#just zero media comprehension not a jot
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do you ever read a take so bad you can't even be mad about it you're just like... ohhhhhh they must be stupid </3 so sad for them
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How to Validate Business Ideas for Your Own Online Business
Business ideas have a tendency to come up with and come up in the very unusual and unexpected places. Sometimes, business ideas can pop out in the head during a long commute to and from work. Or just simply by lining up in the supermarket, an individual can think of a lengthy list of potential business ideas that could establish a successful online business. Any time of the day and where you're, for sure there is a possibility that a business idea will enter your mind. This may excite you and would push you to believe you have a blazing idea that could transform into a leading online business.
If for case you're having a fantastic day and you think you have the business idea that could transform the world or bring you millions, what you can do is to slow down and jot it down. You do not have to immediately get to excited, tell everyone you know and start your own online business. Even if you've got the money and the motivation to do it, bear in mind that it is a trap just waiting for you. To be able to avoid the typical start-up trap, it is suggested that you check and validate your business idea. Here are four fundamental things or measures which you can take to check if your business idea is viable or if it is just another ordinary day for normal ideas.
Make time to identity your intended audience. Is there a significant market for your business ideas? How big is the market concerning dollars? Is this a growing market online or many online entrepreneurs have ventured into this market for the last few years? These queries can be answered by performing a couple of minutes worth of research online. At times, there are organizations and sites that are focused and committed on the market that you might also check out. It does not mean though that you will need to do all of your research online. Occasionally you it pays to do the traditional research too by linking trade classes and expositions. This should help you realize the niche you are attempting to crack. A little quantity of study can help you confirm if your business idea will prosper online.
Take the time to identify your targeted clients. You want to take into account the demographics of your target customer base. When you put up your own online business, you will need to understand who your clients are. What are the age brackets, and do they belong to a particular income bracket? Or maybe your business idea or products appeal most to female clients? By understanding who your customers are you can easily customize the sales strategies you will adopt. You can easily produce a business plan or advertising campaign that could effectively zero-in and appeal to your target audience. This may also help you improve on the products and services so that these will appeal more to your clients.
Validate the demand for your services and products. You do not need to employ the services of the experts to test if your services and products are doing well on the market. On your own, you can tell the way the marketplace and your clients respond to your services and products. 1 thing that you could do is to get comments and testimonials from your clients. Prepare a questionnaire to learn what they consider your proposed service or product.
From here, you need to get an idea if the business concept will take off or not. If it shows a few signs of a fantastic future, then that is the time you ought to build your contacts which may help market a high online business. You need to have three or more lists in your possession- the list of possible clients, list of suppliers and list of vendors. Try to include up names on such lists on a regular basis and conceptualize strategies about ways to reach out to them. Other successful online business owners will have their own strategies about the best way best to capitalize on business ideas. However one thing remains for sure; a business idea will take off if there is demand for it and clients are prepared to pay for it.
Dany Cooper
I live in a very small village in Ontario Canada, because of the internet it's allowed me to work at home just like countless others. This miracle tool of the 20th century that the internet has given us all the power to connect it doesn't matter were we are where we live. It's an awesome device using a growth rate that increases daily, as a growing number of people discover what and how the internet can help them. Whether it's for business or pleasure it does the job that we ask it to perform.
Good Business Ideas For The Home Business Entrepreneur
The notion of creating an income from home is very attractive, especially when you've got the drive and ambition to start your own business. However small or large your entrepreneurial dreams, there are loads of great business ideas to be explored.
Forget the"Get Rich Quick" schemes or the promises of steady income for very little time commitment and"all you need to do" is invest in an upfront program (if something appears to be too good to be true, it likely is), and concentrate on making your own business doing something you love. When there are great business ideas which have made money for some you want to discover a business that excites and energises you. With the proper motivation and a solid business idea you will have the tools for success, and the ability to continue with your business over the long run.
Superior business ideas for home business entrepreneurs fall into three broad classes:
1. Virtual Services
With the gigantic growth in outsourcing of certain tasks or tasks, there are lots of opportunities to provide your services virtually. This means that you can work at home and provide services like admin, writing, marketing, design, information technology or social media to businesses. Either on a project basis or as their digital PA (personal assistant), marketing officer or social networking expert.
As a digital PA you'll handle all of the tasks a PA would, logging costs into a spreadsheet, booking trips, organising calendars, booking training, preparing materials for presentations and events, but based at your home.
With systems and tools like google Docs, Dropbox and other online sharing programs, it is easy to share information and supply spreadsheets, documents and reports remotely to your customers.
As a freelance writer you may offer to write reports, articles, edit articles, post blog comments, manage forum marketing, provide blogging, tweeting or HubPages content, the choices are limitless.
In case you have knowledge of SEO (search engine optimization ) you can offer a service building traffic to your customers' sites and blogs.
Find customers by promoting your services on a Facebook fan page and by contributing to relevant discussions on Facebook, forums and blogs. Or you can discover freelance work through websites like Elance, Guru or PeoplePerHour.
2. Local Services
Use your skills and expertise to provide solutions to local businesses. In case you have even the most elementary marketing, online or social networking skills you can offer to be their marketing or social networking expert. Charge on a per job, hourly or monthly retainer speed, depending upon your regional market and the experience you're offering.
Many regional businesses are great at what they do but struggle to find new customers and market their business effectively online. Stop in and talk to some regional businesses and show them the way to help them get more customers, by enhancing their online marketing or social websites.
A good suggestion is to get the regional newspapers, church, school and parish newsletters and determine which firms are advertising. Contact them and talk to them about ways to help them get more business, or spend less.
3. Online Business
Online businesses are flourishing as demonstrated by the explosion in the numbers of individuals online and using Facebook. Home business entrepreneurs are discovering opportunities online like never before. Begin with a hobby, skill or something you feel passionate about and look at ways to generate income from it.
Superior business ideas include becoming an infopreneur. Create information products to discuss your ideas and experiences with others to help them resolve a problem, or fulfill a need. This can be by means of a blog, forum or community site, membership website, ebooks, reports, newsletters or online training.
Information can be given in downloadable formats so clients receive the information they want straight away, and you make money each time your merchandise is downloaded.
An information business isn't hard to set up, low risk and you can test your ideas on a small scale prior to producing more comprehensive products. Promote affiliate products to check your market or make money selling goods on eBay or Amazon.
If you are selling physical products that you may use drop-shipping to automate the fulfilment and shipping of your goods so you don't need to take care of products. The drop-ship company will handle the invoicing, payment and shipping of the goods. All you do is promote the product to the client.
The aim with an online business is to automate as much of it as possible, so you set up the systems and leave them to operate. That way you will have a truly automated business which makes money even while you are sleeping or away on vacation.
I'm a huge fan of small niche websites which you set up and forget. They will not make you rich but you can create as many little niche sites as you like and multiply your income. A niche site will concentrate on solving a single problem for a particular market, such as weight loss, caring for bearded dragons or betta fish, or eliminating acne.
Superior business ideas are all around. Start looking at the possibilities everywhere you go. See what the hot topics are in magazines and magazines, listen to what people are talking about (or whining they are missing) and begin with your own home business now.
#business#business ideas#business tips#home business#good business ideas#business entrepreneur#online business
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Telenor Internet Package
Telenor Internet Package
Telenor offers a variety of 3G/4G data packages ranging from cost-free to around 6000 rupees catered to particular requirements of numerous individuals. The time limit on packages could be 1 day, a week or a month. Some heavy-duty internet offers are also available for devices. Some exclusive add-ons are also available alongside the internet data provided such as
Free off-Net Minutes
Free on-Net Minutes
Free SMS
Some attractive packages include Telenor Facebook flex which able you to enjoy Facebook basics costless for a whole day and Telenor Social Package which gives access to Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter, the essential social media sites every person uses every day, for only 6 rupees and is valid for 24 hours. Telenor Easy Card package provides you all three add-ons which includes 500 free SMS and 500 free On-Net minutes alongside 500 MB internet data for a full month for 350 rupees. A similar offer is also available for which includes all features with a cost of 40 rupees for a week. With Telenor MiFi and Dongle, you can get heavy duty offers for internet data such as Telenor 4G Monthly Unlimited Package and Telenor 4G Monthly Lite Package delivering 180 GB and 25 GB for 6000 and 1500 rupees respectively.
Telenor is one of the world’s largest mobile telecommunications companies in the whole world with operations focused in Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, and Asia. Furthermore, it is the 4G 850 MHz spectrum auction winner as well. Telenor Internet Package is offering different 4G packages for its customers. Today, in this article, I am going to jot down all the prepaid and postpaid Telenor 4G Internet packages for you guys. So, let’s just get started. Here are the Complete Details of Telenor 4G Internet Packages.
Telenor offers three different daily packages for its prepaid customers. You can choose the package of your choice. The first one is the Telenor daily Light Bundle that brings you the best-in-class 4G with better speed and affordable rates. The second one is the Raat Din Offer that brings a crazy amount of data to keep you going for hours. The last one is the Telenor Video Bundle that allows you to watch as many videos as you want on YouTube, Daily Motion and Pocket TV for one hour.
· After Rs 60 of daily charging on default rate, further usage will be completely free for the rest of the day (Fair Usage Policy of 750MB).
· The bundle will work on 4G,3G & 2G.
· Default rate usage without subscribing to bundles will be charged at Rs12/MB on 3G & 4G.
· Default rate usage without subscribing to bundles will be charged at Rs21.5/MB on 2G.
Telenor 4G Weekly Packages for Prepaid Customers
· All data Offers will be charged inclusive of tax in AJK. Withing validity of offer after exhaustion of resources a spill of Rs. 1/MB will be charged
·After Rs 60 of daily charging on default rate, further usage will be completely free for the rest of the day (Fair Usage Policy of 750MB).
·The bundle will work on 4G,3G & 2G.
· Default rate usage without subscribing to bundles will be charged at Rs12/MB on 3G & 4G.
· Default rate usage without subscribing to bundles will be charged at Rs21.5/MB on 2G.
Telenor 4G 3 Days Packages for Prepaid Customers
Telenor Internet Package is offering two three day internet packages as well. The All in One Offer provides you Rs.75 balance for calls and SMS to any network for 3 days, along with 500MB* 4G internet. On the other hand, 4G 3 day Bundle brings you the best-in-class 4G with better speed and affordable rates. Let’s have a look at them:
·After Rs60 of daily charging on default rate, further usage will be completely free for the rest of the day (Fair Usage Policy of 750MB).
·The bundle will work on 4G,3G & 2G.
·Default rate usage without subscribing to bundles will be charged at Rs12/MB on 3G & 4G.
·Default rate usage without subscribing to bundles will be charged at Rs21.5/MB on 2G.
· For details on regional taxation, please Click Here
·Rates will be 2.14% higher in AJK due to the tax regime
Telenor 4G Monthly Packages for Prepaid Customers
Monthly packages provide you convenience for a complete 30 days. Here are different 4G monthly packages for prepaid customers.
·After Rs 60 of daily charging on default rate, further usage will be completely free for the rest of the day (Fair Usage Policy of 750MB).
·The bundle will work on 4G,3G & 2G.
·Default rate usage without subscribing to bundles will be charged at Rs12/MB on 3G & 4G.
· Default rate usage without subscribing to bundles will be charged at Rs21.5/MB on 2G.
Telenor 4G Postpaid Packages
Telenor is not offering weekly or three-day internet packages for Postpaid customers. However, they can get Two different 4G monthly packages. Here are the details of postpaid packages:
·AJK & GB will continue to operate on zero tax
·As per the directive of Supreme Court, all consumer taxes on telecom services have been restored and will be applicable on your postpaid bill dated 25-Apr-2019.
·Offer mechanics and price are subject to change after serving 7 days’ notice period to the customers
· All bundles will be renewed automatically on bill cycle
·Customers can subscribe to a single data bundle at a time. Already subscribed bundle will be replaced with the new bundle subscription
· Pay As You Use is a default rate. Subscriber will be charged at PKR 1.024 /MB. (64KB Pulse).
·All internet bundles are pro-rated
·Above the internet, bundles are available for Telenor postpaid consumer packages only.
·Internet bundles can be consumed on 2G, 3G, and 4G networks
·To subscribe to bundle please dial *345#. Alternatively, customers can dial 345 or visit their nearest Telenor franchise Center
All above- mentioned packages are the latest offers by Telenor for its prepaid and postpaid customers. You can choose any of them as per your need and can enjoy the fastest Telenor Internet Package.
Telenor Weekly Packages
Telenor voice packages comprise a number of packages that are quite attractive for the customers no matter the budget. Telenor provides outstanding voice call deals to its customers without any limitation of the plans (postpaid, prepaid). It provides cheapest packages which are comprehensive, serving alls
Telenor Monthly Packages
The company offers monthly packages to those people who want to stay tension-free from the expiration of the packages. Telenor offers packages such as ‘Telenor Djuice Monthly Messaging Bundle’ with 10000 SMS and ‘Telenor Monthly SMS Package’ with 6000 SMS. Alongside these packages, Telenor also
Telenor Internet Package
Telenor is not only limited to these daily and weekly packages, but it also provides packages for a period of three days. These packages are ‘Telenor 3 Day Din Bhar Package’, ‘Telenor 3 Days All in One offer’ and ‘Telenor 3 Day Mini Budget Package’ providing 600 minutes. All these packages provide free On-
Having started its operations its operations in Pakistan in 2005, Telenor Pakistan has come a long way. One of the fastest growing mobile networks in Pakistan, Telenor’s success is highly attributed to its aggressive marketing campaigns.
Telenor is network choice of countless Pakistanis. The diverse packages offered by the network not only works to cement and increase the customer base but the offers also ensure customer care with fair featured packs. The features on which the packages are based on our Free On-Net Minutes, Free Off-Net Minutes, Free SMS and Internet Data. The packages could be categorized into following categories such as
Telenor 3G/4G Internet Packages
The Telenor users who avail internet also could make their network experience wholesome by making use of numerous packages crafted to fit them. The 4G device packages don’t include Free ON or Off Minutes or SMS. Also, see Telenor 4G Device Packages here.
Telenor Call packages
Call Packages includes a list of offers which will appeal to users of all backgrounds and they will have various choices to pick from. The Network offers all of the features on Sahulat and Easy Card package for a weekly or monthly time limit.
Telenor SMS packages
The varied choices in SMS packages for Telenor are made to be amiable to customer choice and each one is particularly molded to appease all kinds of users. The offers are mostly similar to the Call packages except Minutes being offered as the add-on on SMS packs. The sahulat and Easy Card offers are available in SMS category too.
All the above packages are available for validity periods from 1 day, 1 week and a month. The rate of offers incall and SMS case start from less than 10 rupees and could be up to 600 rupees. Terms and condition apply to all the packs.
TELENOR INTERNET PACKAGES 2G, 3G & 4G – DAILY, 3-DAYS WEEKLY AND MONTHLY
Telenor telecom is covering more than 39 million users in Pakistan. It is providing them with the very affordable SMS bundles and call packages to the users. Undoubtedly the company is famous for the attractive bundles at the lowest rates to its valued customers. That’s why Telenor has captured a large number of users in Pakistan. Telenor telecom is also famous for providing very comfortable and convenient 2G, 3G and 4G internet packages to its more than 39.428 million users. Click here for more details ….
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MozCon 2019: Everything You Need to Know About Day Three
Posted by KameronJenkins
If the last day of MozCon felt like it went too fast or if you forgot everything that happened today (we wouldn't judge — there were so many insights), don't fret. We captured all of day three's takeaways so you could relive the magic of day three.
Don't forget to check out all the photos with Roger from the photobooth! They're available here in the MozCon Facebook group. Plus: You asked and we delivered: the 2019 MozCon speaker walk-on playlist is now live and available here for your streaming pleasure.
Cindy Krum— Fraggles, Mobile-First Indexing, & the SERP of the Future
If you were hit with an instant wave of nostalgia after hearing Cindy's walk out music, then you are in good company and you probably were not disappointed in the slightest by Cindy’s talk on Fraggles.
First learning of the day: Fraggles. Fragment + Handles. A piece of information and an anchor that scrolls directly to the information on the page @Suzzicks #MozCon
— Warrior Forum (@warriorforum) July 17, 2019
“Fraggles” are fragments + handles. A fragment is a piece of info on a page. A handle is something like a bookmark, jump link, or named anchor — they help people navigate through long pages to get what they’re looking for faster.
Ranking pages is an inefficient way to answer questions. One page can answer innumerable questions, so Google’s now can pull a single answer from multiple parts of your page, skipping sections they don’t think are as useful for a particular answer.
The implications for voice are huge! It means you don’t have to listen to your voice device spout off a page’s worth of text before your question is answered.
Google wants to index more than just websites. They want to organize the world’s information, not websites. Fraggles are a demonstration of that.
Luke Carthy — Killer Ecommerce CRO and UX Wins Using A SEO Crawler
Luke Carthy did warn us in his talk description that we should all flex our notetaking muscles for all the takeaways we would furiously jot down — and he wasn’t wrong.
“Traffic doesn’t always mean sales, and sales doesn’t always mean traffic.” @MrLukeCarthy #MozCon
— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 17, 2019
Traffic doesn’t always mean sales and sales don’t always mean traffic!
Custom extraction is a great tool for finding missed CRO opportunities. For example, Luke found huge opportunity on Best Buy’s website — thousands of people’s site searches were leading them to an unoptimized “no results found” page.
You can also use custom extraction to find what product recommendations you or your customers are using at scale! Did you know that 35% of what customers buy on Amazon and 75 percent of what people watch on Netflix are the results of these recommendations?
For example, are you showing near-exact products or are you showing complementary products? (hint: try the latter and you’ll likely increase your sales!)
Custom extraction from Screaming Frog allows you to scrape any data from the HTML of the web pages while crawling them.
Andy Crestodina — Content, Rankings, and Lead Generation: A Breakdown of the 1% Content Strategy
Next up, Andy of Orbit Media took the stage with a comprehensive breakdown of the most effective tactics for turning content into a high-powered content strategy. He also brought the fire with this sound advice that we can apply in both our work life and personal life.
If you write an amazing, high-traffic blog post, the people visiting it don't have commercial intent. People landing on a sales page have 50x higher intent. #mozcon @crestodina
— Mike Arnesen (@Mike_Arnesen) July 17, 2019
Blog visitors often don’t have commercial intent. One of the greatest ways to leverage blog posts for leads is by using the equity we generate from links to our helpful posts and passing that onto our product and service pages.
If you want links and shares, invest in original research! Not sure what to research? Look for unanswered questions or unproven statements in your industry and provide the data.
Original research may take longer than a standard post, but it’s much more effective! When you think about it this way, do you really have time to put out more, mediocre posts?
Give what you want to get. Want links? Link to people. Want comments? Comment on others people's work.
To optimize content for social engagement, it should feature real people, their faces, and their quotes.
Collaborating with other content creators on your content not only gives it built-in amplification, but it also leads to great connections and is just generally more fun.
Rob Ousbey — Running Your Own SEO Tests: Why It Matters & How to Do It Right
Google’s algorithms have changed a heck of a lot in recent years — what’s an SEO to do? Follow Rob’s advice — both fashion and SEO — who says that the answer lies in testing.
in head terms, it's about user engagement metrics. However, links are more correllated with long tail searches. @RobOusbey #Mozcon
— Matthew Decuir (@MattBasically) July 17, 2019
“This is the way we’ve always done it” isn’t sufficient justification for SEO tactics in today’s search landscape.
In the earlier days of the algorithm, it was much easier to demote spam than it was to promote what’s truly good.
Rob and his team had a theory that Google was beginning to rely more heavily on user experience and satisfaction than some of the more traditional ranking factors like links.
Through SEO A/B testing, they found that:
Google relies less heavily on link signals when it comes to the top half of the results on page 1.
Google relies more heavily on user experience for head terms (terms with high search volume), likely because they have more user data to draw from.
In the process of A/B testing, they also found that the same test often produces different results on different sites. The best way to succeed in today’s SEO landscape is to cultivate a culture of testing!
Greg Gifford — Dark Helmet's Guide to Local Domination with Google Posts and Q&A
If you’re a movie buff, you probably really appreciated Greg’s talk — he schooled us all in movie references and brought the fire with his insights on Google Posts and Q&A
Google Posts allows you to drive conversions without driving people to your site - convert on zero-click searches! @GregGifford #MozCon
— Ruth Burr Reedy (@ruthburr) July 17, 2019
The man behind #shoesofmozcon taught us that Google is the new home page for local businesses, so we should be leveraging the tools Google has given us to make our Google My Business profiles great. For example…
Google Posts
Images should be 1200x900 on google posts
Images are cropped slightly higher than the center and it’s not consistent every time
The image size of the thumbnail is different on desktop than it is on mobile
Use Greg’s free tool at bit.ly/posts-image-guide to make sizing your Google Post images easier
You can also upload videos. The file size limit is 100mb and/or 30 seconds
Add a call-to-action button to make your Posts worth it! Just know that the button often means you get less real estate for text in your Posts
Don’t share social fluff. Attract with an offer that makes you stand out
Make sure you use UTM tracking so you can understand how your Posts are performing in Google Analytics. Otherwise, it’ll be attributed as direct traffic.
Google Q&A
Anyone can ask and answer questions — why not the business owner! Control the conversation and treat this feature like it's your new FAQ page.
This feature works on an upvote system. The answer with the most upvotes will show first.
Don’t include a URL or phone number in these because it’ll get filtered out.
A lot of these questions are potential customers! Out of 640 car dealerships’ Q&As Greg evaluated, 40 percent were leads! Of that 40 percent, only 2 questions were answered by the dealership.
Emily Triplett Lentz — How to Audit for Inclusive Content
Emily of Help Scout walked dropped major knowledge on the importance of spotting and eliminating biases that frequently find their way into online copy. She also hung out backstage after her talk to cheer on her fellow speakers. #GOAT. #notallheroeswearcapes.
"My desire for a specific word choice doesn't negate someone else's need for safety" -- @emilytlentz #MozCon pic.twitter.com/sXF2CjXVzo
— Yosef Silver (@ysilver) July 17, 2019
As content creators, we’d all do well to keep ableism in mind: discrimination in favor of able-bodied people. However, we’re often guilty of this without even knowing it.
One example of ableism that often makes its way into our copy is comparing dire or subideal situations with the physical state of another human (ex: “crippling”).
While we should work on making our casual conversation more inclusive too, this is particularly important for brands.
Create a list of ableist words, crawl your site for them, and then replace them. However, you’ll likely find that there is no one-size-fits-all replacement for these words. We often use words like “crazy” as filler words. By removing or replacing with a more appropriate word, we make our content better and more descriptive in the process.
