Understanding how search engines work, Google in particular, is important when working in SEO. The basics of crawling and indexing are amazingly useful to understand if you want to rank your own content.
Additionally, Google updates its algorithm several times a year. Understanding the more significant updates, and how they work, can help you to craft content and SEO strategies that are up-to-date.
We've written extensively about how search engines work, and included some of the top resources here. You can also browse the latest posts on search engines from the Moz blog below.
How Search Engines Work : New to SEO? Start with the basics of how search engines operate with our free beginner's guide.
Search Engine Ranking and Visibility : Learn the fundamentals of how search engines rank content on search engine result pages.
Google Algorithm Update History : A complete history of Google algorithm updates since 2000. This includes important links and references for understanding how Google works.
How Search Engines Value Links : Search engines work off a number of signals, but two of the most important are content and links. In this video, Rand Fishkin explains the basics of link evaluation.
MozCast : Is Google updating it's algorithm as we speak? MozCast is the Google algorithm weather report, so you can see how much Google results are changing each day.
There's a long-standing debate in SEO about the maximum number of links that you should place on any given page. If you use the SEOmoz PRO Campaign Manager, you may have seen a warning that looks something like this:[image 1]Digging deeper into the "Too Many On-Page Links" warning, you'll see the message:You should avoid having too many (roughly defined a...
Recently, Google added the “Instant Previews” feature, which enables users to preview websites on search results before clicking on them. It is important to analyse how these features will affect SEO strategies and the experts involved in the SEO effort. Instant Previews allow users to see a screenshot of the target page of search results, and even highlight the most r...
As people in relationships spend time with each other they start to leverage each others natural strengths to efficiently store information about the world around them. "Honey, what is the name of my Aunt's employer?" "Babe, what do you call that thing that heats bread?" They rely on each other to store information that is mutually beneficial. Some believe this p...
Have you considered using Yahoo Answers to try and drive some traffic to your website / blog? Yahoo Answers has become a very popular network for knowledge thirsty question askers and knowledge soaked answer-meisters, and they are all potential visitors for your site. This article aims to provide a detailed look at some tips / tricks for becoming the glowing Yahoo Answers guru you've always wan...
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Ugh... Part of me just wants to link to this old blog post and leave it at that. But, since there's actually a bit of data to share helping to show that (at least so far) Google Instant changes less than your average algorithmic rankings update, let's share. 880,0...
Last week at our annual mozinar, Ben Hendrickson gave a talk on a unique methodology for improving SEO. The reception was overwhelming - I've never been part of a professional event where thunderous applause broke out not once but multiple times during Ben's remarks. ...
Google's recent brand update means that a large brand can completely dominate the top 10 with a single website. Is that what searchers really want?
Today, Yahoo! formally announced that it's fully transitioning its search engine backend to Microsoft's Bing. While this is good news on many fronts for marketers (simplification of advertising platforms, a bigger competitor for Google, etc), it's a big loss to webmasters wh...
Inspired my time on member Q&A, a step-by-step process to diagnose a missing page in 10 minutes. Can be applied to many indexation and ranking issues.
This is my first YOUmoz post, and I would greatly appreciate your feedback. I will be actively responding to comments, and I know that we will get a great discussion going. Please comment with any critique, questions, or random thoughts that you may have. If you would rather skip the statistics, feel free to jump ahead to the discussion section.
In 2010, Matt Cutts has released over 70 Webmaster Help videos, I watched them all, so you don't have to (although you probably should).
For years there was never a reliable way to know for sure what kind of ranking you had overall in Google for any particular keyword due to all the data centers. For a few years now, Google's webmaster tools would display ranking data for your top 100 keywords in the Top Search Queries area. However, ...
I've been an SEO for a long while - nearly 8 years. In all that time, I still haven't been able to wean myself off the intoxicating drug dealt out by the Google toolbar - that "little green fairy dust" called PageRank. Intellectually, I know its flawed in lots of ways, but so many people in our field (and in the broader webmaster/marketing community) still talk about...
Late last week, Eric Enge of Stone Temple (and a co-author of mine on The Art of SEO) published a fascinating interview with Google's head of Webspam, Matt Cutts. I think the whole of the S...