The Linkbait Bump: How Viral Content Creates Long-Term Lift in Organic Traffic - Whiteboard Friday

Posted by randfish

A single fantastic (or "10x") piece of content can lift a site's traffic curves long beyond the popularity of that one piece. In today's Whiteboard Friday, Rand talks about why those curves settle into a "new normal," and how you can go about creating the content that drives that change.

For reference, here's a still of this week's whiteboard. Click on it to open a high resolution image in a new tab!

Video Transcription

Howdy, Moz fans, and welcome to another edition of Whiteboard Friday. This week we're chatting about the linkbait bump, classic phrase in the SEO world and almost a little dated. I think today we're talking a little bit more about viral content and how high-quality content, content that really is the cornerstone of a brand or a website's content can be an incredible and powerful driver of traffic, not just when it initially launches but over time.

So let's take a look.

This is a classic linkbait bump, viral content bump analytics chart. I'm seeing over here my traffic and over here the different months of the year. You know, January, February, March, like I'm under a thousand. Maybe I'm at 500 visits or something, and then I have this big piece of viral content. It performs outstandingly well from a relative standpoint for my site. It gets 10,000 or more visits, drives a ton more people to my site, and then what happens is that that traffic falls back down. But the new normal down here, new normal is higher than the old normal was. So the new normal might be at 1,000, 1,500 or 2,000 visits whereas before I was at 500.

Why does this happen?

A lot of folks see an analytics chart like this, see examples of content that's done this for websites, and they want to know: Why does this happen and how can I replicate that effect? The reasons why are it sort of feeds back into that viral loop or the flywheel, which we've talked about in previous Whiteboard Fridays, where essentially you start with a piece of content. That content does well, and then you have things like more social followers on your brand's accounts. So now next time you go to amplify content or share content socially, you're reaching more potential people. You have a bigger audience. You have more people who share your content because they've seen that that content performs well for them in social. So they want to find other content from you that might help their social accounts perform well.

You see more RSS and email subscribers because people see your interesting content and go, "Hey, I want to see when these guys produce something else." You see more branded search traffic because people are looking specifically for content from you, not necessarily just around this viral piece, although that's often a big part of it, but around other pieces as well, especially if you do a good job of exposing them to that additional content. You get more bookmark and type in traffic, more searchers biased by personalization because they've already visited your site. So now when they search and they're logged into their accounts, they're going to see your site ranking higher than they normally would otherwise, and you get an organic SEO lift from all the links and shares and engagement.

So there's a ton of different factors that feed into this, and you kind of want to hit all of these things. If you have a piece of content that gets a lot of shares, a lot of links, but then doesn't promote engagement, doesn't get more people signing up, doesn't get more people searching for your brand or searching for that content specifically, then it's not going to have the same impact. Your traffic might fall further and more quickly.

How do you achieve this?

How do we get content that's going to do this? Well, we're going to talk through a number of things that we've talked about previously on Whiteboard Friday. But there are some additional ones as well. This isn't just creating good content or creating high quality content, it's creating a particular kind of content. So for this what you want is a deep understanding, not necessarily of what your standard users or standard customers are interested in, but a deep understanding of what influencers in your niche will share and promote and why they do that.

This often means that you follow a lot of sharers and influencers in your field, and you understand, hey, they're all sharing X piece of content. Why? Oh, because it does this, because it makes them look good, because it helps their authority in the field, because it provides a lot of value to their followers, because they know it's going to get a lot of retweets and shares and traffic. Whatever that because is, you have to have a deep understanding of it in order to have success with viral kinds of content.

Next, you want to have empathy for users and what will give them the best possible experience. So if you know, for example, that a lot of people are coming on mobile and are going to be sharing on mobile, which is true of almost all viral content today, FYI, you need to be providing a great mobile and desktop experience. Oftentimes that mobile experience has to be different, not just responsive design, but actually a different format, a different way of being able to scroll through or watch or see or experience that content.

There are some good examples out there of content that does that. It makes a very different user experience based on the browser or the device you're using.

You also need to be aware of what will turn them off. So promotional messages, pop-ups, trying to sell to them, oftentimes that diminishes user experience. It means that content that could have been more viral, that could have gotten more shares won't.

Unique value and attributes that separate your content from everything else in the field. So if there's like ABCD and whoa, what's that? That's very unique. That stands out from the crowd. That provides a different form of value in a different way than what everyone else is doing. That uniqueness is often a big reason why content spreads virally, why it gets more shared than just the normal stuff.

I've talk about this a number of times, but content that's 10X better than what the competition provides. So unique value from the competition, but also quality that is not just a step up, but 10X better, massively, massively better than what else you can get out there. That makes it unique enough. That makes it stand out from the crowd, and that's a very hard thing to do, but that's why this is so rare and so valuable.

This is a critical one, and I think one that, I'll just say, many organizations fail at. That is the freedom and support to fail many times, to try to create these types of effects, to have this impact many times before you hit on a success. A lot of managers and clients and teams and execs just don't give marketing teams and content teams the freedom to say, "Yeah, you know what? You spent a month and developer resources and designer resources and spent some money to go do some research and contracted with this third party, and it wasn't a hit. It didn't work. We didn't get the viral content bump. It just kind of did okay. You know what? We believe in you. You've got a lot of chances. You should try this another 9 or 10 times before we throw it out. We really want to have a success here."

That is something that very few teams invest in. The powerful thing is because so few people are willing to invest that way, the ones that do, the ones that believe in this, the ones that invest long term, the ones that are willing to take those failures are going to have a much better shot at success, and they can stand out from the crowd. They can get these bumps. It's powerful.

Not a requirement, but it really, really helps to have a strong engaged community, either on your site and around your brand, or at least in your niche and your topic area that will help, that wants to see you, your brand, your content succeed. If you're in a space that has no community, I would work on building one, even if it's very small. We're not talking about building a community of thousands or tens of thousands. A community of 100 people, a community of 50 people even can be powerful enough to help content get that catalyst, that first bump that'll boost it into viral potential.

Then finally, for this type of content, you need to have a logical and not overly promotional match between your brand and the content itself. You can see many sites in what I call sketchy niches. So like a criminal law site or a casino site or a pharmaceutical site that's offering like an interactive musical experience widget, and you're like, "Why in the world is this brand promoting this content? Why did they even make it? How does that match up with what they do? Oh, it's clearly just intentionally promotional."

Look, many of these brands go out there and they say, "Hey, the average web user doesn't know and doesn't care." I agree. But the average web user is not an influencer. Influencers know. Well, they're very, very suspicious of why content is being produced and promoted, and they're very skeptical of promoting content that they don't think is altruistic. So this kills a lot of content for brands that try and invest in it when there's no match. So I think you really need that.

Now, when you do these linkbait bump kinds of things, I would strongly recommend that you follow up, that you consider the quality of the content that you're producing. Thereafter, that you invest in reproducing these resources, keeping those resources updated, and that you don't simply give up on content production after this. However, if you're a small business site, a small or medium business, you might think about only doing one or two of these a year. If you are a heavy content player, you're doing a lot of content marketing, content marketing is how you're investing in web traffic, I'd probably be considering these weekly or monthly at the least.

All right, everyone. Look forward to your experiences with the linkbait bump, and I will see you again next week for another edition of Whiteboard Friday. Take care.