At the end of the day, brands should remember that their desire for freedom of word choice isn’t more important than people’s right not to feel excluded and hurt. When there’s really no downside to more inclusive content, why wouldn’t we do it?
Visit http://content.helpscout.net/mozcon-2019 to learn how to audit your site for inclusive content!
Joelle Irvine — Image & Visual Search Optimization Opportunities
Curious about image optimization and visual search? Joelle has the goods for you — and was blowing people's minds with her tips for visual optimization and how to leverage Google Lens, Pinterest, and AR for visual search.
“Visual search is easier when you don’t know what you’re looking for, when you’re looking to match a particular style, and when your search way is too long or complicated.” @joelleirvine #MozCon
— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 17, 2019
Visual search is not the same thing as searching for images. We’re talking about the process of using an image to search for other content.
Visual search like Google Lens makes it easier to search when you don’t know what you’re looking for.
Pinterest has made a lot of progress in this area. They have a hybrid search that allows you to find complimentary items to the one you searched. It’s like finding a rug that matches a chair you like rather than finding more of the same type of chair.
62 percent of millennials surveyed said they would like to be able to search by visual, so while this is mostly being used by clothing retailers and home decor right now, visual search is only going to get better, so think about the ways you can leverage it for your brand!
Joy Hawkins — Factors that Affect the Local Algorithm that Don't Impact Organic
Proximity varies greatly when comparing local and organic results — just ask Joy of Sterling Sky, who gets real about fake listings while walking through the findings of a recent study.
Local results not only vary by city, but even within the same zip codes, there can be drastically different local results. @JoyanneHawkins #mozcon pic.twitter.com/8g6acxUDAq
— Lily Ray (@lilyraynyc) July 17, 2019
Here are the seven areas in which the local algorithm diverges from the organic algorithm:
Proximity (AKA: how close is the biz to the searcher?)
Proximity is the #1 local ranking factor, but the #27 ranking factor on organic.
Studies show that having a business that’s close in proximity to the searcher is more beneficial for ranking in the local pack than in traditional organic results.
Rank tracking
Because there is so much variance by latitude/longitude, as well as hourly variances, Joy recommends not sending your local business clients ranking reports.
Use rank tracking internally, but send clients the leads/sales. This causes less confusion and gets them focused on the main goal.
Visit bit.ly/mozcon3 for insights on how to track leads from GMB
GMB landing pages (AKA: the website URL you link to from your GMB account)
Joy tested linking to the home page (which had more authority/prominence) vs. linking to the local landing page (which had more relevance) and found that traffic went way up when linking to the home page.
Before you go switching all your GMB links though, test this for yourself!
Reviews
Joy wanted to know how much reviews actually impacted ranking, and what it was exactly about reviews that would help or hurt.
She decided to see what would happen to rankings when reviews were removed. This happened to a business who was review gating (a violation of Google’s guidelines) but Joy found that reviews flagged for violations aren’t actually removed, they’re hidden, explaining why “removed” reviews don’t negatively impact local rankings.
Possum filter
Organic results can get filtered because of duplicate content, whereas local results can get filtered because they’re too close to another business in the same category. This is called the Possum filter.
Keywords in a business name
This is against Google’s guidelines but it works sadly
For example, Joy tested adding the word “salad bar” to a listing that didn’t even have a salad bar and their local rankings for that keyword shot up.
Although it works, don’t do it! Google can remove your listing for this type of violation, and they’ve been removing more listings for this reason lately.
Fake listings
New listings can rank even if they have no website, authority, citations, etc. simply because they keyword stuffed their business name. These types of rankings can happen overnight, whereas it can take a year or more to achieve certain organic rankings.
Spend time reporting spam listings in your clients’ niches because it can improve your clients’ local rankings.
Britney Muller — Featured Snippets: Essentials to Know & How to Target
Closing out day three of MozCon was our very own Britney, Sr. SEO scientist extraordinaire, on everyone’s favorite SEO topic: Featured snippets!
Why are we so concerned about traffic? What about branding/messaging/share of voice? You can't NOT target a keyword just because it has a Featured Snippet @BritneyMuller #MozCon
— Ruth Burr Reedy (@ruthburr) July 17, 2019
We’re seeing more featured snippets than ever before, and they’re not likely going away. It’s time to start capitalizing on this SERP feature so we can start earning brand awareness and traffic for our clients!
Here’s how:
Know what keywords trigger featured snippets that you rank on page 1 for
Know the searcher’s intent
Provide succinct answers
Add summaries to popular posts
Identify commonly asked questions
Leverage Google’s NLP API
Monitor featured snippets
If all else fails, leverage ranking third party sites. Maybe your own site has low authority and isn’t ranking well, but try publishing on Linkedin or Medium instead to get the snippet!
There’s lots of debate over whether featured snippets send you more traffic or take it away due to zero-click results, but consider the benefits featured snippets can bring even without the click. Whether featured snippets bring you traffic, increased brand visibility in the SERPs, or both, they’re an opportunity worth chasing.
Aaaand, that's a wrap!
Thanks for joining us at this year's MozCon! And a HUGE thank you to everyone (Mozzers, partners, and crew) who helped make this year's MozCon possible — we couldn't have done it without all of you.
What was your favorite moment of the entire conference? Tell us below in the comments! And don't forget to grab the speaker slides here!
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!
via Blogger https://ift.tt/2XSsv9C #blogger #bloggingtips #bloggerlife #bloggersgetsocial #ontheblog #writersofinstagram #writingprompt #instapoetry #writerscommunity #writersofig #writersblock #writerlife #writtenword #instawriters #spilledink #wordgasm #creativewriting #poetsofinstagram #blackoutpoetry #poetsofig
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MozCon 2019: Everything You Need to Know About Day Three
Posted by KameronJenkins
If the last day of MozCon felt like it went too fast or if you forgot everything that happened today (we wouldn't judge — there were so many insights), don't fret. We captured all of day three's takeaways so you could relive the magic of day three.
Don't forget to check out all the photos with Roger from the photobooth! They're available here in the MozCon Facebook group. Plus: You asked and we delivered: the 2019 MozCon speaker walk-on playlist is now live and available here for your streaming pleasure.
Cindy Krum— Fraggles, Mobile-First Indexing, & the SERP of the Future
If you were hit with an instant wave of nostalgia after hearing Cindy's walk out music, then you are in good company and you probably were not disappointed in the slightest by Cindy’s talk on Fraggles.
First learning of the day: Fraggles. Fragment + Handles. A piece of information and an anchor that scrolls directly to the information on the page @Suzzicks #MozCon
— Warrior Forum (@warriorforum) July 17, 2019
“Fraggles” are fragments + handles. A fragment is a piece of info on a page. A handle is something like a bookmark, jump link, or named anchor — they help people navigate through long pages to get what they’re looking for faster.
Ranking pages is an inefficient way to answer questions. One page can answer innumerable questions, so Google’s now can pull a single answer from multiple parts of your page, skipping sections they don’t think are as useful for a particular answer.
The implications for voice are huge! It means you don’t have to listen to your voice device spout off a page’s worth of text before your question is answered.
Google wants to index more than just websites. They want to organize the world’s information, not websites. Fraggles are a demonstration of that.
Luke Carthy — Killer Ecommerce CRO and UX Wins Using A SEO Crawler
Luke Carthy did warn us in his talk description that we should all flex our notetaking muscles for all the takeaways we would furiously jot down — and he wasn’t wrong.
“Traffic doesn’t always mean sales, and sales doesn’t always mean traffic.” @MrLukeCarthy #MozCon
— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 17, 2019
Traffic doesn’t always mean sales and sales don’t always mean traffic!
Custom extraction is a great tool for finding missed CRO opportunities. For example, Luke found huge opportunity on Best Buy’s website — thousands of people’s site searches were leading them to an unoptimized “no results found” page.
You can also use custom extraction to find what product recommendations you or your customers are using at scale! Did you know that 35% of what customers buy on Amazon and 75 percent of what people watch on Netflix are the results of these recommendations?
For example, are you showing near-exact products or are you showing complementary products? (hint: try the latter and you’ll likely increase your sales!)
Custom extraction from Screaming Frog allows you to scrape any data from the HTML of the web pages while crawling them.
Andy Crestodina — Content, Rankings, and Lead Generation: A Breakdown of the 1% Content Strategy
Next up, Andy of Orbit Media took the stage with a comprehensive breakdown of the most effective tactics for turning content into a high-powered content strategy. He also brought the fire with this sound advice that we can apply in both our work life and personal life.
If you write an amazing, high-traffic blog post, the people visiting it don't have commercial intent. People landing on a sales page have 50x higher intent. #mozcon @crestodina
— Mike Arnesen (@Mike_Arnesen) July 17, 2019
Blog visitors often don’t have commercial intent. One of the greatest ways to leverage blog posts for leads is by using the equity we generate from links to our helpful posts and passing that onto our product and service pages.
If you want links and shares, invest in original research! Not sure what to research? Look for unanswered questions or unproven statements in your industry and provide the data.
Original research may take longer than a standard post, but it’s much more effective! When you think about it this way, do you really have time to put out more, mediocre posts?
Give what you want to get. Want links? Link to people. Want comments? Comment on others people's work.
To optimize content for social engagement, it should feature real people, their faces, and their quotes.
Collaborating with other content creators on your content not only gives it built-in amplification, but it also leads to great connections and is just generally more fun.
Rob Ousbey — Running Your Own SEO Tests: Why It Matters & How to Do It Right
Google’s algorithms have changed a heck of a lot in recent years — what’s an SEO to do? Follow Rob’s advice — both fashion and SEO — who says that the answer lies in testing.
in head terms, it's about user engagement metrics. However, links are more correllated with long tail searches. @RobOusbey #Mozcon
— Matthew Decuir (@MattBasically) July 17, 2019
“This is the way we’ve always done it” isn’t sufficient justification for SEO tactics in today’s search landscape.
In the earlier days of the algorithm, it was much easier to demote spam than it was to promote what’s truly good.
Rob and his team had a theory that Google was beginning to rely more heavily on user experience and satisfaction than some of the more traditional ranking factors like links.
Through SEO A/B testing, they found that:
Google relies less heavily on link signals when it comes to the top half of the results on page 1.
Google relies more heavily on user experience for head terms (terms with high search volume), likely because they have more user data to draw from.
In the process of A/B testing, they also found that the same test often produces different results on different sites. The best way to succeed in today’s SEO landscape is to cultivate a culture of testing!
Greg Gifford — Dark Helmet's Guide to Local Domination with Google Posts and Q&A
If you’re a movie buff, you probably really appreciated Greg’s talk — he schooled us all in movie references and brought the fire with his insights on Google Posts and Q&A
Google Posts allows you to drive conversions without driving people to your site - convert on zero-click searches! @GregGifford #MozCon
— Ruth Burr Reedy (@ruthburr) July 17, 2019
The man behind #shoesofmozcon taught us that Google is the new home page for local businesses, so we should be leveraging the tools Google has given us to make our Google My Business profiles great. For example…
Google Posts
Images should be 1200x900 on google posts
Images are cropped slightly higher than the center and it’s not consistent every time
The image size of the thumbnail is different on desktop than it is on mobile
Use Greg’s free tool at bit.ly/posts-image-guide to make sizing your Google Post images easier
You can also upload videos. The file size limit is 100mb and/or 30 seconds
Add a call-to-action button to make your Posts worth it! Just know that the button often means you get less real estate for text in your Posts
Don’t share social fluff. Attract with an offer that makes you stand out
Make sure you use UTM tracking so you can understand how your Posts are performing in Google Analytics. Otherwise, it’ll be attributed as direct traffic.
Google Q&A
Anyone can ask and answer questions — why not the business owner! Control the conversation and treat this feature like it's your new FAQ page.
This feature works on an upvote system. The answer with the most upvotes will show first.
Don’t include a URL or phone number in these because it’ll get filtered out.
A lot of these questions are potential customers! Out of 640 car dealerships’ Q&As Greg evaluated, 40 percent were leads! Of that 40 percent, only 2 questions were answered by the dealership.
Emily Triplett Lentz — How to Audit for Inclusive Content
Emily of Help Scout walked dropped major knowledge on the importance of spotting and eliminating biases that frequently find their way into online copy. She also hung out backstage after her talk to cheer on her fellow speakers. #GOAT. #notallheroeswearcapes.
"My desire for a specific word choice doesn't negate someone else's need for safety" -- @emilytlentz #MozCon pic.twitter.com/sXF2CjXVzo
— Yosef Silver (@ysilver) July 17, 2019
As content creators, we’d all do well to keep ableism in mind: discrimination in favor of able-bodied people. However, we’re often guilty of this without even knowing it.
One example of ableism that often makes its way into our copy is comparing dire or subideal situations with the physical state of another human (ex: “crippling”).
While we should work on making our casual conversation more inclusive too, this is particularly important for brands.
Create a list of ableist words, crawl your site for them, and then replace them. However, you’ll likely find that there is no one-size-fits-all replacement for these words. We often use words like “crazy” as filler words. By removing or replacing with a more appropriate word, we make our content better and more descriptive in the process.
At the end of the day, brands should remember that their desire for freedom of word choice isn’t more important than people’s right not to feel excluded and hurt. When there’s really no downside to more inclusive content, why wouldn’t we do it?
Visit http://content.helpscout.net/mozcon-2019 to learn how to audit your site for inclusive content!
Joelle Irvine — Image & Visual Search Optimization Opportunities
Curious about image optimization and visual search? Joelle has the goods for you — and was blowing people's minds with her tips for visual optimization and how to leverage Google Lens, Pinterest, and AR for visual search.
“Visual search is easier when you don’t know what you’re looking for, when you’re looking to match a particular style, and when your search way is too long or complicated.” @joelleirvine #MozCon
— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 17, 2019
Visual search is not the same thing as searching for images. We’re talking about the process of using an image to search for other content.
Visual search like Google Lens makes it easier to search when you don’t know what you’re looking for.
Pinterest has made a lot of progress in this area. They have a hybrid search that allows you to find complimentary items to the one you searched. It’s like finding a rug that matches a chair you like rather than finding more of the same type of chair.
62 percent of millennials surveyed said they would like to be able to search by visual, so while this is mostly being used by clothing retailers and home decor right now, visual search is only going to get better, so think about the ways you can leverage it for your brand!
Joy Hawkins — Factors that Affect the Local Algorithm that Don't Impact Organic
Proximity varies greatly when comparing local and organic results — just ask Joy of Sterling Sky, who gets real about fake listings while walking through the findings of a recent study.
Local results not only vary by city, but even within the same zip codes, there can be drastically different local results. @JoyanneHawkins #mozcon pic.twitter.com/8g6acxUDAq
— Lily Ray (@lilyraynyc) July 17, 2019
Here are the seven areas in which the local algorithm diverges from the organic algorithm:
Proximity (AKA: how close is the biz to the searcher?)
Proximity is the #1 local ranking factor, but the #27 ranking factor on organic.
Studies show that having a business that’s close in proximity to the searcher is more beneficial for ranking in the local pack than in traditional organic results.
Rank tracking
Because there is so much variance by latitude/longitude, as well as hourly variances, Joy recommends not sending your local business clients ranking reports.
Use rank tracking internally, but send clients the leads/sales. This causes less confusion and gets them focused on the main goal.
Visit bit.ly/mozcon3 for insights on how to track leads from GMB
GMB landing pages (AKA: the website URL you link to from your GMB account)
Joy tested linking to the home page (which had more authority/prominence) vs. linking to the local landing page (which had more relevance) and found that traffic went way up when linking to the home page.
Before you go switching all your GMB links though, test this for yourself!
Reviews
Joy wanted to know how much reviews actually impacted ranking, and what it was exactly about reviews that would help or hurt.
She decided to see what would happen to rankings when reviews were removed. This happened to a business who was review gating (a violation of Google’s guidelines) but Joy found that reviews flagged for violations aren’t actually removed, they’re hidden, explaining why “removed” reviews don’t negatively impact local rankings.
Possum filter
Organic results can get filtered because of duplicate content, whereas local results can get filtered because they’re too close to another business in the same category. This is called the Possum filter.
Keywords in a business name
This is against Google’s guidelines but it works sadly
For example, Joy tested adding the word “salad bar” to a listing that didn’t even have a salad bar and their local rankings for that keyword shot up.
Although it works, don’t do it! Google can remove your listing for this type of violation, and they’ve been removing more listings for this reason lately.
Fake listings
New listings can rank even if they have no website, authority, citations, etc. simply because they keyword stuffed their business name. These types of rankings can happen overnight, whereas it can take a year or more to achieve certain organic rankings.
Spend time reporting spam listings in your clients’ niches because it can improve your clients’ local rankings.
Britney Muller — Featured Snippets: Essentials to Know & How to Target
Closing out day three of MozCon was our very own Britney, Sr. SEO scientist extraordinaire, on everyone’s favorite SEO topic: Featured snippets!
Why are we so concerned about traffic? What about branding/messaging/share of voice? You can't NOT target a keyword just because it has a Featured Snippet @BritneyMuller #MozCon
— Ruth Burr Reedy (@ruthburr) July 17, 2019
We’re seeing more featured snippets than ever before, and they’re not likely going away. It’s time to start capitalizing on this SERP feature so we can start earning brand awareness and traffic for our clients!
Here’s how:
Know what keywords trigger featured snippets that you rank on page 1 for
Know the searcher’s intent
Provide succinct answers
Add summaries to popular posts
Identify commonly asked questions
Leverage Google’s NLP API
Monitor featured snippets
If all else fails, leverage ranking third party sites. Maybe your own site has low authority and isn’t ranking well, but try publishing on Linkedin or Medium instead to get the snippet!
There’s lots of debate over whether featured snippets send you more traffic or take it away due to zero-click results, but consider the benefits featured snippets can bring even without the click. Whether featured snippets bring you traffic, increased brand visibility in the SERPs, or both, they’re an opportunity worth chasing.
Aaaand, that's a wrap!
Thanks for joining us at this year's MozCon! And a HUGE thank you to everyone (Mozzers, partners, and crew) who helped make this year's MozCon possible — we couldn't have done it without all of you.
What was your favorite moment of the entire conference? Tell us below in the comments! And don't forget to grab the speaker slides here!
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!
from The Moz Blog http://tracking.feedpress.it/link/9375/12673903
0 notes
Text
MozCon 2019: Everything You Need to Know About Day Three
Posted by KameronJenkins
If the last day of MozCon felt like it went too fast or if you forgot everything that happened today (we wouldn't judge — there were so many insights), don't fret. We captured all of day three's takeaways so you could relive the magic of day three.
Don't forget to check out all the photos with Roger from the photobooth! They're available here in the MozCon Facebook group. Plus: You asked and we delivered: the 2019 MozCon speaker walk-on playlist is now live and available here for your streaming pleasure.
Cindy Krum— Fraggles, Mobile-First Indexing, & the SERP of the Future
If you were hit with an instant wave of nostalgia after hearing Cindy's walk out music, then you are in good company and you probably were not disappointed in the slightest by Cindy’s talk on Fraggles.
First learning of the day: Fraggles. Fragment + Handles. A piece of information and an anchor that scrolls directly to the information on the page @Suzzicks #MozCon
— Warrior Forum (@warriorforum) July 17, 2019
“Fraggles” are fragments + handles. A fragment is a piece of info on a page. A handle is something like a bookmark, jump link, or named anchor — they help people navigate through long pages to get what they’re looking for faster.
Ranking pages is an inefficient way to answer questions. One page can answer innumerable questions, so Google’s now can pull a single answer from multiple parts of your page, skipping sections they don’t think are as useful for a particular answer.
The implications for voice are huge! It means you don’t have to listen to your voice device spout off a page’s worth of text before your question is answered.
Google wants to index more than just websites. They want to organize the world’s information, not websites. Fraggles are a demonstration of that.
Luke Carthy — Killer Ecommerce CRO and UX Wins Using A SEO Crawler
Luke Carthy did warn us in his talk description that we should all flex our notetaking muscles for all the takeaways we would furiously jot down — and he wasn’t wrong.
“Traffic doesn’t always mean sales, and sales doesn’t always mean traffic.” @MrLukeCarthy #MozCon
— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 17, 2019
Traffic doesn’t always mean sales and sales don’t always mean traffic!
Custom extraction is a great tool for finding missed CRO opportunities. For example, Luke found huge opportunity on Best Buy’s website — thousands of people’s site searches were leading them to an unoptimized “no results found” page.
You can also use custom extraction to find what product recommendations you or your customers are using at scale! Did you know that 35% of what customers buy on Amazon and 75 percent of what people watch on Netflix are the results of these recommendations?
For example, are you showing near-exact products or are you showing complementary products? (hint: try the latter and you’ll likely increase your sales!)
Custom extraction from Screaming Frog allows you to scrape any data from the HTML of the web pages while crawling them.
Andy Crestodina — Content, Rankings, and Lead Generation: A Breakdown of the 1% Content Strategy
Next up, Andy of Orbit Media took the stage with a comprehensive breakdown of the most effective tactics for turning content into a high-powered content strategy. He also brought the fire with this sound advice that we can apply in both our work life and personal life.
If you write an amazing, high-traffic blog post, the people visiting it don't have commercial intent. People landing on a sales page have 50x higher intent. #mozcon @crestodina
— Mike Arnesen (@Mike_Arnesen) July 17, 2019
Blog visitors often don’t have commercial intent. One of the greatest ways to leverage blog posts for leads is by using the equity we generate from links to our helpful posts and passing that onto our product and service pages.
If you want links and shares, invest in original research! Not sure what to research? Look for unanswered questions or unproven statements in your industry and provide the data.
Original research may take longer than a standard post, but it’s much more effective! When you think about it this way, do you really have time to put out more, mediocre posts?
Give what you want to get. Want links? Link to people. Want comments? Comment on others people's work.
To optimize content for social engagement, it should feature real people, their faces, and their quotes.
Collaborating with other content creators on your content not only gives it built-in amplification, but it also leads to great connections and is just generally more fun.
Rob Ousbey — Running Your Own SEO Tests: Why It Matters & How to Do It Right
Google’s algorithms have changed a heck of a lot in recent years — what’s an SEO to do? Follow Rob’s advice — both fashion and SEO — who says that the answer lies in testing.
in head terms, it's about user engagement metrics. However, links are more correllated with long tail searches. @RobOusbey #Mozcon
— Matthew Decuir (@MattBasically) July 17, 2019
“This is the way we’ve always done it” isn’t sufficient justification for SEO tactics in today’s search landscape.
