digital Examiner article reports that part of the reason is that Google has been pulling info from fake news sites, and even got into trouble for reporting that Trump won the popular vote in the election when he actually lost it by over 3 million. Find out more in the link.
8. Average time on page isn’t everything
You’d be forgiven for thinking that the ‘time on page’ metric is the best reference for engagement with your content. But Mark Traphagen explains why it isn’t the best way to measure the success. Keep reading to find out more.
There are those who believe that your job is done when you convert a customer but a good SEOer goes far beyond. Alex Birkett tells us about the science behind increasing customer loyalty.
This demo powered by IBM’s very own Watson is a collection of APIs that offer text analysis through natural language processing. They can analyze everything from sentiment to concepts, keywords and much, much more. The future has arrived, ladies and gentlemen.
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