Video transcription by Speechpad.com

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​​Measure Your Mobile Rankings and Search Visibility in Moz Analytics

Posted by jon.white

We have launched a couple of new things in Moz Pro that we are excited to share with you all: Mobile Rankings and a Search Visibility score. If you want, you can jump right in by heading to a campaign and adding a mobile engine, or keep reading for more details!

Track your mobile vs. desktop rankings in Moz Analytics

Mobilegeddon came and went with slightly less fanfare than expected, somewhat due to the vast 'Mobile Friendly' updates we all did at super short notice (nice work everyone!). Nevertheless, mobile rankings visibility is now firmly on everyone's radar, and will only become more important over time.

Now you can track your campaigns' mobile rankings for all of the same keywords and locations you are tracking on desktop.

For this campaign my mobile visibility is almost 20% lower than my desktop visibility and falling;
I can drill down to find out why

Clicking on this will take you into a new Engines tab within your Keyword Rankings page where you can find a more detailed version of this chart as well as a tabular view by keyword for both desktop and mobile. Here you can also filter by label and location.

Here I can see Search Visibility across engines including mobile;
in this case, for my branded keywords.

We have given an extra engine to all campaigns

We've given customers an extra engine for each campaign, increasing the number from 3 to 4. Use the extra slot to add the mobile engine and unlock your mobile data!

We will begin to track mobile rankings within 24 hours of adding to a campaign. Once you are set up, you will notice a new chart on your dashboard showing visibility for Desktop vs. Mobile Search Visibility.

Measure your Search Visibility score vs. competitors

The overall Search Visibility for my campaign

Along with this change we have also added a Search Visibility score to your rankings data. Use your visibility score to track and report on your overall campaign ranking performance, compare to your competitors, and look for any large shifts that might indicate penalties or algorithm changes. For a deeper drill-down into your data you can also segment your visibility score by keyword labels or locations. Visit the rankings summary page on any campaign to get started.

How is Search Visibility calculated?

Good question!

The Search Visibility score is the percentage of clicks we estimate you receive based on your rankings positions, across all of your keywords.

We take each ranking position for each keyword, multiply by an estimated click-thru-rate, and then take the average of all of your keywords. You can think of it as the percentage of your SERPs that you own. The score is expressed as a percentage, though scores of 100% would be almost impossible unless you are tracking keywords using the "site:" modifier. It is probably more useful to measure yourself vs. your competitors rather than focus on the actual score, but, as a rule of thumb, mid-40s is probably the realistic maximum for non-branded keywords.

Jeremy, our Moz Analytics TPM, came up with this metaphor:

Think of the SERPs for your keywords as villages. Each position on the SERP is a plot of land in SERP-village. The Search Visibility score is the average amount of plots you own in each SERP-village. Prime real estate plots (i.e., better ranking positions, like #1) are worth more. A complete monopoly of real estate in SERP-village would equate to a score of 100%. The Search Visibility score equates to how much total land you own in all SERP-villages.

Some neat ways to use this feature

• Label and group your keywords, particularly when you add them – As visibility score is an average of all of your keywords, when you add or remove keywords from your campaign you will likely see fluctuations in the score that are unrelated to performance. Solve this by getting in the habit of labeling keywords when you add them. Then segment your data by these labels to track performance of specific keyword groups over time.

• See how location affects your mobile rankings – Using the Engines tab in Keyword Rankings, use the filters to select just local keywords. Look for big differences between Mobile and Desktop where Google might be assuming local intent for mobile searches but not for desktop. Check out how your competitors perform for these keywords. Can you use this data?

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From Editorial Calendars to SEO: Setting Yourself Up to Create Fabulous Content

Posted by Isla_McKetta

Quick note: This article is meant to apply to teams of all sizes, from the sole proprietor who spends all night writing their copy (because they're doing business during the day) to the copy team who occupies an entire floor and produces thousands of pieces of content per week. So if you run into a section that you feel requires more resources than you can devote just now, that's okay. Bookmark it and revisit when you can, or scale the step down to a more appropriate size for your team. We believe all the information here is important, but that does not mean you have to do everything right now.

If you thought ideation was fun, get ready for content creation. Sure, we've all written some things before, but the creation phase of content marketing is where you get to watch that beloved idea start to take shape.

Before you start creating, though, you want to get (at least a little) organized, and an editorial calendar is the perfect first step.

Editorial calendars

Creativity and organization are not mutually exclusive. In fact, they can feed each other. A solid schedule gives you and your writers the time and space to be wild and creative. If you're just starting out, this document may be sparse, but it's no less important. Starting early with your editorial calendar also saves you from creating content willy-nilly and then finding out months later that no one ever finished that pesky (but crucial) "About" page.

There's no wrong way to set up your editorial calendar, as long as it's meeting your needs. Remember that an editorial calendar is a living document, and it will need to change as a hot topic comes up or an author drops out.

There are a lot of different types of documents that pass for editorial calendars. You get to pick the one that's right for your team. The simplest version is a straight-up calendar with post titles written out on each day. You could even use a wall calendar and a Sharpie.

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Title	The Five Colors of Oscar Fashion	12 Fabrics We're Watching for Fall	Is Charmeuse the New Corduroy?	Hot Right Now: Matching Your Handbag to Your Hatpin	Tea-length and Other Fab Vocab You Need to Know
Author	Ellie	James	Marta	Laila	Alex

Teams who are balancing content for different brands at agencies or other more complex content environments will want to add categories, author information, content type, social promo, and more to their calendars.

Truly complex editorial calendars are more like hybrid content creation/editorial calendars, where each of the steps to create and publish the content are indicated and someone has planned for how long all of that takes. These can be very helpful if the content you're responsible for crosses a lot of teams and can take a long time to complete. It doesn't matter if you're using Excel or a Google Doc, as long as the people who need the calendar can easily access it. Gantt charts can be excellent for this. Here's a favorite template for creating a Gantt chart in Google Docs (and they only get more sophisticated).

Complex calendars can encompass everything from ideation through writing, legal review, and publishing. You might even add content localization if your empire spans more than one continent to make sure you have the currency, date formatting, and even slang right.

Content governance

Governance outlines who is taking responsibility for your content. Who evaluates your content performance? What about freshness? Who decides to update (or kill) an older post? Who designs and optimizes workflows for your team or chooses and manages your CMS?

All these individual concerns fall into two overarching components to governance: daily maintenance and overall strategy. In the long run it helps if one person has oversight of the whole process, but the smaller steps can easily be split among many team members. Read this to take your governance to the next level.

Finding authors

The scale of your writing enterprise doesn't have to be limited to the number of authors you have on your team. It's also important to consider the possibility of working with freelancers and guest authors. Here's a look at the pros and cons of outsourced versus in-house talent.

	In-house authors	Guest authors and freelancers
Responsible to	You	Themselves
Paid by	You (as part of their salary)	You (on a per-piece basis)
Subject matter expertise	Broad but shallow	Deep but narrow
Capacity for extra work	As you wish	Show me the Benjamins
Turnaround time	On a dime	Varies
Communication investment	Less	More
Devoted audience	Smaller	Potentially huge

From that table, it might look like in-house authors have a lot more advantages. That's somewhat true, but do not underestimate the value of occasionally working with a true industry expert who has name recognition and a huge following. Whichever route you take (and there are plenty of hybrid options), it's always okay to ask that the writers you are working with be professional about communication, payment, and deadlines. In some industries, guest writers will write for links. Consider yourself lucky if that's true. Remember, though, that the final paycheck can be great leverage for getting a writer to do exactly what you need them to (such as making their deadlines).