In the earlier days of the algorithm, it was much easier to demote spam than it was to promote what’s truly good.
Rob and his team had a theory that Google was beginning to rely more heavily on user experience and satisfaction than some of the more traditional ranking factors like links.
Through SEO A/B testing, they found that:
Google relies less heavily on link signals when it comes to the top half of the results on page 1.
Google relies more heavily on user experience for head terms (terms with high search volume), likely because they have more user data to draw from.
In the process of A/B testing, they also found that the same test often produces different results on different sites. The best way to succeed in today’s SEO landscape is to cultivate a culture of testing!
Greg Gifford — Dark Helmet's Guide to Local Domination with Google Posts and Q&A
If you’re a movie buff, you probably really appreciated Greg’s talk — he schooled us all in movie references and brought the fire with his insights on Google Posts and Q&A
Google Posts allows you to drive conversions without driving people to your site - convert on zero-click searches! @GregGifford #MozCon
— Ruth Burr Reedy (@ruthburr) July 17, 2019
The man behind #shoesofmozcon taught us that Google is the new home page for local businesses, so we should be leveraging the tools Google has given us to make our Google My Business profiles great. For example…
Google Posts
Images should be 1200x900 on google posts
Images are cropped slightly higher than the center and it’s not consistent every time
The image size of the thumbnail is different on desktop than it is on mobile
Use Greg’s free tool at bit.ly/posts-image-guide to make sizing your Google Post images easier
You can also upload videos. The file size limit is 100mb and/or 30 seconds
Add a call-to-action button to make your Posts worth it! Just know that the button often means you get less real estate for text in your Posts
Don’t share social fluff. Attract with an offer that makes you stand out
Make sure you use UTM tracking so you can understand how your Posts are performing in Google Analytics. Otherwise, it’ll be attributed as direct traffic.
Google Q&A
Anyone can ask and answer questions — why not the business owner! Control the conversation and treat this feature like it's your new FAQ page.
This feature works on an upvote system. The answer with the most upvotes will show first.
Don’t include a URL or phone number in these because it’ll get filtered out.
A lot of these questions are potential customers! Out of 640 car dealerships’ Q&As Greg evaluated, 40 percent were leads! Of that 40 percent, only 2 questions were answered by the dealership.
Emily Triplett Lentz — How to Audit for Inclusive Content
Emily of Help Scout walked dropped major knowledge on the importance of spotting and eliminating biases that frequently find their way into online copy. She also hung out backstage after her talk to cheer on her fellow speakers. #GOAT. #notallheroeswearcapes.
"My desire for a specific word choice doesn't negate someone else's need for safety" -- @emilytlentz #MozCon pic.twitter.com/sXF2CjXVzo
— Yosef Silver (@ysilver) July 17, 2019
As content creators, we’d all do well to keep ableism in mind: discrimination in favor of able-bodied people. However, we’re often guilty of this without even knowing it.
One example of ableism that often makes its way into our copy is comparing dire or subideal situations with the physical state of another human (ex: “crippling”).
While we should work on making our casual conversation more inclusive too, this is particularly important for brands.
Create a list of ableist words, crawl your site for them, and then replace them. However, you’ll likely find that there is no one-size-fits-all replacement for these words. We often use words like “crazy” as filler words. By removing or replacing with a more appropriate word, we make our content better and more descriptive in the process.
At the end of the day, brands should remember that their desire for freedom of word choice isn’t more important than people’s right not to feel excluded and hurt. When there’s really no downside to more inclusive content, why wouldn’t we do it?
Visit http://content.helpscout.net/mozcon-2019 to learn how to audit your site for inclusive content!
Joelle Irvine — Image & Visual Search Optimization Opportunities
Curious about image optimization and visual search? Joelle has the goods for you — and was blowing people's minds with her tips for visual optimization and how to leverage Google Lens, Pinterest, and AR for visual search.
“Visual search is easier when you don’t know what you’re looking for, when you’re looking to match a particular style, and when your search way is too long or complicated.” @joelleirvine #MozCon
— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 17, 2019
Visual search is not the same thing as searching for images. We’re talking about the process of using an image to search for other content.
Visual search like Google Lens makes it easier to search when you don’t know what you’re looking for.
Pinterest has made a lot of progress in this area. They have a hybrid search that allows you to find complimentary items to the one you searched. It’s like finding a rug that matches a chair you like rather than finding more of the same type of chair.
62 percent of millennials surveyed said they would like to be able to search by visual, so while this is mostly being used by clothing retailers and home decor right now, visual search is only going to get better, so think about the ways you can leverage it for your brand!
Joy Hawkins — Factors that Affect the Local Algorithm that Don't Impact Organic
Proximity varies greatly when comparing local and organic results — just ask Joy of Sterling Sky, who gets real about fake listings while walking through the findings of a recent study.
Local results not only vary by city, but even within the same zip codes, there can be drastically different local results. @JoyanneHawkins #mozcon pic.twitter.com/8g6acxUDAq
— Lily Ray (@lilyraynyc) July 17, 2019
Here are the seven areas in which the local algorithm diverges from the organic algorithm:
Proximity (AKA: how close is the biz to the searcher?)
Proximity is the #1 local ranking factor, but the #27 ranking factor on organic.
Studies show that having a business that’s close in proximity to the searcher is more beneficial for ranking in the local pack than in traditional organic results.
Rank tracking
Because there is so much variance by latitude/longitude, as well as hourly variances, Joy recommends not sending your local business clients ranking reports.
Use rank tracking internally, but send clients the leads/sales. This causes less confusion and gets them focused on the main goal.
Visit bit.ly/mozcon3 for insights on how to track leads from GMB
GMB landing pages (AKA: the website URL you link to from your GMB account)
Joy tested linking to the home page (which had more authority/prominence) vs. linking to the local landing page (which had more relevance) and found that traffic went way up when linking to the home page.
Before you go switching all your GMB links though, test this for yourself!
Reviews
Joy wanted to know how much reviews actually impacted ranking, and what it was exactly about reviews that would help or hurt.
She decided to see what would happen to rankings when reviews were removed. This happened to a business who was review gating (a violation of Google’s guidelines) but Joy found that reviews flagged for violations aren’t actually removed, they’re hidden, explaining why “removed” reviews don’t negatively impact local rankings.
Possum filter
Organic results can get filtered because of duplicate content, whereas local results can get filtered because they’re too close to another business in the same category. This is called the Possum filter.
Keywords in a business name
This is against Google’s guidelines but it works sadly
For example, Joy tested adding the word “salad bar” to a listing that didn’t even have a salad bar and their local rankings for that keyword shot up.
Although it works, don’t do it! Google can remove your listing for this type of violation, and they’ve been removing more listings for this reason lately.
Fake listings
New listings can rank even if they have no website, authority, citations, etc. simply because they keyword stuffed their business name. These types of rankings can happen overnight, whereas it can take a year or more to achieve certain organic rankings.
Spend time reporting spam listings in your clients’ niches because it can improve your clients’ local rankings.
Britney Muller — Featured Snippets: Essentials to Know & How to Target
Closing out day three of MozCon was our very own Britney, Sr. SEO scientist extraordinaire, on everyone’s favorite SEO topic: Featured snippets!
Why are we so concerned about traffic? What about branding/messaging/share of voice? You can't NOT target a keyword just because it has a Featured Snippet @BritneyMuller #MozCon
— Ruth Burr Reedy (@ruthburr) July 17, 2019
We’re seeing more featured snippets than ever before, and they’re not likely going away. It’s time to start capitalizing on this SERP feature so we can start earning brand awareness and traffic for our clients!
Here’s how:
Know what keywords trigger featured snippets that you rank on page 1 for
Know the searcher’s intent
Provide succinct answers
Add summaries to popular posts
Identify commonly asked questions
Leverage Google’s NLP API
Monitor featured snippets
If all else fails, leverage ranking third party sites. Maybe your own site has low authority and isn’t ranking well, but try publishing on Linkedin or Medium instead to get the snippet!
There’s lots of debate over whether featured snippets send you more traffic or take it away due to zero-click results, but consider the benefits featured snippets can bring even without the click. Whether featured snippets bring you traffic, increased brand visibility in the SERPs, or both, they’re an opportunity worth chasing.
Aaaand, that's a wrap!
Thanks for joining us at this year's MozCon! And a HUGE thank you to everyone (Mozzers, partners, and crew) who helped make this year's MozCon possible — we couldn't have done it without all of you.
What was your favorite moment of the entire conference? Tell us below in the comments! And don't forget to grab the speaker slides here!
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!
from The Moz Blog https://ift.tt/2GdsthR via IFTTT
0 notes
Text
MozCon 2019: Everything You Need to Know About Day Three
Posted by KameronJenkins
If the last day of MozCon felt like it went too fast or if you forgot everything that happened today (we wouldn't judge — there were so many insights), don't fret. We captured all of day three's takeaways so you could relive the magic of day three.
Don't forget to check out all the photos with Roger from the photobooth! They're available here in the MozCon Facebook group. Plus: You asked and we delivered: the 2019 MozCon speaker walk-on playlist is now live and available here for your streaming pleasure.
Cindy Krum— Fraggles, Mobile-First Indexing, & the SERP of the Future
If you were hit with an instant wave of nostalgia after hearing Cindy's walk out music, then you are in good company and you probably were not disappointed in the slightest by Cindy’s talk on Fraggles.
First learning of the day: Fraggles. Fragment + Handles. A piece of information and an anchor that scrolls directly to the information on the page @Suzzicks #MozCon
— Warrior Forum (@warriorforum) July 17, 2019
“Fraggles” are fragments + handles. A fragment is a piece of info on a page. A handle is something like a bookmark, jump link, or named anchor — they help people navigate through long pages to get what they’re looking for faster.
Ranking pages is an inefficient way to answer questions. One page can answer innumerable questions, so Google’s now can pull a single answer from multiple parts of your page, skipping sections they don’t think are as useful for a particular answer.
The implications for voice are huge! It means you don’t have to listen to your voice device spout off a page’s worth of text before your question is answered.
Google wants to index more than just websites. They want to organize the world’s information, not websites. Fraggles are a demonstration of that.
Luke Carthy — Killer Ecommerce CRO and UX Wins Using A SEO Crawler
Luke Carthy did warn us in his talk description that we should all flex our notetaking muscles for all the takeaways we would furiously jot down — and he wasn’t wrong.
“Traffic doesn’t always mean sales, and sales doesn’t always mean traffic.” @MrLukeCarthy #MozCon
— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 17, 2019
Traffic doesn’t always mean sales and sales don’t always mean traffic!
Custom extraction is a great tool for finding missed CRO opportunities. For example, Luke found huge opportunity on Best Buy’s website — thousands of people’s site searches were leading them to an unoptimized “no results found” page.
You can also use custom extraction to find what product recommendations you or your customers are using at scale! Did you know that 35% of what customers buy on Amazon and 75 percent of what people watch on Netflix are the results of these recommendations?
For example, are you showing near-exact products or are you showing complementary products? (hint: try the latter and you’ll likely increase your sales!)
Custom extraction from Screaming Frog allows you to scrape any data from the HTML of the web pages while crawling them.
Andy Crestodina — Content, Rankings, and Lead Generation: A Breakdown of the 1% Content Strategy
Next up, Andy of Orbit Media took the stage with a comprehensive breakdown of the most effective tactics for turning content into a high-powered content strategy. He also brought the fire with this sound advice that we can apply in both our work life and personal life.
If you write an amazing, high-traffic blog post, the people visiting it don't have commercial intent. People landing on a sales page have 50x higher intent. #mozcon @crestodina
— Mike Arnesen (@Mike_Arnesen) July 17, 2019
Blog visitors often don’t have commercial intent. One of the greatest ways to leverage blog posts for leads is by using the equity we generate from links to our helpful posts and passing that onto our product and service pages.
If you want links and shares, invest in original research! Not sure what to research? Look for unanswered questions or unproven statements in your industry and provide the data.
Original research may take longer than a standard post, but it’s much more effective! When you think about it this way, do you really have time to put out more, mediocre posts?
Give what you want to get. Want links? Link to people. Want comments? Comment on others people's work.
To optimize content for social engagement, it should feature real people, their faces, and their quotes.
Collaborating with other content creators on your content not only gives it built-in amplification, but it also leads to great connections and is just generally more fun.
Rob Ousbey — Running Your Own SEO Tests: Why It Matters & How to Do It Right
Google’s algorithms have changed a heck of a lot in recent years — what’s an SEO to do? Follow Rob’s advice — both fashion and SEO — who says that the answer lies in testing.
in head terms, it's about user engagement metrics. However, links are more correllated with long tail searches. @RobOusbey #Mozcon
— Matthew Decuir (@MattBasically) July 17, 2019
“This is the way we’ve always done it” isn’t sufficient justification for SEO tactics in today’s search landscape.
In the earlier days of the algorithm, it was much easier to demote spam than it was to promote what’s truly good.
Rob and his team had a theory that Google was beginning to rely more heavily on user experience and satisfaction than some of the more traditional ranking factors like links.
Through SEO A/B testing, they found that:
Google relies less heavily on link signals when it comes to the top half of the results on page 1.
Google relies more heavily on user experience for head terms (terms with high search volume), likely because they have more user data to draw from.
In the process of A/B testing, they also found that the same test often produces different results on different sites. The best way to succeed in today’s SEO landscape is to cultivate a culture of testing!
Greg Gifford — Dark Helmet's Guide to Local Domination with Google Posts and Q&A
If you’re a movie buff, you probably really appreciated Greg’s talk — he schooled us all in move references and brought the fire with his insights on Google Posts and Q&A
Google Posts allows you to drive conversions without driving people to your site - convert on zero-click searches! @GregGifford #MozCon
— Ruth Burr Reedy (@ruthburr) July 17, 2019
The man behind #shoesofmozcon taught us that Google is the new home page for local businesses, so we should be leveraging the tools Google has given us to make our Google My Business profiles great. For example…
Google Posts
Images should be 1200x900 on google posts
Images are cropped slightly higher than the center and it’s not consistent every time
The image size of the thumbnail is different on desktop than it is on mobile
Use Greg’s free tool at bit.ly/posts-image-guide to make sizing your Google Post images easier
You can also upload videos. The file size limit is 100mb and/or 30 seconds
Add a call-to-action button to make your Posts worth it! Just know that the button often means you get less real estate for text in your Posts
Don’t share social fluff. Attract with an offer that makes you stand out
Make sure you use UTM tracking so you can understand how your Posts are performing in Google Analytics. Otherwise, it’ll be attributed as direct traffic.
Google Q&A
Anyone can ask and answer questions — why not the business owner! Control the conversation and treat this feature like it's your new FAQ page.
This feature works on an upvote system. The answer with the most upvotes will show first.
Don’t include a URL or phone number in these because it’ll get filtered out.
A lot of these questions are potential customers! Out of 640 car dealerships’ Q&As Greg evaluated, 40 percent were leads! Of that 40 percent, only 2 questions were answered by the dealership.
Emily Triplett Lentz — How to Audit for Inclusive Content
Emily of Help Scout walked dropped major knowledge on the importance of spotting and eliminating biases that frequently find their way into online copy. She also hung out backstage after her talk to cheer on her fellow speakers. #GOAT. #notallheroeswearcapes.
"My desire for a specific word choice doesn't negate someone else's need for safety" -- @emilytlentz #MozCon pic.twitter.com/sXF2CjXVzo
— Yosef Silver (@ysilver) July 17, 2019
As content creators, we’d all do well to keep ableism in mind: discrimination in favor of able-bodied people. However, we’re often guilty of this without even knowing it.
One example of ableism that often makes its way into our copy is comparing dire or subideal situations with the physical state of another human (ex: “crippling”).
While we should work on making our casual conversation more inclusive too, this is particularly important for brands.
Create a list of ableist words, crawl your site for them, and then replace them. However, you’ll likely find that there is no one-size-fits-all replacement for these words. We often use words like “crazy” as filler words. By removing or replacing with a more appropriate word, we make our content better and more descriptive in the process.
At the end of the day, brands should remember that their desire for freedom of word choice isn’t more important than people’s right not to feel excluded and hurt. When there’s really no downside to more inclusive content, why wouldn’t we do it?
Visit http://content.helpscout.net/mozcon-2019 to learn how to audit your site for inclusive content!
Joelle Irvine — Image & Visual Search Optimization Opportunities
Curious about image optimization and visual search? Joelle has the goods for you — and was blowing people's minds with her tips for visual optimization and how to leverage Google Lens, Pinterest, and AR for visual search.
“Visual search is easier when you don’t know what you’re looking for, when you’re looking to match a particular style, and when your search way is too long or complicated.” @joelleirvine #MozCon
— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 17, 2019
Visual search is not the same thing as searching for images. We’re talking about the process of using an image to search for other content.
Visual search like Google Lens makes it easier to search when you don’t know what you’re looking for.
Pinterest has made a lot of progress in this area. They have a hybrid search that allows you to find complimentary items to the one you searched. It’s like finding a rug that matches a chair you like rather than finding more of the same type of chair.
62 percent of millennials surveyed said they would like to be able to search by visual, so while this is mostly being used by clothing retailers and home decor right now, visual search is only going to get better, so think about the ways you can leverage it for your brand!
Joy Hawkins — Factors that Affect the Local Algorithm that Don't Impact Organic
Proximity varies greatly when comparing local and organic results — just ask Joy of Sterling Sky, who gets real about fake listings while walking through the findings of a recent study.
Local results not only vary by city, but even within the same zip codes, there can be drastically different local results. @JoyanneHawkins #mozcon pic.twitter.com/8g6acxUDAq
— Lily Ray (@lilyraynyc) July 17, 2019
Here are the seven areas in which the local algorithm diverges from the organic algorithm:
Proximity (AKA: how close is the biz to the searcher?)
Proximity is the #1 local ranking factor, but the #27 ranking factor on organic.
Studies show that having a business that’s close in proximity to the searcher is more beneficial for ranking in the local pack than in traditional organic results.
Rank tracking
Because there is so much variance by latitude/longitude, as well as hourly variances, Joy recommends not sending your local business clients ranking reports.
Use rank tracking internally, but send clients the leads/sales. This causes less confusion and gets them focused on the main goal.
Visit bit.ly/mozcon3 for insights on how to track leads from GMB
GMB landing pages (AKA: the website URL you link to from your GMB account)
Joy tested linking to the home page (which had more authority/prominence) vs. linking to the local landing page (which had more relevance) and found that traffic went way up when linking to the home page.
Before you go switching all your GMB links though, test this for yourself!
Reviews
Joy wanted to know how much reviews actually impacted ranking, and what it was exactly about reviews that would help or hurt.
She decided to see what would happen to rankings when reviews were removed. This happened to a business who was review gating (a violation of Google’s guidelines) but Joy found that reviews flagged for violations aren’t actually removed, they’re hidden, explaining why “removed” reviews don’t negatively impact local rankings.
Possum filter
Organic results can get filtered because of duplicate content, whereas local results can get filtered because they’re too close to another business in the same category. This is called the Possum filter.
Keywords in a business name
This is against Google’s guidelines but it works sadly
For example, Joy tested adding the word “salad bar” to a listing that didn’t even have a salad bar and their local rankings for that keyword shot up.
Although it works, don’t do it! Google can remove your listing for this type of violation, and they’ve been removing more listings for this reason lately.
Fake listings
New listings can rank even if they have no website, authority, citations, etc. simply because they keyword stuffed their business name. These types of rankings can happen overnight, whereas it can take a year or more to achieve certain organic rankings.
Spend time reporting spam listings in your clients’ niches because it can improve your clients’ local rankings.
Britney Muller — Featured Snippets: Essentials to Know & How to Target
Closing out day three of MozCon was our very own Britney, Sr. SEO scientist extraordinaire, on everyone’s favorite SEO topic: Featured snippets!
Why are we so concerned about traffic? What about branding/messaging/share of voice? You can't NOT target a keyword just because it has a Featured Snippet @BritneyMuller #MozCon
— Ruth Burr Reedy (@ruthburr) July 17, 2019
We’re seeing more featured snippets than ever before, and they’re not likely going away. It’s time to start capitalizing on this SERP feature so we can start earning brand awareness and traffic for our clients!
Here’s how:
Know what keywords trigger featured snippets that you rank on page 1 for
Know the searcher’s intent
Provide succinct answers
Add summaries to popular posts
Identify commonly asked questions
Leverage Google’s NLP API
Monitor featured snippets
If all else fails, leverage ranking third party sites. Maybe your own site has low authority and isn’t ranking well, but try publishing on Linkedin or Medium instead to get the snippet!
There’s lots of debate over whether featured snippets send you more traffic or take it away due to zero-click results, but consider the benefits featured snippets can bring even without the click. Whether featured snippets bring you traffic, increased brand visibility in the SERPs, or both, they’re an opportunity worth chasing.
Aaaand, that's a wrap!
Thanks for joining us at this year's MozCon! And a HUGE thank you to everyone (Mozzers, partners, and crew) who helped make this year's MozCon possible — we couldn't have done it without all of you.
What was your favorite moment of the entire conference? Tell us below in the comments! And don't forget to grab the speaker slides here!
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!
0 notes
Text
MozCon 2019: Everything You Need to Know About Day Three
Posted by KameronJenkins
If the last day of MozCon felt like it went too fast or if you forgot everything that happened today (we wouldn't judge — there were so many insights), don't fret. We captured all of day three's takeaways so you could relive the magic of day three.
Don't forget to check out all the photos with Roger from the photobooth! They're available here in the MozCon Facebook group. Plus: You asked and we delivered: the 2019 MozCon speaker walk-on playlist is now live and available here for your streaming pleasure.
Cindy Krum— Fraggles, Mobile-First Indexing, & the SERP of the Future
If you were hit with an instant wave of nostalgia after hearing Cindy's walk out music, then you are in good company and you probably were not disappointed in the slightest by Cindy’s talk on Fraggles.
First learning of the day: Fraggles. Fragment + Handles. A piece of information and an anchor that scrolls directly to the information on the page @Suzzicks #MozCon
— Warrior Forum (@warriorforum) July 17, 2019
“Fraggles” are fragments + handles. A fragment is a piece of info on a page. A handle is something like a bookmark, jump link, or named anchor — they help people navigate through long pages to get what they’re looking for faster.
Ranking pages is an inefficient way to answer questions. One page can answer innumerable questions, so Google’s now can pull a single answer from multiple parts of your page, skipping sections they don’t think are as useful for a particular answer.
