Posted by great scott!Test, test, test! That's the mantra these days. Conversion Rate Optimization is the buzzword on everybody's lips (and tweets). So why are we telling you NOT to test?  Well, we're not, we're just saying to be smart about it. People often get a testing platform ready to roll and then start obsessing over just how intricate they can get with multi-variate tests...it's a walk before you crawl scenario. Start with the big picture: A/B tests of major page layouts, even MVTs on major design changes. Those things can yield MAJOR uplifts in conversions and they're the things you need to focus on before you worry about what color font you use in your H1 tag and the 0.0001% lift you get from it. We're not saying small changes and new recipes from complex MVTs can't yield meaningful results, we're just saying to start with the big picture and work on the details later. Do you like this post? Yes No Continue Reading »

Posted by great scott!Sure, you use Twitter as a social media tool, but have you ever considered it as an SEO research tool? No? Well watch and learn this week to find out how you can harness it in a whole new way. Now that social signals (particularly Twitter) are becoming more important in the engines, they can help you pinpoint when a keyword is going to trip the 'Query Deserves Freshness' switch. If you can figure that out, you can gain a big competitive advantage by publishing fresh content in a targeted, timely manner. Rand mentions a couple of tools for using Twitter to target and time your content. One is Trendistic, which helps you see trends in Twitter; another is our very own Blogscape Social Media Monitoring prototype (inside PRO Labs), which monitors and analyzes a few million key content providers across the fresh web, including over 250,000 influential Twitter accounts.Do you like this post? Yes No Continue Reading »

Posted by great scott!This week, we've got a couple of newcomers to Whiteboard Studios! Our very own Jen Lopez and Danny Dover (whom you should know well thanks to Jen's Meet the Mozzers post) are pinch-hitting for our globe-trotting CEO. Let's all give them a big welcome. We did a PRO Site Review Webinar last week and noticed a few SEO issues that are all-too-common. So, in this week's Whiteboard Friday, Jen and Danny will walk you through five common areas where people often make mistakes, and explain quick fixes that can help you improve, including bot blocking, courting the Linkerati, identifying problems using Top Pages, analyzing conversion rate, and addressing canonicalization. Here are the charts Danny referenced in the video:                                                                                              Courtesy of WebsiteOptimization.com Also, if you'd like to learn more about tracking first-touch attribution in your analytics, Whiteboard Friday alumnus, Will Critchlow, wrote about it here. Addition: Rand wrote a more in-depth post about the use of robots.txt vs. meta noindex, follow here, which can help shed some light on the subject.Do you like this post? Yes No Continue Reading »

Posted by great scott!This week we take a look at how shifts in the engines over the last year have made it more important than ever to really pay attention to brand-based marketing. A year or so ago, the engines started giving more weight to established brands, but things have become more interesting: With enhanced attention to personalized search, click patterns, and brand preferences emerging through individual search history, having an identifiable brand is a huge asset.  Throw in the new aspect of social search--wherein the influences and preferences of your social network are used to influence inform your decisions, and creating an identifiable brand becomes even more powerful. Watch this week's video to learn even more about how branding can help you accomplish big things... Do you like this post? Yes No Continue Reading »

Posted by great scott!This week Rand discusses recent changes that seem to signal the coming of another big shift in how the engines determine results. With the incorporation of social networks into results, increased personalized search, and even Google Buzz, the social graph is clearly becoming a more and more important factor for the engines. What will these changes mean for online marketers and how can you take advantage of them? Watch this week's Whiteboard Friday and find out... And here, for your browsing pleasure, are some of the resources Rand mentioned in the video...

• Video intro to Google Buzz:

• Royal Pingdom says Twitter now processing more than one billion tweets per month.

• The New York Times analyzes the sharing of articles online.
• Mashable reports Facebook passes 400 million users.
• Search Engine Land looks at Google's social search features.

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Posted by great scott!Will Critchlow of Distilled (who recently took over SEOmoz's consulting business) is back in Whiteboard studios to help Rand discuss how to Choose an SEO consultant--or any consultant for that matter. Whether you're a consultant yourself, you frequently work with consultants, or you're thinking of outsourcing some work for the very first time, you'll find this week's video worthwhile.  Knowing beforehand how the engagement needs to be structured, what you expect to get, where to find good recommendations and/or sources of consultants, and how to determine whether they have the skills and expertise you require are all critical steps to a successful and relationship (and making sure you get what you paid for). Join Rand and Will as they help you figure out how to get the best results for your consulting dollar. Do you like this post? Yes No Continue Reading »