Tools to help with content creation

So those are some things you need to have in place before you create content. Now's the fun part: getting started. One of the beautiful things about the Internet is that new and exciting tools crop up every day to help make our jobs easier and more efficient. Here are a few of our favorites.

Calendars

You can always use Excel or a Google Doc to set up your editorial calendar, but we really like Trello for the ability to gather a lot of information in one card and then drag and drop it into place. Once there are actual dates attached to your content, you might be happier with something like a Google Calendar.

Ideation and research

If you need a quick fix for ideation, turn your keywords into wacky ideas with Portent's Title Maker. You probably won't want to write to the exact title you're given (although "True Facts about Justin Bieber's Love of Pickles" does sound pretty fascinating…), but it's a good way to get loose and look at your topic from a new angle.

Once you've got that idea solidified, find out what your audience thinks about it by gathering information with Survey Monkey or your favorite survey tool. Or, use Storify to listen to what people are saying about your topic across a wide variety of platforms. You can also use Storify to save those references and turn them into a piece of content or an illustration for one. Don't forget that a simple social ask can also do wonders.

Format

Content doesn't have to be all about the words. Screencasts, Google+ Hangouts, and presentations are all interesting ways to approach content. Remember that not everyone's a reader. Some of your audience will be more interested in visual or interactive content. Make something for everyone.

Illustration

Don't forget to make your content pretty. It's not that hard to find free stock images online (just make sure you aren't violating someone's copyright). We like Morgue File, Free Images, and Flickr's Creative Commons. If you aren't into stock images and don't have access to in-house graphic design, it's still relatively easy to add images to your content. Pull a screenshot with Skitch or dress up an existing image with Pixlr. You can also use something like Canva to create custom graphics.

Don't stop with static graphics, though. There are so many tools out there to help you create gifs, quizzes and polls, maps, and even interactive timelines. Dream it, then search for it. Chances are whatever you're thinking of is doable.

Quality, not quantity

Mediocre content will hurt your cause

Less is more. That's not an excuse to pare your blog down to one post per month (check out our publishing cadence experiment), but it is an important reminder that if you're writing "How to Properly Install a Toilet Seat" two days after publishing "Toilet Seat Installation for Dummies," you might want to rethink your strategy.

The thing is, and I'm going to use another cliché here to drive home the point, you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Potential customers are roving the Internet right now looking for exactly what you're selling. And if what they find is an only somewhat informative article stuffed with keywords and awful spelling and grammar mistakes… well, you don't want that. Oh, and search engines think it's spammy too...

A word about copyright

We're not copyright lawyers, so we can't give you the ins and outs on all the technicalities. What we can tell you (and you already know this) is that it's not okay to steal someone else's work. You wouldn't want them to do it to you. This includes images. So whenever you can, make your own images or find images that you can either purchase the rights to (stock imagery) or license under Creative Commons.

It's usually okay to quote short portions of text, as long as you attribute the original source (and a link is nice). In general, titles and ideas can't be copyrighted (though they might be trademarked or patented). When in doubt, asking for permission is smart.

That said, part of the fun of the Internet is the remixing culture which includes using things like memes and gifs. Just know that if you go that route, there is a certain amount of risk involved.

Editing

Your content needs to go through at least one editing cycle by someone other than the original author. There are two types of editing, developmental (which looks at the underlying structure of a piece that happens earlier in the writing cycle) and copy editing (which makes sure all the words are there and spelled right in the final draft).

If you have a very small team or are in a rush (and are working with writers that have some skill), you can often skip the developmental editing phase. But know that an investment in that close read of an early draft is often beneficial to the piece and to the writer's overall growth.

Many content teams peer-edit work, which can be great. Other organizations prefer to run their work by a dedicated editor. There's no wrong answer, as long as the work gets edited.

Ensuring proper basic SEO

The good news is that search engines are doing their best to get closer and closer to understanding and processing natural language. So good writing (including the natural use of synonyms rather than repeating those keywords over and over and...) will take you a long way towards SEO mastery.

For that reason (and because it's easy to get trapped in keyword thinking and veer into keyword stuffing), it's often nice to think of your SEO check as a further edit of the post rather than something you should think about as you're writing.

But there are still a few things you can do to help cover those SEO bets. Once you have that draft, do a pass for SEO to make sure you've covered the following:

• Use your keyword in your title
• Use your keyword (or long-tail keyword phrase) in an H2
• Make sure the keyword appears at least once (though not more than four times, especially if it's a phrase) in the body of the post
• Use image alt text (including the keyword when appropriate)

Finding time to write when you don't have any

Writing (assuming you're the one doing the writing) can require a lot of energy—especially if you want to do it well. The best way to find time to write is to break each project down into little tasks. For example, writing a blog post actually breaks down into these steps (though not always in this order):

• Research
• Outline
• Fill in outline
• Rewrite and finish post
• Write headline
• SEO check
• Final edit
• Select hero image (optional)

So if you only have random chunks of time, set aside 15-30 minutes one day (when your research is complete) to write a really great outline. Then find an hour the next to fill that outline in. After an additional hour the following day, (unless you're dealing with a research-heavy post) you should have a solid draft by the end of day three.

The magic of working this way is that you engage your brain and then give it time to work in the background while you accomplish other tasks. Hemingway used to stop mid-sentence at the end of his writing days for the same reason.

Once you have that draft nailed, the rest of the steps are relatively easy (even the headline, which often takes longer to write than any other sentence, is easier after you've immersed yourself in the post over a few days).

Working with design/development

Every designer and developer is a little different, so we can't give you any blanket cure-alls for inter-departmental workarounds (aka "smashing silos"). But here are some suggestions to help you convey your vision while capitalizing on the expertise of your coworkers to make your content truly excellent.

Ask for feedback

From the initial brainstorm to general questions about how to work together, asking your team members what they think and prefer can go a long way. Communicate all the details you have (especially the unspoken expectations) and then listen.

If your designer tells you up front that your color scheme is years out of date, you're saving time. And if your developer tells you that the interactive version of that timeline will require four times the resources, you have the info you need to fight for more budget (or reassess the project).

Check in

Things change in the design and development process. If you have interim check-ins already set up with everyone who's working on the project, you'll avoid the potential for nasty surprises at the end. Like finding out that no one has experience working with that hot new coding language you just read about and they're trying to do a workaround that isn't working.

Proofread

Your job isn't done when you hand over the copy to your designer or developer. Not only might they need help rewriting some of your text so that it fits in certain areas, they will also need you to proofread the final version. Accidents happen in the copy-and-paste process and there's nothing sadder than a really beautiful (and expensive) piece of content that wraps up with a typo:

Know when to fight for an idea

Conflict isn't fun, but sometimes it's necessary. The more people involved in your content, the more watered down the original idea can get and the more roadblocks and conflicting ideas you'll run into. Some of that is very useful. But sometimes you'll get pulled off track. Always remember who owns the final product (this may not be you) and be ready to stand up for the idea if it's starting to get off track.

We're confident this list will set you on the right path to creating some really awesome content, but is there more you'd like to know? Ask us your questions in the comments.