The implications for voice are huge! It means you don’t have to listen to your voice device spout off a page’s worth of text before your question is answered.
Google wants to index more than just websites. They want to organize the world’s information, not websites. Fraggles are a demonstration of that.
Luke Carthy — Killer Ecommerce CRO and UX Wins Using A SEO Crawler
Luke Carthy did warn us in his talk description that we should all flex our notetaking muscles for all the takeaways we would furiously jot down — and he wasn’t wrong.
“Traffic doesn’t always mean sales, and sales doesn’t always mean traffic.” @MrLukeCarthy #MozCon
— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 17, 2019
Traffic doesn’t always mean sales and sales don’t always mean traffic!
Custom extraction is a great tool for finding missed CRO opportunities. For example, Luke found huge opportunity on Best Buy’s website — thousands of people’s site searches were leading them to an unoptimized “no results found” page.
You can also use custom extraction to find what product recommendations you or your customers are using at scale! Did you know that 35% of what customers buy on Amazon and 75 percent of what people watch on Netflix are the results of these recommendations?
For example, are you showing near-exact products or are you showing complementary products? (hint: try the latter and you’ll likely increase your sales!)
Custom extraction from Screaming Frog allows you to scrape any data from the HTML of the web pages while crawling them.
Andy Crestodina — Content, Rankings, and Lead Generation: A Breakdown of the 1% Content Strategy
Next up, Andy of Orbit Media took the stage with a comprehensive breakdown of the most effective tactics for turning content into a high-powered content strategy. He also brought the fire with this sound advice that we can apply in both our work life and personal life.
If you write an amazing, high-traffic blog post, the people visiting it don't have commercial intent. People landing on a sales page have 50x higher intent. #mozcon @crestodina
— Mike Arnesen (@Mike_Arnesen) July 17, 2019
Blog visitors often don’t have commercial intent. One of the greatest ways to leverage blog posts for leads is by using the equity we generate from links to our helpful posts and passing that onto our product and service pages.
If you want links and shares, invest in original research! Not sure what to research? Look for unanswered questions or unproven statements in your industry and provide the data.
Original research may take longer than a standard post, but it’s much more effective! When you think about it this way, do you really have time to put out more, mediocre posts?
Give what you want to get. Want links? Link to people. Want comments? Comment on others people's work.
To optimize content for social engagement, it should feature real people, their faces, and their quotes.
Collaborating with other content creators on your content not only gives it built-in amplification, but it also leads to great connections and is just generally more fun.
Rob Ousbey — Running Your Own SEO Tests: Why It Matters & How to Do It Right
Google’s algorithms have changed a heck of a lot in recent years — what’s an SEO to do? Follow Rob’s advice — both fashion and SEO — who says that the answer lies in testing.
in head terms, it's about user engagement metrics. However, links are more correllated with long tail searches. @RobOusbey #Mozcon
— Matthew Decuir (@MattBasically) July 17, 2019
“This is the way we’ve always done it” isn’t sufficient justification for SEO tactics in today’s search landscape.
In the earlier days of the algorithm, it was much easier to demote spam than it was to promote what’s truly good.
Rob and his team had a theory that Google was beginning to rely more heavily on user experience and satisfaction than some of the more traditional ranking factors like links.
Through SEO A/B testing, they found that:
Google relies less heavily on link signals when it comes to the top half of the results on page 1.
Google relies more heavily on user experience for head terms (terms with high search volume), likely because they have more user data to draw from.
In the process of A/B testing, they also found that the same test often produces different results on different sites. The best way to succeed in today’s SEO landscape is to cultivate a culture of testing!
Greg Gifford — Dark Helmet's Guide to Local Domination with Google Posts and Q&A
If you’re a movie buff, you probably really appreciated Greg’s talk — he schooled us all in move references and brought the fire with his insights on Google Posts and Q&A
Google Posts allows you to drive conversions without driving people to your site - convert on zero-click searches! @GregGifford #MozCon
— Ruth Burr Reedy (@ruthburr) July 17, 2019
The man behind #shoesofmozcon taught us that Google is the new home page for local businesses, so we should be leveraging the tools Google has given us to make our Google My Business profiles great. For example…
Google Posts
Images should be 1200x900 on google posts
Images are cropped slightly higher than the center and it’s not consistent every time
The image size of the thumbnail is different on desktop than it is on mobile
Use Greg’s free tool at bit.ly/posts-image-guide to make sizing your Google Post images easier
You can also upload videos. The file size limit is 100mb and/or 30 seconds
Add a call-to-action button to make your Posts worth it! Just know that the button often means you get less real estate for text in your Posts
Don’t share social fluff. Attract with an offer that makes you stand out
Make sure you use UTM tracking so you can understand how your Posts are performing in Google Analytics. Otherwise, it’ll be attributed as direct traffic.
Google Q&A
Anyone can ask and answer questions — why not the business owner! Control the conversation and treat this feature like it's your new FAQ page.
This feature works on an upvote system. The answer with the most upvotes will show first.
Don’t include a URL or phone number in these because it’ll get filtered out.
A lot of these questions are potential customers! Out of 640 car dealerships’ Q&As Greg evaluated, 40 percent were leads! Of that 40 percent, only 2 questions were answered by the dealership.
Emily Triplett Lentz — How to Audit for Inclusive Content
Emily of Help Scout walked dropped major knowledge on the importance of spotting and eliminating biases that frequently find their way into online copy. She also hung out backstage after her talk to cheer on her fellow speakers. #GOAT. #notallheroeswearcapes.
"My desire for a specific word choice doesn't negate someone else's need for safety" -- @emilytlentz #MozCon pic.twitter.com/sXF2CjXVzo
— Yosef Silver (@ysilver) July 17, 2019
As content creators, we’d all do well to keep ableism in mind: discrimination in favor of able-bodied people. However, we’re often guilty of this without even knowing it.
One example of ableism that often makes its way into our copy is comparing dire or subideal situations with the physical state of another human (ex: “crippling”).
While we should work on making our casual conversation more inclusive too, this is particularly important for brands.
Create a list of ableist words, crawl your site for them, and then replace them. However, you’ll likely find that there is no one-size-fits-all replacement for these words. We often use words like “crazy” as filler words. By removing or replacing with a more appropriate word, we make our content better and more descriptive in the process.
At the end of the day, brands should remember that their desire for freedom of word choice isn’t more important than people’s right not to feel excluded and hurt. When there’s really no downside to more inclusive content, why wouldn’t we do it?
Visit http://content.helpscout.net/mozcon-2019 to learn how to audit your site for inclusive content!
Joelle Irvine — Image & Visual Search Optimization Opportunities
Curious about image optimization and visual search? Joelle has the goods for you — and was blowing people's minds with her tips for visual optimization and how to leverage Google Lens, Pinterest, and AR for visual search.
“Visual search is easier when you don’t know what you’re looking for, when you’re looking to match a particular style, and when your search way is too long or complicated.” @joelleirvine #MozCon
— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 17, 2019
Visual search is not the same thing as searching for images. We’re talking about the process of using an image to search for other content.
Visual search like Google Lens makes it easier to search when you don’t know what you’re looking for.
Pinterest has made a lot of progress in this area. They have a hybrid search that allows you to find complimentary items to the one you searched. It’s like finding a rug that matches a chair you like rather than finding more of the same type of chair.
62 percent of millennials surveyed said they would like to be able to search by visual, so while this is mostly being used by clothing retailers and home decor right now, visual search is only going to get better, so think about the ways you can leverage it for your brand!
Joy Hawkins — Factors that Affect the Local Algorithm that Don't Impact Organic
Proximity varies greatly when comparing local and organic results — just ask Joy of Sterling Sky, who gets real about fake listings while walking through the findings of a recent study.
Local results not only vary by city, but even within the same zip codes, there can be drastically different local results. @JoyanneHawkins #mozcon pic.twitter.com/8g6acxUDAq
— Lily Ray (@lilyraynyc) July 17, 2019
Here are the seven areas in which the local algorithm diverges from the organic algorithm:
Proximity (AKA: how close is the biz to the searcher?)
Proximity is the #1 local ranking factor, but the #27 ranking factor on organic.
Studies show that having a business that’s close in proximity to the searcher is more beneficial for ranking in the local pack than in traditional organic results.
Rank tracking
Because there is so much variance by latitude/longitude, as well as hourly variances, Joy recommends not sending your local business clients ranking reports.
Use rank tracking internally, but send clients the leads/sales. This causes less confusion and gets them focused on the main goal.
Visit bit.ly/mozcon3 for insights on how to track leads from GMB
GMB landing pages (AKA: the website URL you link to from your GMB account)
Joy tested linking to the home page (which had more authority/prominence) vs. linking to the local landing page (which had more relevance) and found that traffic went way up when linking to the home page.
Before you go switching all your GMB links though, test this for yourself!
Reviews
Joy wanted to know how much reviews actually impacted ranking, and what it was exactly about reviews that would help or hurt.
She decided to see what would happen to rankings when reviews were removed. This happened to a business who was review gating (a violation of Google’s guidelines) but Joy found that reviews flagged for violations aren’t actually removed, they’re hidden, explaining why “removed” reviews don’t negatively impact local rankings.
Possum filter
Organic results can get filtered because of duplicate content, whereas local results can get filtered because they’re too close to another business in the same category. This is called the Possum filter.
Keywords in a business name
This is against Google’s guidelines but it works sadly
For example, Joy tested adding the word “salad bar” to a listing that didn’t even have a salad bar and their local rankings for that keyword shot up.
Although it works, don’t do it! Google can remove your listing for this type of violation, and they’ve been removing more listings for this reason lately.
Fake listings
New listings can rank even if they have no website, authority, citations, etc. simply because they keyword stuffed their business name. These types of rankings can happen overnight, whereas it can take a year or more to achieve certain organic rankings.
Spend time reporting spam listings in your clients’ niches because it can improve your clients’ local rankings.
Britney Muller — Featured Snippets: Essentials to Know & How to Target
Closing out day three of MozCon was our very own Britney, Sr. SEO scientist extraordinaire, on everyone’s favorite SEO topic: Featured snippets!
Why are we so concerned about traffic? What about branding/messaging/share of voice? You can't NOT target a keyword just because it has a Featured Snippet @BritneyMuller #MozCon
— Ruth Burr Reedy (@ruthburr) July 17, 2019
We’re seeing more featured snippets than ever before, and they’re not likely going away. It’s time to start capitalizing on this SERP feature so we can start earning brand awareness and traffic for our clients!
Here’s how:
Know what keywords trigger featured snippets that you rank on page 1 for
Know the searcher’s intent
Provide succinct answers
Add summaries to popular posts
Identify commonly asked questions
Leverage Google’s NLP API
Monitor featured snippets
If all else fails, leverage ranking third party sites. Maybe your own site has low authority and isn’t ranking well, but try publishing on Linkedin or Medium instead to get the snippet!
There’s lots of debate over whether featured snippets send you more traffic or take it away due to zero-click results, but consider the benefits featured snippets can bring even without the click. Whether featured snippets bring you traffic, increased brand visibility in the SERPs, or both, they’re an opportunity worth chasing.
Aaaand, that's a wrap!
Thanks for joining us at this year's MozCon! And a HUGE thank you to everyone (Mozzers, partners, and crew) who helped make this year's MozCon possible — we couldn't have done it without all of you.
What was your favorite moment of the entire conference? Tell us below in the comments! And don't forget to grab the speaker slides here!
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!
0 notes
Text
MozCon 2019: Everything You Need to Know About Day Three
Posted by KameronJenkins
If the last day of MozCon felt like it went too fast or if you forgot everything that happened today (we wouldn't judge — there were so many insights), don't fret. We captured all of day three's takeaways so you could relive the magic of day three.
Don't forget to check out all the photos with Roger from the photobooth! They're available here in the MozCon Facebook group. Plus: You asked and we delivered: the 2019 MozCon speaker walk-on playlist is now live and available here for your streaming pleasure.
Cindy Krum— Fraggles, Mobile-First Indexing, & the SERP of the Future
If you were hit with an instant wave of nostalgia after hearing Cindy's walk out music, then you are in good company and you probably were not disappointed in the slightest by Cindy’s talk on Fraggles.
First learning of the day: Fraggles. Fragment + Handles. A piece of information and an anchor that scrolls directly to the information on the page @Suzzicks #MozCon
— Warrior Forum (@warriorforum) July 17, 2019
“Fraggles” are fragments + handles. A fragment is a piece of info on a page. A handle is something like a bookmark, jump link, or named anchor — they help people navigate through long pages to get what they’re looking for faster.
Ranking pages is an inefficient way to answer questions. One page can answer innumerable questions, so Google’s now can pull a single answer from multiple parts of your page, skipping sections they don’t think are as useful for a particular answer.
The implications for voice are huge! It means you don’t have to listen to your voice device spout off a page’s worth of text before your question is answered.
Google wants to index more than just websites. They want to organize the world’s information, not websites. Fraggles are a demonstration of that.
Luke Carthy — Killer Ecommerce CRO and UX Wins Using A SEO Crawler
Luke Carthy did warn us in his talk description that we should all flex our notetaking muscles for all the takeaways we would furiously jot down — and he wasn’t wrong.
“Traffic doesn’t always mean sales, and sales doesn’t always mean traffic.” @MrLukeCarthy #MozCon
— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 17, 2019
Traffic doesn’t always mean sales and sales don’t always mean traffic!
Custom extraction is a great tool for finding missed CRO opportunities. For example, Luke found huge opportunity on Best Buy’s website — thousands of people’s site searches were leading them to an unoptimized “no results found” page.
You can also use custom extraction to find what product recommendations you or your customers are using at scale! Did you know that 35% of what customers buy on Amazon and 75 percent of what people watch on Netflix are the results of these recommendations?
For example, are you showing near-exact products or are you showing complementary products? (hint: try the latter and you’ll likely increase your sales!)
Custom extraction from Screaming Frog allows you to scrape any data from the HTML of the web pages while crawling them.
Andy Crestodina — Content, Rankings, and Lead Generation: A Breakdown of the 1% Content Strategy
Next up, Andy of Orbit Media took the stage with a comprehensive breakdown of the most effective tactics for turning content into a high-powered content strategy. He also brought the fire with this sound advice that we can apply in both our work life and personal life.
If you write an amazing, high-traffic blog post, the people visiting it don't have commercial intent. People landing on a sales page have 50x higher intent. #mozcon @crestodina
— Mike Arnesen (@Mike_Arnesen) July 17, 2019
Blog visitors often don’t have commercial intent. One of the greatest ways to leverage blog posts for leads is by using the equity we generate from links to our helpful posts and passing that onto our product and service pages.
If you want links and shares, invest in original research! Not sure what to research? Look for unanswered questions or unproven statements in your industry and provide the data.
Original research may take longer than a standard post, but it’s much more effective! When you think about it this way, do you really have time to put out more, mediocre posts?
Give what you want to get. Want links? Link to people. Want comments? Comment on others people's work.
To optimize content for social engagement, it should feature real people, their faces, and their quotes.
Collaborating with other content creators on your content not only gives it built-in amplification, but it also leads to great connections and is just generally more fun.
Rob Ousbey — Running Your Own SEO Tests: Why It Matters & How to Do It Right
Google’s algorithms have changed a heck of a lot in recent years — what’s an SEO to do? Follow Rob’s advice — both fashion and SEO — who says that the answer lies in testing.
in head terms, it's about user engagement metrics. However, links are more correllated with long tail searches. @RobOusbey #Mozcon
— Matthew Decuir (@MattBasically) July 17, 2019
“This is the way we’ve always done it” isn’t sufficient justification for SEO tactics in today’s search landscape.
In the earlier days of the algorithm, it was much easier to demote spam than it was to promote what’s truly good.
Rob and his team had a theory that Google was beginning to rely more heavily on user experience and satisfaction than some of the more traditional ranking factors like links.
Through SEO A/B testing, they found that:
Google relies less heavily on link signals when it comes to the top half of the results on page 1.
Google relies more heavily on user experience for head terms (terms with high search volume), likely because they have more user data to draw from.
In the process of A/B testing, they also found that the same test often produces different results on different sites. The best way to succeed in today’s SEO landscape is to cultivate a culture of testing!
Greg Gifford — Dark Helmet's Guide to Local Domination with Google Posts and Q&A
If you’re a movie buff, you probably really appreciated Greg’s talk — he schooled us all in move references and brought the fire with his insights on Google Posts and Q&A
Google Posts allows you to drive conversions without driving people to your site - convert on zero-click searches! @GregGifford #MozCon
— Ruth Burr Reedy (@ruthburr) July 17, 2019
The man behind #shoesofmozcon taught us that Google is the new home page for local businesses, so we should be leveraging the tools Google has given us to make our Google My Business profiles great. For example…
Google Posts
Images should be 1200x900 on google posts
Images are cropped slightly higher than the center and it’s not consistent every time
The image size of the thumbnail is different on desktop than it is on mobile
Use Greg’s free tool at bit.ly/posts-image-guide to make sizing your Google Post images easier
You can also upload videos. The file size limit is 100mb and/or 30 seconds
Add a call-to-action button to make your Posts worth it! Just know that the button often means you get less real estate for text in your Posts
Don’t share social fluff. Attract with an offer that makes you stand out
Make sure you use UTM tracking so you can understand how your Posts are performing in Google Analytics. Otherwise, it’ll be attributed as direct traffic.
Google Q&A
Anyone can ask and answer questions — why not the business owner! Control the conversation and treat this feature like it's your new FAQ page.
This feature works on an upvote system. The answer with the most upvotes will show first.
Don’t include a URL or phone number in these because it’ll get filtered out.
A lot of these questions are potential customers! Out of 640 car dealerships’ Q&As Greg evaluated, 40 percent were leads! Of that 40 percent, only 2 questions were answered by the dealership.
Emily Triplett Lentz — How to Audit for Inclusive Content
Emily of Help Scout walked dropped major knowledge on the importance of spotting and eliminating biases that frequently find their way into online copy. She also hung out backstage after her talk to cheer on her fellow speakers. #GOAT. #notallheroeswearcapes.
"My desire for a specific word choice doesn't negate someone else's need for safety" -- @emilytlentz #MozCon pic.twitter.com/sXF2CjXVzo
— Yosef Silver (@ysilver) July 17, 2019
As content creators, we’d all do well to keep ableism in mind: discrimination in favor of able-bodied people. However, we’re often guilty of this without even knowing it.
One example of ableism that often makes its way into our copy is comparing dire or subideal situations with the physical state of another human (ex: “crippling”).
While we should work on making our casual conversation more inclusive too, this is particularly important for brands.
Create a list of ableist words, crawl your site for them, and then replace them. However, you’ll likely find that there is no one-size-fits-all replacement for these words. We often use words like “crazy” as filler words. By removing or replacing with a more appropriate word, we make our content better and more descriptive in the process.
At the end of the day, brands should remember that their desire for freedom of word choice isn’t more important than people’s right not to feel excluded and hurt. When there’s really no downside to more inclusive content, why wouldn’t we do it?
Visit http://content.helpscout.net/mozcon-2019 to learn how to audit your site for inclusive content!
Joelle Irvine — Image & Visual Search Optimization Opportunities
Curious about image optimization and visual search? Joelle has the goods for you — and was blowing people's minds with her tips for visual optimization and how to leverage Google Lens, Pinterest, and AR for visual search.
“Visual search is easier when you don’t know what you’re looking for, when you’re looking to match a particular style, and when your search way is too long or complicated.” @joelleirvine #MozCon
— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 17, 2019
Visual search is not the same thing as searching for images. We’re talking about the process of using an image to search for other content.
Visual search like Google Lens makes it easier to search when you don’t know what you’re looking for.
Pinterest has made a lot of progress in this area. They have a hybrid search that allows you to find complimentary items to the one you searched. It’s like finding a rug that matches a chair you like rather than finding more of the same type of chair.
62 percent of millennials surveyed said they would like to be able to search by visual, so while this is mostly being used by clothing retailers and home decor right now, visual search is only going to get better, so think about the ways you can leverage it for your brand!
Joy Hawkins — Factors that Affect the Local Algorithm that Don't Impact Organic
Proximity varies greatly when comparing local and organic results — just ask Joy of Sterling Sky, who gets real about fake listings while walking through the findings of a recent study.
Local results not only vary by city, but even within the same zip codes, there can be drastically different local results. @JoyanneHawkins #mozcon pic.twitter.com/8g6acxUDAq
— Lily Ray (@lilyraynyc) July 17, 2019
Here are the seven areas in which the local algorithm diverges from the organic algorithm:
Proximity (AKA: how close is the biz to the searcher?)
Proximity is the #1 local ranking factor, but the #27 ranking factor on organic.
Studies show that having a business that’s close in proximity to the searcher is more beneficial for ranking in the local pack than in traditional organic results.
Rank tracking
Because there is so much variance by latitude/longitude, as well as hourly variances, Joy recommends not sending your local business clients ranking reports.
Use rank tracking internally, but send clients the leads/sales. This causes less confusion and gets them focused on the main goal.
Visit bit.ly/mozcon3 for insights on how to track leads from GMB
GMB landing pages (AKA: the website URL you link to from your GMB account)
Joy tested linking to the home page (which had more authority/prominence) vs. linking to the local landing page (which had more relevance) and found that traffic went way up when linking to the home page.
Before you go switching all your GMB links though, test this for yourself!
Reviews
Joy wanted to know how much reviews actually impacted ranking, and what it was exactly about reviews that would help or hurt.
She decided to see what would happen to rankings when reviews were removed. This happened to a business who was review gating (a violation of Google’s guidelines) but Joy found that reviews flagged for violations aren’t actually removed, they’re hidden, explaining why “removed” reviews don’t negatively impact local rankings.
Possum filter
Organic results can get filtered because of duplicate content, whereas local results can get filtered because they’re too close to another business in the same category. This is called the Possum filter.
Keywords in a business name
This is against Google’s guidelines but it works sadly
For example, Joy tested adding the word “salad bar” to a listing that didn’t even have a salad bar and their local rankings for that keyword shot up.
Although it works, don’t do it! Google can remove your listing for this type of violation, and they’ve been removing more listings for this reason lately.
Fake listings
New listings can rank even if they have no website, authority, citations, etc. simply because they keyword stuffed their business name. These types of rankings can happen overnight, whereas it can take a year or more to achieve certain organic rankings.
Spend time reporting spam listings in your clients’ niches because it can improve your clients’ local rankings.
Britney Muller — Featured Snippets: Essentials to Know & How to Target
Closing out day three of MozCon was our very own Britney, Sr. SEO scientist extraordinaire, on everyone’s favorite SEO topic: Featured snippets!