Posted by great scott!This week we're pleased to welcome Marshall Simmonds, CEO of Define Search Strategies and Chief Strategist for the New York Times, to Whiteboard Studios. Whether or not to use topic pages--and how to use them effectively--is a topic of some debate in the SEO world. Well, who better to ask about it than the guy in charge of SEO strategy for the NYT and About.com, two of the topic page-iest sites on the web? If you're using a topic page strategy, or you've considered it, watch this week's Whiteboard Friday. Marshall breaks down how and when they can be effective, pros and cons, as well as expenses and advantages to the strategy. Do you like this post? Yes No Continue Reading »

Posted by great scott!Last week we unveiled our newest toy, Open Site Explorer, to the world and the response was phenomenal. Now we want to take some time and really show everyone just what this powerful link analysis tool is capable of and answer your questions, so we're hosting not one, but two FREE Webinars this week (it's the same content, run twice to help accomodate schedules and time zones). The presentations will be 60 minutes each, 25 minutes of slides, followed by 35 minutes of Q+A on Wednesday, January 27th at 2:00PM (PST), and Thursday, January 28th at 10:00AM (PST)  In each live webinar, Rand will show you around Open Site Explorer, offer tips and strategies for getting the most out of it, explain our new Domain Authority & Page Authority metrics, and answer your questions. Register (FREE) for a Getting to Know Open Site Explorer Webinar Here's the catch: each webinar is limited to 1,000 attendees. The last time we announced a webinar on the blog, we had over 3,000 people try to register in the first hour, so if you want to attend one of the live sessions, register quickly. If you can't make it, we'll have a recording of the presentation available in a couple of days on our webinars page. Looooove Webinars and can't get enough of 'em? Then you should totally become a PRO Member! In the last couple of months we've started running regular webinars just for PRO Members and they've been really popular. A slide from our December PRO Webinar on Link Building Strategies A slide from our January PRO Webinar on SEO Strategies for 2010 In February we're stepping it up even more. In addition to our monthly educational webinar (February 4th on Analytics), we're adding a second monthly webinar where we'll be performing live site reviews of sites submitted by our PRO Members! PRO Members can head over to the PRO Webinars page for more info on February's webinars, as well as recordings and slide decks from past webinars. If you'd like to join us for the next PRO Webinar--and possibly even get a live site review--sign up for PRO to access the PRO Webinar page for registration details or just watch your inbox for an invite.Do you like this post? Yes No Continue Reading »

Posted by great scott!This week we've got a special Whiteboard Friday double feature! As you've probably heard, we launched our new link checker and backlink analysis tool, Open Site Explorer, this week and it makes use of some exciting new metrics: Domain Authority and Page Authority. We asked our old chum, Will Critchlow, to talk to Rand about these metrics to help everyone understand what they are, what goes into them, how to use them, and why we created them. In Part One, Will and Rand discuss how to use these metrics to gain insight and intelligence on your (and your competitors') pages, domains, and link profiles, as well as why these metrics can be a better predictor of ranking success than others that you may have used in the past. In Part Two, the guys dive into detail about what exactly goes into Domain Authority & Page Authority: how they were modeled, how they compare to actual search results, why your DA & PA scores may change over time, and lots of other details to help you better understand how these metrics work. Both videos are viewable below, simply select the one you'd like to watch from the playlist on the right of the player. I'd recommend watching them in order, but it's not necessary. These new metrics have already been quite popular among users of Open Site Explorer, and one of the big questions is, "When can I get them in the SEOmoz Firefox Toolbar?!"  Well, surprise, surprise, we're on top of it! They'll be available in the new toolbar update coming out next month...here's a sneak peek :)   New scores, new features and much more are on their way in the February version of the mozbar If you've got questions about Domain or Page Authority, please leave us feedback below. We're trying to make these metrics as useful and valuable as possible and would love your suggestions.Do you like this post? Yes No Continue Reading »

Posted by great scott!This week Will Critchlow is back to help Rand talk about best practices for keeping your clients (and yourself) happy during consulting contracts.  It's important to start early (setting expectations, contracting, agreeing on KPIs), maintain good communication, and follow through on deliverables. Happy clients mean more business, improved reputation, higher demand and more success for you.  Check out this Whiteboard Friday to get some ideas about where you might be able to improve your process and leave your clients so happy they'll sing your praises to everyone they know. PS - As mentioned in the video here are links to some of Sarah's great posts pertaining to SEO contracts:

• Does Your SEO Consulting Contract Have a Clause Limiting Your Liability?
• Manage Risk By Including an Indemnification Clause in Your SEO Consulting Contracts
• Why You Should Give Yourself the "Opportunity to Cure" in Your SEO Consulting Contracts
• Manage Client Expectations And Reduce Your Risk By Including A Warranty Disclaimer In Your Client Contracts

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