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Anuncios dinámicos de búsqueda más potentes y pensados para tu negocio

Ya sea “hoteles próximos” o bien “hoteles cerca de mí,” a menudo los usuarios hacen búsquedas distintas para buscar una misma cosa. Así pues, llegar a los clientes en el momento oportuno a veces puede resultar difícil. De hecho, de los miles de millones de búsquedas que se hacen a diario en Google, el 15% no se han hecho nunca antes.1 Si a esto le añadimos los cambios constantes en los inventarios de productos y los contenidos que quedan ocultos dentro de los sitios web, a menudo sucede que los usuarios no encuentran lo que están buscando. Por esto, hace tres años creamos los anuncios dinámicos de búsqueda (DSA, por sus siglas en inglés).

Hoy nos complace anunciar que los DSA se han mejorado y remodelado totalmente, y que ahora están disponibles para los anunciantes de todo el mundo.

¿Qué son los anuncios dinámicos de búsqueda?

Los DSA te ayudan a llegar a tus clientes con la información correcta en el momento en que la estén buscando, sin necesidad de gestionar palabras clave. Utilizando la tecnología orgánica de rastreo web de Google, DSA indexa tu sitio web para determinar en qué búsquedas deben mostrarse tus anuncios. Si una búsqueda es relevante para el contenido de tu sitio web, Google creará y mostrará un anuncio automáticamente. Los titulares y las páginas de destino de los anuncios se generan basándose en los productos y los servicios que se ofrecen en tu sitio web y según lo que el usuario esté buscando. Estos anuncios altamente segmentados complementan también otras campañas de AdWords, ya que proporcionan resultados en búsquedas relevantes que no se cubren suficientemente con las palabras clave existentes.

Mostrar anuncios basados en tu sitio web

Ahora dispones de una tecnología aún más potente para llegar a tus clientes. Además de rastrear e indexar tu sitio web, DSA organiza el contenido del mismo en una serie de categorías recomendadas para segmentar los anuncios. Las categorías recomendadas se personalizan según sus productos y servicios, por ejemplo, “Muebles”, y sólo se publican anuncios si se producen búsquedas para las que tengas una página de destino relevante. A su vez, cada categoría se puede dividir en categorías adicionales más específicas.

Categorías recomendadas para DSA

Por ejemplo, se puede profundizar en la categoría recomendada “muebles” y anunciar solo “muebles de comedor” o “muebles de salón”. Selecciona las categorías que desees o selecciona la opción de mostrar anuncios basados en todo tu sitio web.

Vista previa de los anuncios y recomendaciones ilustrativas

Una vez que tengas las categorías seleccionadas, hemos añadido nuevas herramientas para mostrar de forma más transparente cómo se verán los anuncios. Para cada categoría recomendada, verás ejemplos de las consultas de búsqueda a las que se orientará, los anuncios de texto que aparecerán y las páginas a las que se dirigirá a los clientes. Para ayudarte a empezar con la campaña, se sugiere también un coste por clic, calculado para cada una de las categorías recomendadas. Estas sugerencias se basan en el rendimiento de las palabras clave que ya tengas y que estén orientadas a búsquedas similares.

Muchos clientes han notado efectos positivos con estas mejoras en los anuncios dinámicos de búsqueda.

Hayneedle.com, uno de los comercios en línea más importantes de EE. UU., colaboró durante la fase de prueba de los DSA. Utilizaron las nuevas categorías recomendadas y consiguieron un aumento del 5% en el tráfico de búsquedas cualificadas de su sitio web.

En Vueling Airlines, observaron una disminución en el CPA de un 20% y un aumento en los clics de un 10% tras utilizar las nuevas categorías recomendadas. Estas categorías les permitieron hacer ofertas de forma más eficiente, lo que resultó en una mejora del rendimiento de la campaña.

Herramientas sencillas que permiten una gran cobertura

Los DSA son ahora más potentes que nunca. Además, apenas tardarás 10 minutos en configurar tu primera campaña. Para crearla, dispones de un flujo de trabajo mejorado que te permite asegurarte intuitivamente de que las plantillas de anuncio sigan siendo relevantes para tus segmentaciones de anuncios dinámicos.

Puedes obtener más información sobre los anuncios dinámicos de búsqueda en nuestro Centro de ayuda.

Publicado por Jen Huang, Senior Product Manager, AdWords

1 Datos internos de Google

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Mejoras en el feed de datos de Google Merchant Center para actualizar y validar los datos de productos de forma mucho más sencilla

El feed de datos es una herramienta fundamental para promocionar tus productos en Google, ya que
te permite llamar la atención de los compradores en Google al hacerles saber que tienes exactamente
lo que andan buscando. Para que puedas actualizar tus anuncios sin contratiempos y publicarlos en
un abrir y cerrar de ojos para que los vean nuevos clientes, hemos implementado dos mejoras en
Google Merchant Center:

• Feeds de inventario de productos online: se trata de un nuevo tipo de feed con el que podrás actualizar al momento el precio, la disponibilidad y el precio de oferta de los productos clave.
  Te puede resultar muy útil si cambias estos atributos a menudo.
• Complemento de Hojas de cálculo de Google: una extensión que vincula la hoja de cálculo directamente con Merchant Center para que subir los datos se convierta en una tarea la mar de rápida y sencilla. Es especialmente útil para publicar anuncios de Shopping al momento.

Independientemente de si utilizas Hojas de cálculo de Google o archivos de texto para subir los productos, con estas nuevas mejoras actualizarás rápidamente y sin contratiempos la información de tus productos en Google Shopping y así encontrarás muchos más clientes online.

Actualiza los atributos más importantes en un abrir y cerrar de ojos con los feeds de inventario de productos online

Si cambias a menudo el precio, la disponibilidad o el precio de oferta de algunos o todos tus productos, con los feeds de inventario de productos online podrás actualizar en muy poco tiempo estos atributos sin necesidad de volver a enviar todo el feed de productos:

• A partir de ahora, el feed se procesará mucho más rápido (¡así ahorrarás tiempo!). Envía la nueva información sobre el precio y la disponibilidad de los productos a lo largo del día para actualizar estos atributos en concreto. Puedes ir enviando las actualizaciones solo para un subconjunto pequeño de tus productos para que así se procesen mucho más rápido. Si se produce algún error en el feed de inventario online durante el procesamiento, el feed de productos completo no se verá afectado.
• Los compradores verán en todo momento la información más precisa de tus productos.
  Si cambiaran de repente el precio y la disponibilidad de alguno de tus productos, podrás actualizar estos atributos sobre la marcha y, así, la información que aparezca en Google Shopping estará siempre al día.

Para obtener más información sobre cómo empezar a trabajar con los feeds de inventario online, consulta este artículo del Centro de ayuda.

Valida y sube un feed desde Hojas de cálculo de Google con el complemento de esta aplicación

¿Tienes un comercio con un inventario de pequeño tamaño? Si es así, Hojas de cálculo de Google es la herramienta más rápida y sencilla con la que empezar tu aventura con los anuncios de Shopping. Si utilizas Hojas de cálculo de Google para subir el inventario a Google Merchant Center, quizá te interese saber que hemos creado uncomplemento de esta herramienta para que sea aún más fácil crear, subir y validar feeds:

• Valida los productos directamente desde Hojas de cálculo. La barra lateral del complemento te permite validar filas individuales o toda la hoja de cálculo. Antes de subir el feed de datos, podrás ver los mensajes con los posibles errores y advertencias.
• Sube los datos de los productos directamente desde Hojas de cálculo. Desde la barra lateral, podrás subir toda la hoja de cálculo a Merchant Center sin salir de Hojas de cálculo.
  El resultado de la subida aparecerá automáticamente en dicha barra para que sepas de inmediato si se ha producido algún error.