Why are we so concerned about traffic? What about branding/messaging/share of voice? You can't NOT target a keyword just because it has a Featured Snippet @BritneyMuller #MozCon
— Ruth Burr Reedy (@ruthburr) July 17, 2019
We’re seeing more featured snippets than ever before, and they’re not likely going away. It’s time to start capitalizing on this SERP feature so we can start earning brand awareness and traffic for our clients!
Here’s how:
Know what keywords trigger featured snippets that you rank on page 1 for
Know the searcher’s intent
Provide succinct answers
Add summaries to popular posts
Identify commonly asked questions
Leverage Google’s NLP API
Monitor featured snippets
If all else fails, leverage ranking third party sites. Maybe your own site has low authority and isn’t ranking well, but try publishing on Linkedin or Medium instead to get the snippet!
There’s lots of debate over whether featured snippets send you more traffic or take it away due to zero-click results, but consider the benefits featured snippets can bring even without the click. Whether featured snippets bring you traffic, increased brand visibility in the SERPs, or both, they’re an opportunity worth chasing.
Aaaand, that's a wrap!
Thanks for joining us at this year's MozCon! And a HUGE thank you to everyone (Mozzers, partners, and crew) who helped make this year's MozCon possible — we couldn't have done it without all of you.
What was your favorite moment of the entire conference? Tell us below in the comments! And don't forget to grab the speaker slides here!
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!
0 notes
Text
MozCon 2019: Everything You Need to Know About Day Three
Posted by KameronJenkins
If the last day of MozCon felt like it went too fast or if you forgot everything that happened today (we wouldn't judge — there were so many insights), don't fret. We captured all of day three's takeaways so you could relive the magic of day three.
Don't forget to check out all the photos with Roger from the photobooth! They're available here in the MozCon Facebook group. Plus: You asked and we delivered: the 2019 MozCon speaker walk-on playlist is now live and available here for your streaming pleasure.
Cindy Krum— Fraggles, Mobile-First Indexing, & the SERP of the Future
If you were hit with an instant wave of nostalgia after hearing Cindy's walk out music, then you are in good company and you probably were not disappointed in the slightest by Cindy’s talk on Fraggles.
First learning of the day: Fraggles. Fragment + Handles. A piece of information and an anchor that scrolls directly to the information on the page @Suzzicks #MozCon
— Warrior Forum (@warriorforum) July 17, 2019
“Fraggles” are fragments + handles. A fragment is a piece of info on a page. A handle is something like a bookmark, jump link, or named anchor — they help people navigate through long pages to get what they’re looking for faster.
Ranking pages is an inefficient way to answer questions. One page can answer innumerable questions, so Google’s now can pull a single answer from multiple parts of your page, skipping sections they don’t think are as useful for a particular answer.
The implications for voice are huge! It means you don’t have to listen to your voice device spout off a page’s worth of text before your question is answered.
Google wants to index more than just websites. They want to organize the world’s information, not websites. Fraggles are a demonstration of that.
Luke Carthy — Killer Ecommerce CRO and UX Wins Using A SEO Crawler
Luke Carthy did warn us in his talk description that we should all flex our notetaking muscles for all the takeaways we would furiously jot down — and he wasn’t wrong.
“Traffic doesn’t always mean sales, and sales doesn’t always mean traffic.” @MrLukeCarthy #MozCon
— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 17, 2019
Traffic doesn’t always mean sales and sales don’t always mean traffic!
Custom extraction is a great tool for finding missed CRO opportunities. For example, Luke found huge opportunity on Best Buy’s website — thousands of people’s site searches were leading them to an unoptimized “no results found” page.
You can also use custom extraction to find what product recommendations you or your customers are using at scale! Did you know that 35% of what customers buy on Amazon and 75 percent of what people watch on Netflix are the results of these recommendations?
For example, are you showing near-exact products or are you showing complementary products? (hint: try the latter and you’ll likely increase your sales!)
Custom extraction from Screaming Frog allows you to scrape any data from the HTML of the web pages while crawling them.
Andy Crestodina — Content, Rankings, and Lead Generation: A Breakdown of the 1% Content Strategy
Next up, Andy of Orbit Media took the stage with a comprehensive breakdown of the most effective tactics for turning content into a high-powered content strategy. He also brought the fire with this sound advice that we can apply in both our work life and personal life.
If you write an amazing, high-traffic blog post, the people visiting it don't have commercial intent. People landing on a sales page have 50x higher intent. #mozcon @crestodina
— Mike Arnesen (@Mike_Arnesen) July 17, 2019
Blog visitors often don’t have commercial intent. One of the greatest ways to leverage blog posts for leads is by using the equity we generate from links to our helpful posts and passing that onto our product and service pages.
If you want links and shares, invest in original research! Not sure what to research? Look for unanswered questions or unproven statements in your industry and provide the data.
Original research may take longer than a standard post, but it’s much more effective! When you think about it this way, do you really have time to put out more, mediocre posts?
Give what you want to get. Want links? Link to people. Want comments? Comment on others people's work.
To optimize content for social engagement, it should feature real people, their faces, and their quotes.
Collaborating with other content creators on your content not only gives it built-in amplification, but it also leads to great connections and is just generally more fun.
Rob Ousbey — Running Your Own SEO Tests: Why It Matters & How to Do It Right
Google’s algorithms have changed a heck of a lot in recent years — what’s an SEO to do? Follow Rob’s advice — both fashion and SEO — who says that the answer lies in testing.
in head terms, it's about user engagement metrics. However, links are more correllated with long tail searches. @RobOusbey #Mozcon
— Matthew Decuir (@MattBasically) July 17, 2019
“This is the way we’ve always done it” isn’t sufficient justification for SEO tactics in today’s search landscape.
In the earlier days of the algorithm, it was much easier to demote spam than it was to promote what’s truly good.
Rob and his team had a theory that Google was beginning to rely more heavily on user experience and satisfaction than some of the more traditional ranking factors like links.
Through SEO A/B testing, they found that:
Google relies less heavily on link signals when it comes to the top half of the results on page 1.
Google relies more heavily on user experience for head terms (terms with high search volume), likely because they have more user data to draw from.
In the process of A/B testing, they also found that the same test often produces different results on different sites. The best way to succeed in today’s SEO landscape is to cultivate a culture of testing!
Greg Gifford — Dark Helmet's Guide to Local Domination with Google Posts and Q&A
If you’re a movie buff, you probably really appreciated Greg’s talk — he schooled us all in move references and brought the fire with his insights on Google Posts and Q&A
Google Posts allows you to drive conversions without driving people to your site - convert on zero-click searches! @GregGifford #MozCon
— Ruth Burr Reedy (@ruthburr) July 17, 2019
The man behind #shoesofmozcon taught us that Google is the new home page for local businesses, so we should be leveraging the tools Google has given us to make our Google My Business profiles great. For example…
Google Posts
Images should be 1200x900 on google posts
Images are cropped slightly higher than the center and it’s not consistent every time
The image size of the thumbnail is different on desktop than it is on mobile
Use Greg’s free tool at bit.ly/posts-image-guide to make sizing your Google Post images easier
You can also upload videos. The file size limit is 100mb and/or 30 seconds
Add a call-to-action button to make your Posts worth it! Just know that the button often means you get less real estate for text in your Posts
Don’t share social fluff. Attract with an offer that makes you stand out
Make sure you use UTM tracking so you can understand how your Posts are performing in Google Analytics. Otherwise, it’ll be attributed as direct traffic.
Google Q&A
Anyone can ask and answer questions — why not the business owner! Control the conversation and treat this feature like it's your new FAQ page.
This feature works on an upvote system. The answer with the most upvotes will show first.
Don’t include a URL or phone number in these because it’ll get filtered out.
A lot of these questions are potential customers! Out of 640 car dealerships’ Q&As Greg evaluated, 40 percent were leads! Of that 40 percent, only 2 questions were answered by the dealership.
Emily Triplett Lentz — How to Audit for Inclusive Content
Emily of Help Scout walked dropped major knowledge on the importance of spotting and eliminating biases that frequently find their way into online copy. She also hung out backstage after her talk to cheer on her fellow speakers. #GOAT. #notallheroeswearcapes.
"My desire for a specific word choice doesn't negate someone else's need for safety" -- @emilytlentz #MozCon pic.twitter.com/sXF2CjXVzo
— Yosef Silver (@ysilver) July 17, 2019
As content creators, we’d all do well to keep ableism in mind: discrimination in favor of able-bodied people. However, we’re often guilty of this without even knowing it.
One example of ableism that often makes its way into our copy is comparing dire or subideal situations with the physical state of another human (ex: “crippling”).
While we should work on making our casual conversation more inclusive too, this is particularly important for brands.
Create a list of ableist words, crawl your site for them, and then replace them. However, you’ll likely find that there is no one-size-fits-all replacement for these words. We often use words like “crazy” as filler words. By removing or replacing with a more appropriate word, we make our content better and more descriptive in the process.
At the end of the day, brands should remember that their desire for freedom of word choice isn’t more important than people’s right not to feel excluded and hurt. When there’s really no downside to more inclusive content, why wouldn’t we do it?
Visit http://content.helpscout.net/mozcon-2019 to learn how to audit your site for inclusive content!
Joelle Irvine — Image & Visual Search Optimization Opportunities
Curious about image optimization and visual search? Joelle has the goods for you — and was blowing people's minds with her tips for visual optimization and how to leverage Google Lens, Pinterest, and AR for visual search.
“Visual search is easier when you don’t know what you’re looking for, when you’re looking to match a particular style, and when your search way is too long or complicated.” @joelleirvine #MozCon
— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 17, 2019
Visual search is not the same thing as searching for images. We’re talking about the process of using an image to search for other content.
Visual search like Google Lens makes it easier to search when you don’t know what you’re looking for.
Pinterest has made a lot of progress in this area. They have a hybrid search that allows you to find complimentary items to the one you searched. It’s like finding a rug that matches a chair you like rather than finding more of the same type of chair.
62 percent of millennials surveyed said they would like to be able to search by visual, so while this is mostly being used by clothing retailers and home decor right now, visual search is only going to get better, so think about the ways you can leverage it for your brand!
Joy Hawkins — Factors that Affect the Local Algorithm that Don't Impact Organic
Proximity varies greatly when comparing local and organic results — just ask Joy of Sterling Sky, who gets real about fake listings while walking through the findings of a recent study.
Local results not only vary by city, but even within the same zip codes, there can be drastically different local results. @JoyanneHawkins #mozcon pic.twitter.com/8g6acxUDAq
— Lily Ray (@lilyraynyc) July 17, 2019
Here are the seven areas in which the local algorithm diverges from the organic algorithm:
Proximity (AKA: how close is the biz to the searcher?)
Proximity is the #1 local ranking factor, but the #27 ranking factor on organic.
Studies show that having a business that’s close in proximity to the searcher is more beneficial for ranking in the local pack than in traditional organic results.
Rank tracking
Because there is so much variance by latitude/longitude, as well as hourly variances, Joy recommends not sending your local business clients ranking reports.
Use rank tracking internally, but send clients the leads/sales. This causes less confusion and gets them focused on the main goal.
Visit bit.ly/mozcon3 for insights on how to track leads from GMB
GMB landing pages (AKA: the website URL you link to from your GMB account)
Joy tested linking to the home page (which had more authority/prominence) vs. linking to the local landing page (which had more relevance) and found that traffic went way up when linking to the home page.
Before you go switching all your GMB links though, test this for yourself!
Reviews
Joy wanted to know how much reviews actually impacted ranking, and what it was exactly about reviews that would help or hurt.
She decided to see what would happen to rankings when reviews were removed. This happened to a business who was review gating (a violation of Google’s guidelines) but Joy found that reviews flagged for violations aren’t actually removed, they’re hidden, explaining why “removed” reviews don’t negatively impact local rankings.
Possum filter
Organic results can get filtered because of duplicate content, whereas local results can get filtered because they’re too close to another business in the same category. This is called the Possum filter.
Keywords in a business name
This is against Google’s guidelines but it works sadly
For example, Joy tested adding the word “salad bar” to a listing that didn’t even have a salad bar and their local rankings for that keyword shot up.
Although it works, don’t do it! Google can remove your listing for this type of violation, and they’ve been removing more listings for this reason lately.
Fake listings
New listings can rank even if they have no website, authority, citations, etc. simply because they keyword stuffed their business name. These types of rankings can happen overnight, whereas it can take a year or more to achieve certain organic rankings.
Spend time reporting spam listings in your clients’ niches because it can improve your clients’ local rankings.
Britney Muller — Featured Snippets: Essentials to Know & How to Target
Closing out day three of MozCon was our very own Britney, Sr. SEO scientist extraordinaire, on everyone’s favorite SEO topic: Featured snippets!
Why are we so concerned about traffic? What about branding/messaging/share of voice? You can't NOT target a keyword just because it has a Featured Snippet @BritneyMuller #MozCon
— Ruth Burr Reedy (@ruthburr) July 17, 2019
We’re seeing more featured snippets than ever before, and they’re not likely going away. It’s time to start capitalizing on this SERP feature so we can start earning brand awareness and traffic for our clients!
Here’s how:
Know what keywords trigger featured snippets that you rank on page 1 for
Know the searcher’s intent
Provide succinct answers
Add summaries to popular posts
Identify commonly asked questions
Leverage Google’s NLP API
Monitor featured snippets
If all else fails, leverage ranking third party sites. Maybe your own site has low authority and isn’t ranking well, but try publishing on Linkedin or Medium instead to get the snippet!
There’s lots of debate over whether featured snippets send you more traffic or take it away due to zero-click results, but consider the benefits featured snippets can bring even without the click. Whether featured snippets bring you traffic, increased brand visibility in the SERPs, or both, they’re an opportunity worth chasing.
Aaaand, that's a wrap!
Thanks for joining us at this year's MozCon! And a HUGE thank you to everyone (Mozzers, partners, and crew) who helped make this year's MozCon possible — we couldn't have done it without all of you.
What was your favorite moment of the entire conference? Tell us below in the comments! And don't forget to grab the speaker slides here!
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!
0 notes
Text
MozCon 2019: Everything You Need to Know About Day Three
Posted by KameronJenkins
If the last day of MozCon felt like it went too fast or if you forgot everything that happened today (we wouldn't judge — there were so many insights), don't fret. We captured all of day three's takeaways so you could relive the magic of day three.
Don't forget to check out all the photos with Roger from the photobooth! They're available here in the MozCon Facebook group. Plus: You asked and we delivered: the 2019 MozCon speaker walk-on playlist is now live and available here for your streaming pleasure.
Cindy Krum— Fraggles, Mobile-First Indexing, & the SERP of the Future
If you were hit with an instant wave of nostalgia after hearing Cindy's walk out music, then you are in good company and you probably were not disappointed in the slightest by Cindy’s talk on Fraggles.
First learning of the day: Fraggles. Fragment + Handles. A piece of information and an anchor that scrolls directly to the information on the page @Suzzicks #MozCon
— Warrior Forum (@warriorforum) July 17, 2019
“Fraggles” are fragments + handles. A fragment is a piece of info on a page. A handle is something like a bookmark, jump link, or named anchor — they help people navigate through long pages to get what they’re looking for faster.
Ranking pages is an inefficient way to answer questions. One page can answer innumerable questions, so Google’s now can pull a single answer from multiple parts of your page, skipping sections they don’t think are as useful for a particular answer.
The implications for voice are huge! It means you don’t have to listen to your voice device spout off a page’s worth of text before your question is answered.
Google wants to index more than just websites. They want to organize the world’s information, not websites. Fraggles are a demonstration of that.
Luke Carthy — Killer Ecommerce CRO and UX Wins Using A SEO Crawler
Luke Carthy did warn us in his talk description that we should all flex our notetaking muscles for all the takeaways we would furiously jot down — and he wasn’t wrong.
“Traffic doesn’t always mean sales, and sales doesn’t always mean traffic.” @MrLukeCarthy #MozCon
— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 17, 2019
Traffic doesn’t always mean sales and sales don’t always mean traffic!
Custom extraction is a great tool for finding missed CRO opportunities. For example, Luke found huge opportunity on Best Buy’s website — thousands of people’s site searches were leading them to an unoptimized “no results found” page.
You can also use custom extraction to find what product recommendations you or your customers are using at scale! Did you know that 35% of what customers buy on Amazon and 75 percent of what people watch on Netflix are the results of these recommendations?
For example, are you showing near-exact products or are you showing complementary products? (hint: try the latter and you’ll likely increase your sales!)
Custom extraction from Screaming Frog allows you to scrape any data from the HTML of the web pages while crawling them.
Andy Crestodina — Content, Rankings, and Lead Generation: A Breakdown of the 1% Content Strategy
Next up, Andy of Orbit Media took the stage with a comprehensive breakdown of the most effective tactics for turning content into a high-powered content strategy. He also brought the fire with this sound advice that we can apply in both our work life and personal life.
If you write an amazing, high-traffic blog post, the people visiting it don't have commercial intent. People landing on a sales page have 50x higher intent. #mozcon @crestodina
— Mike Arnesen (@Mike_Arnesen) July 17, 2019
Blog visitors often don’t have commercial intent. One of the greatest ways to leverage blog posts for leads is by using the equity we generate from links to our helpful posts and passing that onto our product and service pages.
If you want links and shares, invest in original research! Not sure what to research? Look for unanswered questions or unproven statements in your industry and provide the data.
Original research may take longer than a standard post, but it’s much more effective! When you think about it this way, do you really have time to put out more, mediocre posts?
Give what you want to get. Want links? Link to people. Want comments? Comment on others people's work.
To optimize content for social engagement, it should feature real people, their faces, and their quotes.
Collaborating with other content creators on your content not only gives it built-in amplification, but it also leads to great connections and is just generally more fun.
Rob Ousbey — Running Your Own SEO Tests: Why It Matters & How to Do It Right
Google’s algorithms have changed a heck of a lot in recent years — what’s an SEO to do? Follow Rob’s advice — both fashion and SEO — who says that the answer lies in testing.
in head terms, it's about user engagement metrics. However, links are more correllated with long tail searches. @RobOusbey #Mozcon
— Matthew Decuir (@MattBasically) July 17, 2019
“This is the way we’ve always done it” isn’t sufficient justification for SEO tactics in today’s search landscape.
In the earlier days of the algorithm, it was much easier to demote spam than it was to promote what’s truly good.
Rob and his team had a theory that Google was beginning to rely more heavily on user experience and satisfaction than some of the more traditional ranking factors like links.
Through SEO A/B testing, they found that:
Google relies less heavily on link signals when it comes to the top half of the results on page 1.
Google relies more heavily on user experience for head terms (terms with high search volume), likely because they have more user data to draw from.
In the process of A/B testing, they also found that the same test often produces different results on different sites. The best way to succeed in today’s SEO landscape is to cultivate a culture of testing!
Greg Gifford — Dark Helmet's Guide to Local Domination with Google Posts and Q&A
If you’re a movie buff, you probably really appreciated Greg’s talk — he schooled us all in move references and brought the fire with his insights on Google Posts and Q&A
Google Posts allows you to drive conversions without driving people to your site - convert on zero-click searches! @GregGifford #MozCon
— Ruth Burr Reedy (@ruthburr) July 17, 2019
The man behind #shoesofmozcon taught us that Google is the new home page for local businesses, so we should be leveraging the tools Google has given us to make our Google My Business profiles great. For example…
Google Posts
Images should be 1200x900 on google posts
Images are cropped slightly higher than the center and it’s not consistent every time
The image size of the thumbnail is different on desktop than it is on mobile
Use Greg’s free tool at bit.ly/posts-image-guide to make sizing your Google Post images easier
You can also upload videos. The file size limit is 100mb and/or 30 seconds
Add a call-to-action button to make your Posts worth it! Just know that the button often means you get less real estate for text in your Posts
Don’t share social fluff. Attract with an offer that makes you stand out
Make sure you use UTM tracking so you can understand how your Posts are performing in Google Analytics. Otherwise, it’ll be attributed as direct traffic.
Google Q&A
Anyone can ask and answer questions — why not the business owner! Control the conversation and treat this feature like it's your new FAQ page.
This feature works on an upvote system. The answer with the most upvotes will show first.
Don’t include a URL or phone number in these because it’ll get filtered out.
A lot of these questions are potential customers! Out of 640 car dealerships’ Q&As Greg evaluated, 40 percent were leads! Of that 40 percent, only 2 questions were answered by the dealership.
Emily Triplett Lentz — How to Audit for Inclusive Content
Emily of Help Scout walked dropped major knowledge on the importance of spotting and eliminating biases that frequently find their way into online copy. She also hung out backstage after her talk to cheer on her fellow speakers. #GOAT. #notallheroeswearcapes.
"My desire for a specific word choice doesn't negate someone else's need for safety" -- @emilytlentz #MozCon pic.twitter.com/sXF2CjXVzo
— Yosef Silver (@ysilver) July 17, 2019
As content creators, we’d all do well to keep ableism in mind: discrimination in favor of able-bodied people. However, we’re often guilty of this without even knowing it.
One example of ableism that often makes its way into our copy is comparing dire or subideal situations with the physical state of another human (ex: “crippling”).
While we should work on making our casual conversation more inclusive too, this is particularly important for brands.
Create a list of ableist words, crawl your site for them, and then replace them. However, you’ll likely find that there is no one-size-fits-all replacement for these words. We often use words like “crazy” as filler words. By removing or replacing with a more appropriate word, we make our content better and more descriptive in the process.
At the end of the day, brands should remember that their desire for freedom of word choice isn’t more important than people’s right not to feel excluded and hurt. When there’s really no downside to more inclusive content, why wouldn’t we do it?
Visit http://content.helpscout.net/mozcon-2019 to learn how to audit your site for inclusive content!
Joelle Irvine — Image & Visual Search Optimization Opportunities
Curious about image optimization and visual search? Joelle has the goods for you — and was blowing people's minds with her tips for visual optimization and how to leverage Google Lens, Pinterest, and AR for visual search.
“Visual search is easier when you don’t know what you’re looking for, when you’re looking to match a particular style, and when your search way is too long or complicated.” @joelleirvine #MozCon
— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 17, 2019
Visual search is not the same thing as searching for images. We’re talking about the process of using an image to search for other content.
Visual search like Google Lens makes it easier to search when you don’t know what you’re looking for.
Pinterest has made a lot of progress in this area. They have a hybrid search that allows you to find complimentary items to the one you searched. It’s like finding a rug that matches a chair you like rather than finding more of the same type of chair.
