The Bigfoot Update (AKA Dr. Pete Goes Crazy)
On the morning of June 5th, just as the sun was coming up over the horizon, I saw something in the woods of Mountain View. I swear I wasn't drinking. Well, not much.
Search Engines
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.
Most Recent Articles on Search Engines
How WPMU.org Recovered From The Penguin Update
Last Friday, Google pushed out the first refresh of their infamous Penguin update, bringing many webmasters to stumble towards their analytics, SERPs and the like in hopes of signs of a recove...
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Do You Have a Link Network and Not Know It?
How to evaluate your links and anchor text between your sites. Extremely useful if you've been hit by Penguin.
Whiteboard+ on Google's Penguin Update
Yesterday, I filmed some quick thoughts on Google's Penguin update. You can find the full video on our Google+ page: ...
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The Penguin Update & How Google Identifies Spam
What we can learn about Penguin from Google's ability to detect spam in Gmail.
Penguins, Pandas, and Panic at the Zoo
In the aftermath of Google's Penguin update, there's no shortage of panic. Like any algorithm update, you need to assess the damage - here are some dos and don'ts to keep you from making a bad situation worse.
Why Big Brands Get All the Breaks
It can sometimes feel like big brands get all the breaks in SEO. While Google may play favorites, the rise of big brands in search was inevitable. Here's why, and what you can do about it.
Is Google De-indexing Blog Networks -- or Also Individual, Low Quality Blogs?
Carson Ward recently published an excellent post on the SEOmoz blog, exploring the current phenomenon of unnatural link warnings from Google, and the rapid de-indexing of blog networks.
Unnatural Link Warnings and Blog Networks
Advice and Confessions from a Reformed Link Network Spammer There was only one time when link building was the easiest, least challenging part of my SEO work. I was a link network spammer, relying upon services with names like "blog networks" and "article networks." These services allow paid subscribers to post their content to a network of sites...
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Understand and Rock the Google Venice Update
I am slightly shocked and simply amused that the recent Google Venice Update has largely flown under the radar. The Inside Search Blog published a list of 40 some-odd changes to the algorithm for February, and it seems that Panda 3.3 and the mysterious one liner about link valuation captivated most of the SEO and Inbound world...
Face-off - 4 Ways to De-personalize Google
Google recently launched a radical form of social search personalization and yet another way to shut off that personalization. This is a head-to-head comparison of 4 major methods to de-personalize search results, including Google's new toggle switch.
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SEO Has Crossed "The Chasm:" What's Your Business' Long-Term Strategy?
In the early days, SEO was about keyword density, stuffing titles and meta keywords, putting misspellings on the page... After that, there were directory listings, paid links, exact match anchor text... Pretty boring! Fast-forward a little, and we’ve got Panda updates...
Uncover Competitors Using Multiple Sites For Multiple First Page Rankings
Google has a lot of spam to battle and some acting against The Guidelines get away with hogging multiple page one spots with their multiple sites. I'm sick of it. How angry would you be if your client with their single site is going up against four sites getting the love from Google but they're all owned by the same company?
A Visual Look at 2011 Google Algorithm Changes
Every year SEOMoz comes out with its Google Algorithm Change History page. We thought it would be great to lay the 2011 changes out visually. While for the most of the world it was "Year of the Rabbit", to us SEOs it was surely "Year of the Panda". Keep in mind this is our fir...