As seen in... You've seen the claims: "So Many New Ranking Factors!" "Content Quality is Everything!" "User Engagement is the New King!!" "Social Media Signals Rock!" "RankBrain has Taken Over All Ranking!" Puhleeze, spare me the nonsense! In today's post, I'm going to … [Read more...]
Everything Mobile with Google’s John Mueller and Mariya Moeva – Virtual Keynote
Mobile, AMP, App Deep Linking, Voice Search and MoreWelcome to our third Virtual Keynote with Google! Also check out our past Virtual Keynotes with Google's Gary Illyes.Here's the video of our #VirtualKeynote conversation with John Mueller and Mariya Moeva of Google. You'll find a full transcript below the video.Eric: Hey, everybody. … [Read more...]
What Was the Impact of Google’s Second Mobile Update?
On May 11, 2016, Google "finished" rolling out its second mobile rankings update. Today we're publishing the results of our study to measure the impact of this new algo update. Google's first mobile update was a big one, was this one as significant?To find out, we took a baseline measurement of over 18,000 mobile queries between … [Read more...]
SEO Tags with Gary Illyes and Eric Enge – Virtual Keynote 2
On May 5th, 2016 I had the opportunity to do a live video event with Google's Gary Illyes. We focused on strategies for controlling page indexing, Google's crawl, and overall site quality. Mark Traphagen then took us through a Q&A session with questions from the audience.Some key areas that brought out some gems include:How … [Read more...]
What Is Keyword Density?
Updated 4 May 2016 - originally published 2011You may have heard that you need to be concerned about keyword density. What is it?Keyword density is a measurement of the percentage of occurrences of a given keyword (or phrase) on a page out of all the words on a page. For example, if you have a page about "blue widgets", then the … [Read more...]
Google’s Featured Snippets: Automated Continuous Improvement
Today I'm publishing the third of our detailed studies on Google's rich answers in search. Google continues to make major investments in showing rich answers (sometimes called direct answers by others) above the regular search results. At Stone Temple Consulting, we've been tracking the growth of rich answers since December of 2014. … [Read more...]
Why CTR Is(n’t) a Ranking Factor
Click through rate (CTR) on your listing in the SERPs, isn't used by Google as a direct ranking factor. But, on the other hand, it might cause your rankings to rise for indirect reasons. That good for a confusing start? Excellent!In this post, I plan to walk you through why it's not used by Google as a direct ranking signal. However, … [Read more...]
Does Google Monitor Smartphone Clipboards to Discover New URLs?
This may seem like a very specific question, but understanding how Google discovers new content is just the type of stuff that the geeks of the IMEC board love to do!TL:DR: For those of you who don't want to read the whole story, the short answer is NO, there was no evidence that Google monitors the clipboards of phones, either … [Read more...]
RankBrain Myth Busting
Stop the Madness, RankBrain Isn't Taking Over the Whole Google AlgoIn today's post, I plan to do some serious myth busting on the topic of RankBrain. I also plan to share some perspective on how it impacts you as a digital marketer. This has been driven by discussions I have had with numerous Googlers along the way, and other smart … [Read more...]
RankBrain: A Study to Measure Its Impact
Study: Does RankBrain Actually Improve Search Results?Google made a big splash in October 2015 when they announced the existence of a new ranking algorithm that they call RankBrain. The news broke in this article in Bloomberg. Google made some very limited comments about what it is, and has had little to say since then.For that … [Read more...]
Google’s Gary Illyes on Emerging Search Trends – Virtual Keynote 1
IntroductionOn February 11th, 2016 I had the opportunity to do a live video event with Google's Gary Illyes and we took on a wide variety of topics in Search and SEO. We then had Mark Traphagen lead a 30 minute Q&A session in which we took questions from the audience.Our second Virtual Keynote with Gary Illyes, focusing on SEO … [Read more...]
Why You Must Become a 10X Brand
These days it's not enough to be just a brand. You've got to be a 10 X brand: ten times better known, ten times more trusted, ten times more referenced than any of your competitors.In this episode of Here’s Why, Mark and Eric will discuss not only what makes a 10X brand, but what it takes to become one!Don't miss a single episode of … [Read more...]
