If it feels like Google search is changing faster than ever, it’s not your imagination. Google reported an astonishing 4,367 “launches” in 2021, up dramatically from 350-400 in 2009. On average, that’s nearly a dozen changes per day . Many of these more than 25,000 changes were undoubtedly very small, but some were outright cataclysmic. What can we learn from nine years of Google rankings data, and how can it help us prepare for the future? Is the algorithm heating up? Thanks to our MozCast research project, we have daily algorithm flux data going back to 2014. The visualization below shows nine full years of daily Google “temperatures” (with hotter days representing more movement on page one of rankings): Click on the image for the full-size view! White 2022 was certainly hotter than 2014, the pattern of rising temperatures over time is much more complicated than that. In some cases, we can’t map temperatures directly to algorithm updates, and in others, there are known cause...

This week, Shawn talks you through the ways your site structure, your sitemaps, and Google Search Console work together to help Google crawl your site, and what you can do to approve Googlebot’s efficiency. Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab! Video Transcription Howdy, Moz fans. Welcome to this week's edition of Whiteboard Friday, and I'm your host, SEO Shawn. This week I'm going to talk about how do you help Google crawl your website more efficiently. Site structure, sitemaps, & GSC Now I'll start at a high level. I want to talk about your site structure, your sitemaps, and Google Search Console, why they're important and how they're all related together. So site structure, let's think of a spider. As he builds his web, he makes sure to connect every string efficiently together so that he can get across to anywhere he needs to get to, to catch his prey. Well, your website needs to work in that...

The adage is that if you're not paying for the service, you are the product. Unfortunately, this rings especially true in the analytics world. The analytics space is changing, though, and there are many alternatives — both free and paid — that take into account privacy, cookie-less tracking, GDPR compliance, core web vitals, and more. The current leader in the analytics space is Universal Analytics (UA), which has been tracking web data since 2005. But Google is going to stop tracking any new data in UA as of July 1, 2023 (Happy Canada Day?). This is a move to get users to migrate to Google Analytics 4 (GA4), which is a whole new way of tracking and navigating. In a move from sessions to an event model, GA4 will require some knowledge and familiarity to get up and running, as there’s quite a bit changing . If you haven’t yet set up GA4 yet, or are on the fence, now is the time to take a look at what else is out there and how the landscape has changed. We've broken the alter...

Estimated brand reach is the most important high-level metric that everyone seems to either interpret incorrectly, or ignore altogether. Why? Because it’s a tough nut to crack. By definition, brand reach is a headcount of unique “individuals” who encounter your brand, and you cannot de-anonymize all the people on every one of your web channels. Simply put, two “sessions” or “users” in your analytics could really be from one person, and there’s just no way you could know. Nevertheless, you can and most definitely should estimate your brand reach. And you should, and most definitely can, use that data in a meaningful way. For instance, it’s how we confirmed that: It was time to abandon an entire paid channel in favor of a different one. There’s a near-perfect correlation between our engaged reach and our lead generation. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Let’s dive in. What is reach? Reach counts the number of actual people who come in contact with a particular...

Petra has plenty of experience talking to C-level decision-makers about their business problems, and translating them into SEO solutions. So in today’s episode of Whiteboard Friday, she takes you through the main considerations you need to pay attention to when explaining the value of your work: commitment, concerns and objections, status versus purpose, and prioritization. Click on the whiteboard image above to open a high resolution version in a new tab! Video Transcription Hi, I'm Petra Kis-Herczegh, and welcome to my Whiteboard Friday on five key considerations for SEO buy-in. I'm an SEO and solution engineer, which means I get to talk to C-level decision-makers about their business problems and translate them into SEO solutions. Today, I will take you through the five key considerations, which are audience, commitment, concerns and objections, status versus purpose, and prioritization. We're going to talk about the common pitfalls and what you need to pay att...

People change jobs, move teams, and shift responsibilities all the time, and taking over toolsets can bring its own set of challenges. Whether you’re at a new company, in a new position, or expanding your responsibilities, ensuring that your Moz Pro subscription is set up correctly for your specific needs should be at the top of your to-do list. Some of you may have inherited a whole account from a colleague or former teammate - they updated the login information and handed you the reins. For some of you, this may be the first time you’ve used Moz Pro after having just been added as a seat on a larger account. And some of you may have just been told your company has a subscription to this tool and you’ve been tasked with figuring out how to use it! Regardless of the situation, here are 10 steps to help you make sure your toolkit is properly calibrated.  1. Understand what you’re working with Before you can really understand if your Moz Pro account is set up correctly, you have t...

“Localism” - Miriam Ellis We know that a picture is worth a thousand words and that Google is betting the house on a visual future, yet I’ve often struggled to find the exact image asset I want to illustrate the story of local businesses and local SEO. So, I decided to create my own asset, and today, I would like to offer the above painting to all of my colleagues in local search. Please, feel free to use it in your speaker decks, client pitches, articles, marketing materials, and any place else you would like to instantly convey the thriving spirit of economic localism which underpins the passion we have in common with our audiences and clients. This impressionist painting is original, hand-done, by me (no AI) and I offer use of it as my valentine to all of my colleagues and to local business owners with affection and tremendous respect for all of your contributions to many communities. I hope it will add vivid storytelling power to your work! If you would like to credit me, my f...