62 percent of millennials surveyed said they would like to be able to search by visual, so while this is mostly being used by clothing retailers and home decor right now, visual search is only going to get better, so think about the ways you can leverage it for your brand!
Joy Hawkins — Factors that Affect the Local Algorithm that Don't Impact Organic
Proximity varies greatly when comparing local and organic results — just ask Joy of Sterling Sky, who gets real about fake listings while walking through the findings of a recent study.
Local results not only vary by city, but even within the same zip codes, there can be drastically different local results. @JoyanneHawkins #mozcon pic.twitter.com/8g6acxUDAq
— Lily Ray (@lilyraynyc) July 17, 2019
Here are the seven areas in which the local algorithm diverges from the organic algorithm:
Proximity (AKA: how close is the biz to the searcher?)
Proximity is the #1 local ranking factor, but the #27 ranking factor on organic.
Studies show that having a business that’s close in proximity to the searcher is more beneficial for ranking in the local pack than in traditional organic results.
Rank tracking
Because there is so much variance by latitude/longitude, as well as hourly variances, Joy recommends not sending your local business clients ranking reports.
Use rank tracking internally, but send clients the leads/sales. This causes less confusion and gets them focused on the main goal.
Visit bit.ly/mozcon3 for insights on how to track leads from GMB
GMB landing pages (AKA: the website URL you link to from your GMB account)
Joy tested linking to the home page (which had more authority/prominence) vs. linking to the local landing page (which had more relevance) and found that traffic went way up when linking to the home page.
Before you go switching all your GMB links though, test this for yourself!
Reviews
Joy wanted to know how much reviews actually impacted ranking, and what it was exactly about reviews that would help or hurt.
She decided to see what would happen to rankings when reviews were removed. This happened to a business who was review gating (a violation of Google’s guidelines) but Joy found that reviews flagged for violations aren’t actually removed, they’re hidden, explaining why “removed” reviews don’t negatively impact local rankings.
Possum filter
Organic results can get filtered because of duplicate content, whereas local results can get filtered because they’re too close to another business in the same category. This is called the Possum filter.
Keywords in a business name
This is against Google’s guidelines but it works sadly
For example, Joy tested adding the word “salad bar” to a listing that didn’t even have a salad bar and their local rankings for that keyword shot up.
Although it works, don’t do it! Google can remove your listing for this type of violation, and they’ve been removing more listings for this reason lately.
Fake listings
New listings can rank even if they have no website, authority, citations, etc. simply because they keyword stuffed their business name. These types of rankings can happen overnight, whereas it can take a year or more to achieve certain organic rankings.
Spend time reporting spam listings in your clients’ niches because it can improve your clients’ local rankings.
Britney Muller — Featured Snippets: Essentials to Know & How to Target
Closing out day three of MozCon was our very own Britney, Sr. SEO scientist extraordinaire, on everyone’s favorite SEO topic: Featured snippets!
Why are we so concerned about traffic? What about branding/messaging/share of voice? You can't NOT target a keyword just because it has a Featured Snippet @BritneyMuller #MozCon
— Ruth Burr Reedy (@ruthburr) July 17, 2019
We’re seeing more featured snippets than ever before, and they’re not likely going away. It’s time to start capitalizing on this SERP feature so we can start earning brand awareness and traffic for our clients!
Here’s how:
Know what keywords trigger featured snippets that you rank on page 1 for
Know the searcher’s intent
Provide succinct answers
Add summaries to popular posts
Identify commonly asked questions
Leverage Google’s NLP API
Monitor featured snippets
If all else fails, leverage ranking third party sites. Maybe your own site has low authority and isn’t ranking well, but try publishing on Linkedin or Medium instead to get the snippet!
There’s lots of debate over whether featured snippets send you more traffic or take it away due to zero-click results, but consider the benefits featured snippets can bring even without the click. Whether featured snippets bring you traffic, increased brand visibility in the SERPs, or both, they’re an opportunity worth chasing.
Aaaand, that's a wrap!
Thanks for joining us at this year's MozCon! And a HUGE thank you to everyone (Mozzers, partners, and crew) who helped make this year's MozCon possible — we couldn't have done it without all of you.
What was your favorite moment of the entire conference? Tell us below in the comments! And don't forget to grab the speaker slides here!
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!
0 notes
Text
MozCon 2019: Everything You Need to Know About Day Three
Posted by KameronJenkins
If the last day of MozCon felt like it went too fast or if you forgot everything that happened today (we wouldn't judge — there were so many insights), don't fret. We captured all of day three's takeaways so you could relive the magic of day three.
Don't forget to check out all the photos with Roger from the photobooth! They're available here in the MozCon Facebook group. Plus: You asked and we delivered: the 2019 MozCon speaker walk-on playlist is now live and available here for your streaming pleasure.
Cindy Krum— Fraggles, Mobile-First Indexing, & the SERP of the Future
If you were hit with an instant wave of nostalgia after hearing Cindy's walk out music, then you are in good company and you probably were not disappointed in the slightest by Cindy’s talk on Fraggles.
First learning of the day: Fraggles. Fragment + Handles. A piece of information and an anchor that scrolls directly to the information on the page @Suzzicks #MozCon
— Warrior Forum (@warriorforum) July 17, 2019
“Fraggles” are fragments + handles. A fragment is a piece of info on a page. A handle is something like a bookmark, jump link, or named anchor — they help people navigate through long pages to get what they’re looking for faster.
Ranking pages is an inefficient way to answer questions. One page can answer innumerable questions, so Google’s now can pull a single answer from multiple parts of your page, skipping sections they don’t think are as useful for a particular answer.
The implications for voice are huge! It means you don’t have to listen to your voice device spout off a page’s worth of text before your question is answered.
Google wants to index more than just websites. They want to organize the world’s information, not websites. Fraggles are a demonstration of that.
Luke Carthy — Killer Ecommerce CRO and UX Wins Using A SEO Crawler
Luke Carthy did warn us in his talk description that we should all flex our notetaking muscles for all the takeaways we would furiously jot down — and he wasn’t wrong.
“Traffic doesn’t always mean sales, and sales doesn’t always mean traffic.” @MrLukeCarthy #MozCon
— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 17, 2019
Traffic doesn’t always mean sales and sales don’t always mean traffic!
Custom extraction is a great tool for finding missed CRO opportunities. For example, Luke found huge opportunity on Best Buy’s website — thousands of people’s site searches were leading them to an unoptimized “no results found” page.
You can also use custom extraction to find what product recommendations you or your customers are using at scale! Did you know that 35% of what customers buy on Amazon and 75 percent of what people watch on Netflix are the results of these recommendations?
For example, are you showing near-exact products or are you showing complementary products? (hint: try the latter and you’ll likely increase your sales!)
Custom extraction from Screaming Frog allows you to scrape any data from the HTML of the web pages while crawling them.
Andy Crestodina — Content, Rankings, and Lead Generation: A Breakdown of the 1% Content Strategy
Next up, Andy of Orbit Media took the stage with a comprehensive breakdown of the most effective tactics for turning content into a high-powered content strategy. He also brought the fire with this sound advice that we can apply in both our work life and personal life.
If you write an amazing, high-traffic blog post, the people visiting it don't have commercial intent. People landing on a sales page have 50x higher intent. #mozcon @crestodina
— Mike Arnesen (@Mike_Arnesen) July 17, 2019
Blog visitors often don’t have commercial intent. One of the greatest ways to leverage blog posts for leads is by using the equity we generate from links to our helpful posts and passing that onto our product and service pages.
If you want links and shares, invest in original research! Not sure what to research? Look for unanswered questions or unproven statements in your industry and provide the data.
Original research may take longer than a standard post, but it’s much more effective! When you think about it this way, do you really have time to put out more, mediocre posts?
Give what you want to get. Want links? Link to people. Want comments? Comment on others people's work.
To optimize content for social engagement, it should feature real people, their faces, and their quotes.
Collaborating with other content creators on your content not only gives it built-in amplification, but it also leads to great connections and is just generally more fun.
Rob Ousbey — Running Your Own SEO Tests: Why It Matters & How to Do It Right
Google’s algorithms have changed a heck of a lot in recent years — what’s an SEO to do? Follow Rob’s advice — both fashion and SEO — who says that the answer lies in testing.
in head terms, it's about user engagement metrics. However, links are more correllated with long tail searches. @RobOusbey #Mozcon
— Matthew Decuir (@MattBasically) July 17, 2019
“This is the way we’ve always done it” isn’t sufficient justification for SEO tactics in today’s search landscape.
In the earlier days of the algorithm, it was much easier to demote spam than it was to promote what’s truly good.
Rob and his team had a theory that Google was beginning to rely more heavily on user experience and satisfaction than some of the more traditional ranking factors like links.
Through SEO A/B testing, they found that:
Google relies less heavily on link signals when it comes to the top half of the results on page 1.
Google relies more heavily on user experience for head terms (terms with high search volume), likely because they have more user data to draw from.
In the process of A/B testing, they also found that the same test often produces different results on different sites. The best way to succeed in today’s SEO landscape is to cultivate a culture of testing!
Greg Gifford — Dark Helmet's Guide to Local Domination with Google Posts and Q&A
If you’re a movie buff, you probably really appreciated Greg’s talk — he schooled us all in move references and brought the fire with his insights on Google Posts and Q&A
Google Posts allows you to drive conversions without driving people to your site - convert on zero-click searches! @GregGifford #MozCon
— Ruth Burr Reedy (@ruthburr) July 17, 2019
The man behind #shoesofmozcon taught us that Google is the new home page for local businesses, so we should be leveraging the tools Google has given us to make our Google My Business profiles great. For example…
Google Posts
Images should be 1200x900 on google posts
Images are cropped slightly higher than the center and it’s not consistent every time
The image size of the thumbnail is different on desktop than it is on mobile
Use Greg’s free tool at bit.ly/posts-image-guide to make sizing your Google Post images easier
You can also upload videos. The file size limit is 100mb and/or 30 seconds
Add a call-to-action button to make your Posts worth it! Just know that the button often means you get less real estate for text in your Posts
Don’t share social fluff. Attract with an offer that makes you stand out
Make sure you use UTM tracking so you can understand how your Posts are performing in Google Analytics. Otherwise, it’ll be attributed as direct traffic.
Google Q&A
Anyone can ask and answer questions — why not the business owner! Control the conversation and treat this feature like it's your new FAQ page.
This feature works on an upvote system. The answer with the most upvotes will show first.
Don’t include a URL or phone number in these because it’ll get filtered out.
A lot of these questions are potential customers! Out of 640 car dealerships’ Q&As Greg evaluated, 40 percent were leads! Of that 40 percent, only 2 questions were answered by the dealership.
Emily Triplett Lentz — How to Audit for Inclusive Content
Emily of Help Scout walked dropped major knowledge on the importance of spotting and eliminating biases that frequently find their way into online copy. She also hung out backstage after her talk to cheer on her fellow speakers. #GOAT. #notallheroeswearcapes.
"My desire for a specific word choice doesn't negate someone else's need for safety" -- @emilytlentz #MozCon pic.twitter.com/sXF2CjXVzo
— Yosef Silver (@ysilver) July 17, 2019
As content creators, we’d all do well to keep ableism in mind: discrimination in favor of able-bodied people. However, we’re often guilty of this without even knowing it.
One example of ableism that often makes its way into our copy is comparing dire or subideal situations with the physical state of another human (ex: “crippling”).
While we should work on making our casual conversation more inclusive too, this is particularly important for brands.
Create a list of ableist words, crawl your site for them, and then replace them. However, you’ll likely find that there is no one-size-fits-all replacement for these words. We often use words like “crazy” as filler words. By removing or replacing with a more appropriate word, we make our content better and more descriptive in the process.
At the end of the day, brands should remember that their desire for freedom of word choice isn’t more important than people’s right not to feel excluded and hurt. When there’s really no downside to more inclusive content, why wouldn’t we do it?
Visit http://content.helpscout.net/mozcon-2019 to learn how to audit your site for inclusive content!
Joelle Irvine — Image & Visual Search Optimization Opportunities
Curious about image optimization and visual search? Joelle has the goods for you — and was blowing people's minds with her tips for visual optimization and how to leverage Google Lens, Pinterest, and AR for visual search.
“Visual search is easier when you don’t know what you’re looking for, when you’re looking to match a particular style, and when your search way is too long or complicated.” @joelleirvine #MozCon
— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 17, 2019
Visual search is not the same thing as searching for images. We’re talking about the process of using an image to search for other content.
Visual search like Google Lens makes it easier to search when you don’t know what you’re looking for.
Pinterest has made a lot of progress in this area. They have a hybrid search that allows you to find complimentary items to the one you searched. It’s like finding a rug that matches a chair you like rather than finding more of the same type of chair.
62 percent of millennials surveyed said they would like to be able to search by visual, so while this is mostly being used by clothing retailers and home decor right now, visual search is only going to get better, so think about the ways you can leverage it for your brand!
Joy Hawkins — Factors that Affect the Local Algorithm that Don't Impact Organic
Proximity varies greatly when comparing local and organic results — just ask Joy of Sterling Sky, who gets real about fake listings while walking through the findings of a recent study.
Local results not only vary by city, but even within the same zip codes, there can be drastically different local results. @JoyanneHawkins #mozcon pic.twitter.com/8g6acxUDAq
— Lily Ray (@lilyraynyc) July 17, 2019
Here are the seven areas in which the local algorithm diverges from the organic algorithm:
Proximity (AKA: how close is the biz to the searcher?)
Proximity is the #1 local ranking factor, but the #27 ranking factor on organic.
Studies show that having a business that’s close in proximity to the searcher is more beneficial for ranking in the local pack than in traditional organic results.
Rank tracking
Because there is so much variance by latitude/longitude, as well as hourly variances, Joy recommends not sending your local business clients ranking reports.
Use rank tracking internally, but send clients the leads/sales. This causes less confusion and gets them focused on the main goal.
Visit bit.ly/mozcon3 for insights on how to track leads from GMB
GMB landing pages (AKA: the website URL you link to from your GMB account)
Joy tested linking to the home page (which had more authority/prominence) vs. linking to the local landing page (which had more relevance) and found that traffic went way up when linking to the home page.
Before you go switching all your GMB links though, test this for yourself!
Reviews
Joy wanted to know how much reviews actually impacted ranking, and what it was exactly about reviews that would help or hurt.
She decided to see what would happen to rankings when reviews were removed. This happened to a business who was review gating (a violation of Google’s guidelines) but Joy found that reviews flagged for violations aren’t actually removed, they’re hidden, explaining why “removed” reviews don’t negatively impact local rankings.
Possum filter
Organic results can get filtered because of duplicate content, whereas local results can get filtered because they’re too close to another business in the same category. This is called the Possum filter.
Keywords in a business name
This is against Google’s guidelines but it works sadly
For example, Joy tested adding the word “salad bar” to a listing that didn’t even have a salad bar and their local rankings for that keyword shot up.
Although it works, don’t do it! Google can remove your listing for this type of violation, and they’ve been removing more listings for this reason lately.
Fake listings
New listings can rank even if they have no website, authority, citations, etc. simply because they keyword stuffed their business name. These types of rankings can happen overnight, whereas it can take a year or more to achieve certain organic rankings.
Spend time reporting spam listings in your clients’ niches because it can improve your clients’ local rankings.
Britney Muller — Featured Snippets: Essentials to Know & How to Target
Closing out day three of MozCon was our very own Britney, Sr. SEO scientist extraordinaire, on everyone’s favorite SEO topic: Featured snippets!
Why are we so concerned about traffic? What about branding/messaging/share of voice? You can't NOT target a keyword just because it has a Featured Snippet @BritneyMuller #MozCon
— Ruth Burr Reedy (@ruthburr) July 17, 2019
We’re seeing more featured snippets than ever before, and they’re not likely going away. It’s time to start capitalizing on this SERP feature so we can start earning brand awareness and traffic for our clients!
Here’s how:
Know what keywords trigger featured snippets that you rank on page 1 for
Know the searcher’s intent
Provide succinct answers
Add summaries to popular posts
Identify commonly asked questions
Leverage Google’s NLP API
Monitor featured snippets
If all else fails, leverage ranking third party sites. Maybe your own site has low authority and isn’t ranking well, but try publishing on Linkedin or Medium instead to get the snippet!
There’s lots of debate over whether featured snippets send you more traffic or take it away due to zero-click results, but consider the benefits featured snippets can bring even without the click. Whether featured snippets bring you traffic, increased brand visibility in the SERPs, or both, they’re an opportunity worth chasing.
Aaaand, that's a wrap!
Thanks for joining us at this year's MozCon! And a HUGE thank you to everyone (Mozzers, partners, and crew) who helped make this year's MozCon possible — we couldn't have done it without all of you.
What was your favorite moment of the entire conference? Tell us below in the comments! And don't forget to grab the speaker slides here!
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!
0 notes
Text
MozCon 2019: Everything You Need to Know About Day Three
Posted by KameronJenkins
If the last day of MozCon felt like it went too fast or if you forgot everything that happened today (we wouldn't judge — there were so many insights), don't fret. We captured all of day three's takeaways so you could relive the magic of day three.
Don't forget to check out all the photos with Roger from the photobooth! They're available here in the MozCon Facebook group. Plus: You asked and we delivered: the 2019 MozCon speaker walk-on playlist is now live and available here for your streaming pleasure.
Cindy Krum— Fraggles, Mobile-First Indexing, & the SERP of the Future
If you were hit with an instant wave of nostalgia after hearing Cindy's walk out music, then you are in good company and you probably were not disappointed in the slightest by Cindy’s talk on Fraggles.
First learning of the day: Fraggles. Fragment + Handles. A piece of information and an anchor that scrolls directly to the information on the page @Suzzicks #MozCon
— Warrior Forum (@warriorforum) July 17, 2019
“Fraggles” are fragments + handles. A fragment is a piece of info on a page. A handle is something like a bookmark, jump link, or named anchor — they help people navigate through long pages to get what they’re looking for faster.
Ranking pages is an inefficient way to answer questions. One page can answer innumerable questions, so Google’s now can pull a single answer from multiple parts of your page, skipping sections they don’t think are as useful for a particular answer.
The implications for voice are huge! It means you don’t have to listen to your voice device spout off a page’s worth of text before your question is answered.
Google wants to index more than just websites. They want to organize the world’s information, not websites. Fraggles are a demonstration of that.
Luke Carthy — Killer Ecommerce CRO and UX Wins Using A SEO Crawler
Luke Carthy did warn us in his talk description that we should all flex our notetaking muscles for all the takeaways we would furiously jot down — and he wasn’t wrong.
“Traffic doesn’t always mean sales, and sales doesn’t always mean traffic.” @MrLukeCarthy #MozCon
— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 17, 2019
Traffic doesn’t always mean sales and sales don’t always mean traffic!
Custom extraction is a great tool for finding missed CRO opportunities. For example, Luke found huge opportunity on Best Buy’s website — thousands of people’s site searches were leading them to an unoptimized “no results found” page.
You can also use custom extraction to find what product recommendations you or your customers are using at scale! Did you know that 35% of what customers buy on Amazon and 75 percent of what people watch on Netflix are the results of these recommendations?
For example, are you showing near-exact products or are you showing complementary products? (hint: try the latter and you’ll likely increase your sales!)
Custom extraction from Screaming Frog allows you to scrape any data from the HTML of the web pages while crawling them.
Andy Crestodina — Content, Rankings, and Lead Generation: A Breakdown of the 1% Content Strategy
Next up, Andy of Orbit Media took the stage with a comprehensive breakdown of the most effective tactics for turning content into a high-powered content strategy. He also brought the fire with this sound advice that we can apply in both our work life and personal life.
If you write an amazing, high-traffic blog post, the people visiting it don't have commercial intent. People landing on a sales page have 50x higher intent. #mozcon @crestodina
— Mike Arnesen (@Mike_Arnesen) July 17, 2019
Blog visitors often don’t have commercial intent. One of the greatest ways to leverage blog posts for leads is by using the equity we generate from links to our helpful posts and passing that onto our product and service pages.
If you want links and shares, invest in original research! Not sure what to research? Look for unanswered questions or unproven statements in your industry and provide the data.
Original research may take longer than a standard post, but it’s much more effective! When you think about it this way, do you really have time to put out more, mediocre posts?
Give what you want to get. Want links? Link to people. Want comments? Comment on others people's work.
To optimize content for social engagement, it should feature real people, their faces, and their quotes.
Collaborating with other content creators on your content not only gives it built-in amplification, but it also leads to great connections and is just generally more fun.
Rob Ousbey — Running Your Own SEO Tests: Why It Matters & How to Do It Right
Google’s algorithms have changed a heck of a lot in recent years — what’s an SEO to do? Follow Rob’s advice — both fashion and SEO — who says that the answer lies in testing.
in head terms, it's about user engagement metrics. However, links are more correllated with long tail searches. @RobOusbey #Mozcon
— Matthew Decuir (@MattBasically) July 17, 2019
“This is the way we’ve always done it” isn’t sufficient justification for SEO tactics in today’s search landscape.
In the earlier days of the algorithm, it was much easier to demote spam than it was to promote what’s truly good.
Rob and his team had a theory that Google was beginning to rely more heavily on user experience and satisfaction than some of the more traditional ranking factors like links.
Through SEO A/B testing, they found that:
Google relies less heavily on link signals when it comes to the top half of the results on page 1.
Google relies more heavily on user experience for head terms (terms with high search volume), likely because they have more user data to draw from.
In the process of A/B testing, they also found that the same test often produces different results on different sites. The best way to succeed in today’s SEO landscape is to cultivate a culture of testing!
Greg Gifford — Dark Helmet's Guide to Local Domination with Google Posts and Q&A
If you’re a movie buff, you probably really appreciated Greg’s talk — he schooled us all in move references and brought the fire with his insights on Google Posts and Q&A
Google Posts allows you to drive conversions without driving people to your site - convert on zero-click searches! @GregGifford #MozCon
— Ruth Burr Reedy (@ruthburr) July 17, 2019
The man behind #shoesofmozcon taught us that Google is the new home page for local businesses, so we should be leveraging the tools Google has given us to make our Google My Business profiles great. For example…
Google Posts
Images should be 1200x900 on google posts
Images are cropped slightly higher than the center and it’s not consistent every time
The image size of the thumbnail is different on desktop than it is on mobile
Use Greg’s free tool at bit.ly/posts-image-guide to make sizing your Google Post images easier
You can also upload videos. The file size limit is 100mb and/or 30 seconds
Add a call-to-action button to make your Posts worth it! Just know that the button often means you get less real estate for text in your Posts
Don’t share social fluff. Attract with an offer that makes you stand out
Make sure you use UTM tracking so you can understand how your Posts are performing in Google Analytics. Otherwise, it’ll be attributed as direct traffic.