Here’s Why Some SEO “Experts” are not Really Experts
Since people realized that there was money to be made in the business of Search Engine Optimization, many have self-proclaimed that they are experts or “gurus.” Some indeed have legitimate claims and practice white hat SEO, but just as many or more don’t. In this episode of Here’s Why, Mark & Eric will explain what to look for … [Read more...]
Here’s Why Digital Marketing Will Never be the Same (with Rand Fishkin)
Here's Why is a series dedicated to bringing you the most current and relevant developments in the world of digital marketing. For 52 episodes, Mark and Eric have lent their expertise to make these videos both fun and informative. For the very first time, they welcome a guest; but not any old guest, a very, special, guest.You might … [Read more...]
Here’s Why Some Content Goes Viral
Most people assume that viral content is a matter of luck. Luck can play a part. Sometimes a piece of content happens to coincide with a relevant news event or it happens to get in front of the right influencers, and zoom, off it goes. But in reality, there are certain commonalities that most viral content has, factors that make it … [Read more...]
Here’s Why You Need to Know FTC Regulations
Over the past few years the FTC has been releasing a series of enforceable guidelines for online advertisers, content producers, and social media users. The guidelines are meant to protect consumers from potential fraud or deceptive practices.Don't let ignorance of Federal Trade Commission regulations for social media land you in … [Read more...]
Here’s Why Turns 50: Eric & Mark’s Best Tips!
It has been quite the journey over our past 49 episodes of Here’s Why. We could not be happier to bring you a special, 50th edition episode. Mark and Eric look back and discuss tips and trends from the past year, as well as taking a look at Here’s Why’s past!The digital marketing landscape has and will continue to evolve in 2016 and … [Read more...]
Backlinking Tools May Not Be as Comprehensive as You Think
Just how good are backlink tools such as Open Site Explorer, Majestic SEO and ahrefs at identifying links to the pages of your site? That's the question we set out to answer in this study, and for many of you, the answer may come as a shock!(Want a quick summary of the results? See our 3-minute video and 12-slide deck at the end of … [Read more...]
Here’s Why Your Content Isn’t Getting Links
In the last episode, Eric and Mark told you why your content wasn’t getting the amount of shares that you would ideally like it to get. In this episode, they continue with the theme but shift their focus from shares to links.It can be hard to predict what content really takes off and drives links and traffic, but when it does it’s an … [Read more...]
Here’s Why Your Content Isn’t Getting Shared
Why Isn't My Content Getting Shared More?The amount of effort you put into a published piece of content does not always correlate to the amount of social shares it ends up getting. It can get frustrating; you put a lot of time and effort in, just to find a small or nonexistent audience.Never fear, Eric and Mark are here to not only … [Read more...]
Here’s Why Your Guest Post Pitches Are Failing
Are your pitches to guest post on publishing sites falling flat? Are you trying many different approaches with the same, negative results? Have no fear! Eric and Mark are here to turn your content marketing pitches around!In this episode of Here’s Why, the guys will tell you when and how to pitch, but not before you’ve done your own … [Read more...]
Here’s Why Influencers Aren’t Paying Attention to You
Forming strong relationships with influencers can become the backbone of an effective content marketing plan. However, while you might find yourself trying and trying to get the attention of one, the influencer can still ignore you. In this episode of Here's Why, Mark and Eric will help you find out why your efforts are going … [Read more...]
Do E-Commerce Sites Completely Mess Up Their SEO?
In this study we set out to see just how well some of the world's top e-commerce sites use SEO tags and robots.txt to manage their faceted navigation. The results I am reporting here today will show you how often these sites get it right, and in some cases, just how horribly wrong they get it. TL;DR I'll give it to you straight out … [Read more...]
Here’s Why eCommerce Sites Need Better SEO Tagging
In today's episode, Mark and Eric discuss the findings of Eric's study: Do E-Commerce Sites Completely Mess Up Their SEO? It was a bit troubling to find out that many major eCommerce sites do not implement their SEO tags properly, at all. Only about 25% of the pages we looked at were using their tags correctly. Hit the jump and … [Read more...]
Here’s Why Google Still Loves Wikipedia
People who follow search are aware that for years now Google has given huge preference to Wikipedia for a large number of knowledge-seeking queries. This has actually been called into question as of late. A report published in July showed that Wikipedia had experienced a significant drop in organic search traffic sent by Google. … [Read more...]
Does Google Respect Robots.txt NoIndex and Should You Use It?