Para obtener más información sobre cómo empezar a utilizar el complemento de Hojas de cálculo de Google, lee este artículo del Centro de Ayuda.

No pierdas tiempo: aprovecha hoy mismo estas dos nuevas mejoras, publica tus anuncios en Google Shopping y haz del mundo tu escaparate personal.

Publicado por Sven Herschel, jefe de producto de Google Merchant Center

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​The 2015 Online Marketing Industry Survey

Posted by Dr-Pete

It's been another wild year in search marketing. Mobilegeddon crushed our Twitter streams, but not our dreams, and Matt Cutts stepped out of the spotlight to make way for an uncertain Google future. Pandas and Penguins continue to torment us, but most days, like anyone else, we were just trying to get the job done and earn a living.

This year, over 3,600 brave souls, each one more intelligent and good-looking than the last, completed our survey. While the last survey was technically "2014", we collected data for it in late 2013, so the 2015 survey reflects about 18 months of industry changes.

A few highlights

Let's dig in. Almost half (49%) of our 2015 respondents involved in search marketing were in-house marketers. In-house teams still tend to be small – 71% of our in-house marketers reported only 1-3 people in their company being involved in search marketing at least quarter-time. These teams do have substantial influence, though, with 86% reporting that they were involved in purchasing decisions.

Agency search marketers reported larger teams and more diverse responsibilities. More than one-third (36%) of agency marketers in our survey reported working with more than 20 clients in the previous year. Agencies covered a wide range of services, with the top 5 being:

More than four-fifths (81%) of agency respondents reported providing both SEO and SEM services for clients. Please note that respondents could select more than one service/tool/etc., so the charts in this post will not add up to 100%.

The vast majority of respondents (85%) reported being directly involved with content marketing, which was on par with 2014. Nearly two-thirds (66%) of agency content marketers reported "Content for SEO purposes" as their top activity, although "Building Content Strategy" came in a solid second at 44% of respondents.

Top tools

Where do we get such wonderful toys? We marketers love our tools, so let's take a look at the Top 10 tools across a range of categories. Please note that this survey was conducted here on Moz, and our audience certainly has a pro-Moz slant.

Up first, here are the Top 10 SEO tools in our survey:

Just like last time, Google Webmaster Tools (now "Search Console") leads the way. Moz Pro and Majestic slipped a little bit, and Firebug fell out of the Top 10. The core players remained fairly stable.

Here are the Top 10 Content tools in our survey:

Even with its uncertain future, Google Alerts continues to be widely used. There are a lot of newcomers to the content tools world, so year-over-year comparisons are tricky. Expect even more players in this market in the coming year.

Following are our respondents' Top 10 analytics tools:

For an industry that complains about Google so much, we sure do seem to love their stuff. Google Analytics dominates, crushing the enterprise players, at least in the mid-market. KISSmetrics gained solid ground (from the #10 spot last time), while home-brewed tools slipped a bit. CrazyEgg and WordPress Stats remain very popular since our last survey.

Finally, here are the Top 10 social tools used by our respondents:

Facebook Insights and Hootsuite retained the top spots from last year, but newcomer Twitter Analytics rocketed into the #3 position. LinkedIn Insights emerged as a strong contender, too. Overall usage of all social tools increased. Tweetdeck held the #6 spot in 2014, with 19% usage, but dropped to #10 this year, even bumping up slightly to 20%.

Of course, digging into social tools naturally begs the question of which social networks are at the top of our lists.

The Top 6 are unchanged since our last survey, and it's clear that the barriers to entry to compete with the big social networks are only getting higher. Instagram doubled its usage (from 11% of respondents last time), but this still wasn't enough to overtake Pinterest. Reddit and Quora saw steady growth, and StumbleUpon slipped out of the Top 10.

Top activities

So, what exactly do we do with these tools and all of our time? Across all online marketers in our survey, the Top 5 activities were:

For in-house marketers, "Site Audits" dropped to the #6 position and "Brand Strategy" jumped up to the #3 spot. Naturally, in-house marketers have more resources to focus on strategy.

For agencies and consultants, "Site Audits" bumped up to #2, and "Managing People" pushed down social media to take the #5 position. Larger agency teams require more traditional people wrangling.

Here's a much more detailed breakdown of how we spend our time in 2015:

In terms of overall demand for services, the Top 5 winners (calculated by % reporting increase - % reporting decrease were):

Demand for CRO is growing at a steady clip, but analytics still leads the way. Both "Content Creation" (#2) and "Content Curation" (#6) showed solid demand increases.

Some categories reported both gains and losses – 30% of respondents reported increased demand for "Link Building", while 20% reported decreased demand. Similarly, 20% reported increased demand for "Link Removal", while almost as many (17%) reported decreased demand. This may be a result of overall demand shifts, or it may represent more specialization by agencies and consultants.

What's in store for 2016?

It's clear that our job as online marketers is becoming more diverse, more challenging, and more strategic. We have to have a command of a wide array of tools and tactics, and that's not going to slow down any time soon. On the bright side, companies are more aware of what we do, and they're more willing to spend the money to have it done. Our evolution has barely begun as an industry, and you can expect more changes and growth in the coming year.

Raw data download

If you'd like to take a look through the raw results from this year's survey (we've removed identifying information like email addresses from all responses), we've got that for you here:

Download the raw results

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

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#NoHacked: Cómo evitar ser el objetivo de los piratas informáticos

La seguridad debería ser una de tus principales prioridades al publicar algo en Internet. La piratería puede afectar negativamente a tu reputación online; asimismo, puede conllevar la pérdida de información privada y crucial. El año pasado, Google detectó un incremento del 180% de sitios web pirateados. Aunque trabajamos de forma constante para revertir este aumento de la piratería, por tu parte también puedes llevar a cabo algunas acciones que te permitirán proteger tu contenido en Internet.



Durante el mes de julio, seguiremos con nuestra campaña #nohacked. Este mes nos centraremos en cómo proteger tu sitio web y te proporcionaremos más información sobre el funcionamiento de algunas campañas de piratería. Puedes seguir la campaña #nohacked en Twitter y en Google+. Además, terminaremos con un Google Hangout dedicado a la seguridad, que te permitirá resolver tus dudas con nuestros expertos en esta materia.

Empezaremos la campaña con algunos trucos básicos para mantener la seguridad de tu sitio en Internet.

Refuerza la seguridad de tu cuenta

Para proteger tu sitio web es fundamental crear una contraseña que sea difícil de adivinar o descifrar. Por ejemplo, tu contraseña podría ser una frase o una combinación de letras, números y símbolos. La longitud de la contraseña es importante. Cuanto más larga sea, más difícil será descifrarla. Existen muchos recursos en Internet que permiten comprobar la dificultad de tu contraseña. Probar una contraseña parecida a la tuya (no introduzcas nunca la tuya en otros sitios) puede darte una idea de lo segura que es.

También es importante no usar la misma contraseña para distintos servicios en la medida de lo posible. A menudo, los atacantes intentan usar las combinaciones de nombre de usuario y contraseña que consiguen mediante listas de contraseñas filtradas o servicios pirateados para poner en peligro todas las cuentas posibles.

Deberías activar también la autenticación de dos factores en aquellas cuentas en las que se ofrezca este servicio. Esto aumentará notablemente la seguridad de tu cuenta y te protegerá de diferentes ataques. Hablaremos más sobre las ventajas de la autenticación de dos factores en dos semanas.