Google Q&A
Anyone can ask and answer questions — why not the business owner! Control the conversation and treat this feature like it's your new FAQ page.
This feature works on an upvote system. The answer with the most upvotes will show first.
Don’t include a URL or phone number in these because it’ll get filtered out.
A lot of these questions are potential customers! Out of 640 car dealerships’ Q&As Greg evaluated, 40 percent were leads! Of that 40 percent, only 2 questions were answered by the dealership.
Emily Triplett Lentz — How to Audit for Inclusive Content
Emily of Help Scout walked dropped major knowledge on the importance of spotting and eliminating biases that frequently find their way into online copy. She also hung out backstage after her talk to cheer on her fellow speakers. #GOAT. #notallheroeswearcapes.
"My desire for a specific word choice doesn't negate someone else's need for safety" -- @emilytlentz #MozCon pic.twitter.com/sXF2CjXVzo
— Yosef Silver (@ysilver) July 17, 2019
As content creators, we’d all do well to keep ableism in mind: discrimination in favor of able-bodied people. However, we’re often guilty of this without even knowing it.
One example of ableism that often makes its way into our copy is comparing dire or subideal situations with the physical state of another human (ex: “crippling”).
While we should work on making our casual conversation more inclusive too, this is particularly important for brands.
Create a list of ableist words, crawl your site for them, and then replace them. However, you’ll likely find that there is no one-size-fits-all replacement for these words. We often use words like “crazy” as filler words. By removing or replacing with a more appropriate word, we make our content better and more descriptive in the process.
At the end of the day, brands should remember that their desire for freedom of word choice isn’t more important than people’s right not to feel excluded and hurt. When there’s really no downside to more inclusive content, why wouldn’t we do it?
Visit http://content.helpscout.net/mozcon-2019 to learn how to audit your site for inclusive content!
Joelle Irvine — Image & Visual Search Optimization Opportunities
Curious about image optimization and visual search? Joelle has the goods for you — and was blowing people's minds with her tips for visual optimization and how to leverage Google Lens, Pinterest, and AR for visual search.
“Visual search is easier when you don’t know what you’re looking for, when you’re looking to match a particular style, and when your search way is too long or complicated.” @joelleirvine #MozCon
— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 17, 2019
Visual search is not the same thing as searching for images. We’re talking about the process of using an image to search for other content.
Visual search like Google Lens makes it easier to search when you don’t know what you’re looking for.
Pinterest has made a lot of progress in this area. They have a hybrid search that allows you to find complimentary items to the one you searched. It’s like finding a rug that matches a chair you like rather than finding more of the same type of chair.
62 percent of millennials surveyed said they would like to be able to search by visual, so while this is mostly being used by clothing retailers and home decor right now, visual search is only going to get better, so think about the ways you can leverage it for your brand!
Joy Hawkins — Factors that Affect the Local Algorithm that Don't Impact Organic
Proximity varies greatly when comparing local and organic results — just ask Joy of Sterling Sky, who gets real about fake listings while walking through the findings of a recent study.
Local results not only vary by city, but even within the same zip codes, there can be drastically different local results. @JoyanneHawkins #mozcon pic.twitter.com/8g6acxUDAq
— Lily Ray (@lilyraynyc) July 17, 2019
Here are the seven areas in which the local algorithm diverges from the organic algorithm:
Proximity (AKA: how close is the biz to the searcher?)
Proximity is the #1 local ranking factor, but the #27 ranking factor on organic.
Studies show that having a business that’s close in proximity to the searcher is more beneficial for ranking in the local pack than in traditional organic results.
Rank tracking
Because there is so much variance by latitude/longitude, as well as hourly variances, Joy recommends not sending your local business clients ranking reports.
Use rank tracking internally, but send clients the leads/sales. This causes less confusion and gets them focused on the main goal.
Visit bit.ly/mozcon3 for insights on how to track leads from GMB
GMB landing pages (AKA: the website URL you link to from your GMB account)
Joy tested linking to the home page (which had more authority/prominence) vs. linking to the local landing page (which had more relevance) and found that traffic went way up when linking to the home page.
Before you go switching all your GMB links though, test this for yourself!
Reviews
Joy wanted to know how much reviews actually impacted ranking, and what it was exactly about reviews that would help or hurt.
She decided to see what would happen to rankings when reviews were removed. This happened to a business who was review gating (a violation of Google’s guidelines) but Joy found that reviews flagged for violations aren’t actually removed, they’re hidden, explaining why “removed” reviews don’t negatively impact local rankings.
Possum filter
Organic results can get filtered because of duplicate content, whereas local results can get filtered because they’re too close to another business in the same category. This is called the Possum filter.
Keywords in a business name
This is against Google’s guidelines but it works sadly
For example, Joy tested adding the word “salad bar” to a listing that didn’t even have a salad bar and their local rankings for that keyword shot up.
Although it works, don’t do it! Google can remove your listing for this type of violation, and they’ve been removing more listings for this reason lately.
Fake listings
New listings can rank even if they have no website, authority, citations, etc. simply because they keyword stuffed their business name. These types of rankings can happen overnight, whereas it can take a year or more to achieve certain organic rankings.
Spend time reporting spam listings in your clients’ niches because it can improve your clients’ local rankings.
Britney Muller — Featured Snippets: Essentials to Know & How to Target
Closing out day three of MozCon was our very own Britney, Sr. SEO scientist extraordinaire, on everyone’s favorite SEO topic: Featured snippets!
Why are we so concerned about traffic? What about branding/messaging/share of voice? You can't NOT target a keyword just because it has a Featured Snippet @BritneyMuller #MozCon
— Ruth Burr Reedy (@ruthburr) July 17, 2019
We’re seeing more featured snippets than ever before, and they’re not likely going away. It’s time to start capitalizing on this SERP feature so we can start earning brand awareness and traffic for our clients!
Here’s how:
Know what keywords trigger featured snippets that you rank on page 1 for
Know the searcher’s intent
Provide succinct answers
Add summaries to popular posts
Identify commonly asked questions
Leverage Google’s NLP API
Monitor featured snippets
If all else fails, leverage ranking third party sites. Maybe your own site has low authority and isn’t ranking well, but try publishing on Linkedin or Medium instead to get the snippet!
There’s lots of debate over whether featured snippets send you more traffic or take it away due to zero-click results, but consider the benefits featured snippets can bring even without the click. Whether featured snippets bring you traffic, increased brand visibility in the SERPs, or both, they’re an opportunity worth chasing.
Aaaand, that's a wrap!
Thanks for joining us at this year's MozCon! And a HUGE thank you to everyone (Mozzers, partners, and crew) who helped make this year's MozCon possible — we couldn't have done it without all of you.
What was your favorite moment of the entire conference? Tell us below in the comments! And don't forget to grab the speaker slides here!
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!
#túi_giấy_epacking_việt_nam #túi_giấy_epacking #in_túi_giấy_giá_rẻ #in_túi_giấy #epackingvietnam #tuigiayepacking
0 notes
Text
MozCon 2019: Everything You Need to Know About Day Three
Posted by KameronJenkins
If the last day of MozCon felt like it went too fast or if you forgot everything that happened today (we wouldn't judge — there were so many insights), don't fret. We captured all of day three's takeaways so you could relive the magic of day three.
Don't forget to check out all the photos with Roger from the photobooth! They're available here in the MozCon Facebook group. Plus: You asked and we delivered: the 2019 MozCon speaker walk-on playlist is now live and available here for your streaming pleasure.
Cindy Krum— Fraggles, Mobile-First Indexing, & the SERP of the Future
If you were hit with an instant wave of nostalgia after hearing Cindy's walk out music, then you are in good company and you probably were not disappointed in the slightest by Cindy’s talk on Fraggles.
First learning of the day: Fraggles. Fragment + Handles. A piece of information and an anchor that scrolls directly to the information on the page @Suzzicks #MozCon
— Warrior Forum (@warriorforum) July 17, 2019
“Fraggles” are fragments + handles. A fragment is a piece of info on a page. A handle is something like a bookmark, jump link, or named anchor — they help people navigate through long pages to get what they’re looking for faster.
Ranking pages is an inefficient way to answer questions. One page can answer innumerable questions, so Google’s now can pull a single answer from multiple parts of your page, skipping sections they don’t think are as useful for a particular answer.
The implications for voice are huge! It means you don’t have to listen to your voice device spout off a page’s worth of text before your question is answered.
Google wants to index more than just websites. They want to organize the world’s information, not websites. Fraggles are a demonstration of that.
Luke Carthy — Killer Ecommerce CRO and UX Wins Using A SEO Crawler
Luke Carthy did warn us in his talk description that we should all flex our notetaking muscles for all the takeaways we would furiously jot down — and he wasn’t wrong.
“Traffic doesn’t always mean sales, and sales doesn’t always mean traffic.” @MrLukeCarthy #MozCon
— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 17, 2019
Traffic doesn’t always mean sales and sales don’t always mean traffic!
Custom extraction is a great tool for finding missed CRO opportunities. For example, Luke found huge opportunity on Best Buy’s website — thousands of people’s site searches were leading them to an unoptimized “no results found” page.
You can also use custom extraction to find what product recommendations you or your customers are using at scale! Did you know that 35% of what customers buy on Amazon and 75 percent of what people watch on Netflix are the results of these recommendations?
For example, are you showing near-exact products or are you showing complementary products? (hint: try the latter and you’ll likely increase your sales!)
Custom extraction from Screaming Frog allows you to scrape any data from the HTML of the web pages while crawling them.
Andy Crestodina — Content, Rankings, and Lead Generation: A Breakdown of the 1% Content Strategy
Next up, Andy of Orbit Media took the stage with a comprehensive breakdown of the most effective tactics for turning content into a high-powered content strategy. He also brought the fire with this sound advice that we can apply in both our work life and personal life.
If you write an amazing, high-traffic blog post, the people visiting it don't have commercial intent. People landing on a sales page have 50x higher intent. #mozcon @crestodina
— Mike Arnesen (@Mike_Arnesen) July 17, 2019
Blog visitors often don’t have commercial intent. One of the greatest ways to leverage blog posts for leads is by using the equity we generate from links to our helpful posts and passing that onto our product and service pages.
If you want links and shares, invest in original research! Not sure what to research? Look for unanswered questions or unproven statements in your industry and provide the data.
Original research may take longer than a standard post, but it’s much more effective! When you think about it this way, do you really have time to put out more, mediocre posts?
Give what you want to get. Want links? Link to people. Want comments? Comment on others people's work.
To optimize content for social engagement, it should feature real people, their faces, and their quotes.
Collaborating with other content creators on your content not only gives it built-in amplification, but it also leads to great connections and is just generally more fun.
Rob Ousbey — Running Your Own SEO Tests: Why It Matters & How to Do It Right
Google’s algorithms have changed a heck of a lot in recent years — what’s an SEO to do? Follow Rob’s advice — both fashion and SEO — who says that the answer lies in testing.
in head terms, it's about user engagement metrics. However, links are more correllated with long tail searches. @RobOusbey #Mozcon
— Matthew Decuir (@MattBasically) July 17, 2019
“This is the way we’ve always done it” isn’t sufficient justification for SEO tactics in today’s search landscape.
In the earlier days of the algorithm, it was much easier to demote spam than it was to promote what’s truly good.
Rob and his team had a theory that Google was beginning to rely more heavily on user experience and satisfaction than some of the more traditional ranking factors like links.
Through SEO A/B testing, they found that:
Google relies less heavily on link signals when it comes to the top half of the results on page 1.
Google relies more heavily on user experience for head terms (terms with high search volume), likely because they have more user data to draw from.
In the process of A/B testing, they also found that the same test often produces different results on different sites. The best way to succeed in today’s SEO landscape is to cultivate a culture of testing!
Greg Gifford — Dark Helmet's Guide to Local Domination with Google Posts and Q&A
If you’re a movie buff, you probably really appreciated Greg’s talk — he schooled us all in move references and brought the fire with his insights on Google Posts and Q&A
Google Posts allows you to drive conversions without driving people to your site - convert on zero-click searches! @GregGifford #MozCon
— Ruth Burr Reedy (@ruthburr) July 17, 2019
The man behind #shoesofmozcon taught us that Google is the new home page for local businesses, so we should be leveraging the tools Google has given us to make our Google My Business profiles great. For example…
Google Posts
Images should be 1200x900 on google posts
Images are cropped slightly higher than the center and it’s not consistent every time
The image size of the thumbnail is different on desktop than it is on mobile
Use Greg’s free tool at bit.ly/posts-image-guide to make sizing your Google Post images easier
You can also upload videos. The file size limit is 100mb and/or 30 seconds
Add a call-to-action button to make your Posts worth it! Just know that the button often means you get less real estate for text in your Posts
Don’t share social fluff. Attract with an offer that makes you stand out
Make sure you use UTM tracking so you can understand how your Posts are performing in Google Analytics. Otherwise, it’ll be attributed as direct traffic.
Google Q&A
Anyone can ask and answer questions — why not the business owner! Control the conversation and treat this feature like it's your new FAQ page.
This feature works on an upvote system. The answer with the most upvotes will show first.
Don’t include a URL or phone number in these because it’ll get filtered out.
A lot of these questions are potential customers! Out of 640 car dealerships’ Q&As Greg evaluated, 40 percent were leads! Of that 40 percent, only 2 questions were answered by the dealership.
Emily Triplett Lentz — How to Audit for Inclusive Content
Emily of Help Scout walked dropped major knowledge on the importance of spotting and eliminating biases that frequently find their way into online copy. She also hung out backstage after her talk to cheer on her fellow speakers. #GOAT. #notallheroeswearcapes.
"My desire for a specific word choice doesn't negate someone else's need for safety" -- @emilytlentz #MozCon pic.twitter.com/sXF2CjXVzo
— Yosef Silver (@ysilver) July 17, 2019
As content creators, we’d all do well to keep ableism in mind: discrimination in favor of able-bodied people. However, we’re often guilty of this without even knowing it.
One example of ableism that often makes its way into our copy is comparing dire or subideal situations with the physical state of another human (ex: “crippling”).
While we should work on making our casual conversation more inclusive too, this is particularly important for brands.
Create a list of ableist words, crawl your site for them, and then replace them. However, you’ll likely find that there is no one-size-fits-all replacement for these words. We often use words like “crazy” as filler words. By removing or replacing with a more appropriate word, we make our content better and more descriptive in the process.
At the end of the day, brands should remember that their desire for freedom of word choice isn’t more important than people’s right not to feel excluded and hurt. When there’s really no downside to more inclusive content, why wouldn’t we do it?
Visit http://content.helpscout.net/mozcon-2019 to learn how to audit your site for inclusive content!
Joelle Irvine — Image & Visual Search Optimization Opportunities
Curious about image optimization and visual search? Joelle has the goods for you — and was blowing people's minds with her tips for visual optimization and how to leverage Google Lens, Pinterest, and AR for visual search.
“Visual search is easier when you don’t know what you’re looking for, when you’re looking to match a particular style, and when your search way is too long or complicated.” @joelleirvine #MozCon
— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 17, 2019
Visual search is not the same thing as searching for images. We’re talking about the process of using an image to search for other content.
Visual search like Google Lens makes it easier to search when you don’t know what you’re looking for.
Pinterest has made a lot of progress in this area. They have a hybrid search that allows you to find complimentary items to the one you searched. It’s like finding a rug that matches a chair you like rather than finding more of the same type of chair.
62 percent of millennials surveyed said they would like to be able to search by visual, so while this is mostly being used by clothing retailers and home decor right now, visual search is only going to get better, so think about the ways you can leverage it for your brand!
Joy Hawkins — Factors that Affect the Local Algorithm that Don't Impact Organic
Proximity varies greatly when comparing local and organic results — just ask Joy of Sterling Sky, who gets real about fake listings while walking through the findings of a recent study.
Local results not only vary by city, but even within the same zip codes, there can be drastically different local results. @JoyanneHawkins #mozcon pic.twitter.com/8g6acxUDAq
— Lily Ray (@lilyraynyc) July 17, 2019
Here are the seven areas in which the local algorithm diverges from the organic algorithm:
Proximity (AKA: how close is the biz to the searcher?)
Proximity is the #1 local ranking factor, but the #27 ranking factor on organic.
Studies show that having a business that’s close in proximity to the searcher is more beneficial for ranking in the local pack than in traditional organic results.
Rank tracking
Because there is so much variance by latitude/longitude, as well as hourly variances, Joy recommends not sending your local business clients ranking reports.
Use rank tracking internally, but send clients the leads/sales. This causes less confusion and gets them focused on the main goal.
Visit bit.ly/mozcon3 for insights on how to track leads from GMB
GMB landing pages (AKA: the website URL you link to from your GMB account)
Joy tested linking to the home page (which had more authority/prominence) vs. linking to the local landing page (which had more relevance) and found that traffic went way up when linking to the home page.
Before you go switching all your GMB links though, test this for yourself!
Reviews
Joy wanted to know how much reviews actually impacted ranking, and what it was exactly about reviews that would help or hurt.
She decided to see what would happen to rankings when reviews were removed. This happened to a business who was review gating (a violation of Google’s guidelines) but Joy found that reviews flagged for violations aren’t actually removed, they’re hidden, explaining why “removed” reviews don’t negatively impact local rankings.
Possum filter
Organic results can get filtered because of duplicate content, whereas local results can get filtered because they’re too close to another business in the same category. This is called the Possum filter.
Keywords in a business name
This is against Google’s guidelines but it works sadly
For example, Joy tested adding the word “salad bar” to a listing that didn’t even have a salad bar and their local rankings for that keyword shot up.
Although it works, don’t do it! Google can remove your listing for this type of violation, and they’ve been removing more listings for this reason lately.
Fake listings
New listings can rank even if they have no website, authority, citations, etc. simply because they keyword stuffed their business name. These types of rankings can happen overnight, whereas it can take a year or more to achieve certain organic rankings.
Spend time reporting spam listings in your clients’ niches because it can improve your clients’ local rankings.
Britney Muller — Featured Snippets: Essentials to Know & How to Target
Closing out day three of MozCon was our very own Britney, Sr. SEO scientist extraordinaire, on everyone’s favorite SEO topic: Featured snippets!
Why are we so concerned about traffic? What about branding/messaging/share of voice? You can't NOT target a keyword just because it has a Featured Snippet @BritneyMuller #MozCon
— Ruth Burr Reedy (@ruthburr) July 17, 2019
We’re seeing more featured snippets than ever before, and they’re not likely going away. It’s time to start capitalizing on this SERP feature so we can start earning brand awareness and traffic for our clients!
Here’s how:
Know what keywords trigger featured snippets that you rank on page 1 for
Know the searcher’s intent
Provide succinct answers
Add summaries to popular posts
Identify commonly asked questions
Leverage Google’s NLP API
Monitor featured snippets
If all else fails, leverage ranking third party sites. Maybe your own site has low authority and isn’t ranking well, but try publishing on Linkedin or Medium instead to get the snippet!
There’s lots of debate over whether featured snippets send you more traffic or take it away due to zero-click results, but consider the benefits featured snippets can bring even without the click. Whether featured snippets bring you traffic, increased brand visibility in the SERPs, or both, they’re an opportunity worth chasing.
Aaaand, that's a wrap!
Thanks for joining us at this year's MozCon! And a HUGE thank you to everyone (Mozzers, partners, and crew) who helped make this year's MozCon possible — we couldn't have done it without all of you.
What was your favorite moment of the entire conference? Tell us below in the comments! And don't forget to grab the speaker slides here!
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!
0 notes
Text
MozCon 2019: Everything You Need to Know About Day Three
Posted by KameronJenkins
If the last day of MozCon felt like it went too fast or if you forgot everything that happened today (we wouldn't judge — there were so many insights), don't fret. We captured all of day three's takeaways so you could relive the magic of day three.
Don't forget to check out all the photos with Roger from the photobooth! They're available here in the MozCon Facebook group. Plus: You asked and we delivered: the 2019 MozCon speaker walk-on playlist is now live and available here for your streaming pleasure.
Cindy Krum— Fraggles, Mobile-First Indexing, & the SERP of the Future
If you were hit with an instant wave of nostalgia after hearing Cindy's walk out music, then you are in good company and you probably were not disappointed in the slightest by Cindy’s talk on Fraggles.
First learning of the day: Fraggles. Fragment + Handles. A piece of information and an anchor that scrolls directly to the information on the page @Suzzicks #MozCon
— Warrior Forum (@warriorforum) July 17, 2019
“Fraggles” are fragments + handles. A fragment is a piece of info on a page. A handle is something like a bookmark, jump link, or named anchor — they help people navigate through long pages to get what they’re looking for faster.
Ranking pages is an inefficient way to answer questions. One page can answer innumerable questions, so Google’s now can pull a single answer from multiple parts of your page, skipping sections they don’t think are as useful for a particular answer.
The implications for voice are huge! It means you don’t have to listen to your voice device spout off a page’s worth of text before your question is answered.
Google wants to index more than just websites. They want to organize the world’s information, not websites. Fraggles are a demonstration of that.
Luke Carthy — Killer Ecommerce CRO and UX Wins Using A SEO Crawler
Luke Carthy did warn us in his talk description that we should all flex our notetaking muscles for all the takeaways we would furiously jot down — and he wasn’t wrong.
“Traffic doesn’t always mean sales, and sales doesn’t always mean traffic.” @MrLukeCarthy #MozCon
— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 17, 2019
Traffic doesn’t always mean sales and sales don’t always mean traffic!
Custom extraction is a great tool for finding missed CRO opportunities. For example, Luke found huge opportunity on Best Buy’s website — thousands of people’s site searches were leading them to an unoptimized “no results found” page.
You can also use custom extraction to find what product recommendations you or your customers are using at scale! Did you know that 35% of what customers buy on Amazon and 75 percent of what people watch on Netflix are the results of these recommendations?
For example, are you showing near-exact products or are you showing complementary products? (hint: try the latter and you’ll likely increase your sales!)
Custom extraction from Screaming Frog allows you to scrape any data from the HTML of the web pages while crawling them.
Andy Crestodina — Content, Rankings, and Lead Generation: A Breakdown of the 1% Content Strategy
Next up, Andy of Orbit Media took the stage with a comprehensive breakdown of the most effective tactics for turning content into a high-powered content strategy. He also brought the fire with this sound advice that we can apply in both our work life and personal life.