The availability of the Robots.txt NoIndex directive is little known among webmasters largely because few people talk about it. Matt Cutts discussed Google's support for this directive back in 2008. More recently, Google's John Mueller discussed it in this Google Webmaster Hangout. In addition, Deepcrawl wrote about it on their … [Read more...]
Here’s Why Google Authorship Might Return
Google Authorship was originally a way for online authors and publishers to link their content to their Google+ profiles so that Google could more readily associate their content with them. The added benefit of this experiment was that authors were given a rich snippet. A rich snippet provided the author’s image and byline and … [Read more...]
Here’s Why You Should Be Picky About Where You Guest Post
Creating a sound guest posting strategy is crucial to any content marketing or SEO plan. However, guest posting on as many many domains as possible not only does not help your SEO, but can actually hurt it. Less is really more with guest posting. You want less low quality domains, and more high quality content going out to high … [Read more...]
The Definitive Guide to Google’s Rich Answers
Rich Answers Are on The Rise!Google’s Rich Answers: What They Are, How They Work, How to Make Them Work for YouBack in February of this year, we published a study showing how often Google responds to search queries with rich answers. So we decided to take a fresh look and see how much Google has expanded their use of these types of … [Read more...]
Here’s Why Millennials Are Changing the Marketing Landscape
The term “Millennial” has both positive and negative connotations. Whatever your feelings towards them are, you need to pay them both attention and respect if your marketing plan has any chance of success, especially considering they are on the verge of being part of the largest transfer of wealth in history.In today’s episode of … [Read more...]
Social Media on a Global Scale with Cisco’s Autumn Truoung
Autumn Truong is the senior manager of global social media marketing at Cisco. Today's post is the transcript of an interview in which Mark Traphagen and I spoke with her to learn about what Cisco is doing in social.Eric: Can you provide us with a little background on what Cisco is doing in social media?Autumn: We've been doing … [Read more...]
Here’s Why Influencer Relationships Matter
Building relationships with influencers can help take your marketing efforts to a new level. However if you try to rush the process you run the risk of coming off as spammy and insincere.In this episode of Here’s Why, Mark and Eric will explain why influencer relationships matter, how to obtain them, and how to make best use of … [Read more...]
Here’s Why Content Marketing Works (and How)
In today’s marketing landscape, content is king. Content, however, is also everywhere. This means that producing content that truly stands above the rest becomes harder and harder each passing day.Mark and Eric are here to help. In this episode of Here’s Why, they will explain how to implement a content marketing plan that will not … [Read more...]
Scaling Social Media Across Many Locations With Whole Foods Natanya Anderson
Natanya Anderson is the Director of Social Media, CRM, and Customer Care at Whole Foods Market. Today's post is the transcript of an interview in which Mark Traphagen and I spoke with her to learn about all the cool stuff Whole Foods is doing in social.Eric: Can you discuss the objectives for Whole Foods in social media?Natanya: For … [Read more...]
Here’s Why Blab Might be a Live Video Game Changer
Many social media platforms tend to come and go with their hyperbolic claims of being the “next big thing.” The term “game changer” also tends to be thrown around pretty loosely; getting attached to whatever the latest and greatest platform happens to be at the time. While the new live video host known as Blab seems like it could … [Read more...]
Google Still Loves Wikipedia (More Than Its Own Properties)
In late July, we saw reports that Wikipedia had seen large drops in traffic. This led some to speculate that this Wikipedia Google traffic loss was because Google was favoring its own properties more, at the expense of Wikipedia. In today's post, I am going to reveal findings about Google's results using four different snapshots of … [Read more...]
Here’s Why The Art of SEO Has Changed Since 2009
Much has changed since the last edition of The Art of SEO was published back in 2009. There is one thing that hasn’t changed however; the complexity of Search Engine Optimization. In this episode of Here’s Why, Mark asks Stone Temple Consulting CEO and head author of the book Eric Enge, what has changed not only in the world of … [Read more...]
Why Doesn’t Google Use Social Signals? – Here’s Why with Mark & Eric
Social media has become the primary way most people discover and share content. When a piece of content sends social media shockwaves, it must have an impact on its SEO value?Not necessarily.In this episode of Here's Why, Mark & Eric will discuss why social signals are not the straightforward ranking signal that many assume them … [Read more...]