Actualiza el software de tu sitio web

Una de las maneras más comunes de que un hacker pueda poner en peligro tu sitio web es mediante algún software poco seguro del sitio. Asegúrate de revisar regularmente que no haya software obsoleto en tu sitio web, y sobre todo realiza actualizaciones que corrijan los posibles problemas de seguridad. Si usas un servidor web como Apache, nginx o un software de servidor web comercial, aplícales los parches que correspondan. Si usas un sistema de gestión de contenido (CMS) o complementos en tu sitio web, mantén estas herramientas actualizadas con las últimas versiones. También puedes suscribirte a las listas de anuncios de seguridad de tu software de servidor web y CMS, en caso de que uses uno. Considera eliminar por completo cualquier complemento o software que no necesites en tu sitio web; aparte de crear posibles riesgos, también pueden ralentizar el rendimiento del sitio.

Averigua cómo trata los problemas de seguridad tu proveedor de alojamiento

La política sobre seguridad y limpieza de sitios comprometidos es un factor importante que tener en cuenta a la hora de escoger un proveedor de alojamiento. Si usas un proveedor de alojamiento, ponte en contacto con el mismo para ver si ofrece un servicio de asistencia a petición para limpiar o solucionar los problemas de los sitios pirateados. También puedes leer reseñas en Internet para ver si existe un historial de usuarios a quienes hayan ayudado a limpiar el contenido comprometido de sus sitios.

Si administras tu propio servidor o usas un servidor virtual privado (VPS), asegúrate de que estés preparado para tratar los problemas de seguridad que puedan surgir. Administrar un servidor es muy complejo y una de las tareas principales del administrador de este es asegurarse de que se hayan aplicado los parches correspondientes al software de gestión de contenido y del servidor web para que estén actualizados. Si no tienes un motivo convincente para administrar tu propio servidor, vale la pena que averigües si tu proveedor de alojamiento ofrece servicios de gestión.

Utiliza las herramientas de Google para mantenerte informado del contenido comprometido que pueda haber en tu sitio

Es importante que uses herramientas que te ayuden a controlar tu sitio de manera proactiva. Cuanto antes localices un peligro, antes podrás arreglar el sitio.

Te recomendamos que te registres en Search Console si aún no lo has hecho. Search Console es la manera que tiene Google de informarte acerca de problemas en tu sitio; por ejemplo, si detectamos contenido comprometido. También puedes definir Alertas de Google en tu sitio web para que se te avise en caso de que haya resultados sospechosos para tu sitio. Por ejemplo, si tienes un sitio web que vende accesorios para mascotas con el nombre www.example.com, puedes definir la alerta [site:example.com software barato] para que te avise si de repente empieza a aparecer contenido comprometido acerca de software barato en tu sitio web. Puedes definir varias alertas en tu sitio web para distintos términos que hagan referencia a contenido fraudulento. Si no sabes qué términos usar, busca términos relacionados con contenido fraudulento comunes en Google.

Esperamos que estos trucos sirvan para que tu sitio esté seguro en Internet. Sigue nuestras campañas en las redes sociales y comparte tus trucos y consejos sobre seguridad en Internet con el hashtag #nohacked.

Si tienes más dudas, puedes preguntar en los Foros de ayuda para webmasters, donde encontrarás una comunidad de webmasters que pueden ofrecerte consejo. 

Escrito por: Eric Kuan, Webmaster Relations Specialist und Yuan Niu, Webspam Analyst Publicado por Javier Pérez equipo de calidad de búsqueda.

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How to Learn SEO: Choose Your Own Adventure Edition

Posted by Isla_McKetta

"How can I learn SEO?" is a deceptively simple question. The standard approach is to attempt to appeal to anyone who's interested in SEO without any idea of your previous experience or the actual reasons you want to learn SEO. That's fun. Especially the part about weeding through tons of information that might not even apply to what you want to learn.

So let's fix that. This guide is written to help you choose your own SEO adventure. If you know very little about SEO and just want to learn enough to impress your CMO, start at the beginning and stop when you feel like you understand enough concepts. Or if you've been doing SEO for years but need a brush up on the latest tips and tricks before impressing a potential client or employer, there's a path for you too. Be sure to follow the links. They refer you to resources that are much more in-depth than we could reproduce in one post.

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First choose your character

SEO Newbie

You may know what a title tag is, but you aren't quite sure how to use it or why. The SEO Newbie could be a web developing hobbyist on the verge of a new obsession or someone looking for the next growing career path. Regardless, you have the most to learn (and the most to gain) from this adventure.

Start at the very beginning with What is SEO? and explore as many paths as you can. You might be surprised at the bits of information you pick up along the way. For a guided tour, follow the teal boxes. Don't forget to bookmark this page so you can come back and learn more once you've absorbed each batch of info.

Veteran SEO

You were doing SEO back in the days of AltaVista, so you know all the things to know. Except maybe you took a break for a few years or decided to swap that black hat for a gray (or even white) one and need to know what's the what with the major changes in the past few years.

Make a quick stop at the Algorithm Change History to catch up on the latest updates and penalties. After that, we'll guide you through some of the topics that are more likely to have changed since you last checked. Just look for the purple boxes.

SEO-Curious Marketer

You've heard of SEO. You might even have worked with a few SEOs. Now you're ready to dig in and understand what everyone's talking about and how you can use all that new info to improve your marketing (and maybe level up your career at the same time).

Start with What is SEO? and look for shortcuts in orange boxes along the path to gather highlights. You can always dig deeper into any topic you find especially interesting.

Whichever path you choose, don't worry, we'll keep weaving you in and out of the sections that are relevant to your learning needs; just look for the color that's relevant to your chosen character.

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Table of contents

For you table of contents types who like to read straight through rather than have someone set the path for you, here's a quick look at what we'll be covering:

1. What is SEO?
2. Building an SEO-friendly site
3. Content and related markup
4. On-site related topics
5. Link-related topics
6. Other optimization
7. Test your new skills
8. Celebrate your success
9. Other resources

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1. What is SEO?

First things first. It's hard to learn the ins and outs of SEO (search engine optimization) before you even know what it is. In the following short video, Rand Fishkin (a.k.a. the Wizard of Moz) defines SEO as "The practice of increasing the quantity and quality of the traffic that you earn through the organic results in search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing."

Watch it to understand the difference between paid search and organic search and a few basic things about improving click-throughs from search pages.

Ranking factors

A lot of different factors, from site speed to content quality, are important in SEO. These are, as far as anyone can tell, the factors that search engines use in determining whether or not to show your page to searchers. For a great intro to those elements and how they interact to affect your site's overall ranking, check out Search Engine Land's Periodic Table of SEO Success Factors.

Why SEO?

That's all nice, but if SEO is starting to seem like a lot of work, you probably want to understand whether SEO is even worth it. The short answer is that yes, SEO is worth it, but only if you want potential customers to be able to find your site when they're searching on Google (or any other search engine).

Yes, search engines are crawling your site, but those crawlers aren't as sophisticated as you might like. SEO gives you more control over how your site is represented in those search engine results pages. Good SEO can also improve how users experience your site. Learn more with Why Search Engine Marketing is Necessary.

About search engines

Who are these search engines anyway and why do we spend so much time worrying about how they see our sites? To get the best answer, let's look at that question from two points of view: search engines and searchers.

