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What's Changed (and What Hasn't): The 2020 Moz Blog Reader Survey Results

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Posted by morgan.mcmurray You're tired of hearing it and I'm tired of saying it, but 2020 really has been a year like no other. SEOs and marketers around the world had to deal with their day-to-day work moving home, alongside a host of natural disasters, civil rights issues, and a pandemic that will alter our industry and global economy for years to come.  We could have held off on launching this year's reader survey, but we decided to move forward anyway because we know your work and your interests have been impacted, and we wanted to know how much.  I'm excited to share with you the results from that survey in this post. We'll go through what's changed — and what hasn't — for our readership since our last survey in 2017, and detail what those insights mean for the Moz Blog in 2021.  Methodology We published this survey in July 2020, with questions asking for details on the professional occupations of our readers, how those readers inte...

Google's December 2020 Core Update: By the Numbers

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Posted by Dr-Pete On December 3rd, Google announced that they were rolling out the latest Core Update . Initially, the bulk of the impact seemed to arrive on that date, with MozCast spiking at 112.4°F: We measured above-average ranking flux in the three days prior to the update announcement, and a few days after the announcement, but the bulk of the flux seemed to occur on the roll-out day. (The dotted line represents the 30-day average prior to December 3rd.) How did December 2020 compare to other Core Updates? While technically the third largest named core update, Google's December Core Update was very close in measured impact to the May 2020 Core Update and the August 2018 "Medic" Update. Winners and more winners Back in May, I came down pretty hard on winners and losers reports. I don't want to discourage all core update analyses, but our rush to publish can produce misleading results, especially with multi-day updates. In May, I settled on a 7-day update...

What You May Have Missed: Moz Resources to Prioritize Community Learning and Professional Development in 2020

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Posted by clschwartz It goes without saying that 2020 has been a wild ride. If you're like me, you've missed some exciting news or even taken some time away from all things digital when it felt like the world was just too much. At Moz, we created a lot of helpful content in 2020, publishing community resources, reports, and guides across topics like local SEO analytics, competitor analysis, keyword research, campaign management, and more. With all that coming your way, there’s bound to be some oversight. Here's a recap of what you might have missed in the chaos that has been 2020. The State of Local SEO Industry Report 2020 The State of Local SEO Industry Report 2020 provides a snapshot of local SEO — both before and during COVID-19 — helping you understand the trends, ideas, and biggest challenges shaping your work in the new decade. We found that 43% of respondents thought there weren't enough quality resources to train teams and clients. That insight led to some...

Maximize Return During Tough Times Through Testing

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Posted by timaj100 We are living in a fast-moving time with new technology, ever-evolving social and political landscapes, and a pandemic on top of that. Any predictions about what to expect in 2020 for marketers was no doubt lightyears off what we’re experiencing now . So what can we learn from this year as we move forward? You can bet things will continue to change and evolve in unpredictable ways. What worked last year might not work now. Heck, what worked last week might not work next week! How, then, can you be sure you’re getting the most out of your marketing efforts? Evolving and finding opportunities There are a few ways you can try to stay on top of things. No matter what, having a strategy for post-COVID is important. Learn from others For one, pay attention to those around you. Learn from your peers and competitors. Some may be sharing: read blogs, watch webinars, consume all you can in your space. But you can uncover even more by doing things like conducting a compe...

How Lead Generation Tactics Can Boost Your Link Building Results

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Posted by AnnSmarty How effective is your link building campaign? I bet your answer is “I wish it could be better.” Talking to business owners and executives on a daily basis, I have yet to meet one who would be satisfied with their link building strategy. Everyone needs links, yet they are getting harder and harder to get. The solution? Change your link building mindset. How link building is similar to lead generation In any business marketing strategy, we’re really interested in one thing: sales. Yet, if we keep focusing on that end goal, we won’t achieve much. A customer may need up to eight touchpoints before they finally make a purchase. If you only focus on that final sale, you’re missing out on all those extra steps that drive your customer to buy. It may sound obvious (so I’ll stop here) but the point I’m trying to make is: Marketers cannot focus on the final sale. We need something in between — a secondary metric that will bridge the gap between “a stranger” and a “...

3 Creative Ways to Give Your Content Efforts a Boost — Best of Whiteboard Friday

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Posted by randfish We know that content is our doorway to earning countless SEO benefits for our sites. Admittedly, though, it’s too easy to get stuck in a rut after one too many content marketing campaigns.  In this 2017 holiday edition of Whitebeard Friday (see what we did there?), Rand offers three novel ways to add sparkle to your content creation efforts. Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab! Video Transcription Howdy, Moz fans, and welcome to a special Christmas edition of Whitebeard Friday. This week, I wanted to try and help with just a few tactical suggestions on some creative ways to pump up those content marketing campaigns. I've seen that many, many folks in the SEO world, of course, naturally, are investing in content marketing because content is the path to links and amplification and search traffic. Sometimes those content campaigns can feel a little stale or repetitive. So I have some creative ideas, things t...

How To Do Local SEO for Businesses Without Physical Locations in 2021

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Posted by MiriamEllis “My business makes local deliveries, but doesn’t have a storefront. How do I handle listings management?” “I work from home. How should I be doing local SEO?” “Are there any tips for doing local SEO for clients like NerdWallet or Credit Karma that serve all customers virtually?” Queries like these about doing local SEO for businesses with nuanced, hidden, or no physical locations and with varied models of customer fulfillment are AMA FAQs and perennial topics on marketing fora. Attendees at the recent Moz Webinar on The ROI of Local SEO repeatedly asked about this subject. Business owners and marketers who haven’t serendipitously discovered Google’s various guidelines are left wondering how to promote non-brick-and-mortar brands. Even where there’s awareness that such guidance exists, Google is continually evolving its stance. It’s easy to make mistakes, overlook updates, and miss out on opportunities. The great news is, there are local marketing possibilit...