The Moz Blog

The industry's top wizards, doctors, and other experts offer their best advice, research, how-tos, and insights—all in the name of helping you level-up your SEO and online marketing skills.

Join Us!
Use Whois - A Cautionary Tale
M

Use Whois - A Cautionary Tale

E-Commerce SEO

It started simply enough - and that should have made me suspicious. It was a small job - a friend of my business partner wanted to redo their website. It was a small business website, and a quick search on Google showed ma a great SERP. All the site needed was some updating to improve the design. They were also looking for an easier way to update the site. So, a content management system was to be added. And, the site needed to be added to Google Local search. Easiest things first - Local Search, and the first indication there was a problem.

Backlink Anchor Text Analysis: Powered by Linkscape
Roger MozBot

Backlink Anchor Text Analysis: Powered by Linkscape

Moz News

NOTE: this is an announcement of a PRO-only tool. If you're not PRO you can take a peek at what you're missing :) With the launch of our SEOmoz Labs initiative we have some freedom to quickly launch data and tools which either introduce something new and powerful (like Blogscape) or highlight improvements and mashups of tools and data we've already got. Today we're launching a retooled Backlink Anchor Text Analyzer, powered by Linkscape.

Top 10 Client Objections to Your SEO Services
Darren Moloney

Top 10 Client Objections to Your SEO Services

So you're pretty much top of your SEM/SEO field in your neck of the woods and confident of converting most enquirers into satisfied, happy customers. What happens when you get to see/talk with a potentially new client and they come up with objection after objection to get you to drop your prices, or worse, promise something you cannot guarantee (e.g., a number 1 organic ranking on Google)?

Level Up Your SEO Skills With Our Free Training

Moz Academy Training

Complete courses to master SEO basics

Start Learning

Keyword Research Master Guide

Learn Keyword Research like the pros

Read the guide

Guide to SEO Competitor Analysis

Win rankings and traffic from your competition

Read the guide
SEOmoz Sticker Swag Voting
R

SEOmoz Sticker Swag Voting

Moz News

Choice is a great thing, even when it comes down to the question of being able to put bacon on your cheeseburger. SEOmoz prides itself in giving its members choice, even when it comes down to the little things like the swag. But who doesn't like free swag, right? I’ll be the first person to admit jumping wildly at any free booth swag. I don't care if it's a Comcast branded chip-clip... I want it.

It Ain't All Good: Not All PR is Good for Business
A

It Ain't All Good: Not All PR is Good for Business

Branding

One of the few benefits of being ‘between jobs’ is that it gives you time to look around and become a voyeur of sorts. Whilst spending quite a bit of time looking at what the current job market is after and where it’s heading, as well as trying to get back in, I came across the following search results for one particular company:

A Review of Thinkvisibility
T

A Review of Thinkvisibility

SEO Events

Over the weekend I was lucky enough to attend ThinkVisibility, a conference in Leeds (UK) where I was speaking on reputation management. Here's a quick roundup of the conference for you UK types - there's another conference in September and tickets were only £30 this time around which was a right bargain - just take a look at t...

Google's Sandbox Still Exists: Exemplified by Grader.com
Rand Fishkin

Google's Sandbox Still Exists: Exemplified by Grader.com

Search Engines

For many in the SEO field, Google's "sandbox," a filter the search quality team created to help fight spam, is a relic of days gone by. However, we've been spotting new cases over the last few years, and I finally found a great example to share publicly (and got permission from the site owner). Grader.com, and the four subdomains underneath it - Twitter.Grader.com, PressRelease.Grader.com, Website.Grader.com & Facebook.Grader.com - are all under pronounced effects that highlight this algorithmic element's impact.

Never miss a beat. Get Moz Blog
email updates daily in your inbox

Subscribe to Email Updates
MozPoint Distribution: A Case Study (Sort Of)
Casey Henry

MozPoint Distribution: A Case Study (Sort Of)

Moz News

Recently while I was reading a post on SEOmoz, I started to think about the users of SEOmoz and the whole points system. I read one of Lindsay’s Twitter post saying that the MozPoint distribution system on SEOmoz is a case study in itself. I thought it might be a cool thing for all the users and SEOmoz staff ...

How to Rank Well Without Inlinks
D

How to Rank Well Without Inlinks

Link Building

The idea that you cannot be found on the web if there are no inlinks to one's site was recently the subject of a debate between myself and a fellow geek. My response was that one does not need ANY links to have a good ranking. This myth about inbound links (at least in my view it's a myth) is silly.

What Digital Experience Does Your CEO Need?
Will Critchlow

What Digital Experience Does Your CEO Need?

Marketing Industry

One of my strategic objectives this year is to get Distilled access to decision-makers closer to the boards of some of our large clients. It should be clear to all of us in search that the companies winning the search game are those prepared to think about it most strategically. I believe that in 30 years' time, the people running large companies will those who understand the unchecked flow of information - the marketers - and more specifically that technically-inclined breed of marketers currently only found in search.

Whiteboard Friday - Do You Need SEO Consulting?
Scott Willoughby

Whiteboard Friday - Do You Need SEO Consulting?

We get tons of questions--from folks on both sides of the equation--about ways to structure SEO contracts, what to include, how to know when a company is ready for consulting, what the costs should be, how to measure success, and tons of other factors. In this week's Whiteboard Friday we'll look at several of these factors to help take some of the uncertainty out of the black art that is SEO Consu...

Upside Down Marketing
Matt Lambert

Upside Down Marketing

Keyword Research

Instinctively, without thinking, earlier on this evening I clicked a 'thumbs down' against Rand's video post about buckets of keywords. Of course, it means I have to write a post to explain my dastardly act of down thumbing, and having listened again to see if I was just being mean, my view is now that actually I probably don't know. Maybe.