How search engines operate

First, it's important to understand how search engines crawl sites, build their indexes, and ultimately determine what's relevant to a user's query. Some of the specifics are trade secrets, but this section of the Beginner's Guide to SEO offers a solid overview. And for an introduction to how Google ranks pages, watch this video:

As you're learning about SEO, remember that not everything you read on the Internet should be treated as gospel. Here are some common myths and misconceptions about search engines.

The human side of search

Understanding how people use search engines is as crucial to SEO as understanding their needs is to marketing. Learn about classic search query patterns and how people scan search results here.

Search engine results pages

So far we've dropped a lot of phrases like "search results" and "search pages," but what does any of that really mean? Search Engine Land does a great job of decoding the standard search engine results page (SERP). It's a strong foundation for understanding why everyone is shooting to be in the top ten search results. But one thing you'll find the more you get into SEO is that SERPs are rapidly evolving. Ads move, knowledge graphs appear (and disappear) and sometimes local search results invade. Dr. Pete takes you on a tour of how SERPs have changed and why ten blue links are probably a thing of the past in this article.

Penalties and algorithm updates

And then there's the darker side of SEO, because once there's a system, there's someone trying to game that system. Spend more than a few minutes talking to anyone about SEO and you'll hear something or other about black hat tactics like keyword stuffing and unnatural linking.

If you decide to use these tactics, you might soon become acquainted with search engine penalties. These algorithm updates, like Hummingbird and Penguin, are implemented by search engines at various intervals. The official word is that these updates improve user experience, but they can also be effective ways to penalize SEOs using spammy tactics. Learn more about Google's algorithm updates. That page includes not only a full history of prior penalties, but it's consistently refreshed when a new algorithm update is confirmed.

SEO veterans, you get to skip ahead of the class now to learn about the current state of page speed, mobile web development, and competitive research along with info on the best tools available today.

Analytics platforms (or how to measure SEO)

As you can see, a lot of work can go into SEO, but the results can be pretty incredible, too. To track your progress in topping the SERPs, make sure you're using an analytics platform like Google Analytics or Omniture. You can get by with something like Rank Tracker to track rankings on keywords as a start, but eventually you're going to want some of the data those more sophisticated tools offer.

Brain full? You've just learned everything a beginner needs to know about what SEO is. Go take a walk or get some coffee and let all that info soak in.

Before you go, save this bookmark.

SEO newbies, when you come back, you'll be in exactly the right place to start putting some of your new knowledge into action by practicing how to build an SEO-friendly site.

SEO-curious marketers, you might not want to go to the trouble of actually building a site, but you'll learn a lot by reading through the next section and the related materials.

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2. Building an SEO-friendly site

First of all, don't freak out, you don't have to build a totally new site to get something out of this section. But if you're an SEO Newbie intent on making a career of this, you might want to set up a practice site to really get your hands dirty and learn everything you can.

About domains and URLs

Before you start worrying about site content and structure (aka the fun stuff), you have a real chance to set your site up for success by using a strong domain name and developing a URL structure that's SEO and user friendly. This stuff can be hard to change later when you have hundreds (or thousands) of pages in place, so you'll be glad you started out on the right foot.

Domains

While you're decades too late to score "buy.com," it's never too late to find the right domain name for you. This resource will help you sort through the SEO dos and SEO don'ts of selecting a root domain and TLD (don't worry, all is explained) that are memorable without being spammy. There's even info on what to consider if you have to change your domain name.

Don't skip the section on subdomains—it could save you from making some rookie duplicate content errors.

Anatomy of a URL

Oh the SEO havoc that can ensue when your URLs aren't set up quite right. Learn what not to do.

Site structure

Woo-hoo! Now that you have a site, it's time to think about how best to structure your site. Remember that you want to be thinking about both search engines and users as you set up that site. For example, that amazing Javascript menu you had designed might not be bot-friendly.

Things to think about at this point are that your content is indexable (that the crawlers can actually find it) and that you don't have any orphaned pages. Learn more about those issues here.

Sitemaps

And then you're going to need a sitemap. Sitemaps help search engines index your content and understand the relationships between pages. So where better to get advice on how to build and implement a sitemap than straight from Google.

Internal links

Another vital way to show search engines what pages are most important/related (and to help humans navigate your content) is through internal links. You want enough links to show users what's what, but not so many that it's impossible to tell what's really important/related. Read more about optimal link structure and passing ranking power.

Page speed

How long it takes a page on your site to load (page speed) mattered when we were all using desktops, but it's crucial now that so much Internet traffic comes from mobile devices, plus it's one factor in how pages get ranked. So whether you're new to SEO or looking for new tricks, page speed might be a good place to start.

Use Google's PageSpeed Insights to get specific recommendations on how to speed up your site and then get crackin'.

Mobile web development

Speaking of mobile traffic, is your site mobile friendly? Learn about the difference between responsive designs and device-specific solutions on our mobile optimization page. You'll also see a list of don'ts for mobile design (ever tried to close a pop-up on your iPhone?). This only gets more important the more mobile traffic you get (and want).

Phew! That was a lot of information, but once you've absorbed it all, you'll have an excellent handle on site structure (which will save you a lot of trouble down the line). Bookmark this spot, then take a well-deserved break. We'll start back here together when you're ready.

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3. Content and related markup

Now that you have that site framework all set up, it's time to get to the good stuff—populating it with content!

Competitor analysis

Before you write or post too much of your own content, you might want to see what's working (and what isn't) for your competitors. This analysis helps you identify those competitors and then understand what their links, rankings, and keywords look like. It's important to update this research occasionally because your competition might change over time.

Veteran SEOs, you can skip straight ahead to Schema structured data unless you want a refresh on any other topics related to content.

SEO newbies, you'll want a deep understanding of keyword research, SEO copywriting, and the other content-related topics in this section. Get yourself a coffee and then settle back in to learn a ton.

Marketers, this is your chance to learn all the basics for SEO-friendly content, so stick with us for a spell. You won't need the same depth of understanding as someone who plans to do SEO for a living, so let your curiosity guide you as deep into any of these topics as you want to go.

Keyword research

You may feel like you just did keyword research in the last step, but it's crucial enough that we're going to dive a little deeper here. Understand the value of a particular keyword and see what kind of shot you have at ranking for it by reading Chapter 5 of the Beginner's Guide to SEO.

SEO copywriting

We promised you'd get to actually create content and that time is finally here! Now that you have an understanding of the competitive landscape and the keywords you want to (and can) rank for, write away. Remember that while you're really writing content for users, a few simple tips can help your content stand out to search engines too. Isn't it nice when something does double duty?

On-page factors and meta data

For really search engine-friendly content, you're going to want to make sure your meta data is all in order. That includes title tags, meta descriptions, and alt attributes.

Go the extra mile by incorporating Schema structured data into your content. This additional info gives search engines the data they need to include rich snippets (like review boxes) below your search results.

Veteran SEOs, it's a good idea to skip ahead to on-site related topics now.

Newbies, your SEO education is not complete without a solid understanding of duplicate content, SEO for video, and how to measure success, so stick with this section until the end.

Marketers, duplicate content is something you're going to hear a lot about and it doesn't hurt to understand video SEO and how to measure success, so continue to read onward in this section.

Duplicate content

Duplicate content is the bane of a website. Even if you think you've done everything right with your content, there's a chance that a dynamic URL or something else is surfacing that same content to crawlers more than once. Not only does Google fail to see the logic in "twice as much is twice as nice" but they might also penalize you for it. Navigate around the most common pitfalls.