Does Google Treat URL Mentions Like Links?
Have you ever seen those URLs that people sometimes include on their pages, but which are not implemented as physical links? It can be frustrating if someone uses some of your content, and then gives you a citation like that, but it does happen. Did you ever wonder if Google treats those "URL Mentions" as a ranking factor?The IMEC … [Read more...]
Why Doesn’t Stone Temple Consulting Have a Sales Force? – Here’s Why with Mark & Eric
Content marketing is all the rage these days. It can be an incredibly powerful tool to put your business in front of a wide array of potential customers.But can it completely replace your outbound sales efforts? We wouldn't claim that for all companies in all situations. The value of a great outbound sales force shouldn't be … [Read more...]
Why Do Content Producers Need to be Experts? – Here’s Why with Mark & Eric
While almost anyone can can call themselves a "content marketer" just by creating content, not everyone should be one.Simply starting and maintaining a blog is a tremendous undertaking. And really, unless you have an area of expertise to cover, your content will probably get lost in the endless glut of the over-saturated world of … [Read more...]
Why do Some People Get More Engagement on Google Plus? – Here’s Why with Mark & Eric
As we look forward to a new era on Google+, we can now focus on what we need to do to maximize what we get out of it as a social network, and on what we need to do to maximize our engagement there. In order to measure engagement on Google+, we took a look at 33,282 posts on Google+, and sliced and diced them based on the nature of … [Read more...]
How to Structure Your Data – Hardcore Marketing
In this episode of Hardcore Marketing (formerly known as Hardcore SEO) Stone Temple Consulting's Director of Technical SEO Mats Tolander discusses Schema and Structured data. Implementing both are crucial to a sound marketing strategy. As intelligent as search engines are, they only know what information they’re looking at if you … [Read more...]
Managing the Reputation of a Mega-Brand with Walmart’s Chad Mitchell
Eric: Can you talk a little bit about your background Chad?Chad: Sure, it's probably not the typical one. I'm not really "digital" or "social," per se. I view myself as a communications professional who has simply adapted to the changing environment. I really cut my teeth in politics, working on local, state, and federal races in … [Read more...]
Why Should Web Publishers Consider Mobile Apps? – Here’s Why with Mark & Eric
More and more people are using smart mobile devices. That means an increasing amount of people will be accessing content on mobile apps.In this episode of Here’s Why, Mark & Eric rundown the fascinating insights of Google’s Webmaster Trends Analyst Mariya Moeva. Mariya told us the benefits that mobile apps can bring for a … [Read more...]
Maximizing Engagement on Google Plus
On July 27th, Google made another major move related to Google Plus. In the coming months you will no longer be required to have a Google+ account to use Google's other services, such as YouTube. Their reasoning is covered in detail in a post by Google VP of Social, Photos & Streams, Bradley Horowitz, called Everything in its … [Read more...]
Why Doesn’t Google Index All of Twitter? – Here’s Why with Mark & Eric
Now that Google has full, real-time access to all of Twitter, they must be indexing every tweet in Google search, right? Wrong!In this video see the results of the Stone Temple Consulting study that looked on Google for 133,000 tweets from over 900 Twitter users. We gathered data on the level of indexation of tweets from those … [Read more...]
Find Your Engagement Sweet Spot with Marathon Petroleum’s Brandon Daniels
Brandon Daniels is the communications manager at Marathon Petroleum Corporation, and is in charge of the corporate social media accounts for Marathon Petroleum. Today's post is a transcript where Mark Traphagen and I interview him to learn the inner workings of Marathon's social media strategy, so we can all learn from his experience … [Read more...]
Why Should You Not Fear Linking Out? – Here’s Why with Mark & Eric
With Google’s crackdown on link spam, many sites have become fearful of linking to any external content. Too many people were succumbing to the temptation to try to game their link profiles to artificially appear more authoritative than they should be. So Google had to do something to clean that up. The unfortunate side effect of … [Read more...]
Why is a Quality User Experience an SEO Ranking Factor? – Here’s Why with Mark & Eric
Giving your site visitors a great user experience can actually result in valuable positive signals for search engines. Providing valuable and unique content to your visitors is key to preventing them from leaving, or bouncing from your site. In this episode of Here’s Why, Mark and Eric will explain what it takes to create a truly … [Read more...]