If you write an amazing, high-traffic blog post, the people visiting it don't have commercial intent. People landing on a sales page have 50x higher intent. #mozcon @crestodina
— Mike Arnesen (@Mike_Arnesen) July 17, 2019
Blog visitors often don’t have commercial intent. One of the greatest ways to leverage blog posts for leads is by using the equity we generate from links to our helpful posts and passing that onto our product and service pages.
If you want links and shares, invest in original research! Not sure what to research? Look for unanswered questions or unproven statements in your industry and provide the data.
Original research may take longer than a standard post, but it’s much more effective! When you think about it this way, do you really have time to put out more, mediocre posts?
Give what you want to get. Want links? Link to people. Want comments? Comment on others people's work.
To optimize content for social engagement, it should feature real people, their faces, and their quotes.
Collaborating with other content creators on your content not only gives it built-in amplification, but it also leads to great connections and is just generally more fun.
Rob Ousbey — Running Your Own SEO Tests: Why It Matters & How to Do It Right
Google’s algorithms have changed a heck of a lot in recent years — what’s an SEO to do? Follow Rob’s advice — both fashion and SEO — who says that the answer lies in testing.
in head terms, it's about user engagement metrics. However, links are more correllated with long tail searches. @RobOusbey #Mozcon
— Matthew Decuir (@MattBasically) July 17, 2019
“This is the way we’ve always done it” isn’t sufficient justification for SEO tactics in today’s search landscape.
In the earlier days of the algorithm, it was much easier to demote spam than it was to promote what’s truly good.
Rob and his team had a theory that Google was beginning to rely more heavily on user experience and satisfaction than some of the more traditional ranking factors like links.
Through SEO A/B testing, they found that:
Google relies less heavily on link signals when it comes to the top half of the results on page 1.
Google relies more heavily on user experience for head terms (terms with high search volume), likely because they have more user data to draw from.
In the process of A/B testing, they also found that the same test often produces different results on different sites. The best way to succeed in today’s SEO landscape is to cultivate a culture of testing!
Greg Gifford — Dark Helmet's Guide to Local Domination with Google Posts and Q&A
If you’re a movie buff, you probably really appreciated Greg’s talk — he schooled us all in move references and brought the fire with his insights on Google Posts and Q&A
Google Posts allows you to drive conversions without driving people to your site - convert on zero-click searches! @GregGifford #MozCon
— Ruth Burr Reedy (@ruthburr) July 17, 2019
The man behind #shoesofmozcon taught us that Google is the new home page for local businesses, so we should be leveraging the tools Google has given us to make our Google My Business profiles great. For example…
Google Posts
Images should be 1200x900 on google posts
Images are cropped slightly higher than the center and it’s not consistent every time
The image size of the thumbnail is different on desktop than it is on mobile
Use Greg’s free tool at bit.ly/posts-image-guide to make sizing your Google Post images easier
You can also upload videos. The file size limit is 100mb and/or 30 seconds
Add a call-to-action button to make your Posts worth it! Just know that the button often means you get less real estate for text in your Posts
Don’t share social fluff. Attract with an offer that makes you stand out
Make sure you use UTM tracking so you can understand how your Posts are performing in Google Analytics. Otherwise, it’ll be attributed as direct traffic.
Google Q&A
Anyone can ask and answer questions — why not the business owner! Control the conversation and treat this feature like it's your new FAQ page.
This feature works on an upvote system. The answer with the most upvotes will show first.
Don’t include a URL or phone number in these because it’ll get filtered out.
A lot of these questions are potential customers! Out of 640 car dealerships’ Q&As Greg evaluated, 40 percent were leads! Of that 40 percent, only 2 questions were answered by the dealership.
Emily Triplett Lentz — How to Audit for Inclusive Content
Emily of Help Scout walked dropped major knowledge on the importance of spotting and eliminating biases that frequently find their way into online copy. She also hung out backstage after her talk to cheer on her fellow speakers. #GOAT. #notallheroeswearcapes.
"My desire for a specific word choice doesn't negate someone else's need for safety" -- @emilytlentz #MozCon pic.twitter.com/sXF2CjXVzo
— Yosef Silver (@ysilver) July 17, 2019
As content creators, we’d all do well to keep ableism in mind: discrimination in favor of able-bodied people. However, we’re often guilty of this without even knowing it.
One example of ableism that often makes its way into our copy is comparing dire or subideal situations with the physical state of another human (ex: “crippling”).
While we should work on making our casual conversation more inclusive too, this is particularly important for brands.
Create a list of ableist words, crawl your site for them, and then replace them. However, you’ll likely find that there is no one-size-fits-all replacement for these words. We often use words like “crazy” as filler words. By removing or replacing with a more appropriate word, we make our content better and more descriptive in the process.
At the end of the day, brands should remember that their desire for freedom of word choice isn’t more important than people’s right not to feel excluded and hurt. When there’s really no downside to more inclusive content, why wouldn’t we do it?
Visit http://content.helpscout.net/mozcon-2019 to learn how to audit your site for inclusive content!
Joelle Irvine — Image & Visual Search Optimization Opportunities
Curious about image optimization and visual search? Joelle has the goods for you — and was blowing people's minds with her tips for visual optimization and how to leverage Google Lens, Pinterest, and AR for visual search.
“Visual search is easier when you don’t know what you’re looking for, when you’re looking to match a particular style, and when your search way is too long or complicated.” @joelleirvine #MozCon
— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 17, 2019
Visual search is not the same thing as searching for images. We’re talking about the process of using an image to search for other content.
Visual search like Google Lens makes it easier to search when you don’t know what you’re looking for.
Pinterest has made a lot of progress in this area. They have a hybrid search that allows you to find complimentary items to the one you searched. It’s like finding a rug that matches a chair you like rather than finding more of the same type of chair.
62 percent of millennials surveyed said they would like to be able to search by visual, so while this is mostly being used by clothing retailers and home decor right now, visual search is only going to get better, so think about the ways you can leverage it for your brand!
Joy Hawkins — Factors that Affect the Local Algorithm that Don't Impact Organic
Proximity varies greatly when comparing local and organic results — just ask Joy of Sterling Sky, who gets real about fake listings while walking through the findings of a recent study.
Local results not only vary by city, but even within the same zip codes, there can be drastically different local results. @JoyanneHawkins #mozcon pic.twitter.com/8g6acxUDAq
— Lily Ray (@lilyraynyc) July 17, 2019
Here are the seven areas in which the local algorithm diverges from the organic algorithm:
Proximity (AKA: how close is the biz to the searcher?)
Proximity is the #1 local ranking factor, but the #27 ranking factor on organic.
Studies show that having a business that’s close in proximity to the searcher is more beneficial for ranking in the local pack than in traditional organic results.
Rank tracking
Because there is so much variance by latitude/longitude, as well as hourly variances, Joy recommends not sending your local business clients ranking reports.
Use rank tracking internally, but send clients the leads/sales. This causes less confusion and gets them focused on the main goal.
Visit bit.ly/mozcon3 for insights on how to track leads from GMB
GMB landing pages (AKA: the website URL you link to from your GMB account)
Joy tested linking to the home page (which had more authority/prominence) vs. linking to the local landing page (which had more relevance) and found that traffic went way up when linking to the home page.
Before you go switching all your GMB links though, test this for yourself!
Reviews
Joy wanted to know how much reviews actually impacted ranking, and what it was exactly about reviews that would help or hurt.
She decided to see what would happen to rankings when reviews were removed. This happened to a business who was review gating (a violation of Google’s guidelines) but Joy found that reviews flagged for violations aren’t actually removed, they’re hidden, explaining why “removed” reviews don’t negatively impact local rankings.
Possum filter
Organic results can get filtered because of duplicate content, whereas local results can get filtered because they’re too close to another business in the same category. This is called the Possum filter.
Keywords in a business name
This is against Google’s guidelines but it works sadly
For example, Joy tested adding the word “salad bar” to a listing that didn’t even have a salad bar and their local rankings for that keyword shot up.
Although it works, don’t do it! Google can remove your listing for this type of violation, and they’ve been removing more listings for this reason lately.
Fake listings
New listings can rank even if they have no website, authority, citations, etc. simply because they keyword stuffed their business name. These types of rankings can happen overnight, whereas it can take a year or more to achieve certain organic rankings.
Spend time reporting spam listings in your clients’ niches because it can improve your clients’ local rankings.
Britney Muller — Featured Snippets: Essentials to Know & How to Target
Closing out day three of MozCon was our very own Britney, Sr. SEO scientist extraordinaire, on everyone’s favorite SEO topic: Featured snippets!
Why are we so concerned about traffic? What about branding/messaging/share of voice? You can't NOT target a keyword just because it has a Featured Snippet @BritneyMuller #MozCon
— Ruth Burr Reedy (@ruthburr) July 17, 2019
We’re seeing more featured snippets than ever before, and they’re not likely going away. It’s time to start capitalizing on this SERP feature so we can start earning brand awareness and traffic for our clients!
Here’s how:
Know what keywords trigger featured snippets that you rank on page 1 for
Know the searcher’s intent
Provide succinct answers
Add summaries to popular posts
Identify commonly asked questions
Leverage Google’s NLP API
Monitor featured snippets
If all else fails, leverage ranking third party sites. Maybe your own site has low authority and isn’t ranking well, but try publishing on Linkedin or Medium instead to get the snippet!
There’s lots of debate over whether featured snippets send you more traffic or take it away due to zero-click results, but consider the benefits featured snippets can bring even without the click. Whether featured snippets bring you traffic, increased brand visibility in the SERPs, or both, they’re an opportunity worth chasing.
Aaaand, that's a wrap!
Thanks for joining us at this year's MozCon! And a HUGE thank you to everyone (Mozzers, partners, and crew) who helped make this year's MozCon possible — we couldn't have done it without all of you.
What was your favorite moment of the entire conference? Tell us below in the comments! And don't forget to grab the speaker slides here!
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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MozCon 2019: Everything You Need to Know About Day Three
Posted by KameronJenkins
If the last day of MozCon felt like it went too fast or if you forgot everything that happened today (we wouldn't judge — there were so many insights), don't fret. We captured all of day three's takeaways so you could relive the magic of day three.
Don't forget to check out all the photos with Roger from the photobooth! They're available here in the MozCon Facebook group. Plus: You asked and we delivered: the 2019 MozCon speaker walk-on playlist is now live and available here for your streaming pleasure.
Cindy Krum— Fraggles, Mobile-First Indexing, & the SERP of the Future
If you were hit with an instant wave of nostalgia after hearing Cindy's walk out music, then you are in good company and you probably were not disappointed in the slightest by Cindy’s talk on Fraggles.
First learning of the day: Fraggles. Fragment + Handles. A piece of information and an anchor that scrolls directly to the information on the page @Suzzicks #MozCon
— Warrior Forum (@warriorforum) July 17, 2019
“Fraggles” are fragments + handles. A fragment is a piece of info on a page. A handle is something like a bookmark, jump link, or named anchor — they help people navigate through long pages to get what they’re looking for faster.
Ranking pages is an inefficient way to answer questions. One page can answer innumerable questions, so Google’s now can pull a single answer from multiple parts of your page, skipping sections they don’t think are as useful for a particular answer.
The implications for voice are huge! It means you don’t have to listen to your voice device spout off a page’s worth of text before your question is answered.
Google wants to index more than just websites. They want to organize the world’s information, not websites. Fraggles are a demonstration of that.
Luke Carthy — Killer Ecommerce CRO and UX Wins Using A SEO Crawler
Luke Carthy did warn us in his talk description that we should all flex our notetaking muscles for all the takeaways we would furiously jot down — and he wasn’t wrong.
“Traffic doesn’t always mean sales, and sales doesn’t always mean traffic.” @MrLukeCarthy #MozCon
— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 17, 2019
Traffic doesn’t always mean sales and sales don’t always mean traffic!
Custom extraction is a great tool for finding missed CRO opportunities. For example, Luke found huge opportunity on Best Buy’s website — thousands of people’s site searches were leading them to an unoptimized “no results found” page.
You can also use custom extraction to find what product recommendations you or your customers are using at scale! Did you know that 35% of what customers buy on Amazon and 75 percent of what people watch on Netflix are the results of these recommendations?
For example, are you showing near-exact products or are you showing complementary products? (hint: try the latter and you’ll likely increase your sales!)
Custom extraction from Screaming Frog allows you to scrape any data from the HTML of the web pages while crawling them.
Andy Crestodina — Content, Rankings, and Lead Generation: A Breakdown of the 1% Content Strategy
Next up, Andy of Orbit Media took the stage with a comprehensive breakdown of the most effective tactics for turning content into a high-powered content strategy. He also brought the fire with this sound advice that we can apply in both our work life and personal life.
If you write an amazing, high-traffic blog post, the people visiting it don't have commercial intent. People landing on a sales page have 50x higher intent. #mozcon @crestodina
— Mike Arnesen (@Mike_Arnesen) July 17, 2019
Blog visitors often don’t have commercial intent. One of the greatest ways to leverage blog posts for leads is by using the equity we generate from links to our helpful posts and passing that onto our product and service pages.
If you want links and shares, invest in original research! Not sure what to research? Look for unanswered questions or unproven statements in your industry and provide the data.
Original research may take longer than a standard post, but it’s much more effective! When you think about it this way, do you really have time to put out more, mediocre posts?
Give what you want to get. Want links? Link to people. Want comments? Comment on others people's work.
To optimize content for social engagement, it should feature real people, their faces, and their quotes.
Collaborating with other content creators on your content not only gives it built-in amplification, but it also leads to great connections and is just generally more fun.
Rob Ousbey — Running Your Own SEO Tests: Why It Matters & How to Do It Right
Google’s algorithms have changed a heck of a lot in recent years — what’s an SEO to do? Follow Rob’s advice — both fashion and SEO — who says that the answer lies in testing.
in head terms, it's about user engagement metrics. However, links are more correllated with long tail searches. @RobOusbey #Mozcon
— Matthew Decuir (@MattBasically) July 17, 2019
“This is the way we’ve always done it” isn’t sufficient justification for SEO tactics in today’s search landscape.
In the earlier days of the algorithm, it was much easier to demote spam than it was to promote what’s truly good.
Rob and his team had a theory that Google was beginning to rely more heavily on user experience and satisfaction than some of the more traditional ranking factors like links.
Through SEO A/B testing, they found that:
Google relies less heavily on link signals when it comes to the top half of the results on page 1.
Google relies more heavily on user experience for head terms (terms with high search volume), likely because they have more user data to draw from.
In the process of A/B testing, they also found that the same test often produces different results on different sites. The best way to succeed in today’s SEO landscape is to cultivate a culture of testing!
Greg Gifford — Dark Helmet's Guide to Local Domination with Google Posts and Q&A
If you’re a movie buff, you probably really appreciated Greg’s talk — he schooled us all in move references and brought the fire with his insights on Google Posts and Q&A
Google Posts allows you to drive conversions without driving people to your site - convert on zero-click searches! @GregGifford #MozCon
— Ruth Burr Reedy (@ruthburr) July 17, 2019
The man behind #shoesofmozcon taught us that Google is the new home page for local businesses, so we should be leveraging the tools Google has given us to make our Google My Business profiles great. For example…
Google Posts
Images should be 1200x900 on google posts
Images are cropped slightly higher than the center and it’s not consistent every time
The image size of the thumbnail is different on desktop than it is on mobile
Use Greg’s free tool at bit.ly/posts-image-guide to make sizing your Google Post images easier
You can also upload videos. The file size limit is 100mb and/or 30 seconds
Add a call-to-action button to make your Posts worth it! Just know that the button often means you get less real estate for text in your Posts
Don’t share social fluff. Attract with an offer that makes you stand out
Make sure you use UTM tracking so you can understand how your Posts are performing in Google Analytics. Otherwise, it’ll be attributed as direct traffic.
Google Q&A
Anyone can ask and answer questions — why not the business owner! Control the conversation and treat this feature like it's your new FAQ page.
This feature works on an upvote system. The answer with the most upvotes will show first.
Don’t include a URL or phone number in these because it’ll get filtered out.
A lot of these questions are potential customers! Out of 640 car dealerships’ Q&As Greg evaluated, 40 percent were leads! Of that 40 percent, only 2 questions were answered by the dealership.
Emily Triplett Lentz — How to Audit for Inclusive Content
Emily of Help Scout walked dropped major knowledge on the importance of spotting and eliminating biases that frequently find their way into online copy. She also hung out backstage after her talk to cheer on her fellow speakers. #GOAT. #notallheroeswearcapes.
"My desire for a specific word choice doesn't negate someone else's need for safety" -- @emilytlentz #MozCon pic.twitter.com/sXF2CjXVzo
— Yosef Silver (@ysilver) July 17, 2019
As content creators, we’d all do well to keep ableism in mind: discrimination in favor of able-bodied people. However, we’re often guilty of this without even knowing it.
One example of ableism that often makes its way into our copy is comparing dire or subideal situations with the physical state of another human (ex: “crippling”).
While we should work on making our casual conversation more inclusive too, this is particularly important for brands.
Create a list of ableist words, crawl your site for them, and then replace them. However, you’ll likely find that there is no one-size-fits-all replacement for these words. We often use words like “crazy” as filler words. By removing or replacing with a more appropriate word, we make our content better and more descriptive in the process.
At the end of the day, brands should remember that their desire for freedom of word choice isn’t more important than people’s right not to feel excluded and hurt. When there’s really no downside to more inclusive content, why wouldn’t we do it?
Visit http://content.helpscout.net/mozcon-2019 to learn how to audit your site for inclusive content!
Joelle Irvine — Image & Visual Search Optimization Opportunities
Curious about image optimization and visual search? Joelle has the goods for you — and was blowing people's minds with her tips for visual optimization and how to leverage Google Lens, Pinterest, and AR for visual search.
“Visual search is easier when you don’t know what you’re looking for, when you’re looking to match a particular style, and when your search way is too long or complicated.” @joelleirvine #MozCon
— Melina Beeston (@mkbeesto) July 17, 2019
Visual search is not the same thing as searching for images. We’re talking about the process of using an image to search for other content.
Visual search like Google Lens makes it easier to search when you don’t know what you’re looking for.
Pinterest has made a lot of progress in this area. They have a hybrid search that allows you to find complimentary items to the one you searched. It’s like finding a rug that matches a chair you like rather than finding more of the same type of chair.
62 percent of millennials surveyed said they would like to be able to search by visual, so while this is mostly being used by clothing retailers and home decor right now, visual search is only going to get better, so think about the ways you can leverage it for your brand!
Joy Hawkins — Factors that Affect the Local Algorithm that Don't Impact Organic
Proximity varies greatly when comparing local and organic results — just ask Joy of Sterling Sky, who gets real about fake listings while walking through the findings of a recent study.
Local results not only vary by city, but even within the same zip codes, there can be drastically different local results. @JoyanneHawkins #mozcon pic.twitter.com/8g6acxUDAq
— Lily Ray (@lilyraynyc) July 17, 2019
Here are the seven areas in which the local algorithm diverges from the organic algorithm:
Proximity (AKA: how close is the biz to the searcher?)
Proximity is the #1 local ranking factor, but the #27 ranking factor on organic.
Studies show that having a business that’s close in proximity to the searcher is more beneficial for ranking in the local pack than in traditional organic results.
Rank tracking
Because there is so much variance by latitude/longitude, as well as hourly variances, Joy recommends not sending your local business clients ranking reports.
Use rank tracking internally, but send clients the leads/sales. This causes less confusion and gets them focused on the main goal.
Visit bit.ly/mozcon3 for insights on how to track leads from GMB
GMB landing pages (AKA: the website URL you link to from your GMB account)
Joy tested linking to the home page (which had more authority/prominence) vs. linking to the local landing page (which had more relevance) and found that traffic went way up when linking to the home page.
Before you go switching all your GMB links though, test this for yourself!
Reviews
Joy wanted to know how much reviews actually impacted ranking, and what it was exactly about reviews that would help or hurt.
She decided to see what would happen to rankings when reviews were removed. This happened to a business who was review gating (a violation of Google’s guidelines) but Joy found that reviews flagged for violations aren’t actually removed, they’re hidden, explaining why “removed” reviews don’t negatively impact local rankings.
Possum filter
Organic results can get filtered because of duplicate content, whereas local results can get filtered because they’re too close to another business in the same category. This is called the Possum filter.
Keywords in a business name
This is against Google’s guidelines but it works sadly
For example, Joy tested adding the word “salad bar” to a listing that didn’t even have a salad bar and their local rankings for that keyword shot up.
Although it works, don’t do it! Google can remove your listing for this type of violation, and they’ve been removing more listings for this reason lately.
Fake listings
New listings can rank even if they have no website, authority, citations, etc. simply because they keyword stuffed their business name. These types of rankings can happen overnight, whereas it can take a year or more to achieve certain organic rankings.
Spend time reporting spam listings in your clients’ niches because it can improve your clients’ local rankings.
Britney Muller — Featured Snippets: Essentials to Know & How to Target
Closing out day three of MozCon was our very own Britney, Sr. SEO scientist extraordinaire, on everyone’s favorite SEO topic: Featured snippets!
Why are we so concerned about traffic? What about branding/messaging/share of voice? You can't NOT target a keyword just because it has a Featured Snippet @BritneyMuller #MozCon
— Ruth Burr Reedy (@ruthburr) July 17, 2019
We’re seeing more featured snippets than ever before, and they’re not likely going away. It’s time to start capitalizing on this SERP feature so we can start earning brand awareness and traffic for our clients!
Here’s how:
Know what keywords trigger featured snippets that you rank on page 1 for
Know the searcher’s intent
Provide succinct answers
Add summaries to popular posts
Identify commonly asked questions
Leverage Google’s NLP API
Monitor featured snippets
If all else fails, leverage ranking third party sites. Maybe your own site has low authority and isn’t ranking well, but try publishing on Linkedin or Medium instead to get the snippet!
There’s lots of debate over whether featured snippets send you more traffic or take it away due to zero-click results, but consider the benefits featured snippets can bring even without the click. Whether featured snippets bring you traffic, increased brand visibility in the SERPs, or both, they’re an opportunity worth chasing.
Aaaand, that's a wrap!
Thanks for joining us at this year's MozCon! And a HUGE thank you to everyone (Mozzers, partners, and crew) who helped make this year's MozCon possible — we couldn't have done it without all of you.
What was your favorite moment of the entire conference? Tell us below in the comments! And don't forget to grab the speaker slides here!
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!
0 notes