SEO for video

Content doesn't just mean words, but unfortunately, the crawlers aren't (yet) sophisticated enough to parse things like images and video. If your alt attributes are in good shape, you're covered for images, but there are some SEO tactics you need to incorporate if you're using video on your site. The good news is that once your video SEO is in good shape, video content often gets better rankings than text.

Measuring success

So you've got all that content on your site, but how do you know if it's actually helping your SEO? At the beginning is a good time to set yourself up to measure your success so you can establish a baseline. Learn more about what metrics you should be tracking and how.

Time for yet another well-earned break. Grab a nap if you can and then spend a day or so observing how these issues are handled by other sites on the web. For maximum learning, try practicing some of your newfound knowledge on a site you have access to.

Set your bookmarks before you go.

When you're ready to continue learning SEO, Newbies should make a stop at on-site related topics to get familiar with Robots.txt and HTTPS.

Any veterans still hanging about might want to take a quick read through on-site related topics to see what might have changed with Robots.txt and to take in the latest wisdom on HTTPS.

Marketers, you get to sit that one out and head straight on over to link-related topics.

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4. On-site related topics

For the true SEO aficionado, there are some technical details that you must get right. We've all heard stories of people accidentally blocking their site from being crawled and then wondering where all the traffic is. To keep from being one of these, learn about Robots.txt: how it helps you get found and when blocking robots is not actually effective.

The other technical on-site topic you'll want to master is the switching of your site from HTTP to HTTPS without slowing down your site or losing traffic. This is especially important since Google announced that HTTPS is a ranking factor.

See how far you've leveled up already by getting current on just those two topics? Bet you aren't even tired yet.

Newbies, it's time to dive straight into link-related topics.

Veterans, go check out guest blogging for a look at how that practice has changed.

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5. Link-related topics

You now know a lot about how to make your site SEO friendly. Now it's time to look at how to bend the rest of the Internet to your SEO will. Don't worry, this'll be TAGFEE.

External links

External links are a fantastic way to show search engines that your site is credible and useful. They're also a great way for users to find you by navigating from sites they already use. In short, they build your authority with humans and bots.

There are two effective ways to get more links from external sources: you can either earn them or build them. Chances are that you'll get the best results by focusing on some combination of those two tactics.

Notice how we didn't say "buy them"? Don't buy links.

Guest blogging

One tried and true way to build external links is through guest blogging, although this tactic has evolved a lot in the past few years. What used to be an "I give you content, you give me a link" sort of exchange has given way to guest blogging with a purpose.

Veterans, go ahead and pop on over to conversion rate optimization unless you want a refresh on link-related topics like link nofollow and canonicalization.

Link quality

When you're out there on the Internet trying to build links, be sure you're looking for good quality links. Those are links that come from sites that are trustworthy, popular, and relevant to your content. For more information on factors search engines use to determine link value, read this page.

Anchor text

Anchor text is simply the text that's used in a link whether it's a link to a site or within that site. The implications of anchor text, though, reach farther because while keywords in anchor text can help your site rank for those words, it's easy for keyword-stuffed anchor text to look spammy. Learn more about best practices for anchor text.

Nofollow

"Nofollow" is a designation you can apply to a link to keep it from passing any link equity (that's kind of like the SEO equivalent of an up-vote). What might surprise you is that links don't need to be "followed" to pass human authority. Even nofollowed links can help you build awareness and get more links. So when you're linking to a site (or to other content on your site) think about whether that link leads to something you're proud to be associated with.

HTTP status codes

Every Internet user eventually encounters a 404 error page, but that's just one of the many HTTP status codes found on the web. Learn the difference between a 500 and a 503 along with some best practices for 404 pages here.

Redirection

One of the most useful HTTP status codes for SEOs is the 301 redirect which is used to tell search engines a page has permanently moved elsewhere (and passes a good share of link equity). Gather all the in-depth info you ever needed about 301s and other redirects.

Canonicalization

Perhaps because it's one of the hardest SEO words to pronounce, canonicalization has a reputation for being complex. But the basic concept is simple: you have two (or more) pages that have similar content and canonicalization allows you to either combine those pages (using redirects) or indicate which version of the page you want search engines to treat as paramount. Read up on the details of using canonicalization to handle duplicate content.

You've now mastered so much SEO knowledge that you could teach the stuff (at least on a 101 level). If you've read and digested all the links along the way, you now know so much more about SEO than when you started.

But you're so self-motivated that you want to know even more, don't you?

Newbies, read closely through other optimization to refine your knowledge and apply those newly-minted optimization skills to even more aspects of the sites you're working on.

Marketers, you've done a fabulous job powering through all these topics and there's no doubt you can hold your own in the next SEO team meeting. To take your understanding of optimization even further, skim other optimization.
Or scoot on ahead and test your skills with the SEO Expert Quiz.

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6. Other optimization

There are many ways (beyond the basic SEO knowledge you've been accruing here) to give your site an optimization boost. Find (and fix) what's keeping potential customers from converting with conversion rate optimization, get your storefronts found on the web with local SEO, and find out how to prep your site to show up in international SERPs with international SEO.

Conversion rate optimization (CRO)

If shoppers are abandoning their carts so fast you're looking around for the tornado, your marketing funnel is acting more like a sieve and it's time to plug some holes. Stop the bleeding with Paddy Moogan's five-step framework for CRO. And keep on learning by keeping up with the latest CRO posts from the Moz Blog.

Local SEO

Even if you do most of your business in person at a local shop, customers are still trying to use the Internet to find you (and your hours, phone number, menu, etc.). Make sure they're getting the right info (and finding you before they find your competitor across the street) by investing some time learning about local SEO. On that page you can also sign up for the Local 7-Pack, a monthly newsletter highlighting the top local SEO news you need to know. Or, watch for the latest local SEO developments on the Moz Blog.

International SEO

A global customer base is a good thing to have, but you want to use international SEO to make sure potential customers in the UK are finding your British shipping policies instead of your American ones. Master hreflang to direct Chinese customers to content using simplified Chinese characters while you send Taiwanese customers to content that uses the traditional characters they're used to. And find out how your site structure and whether you're using a country code top-level domain (ccTLD) (like ".uk") affects your SEO and potential ranking in international SERPs.

SEO newbies, we really can't call you newbies anymore. Congratulations! No one has read deeper into this blog post or learned more along the way than you have.

SEO veterans, you knew a lot of this already, but now you're up to date on the latest tips, tricks, and techniques.

And SEO-curious marketers, if you're still hanging around, bravo! You can safely add "speaks SEO" as a feather in your cap.

You're all ready to test your skills against the experts and prove just how much you've learned, take the SEO Expert Quiz and brag about your score.

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7. Test your new skills

Feel like you've mastered SEO already? Take the New SEO Expert Quiz to see how you stack up.

8. You did it!

Congratulations! You're well on your way to SEO mastery. Bask in that glow for a moment or two before moving on to your next project.

9. Other resources

The fun thing about a developing field like SEO is that the learning and adventure never end. Whether you're looking for more advanced knowledge or just to learn in a different format, try Distilled U's interactive modules or Market Motive's web-based classes. If you're looking for a job in SEO, Carl Hendy might just have your roadmap.

Thanks for following along with this choose your own adventure version of how to learn SEO. Share your favorite resources and ask us about any topics we might have missed in the comments.

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