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Category: Industry News

Discuss upcoming industry news and events

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Algorithm Updates

Upcoming industry events
Industry Events

Upcoming industry events

97
Questions

464
Posts

First of all, I wish there was an email I could contact for this. I am planning on attending Moz Con next month with my company. However the policy internally is that in order for my company to cover the conference, I need to get someone from Moz to fill out our new supplier form. Is there anyone that can help out with this? Any insight or answers would be much appreciated.

Alexa Site Audit

Hello All, I run an Alexa Site Audit report for my client. Is it normal that my Alexa site audit report will be public i.e. S3 URL for downloading the PDF file was open to anyone knowing the URL. No re-direct to login etc was there? Yes the S3 URL is funny but Google bots have ways to find this funny URLs so is this normal? If you have tried Alexa can you repeat the problem i.e. typing your S3 report URL? can you get it to? or is it just me. I have asked Alexa about it. I think there should be some security. Thanks.
| SEO_Z

0
Google's New Release "What do you love"

Is this gonna be a game changer for SEO http://www.wdyl.com/ Regards, Shailendra Sial
| IM_Learner

0
Which one is THE BEST seo book

For you guys which one is the best SEO BOOK?? Maybe this one? http://www.amazon.com/Ranking-Number-One-Essential-Results/dp/1452849900/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1309247497&sr=8-4 Thanks in advance!
| augustos

1
Confusion on schema.org

I have begun marking up the site for schema.org and Google has now begun indexing those pages with a weird result. Instead of using meta description in search it is using the ALT text from an item marged as ImageProp="image". I was hoping it would display the picture not change my description. Any ideas?
| oznappies

0
Question on Google's Differentiation

Hi everyone, We have a short question that probably has a very long answer: What are all the ways that Google differentiates one search result from another? This is really important for us to know and, up until now, we can't find a really good and complete source that explains this. Thank you in advance.
| jid

0
SEO hosting (EU/Spanish IP's) any1?

Hello all, I'm currently trying to find a great hosting company which can offer a fast and stable service and more important, with the possibility of geolocalizing IP's of Europe and concretely for Spain. I've found Ixwebhosting but they only offer US Ip's, as their datacenters are there. I don't know if it's the same thing outside spain, but here the hosting companies only use to have a single "C-class" range so even buying them different IP's doesn't help that much, and it isn't cheap (2€/month/ip...). So if you know someone offering what I'm looking for (or really close to it) drop a line, I'll appreciate your help! 🙂
| PabloGV

0
How long after making changes will position on Google be altered?

I'm curious as to how long Google updates take these days? I'm just getting back into SEO after 9 years and I recall back in the day there was a monthly "dance" during which page results were updated. Is it more frequent now? Thanks
| celife

0
Hire single SEO & SEM person or hire separate people?

I've been moved to a busines development part of the business but I'm still in charge of all of our SEO and SEM. I was only an advanced beginner to begin with but our needs have grown. I'm not sure whether to contract with one or two people. Can someone be extremely well versed in all things SEO and SEM or is it better to get two people on board that might serve as a better sounding board? While they certainly work together, both are a constant moving target and it requires us to stay on top of trends and white hat policies of all the major players. My worst nightmare is to get someone that tries to game the system and screws up our rankings long term.
| thenorrisgroup

0
How to find non stingy clients

I was browsing around other SEO websites and seeing how they charge upwards of $2500 a month... In Australia things are a little different, many potential clients gasp in shock at the prospect of paying just $500 a month... Because of this it seems all the SEOs in Aus have taken to undercutting each other to the point where you can get 'guaranteed' 1st page results for just $200 a month - its become a necessity of doing a guarantee and having a low price just to compete... How do you find clients that actually have decent budgets? Most of the clients I have so far are from referals from web developers or from my participation on business forums etc. I have thought about trying a telemarketing campaign or a direct mail campaign to try and snag some lawyers, and cosmetic surgeons etc Has anyone had experience with these methods or can offer any other suggestions to snag clients with deeper pockets?
| Netboost

0
What is the best SEO Seminar/Training option in the US?

I have 3 years of SEO experience and am an SEO Manager. I am well versed, though much room for growth and education. I want to find an SEO Seminar or training program that best suits my needs. It seems most are a one size fits all seminars. Any recommendations, thoughts or ideas?
| dkamen

0
How do you value a site that generates no income before it's sold?

Hi, I'm currently creating a number of sites which target the wedding market. Each site is localized and specific to a niche within the wedding market. The intention is to create the site, rank it in the top position of Google and then sell it to a local business within that niche and area. The problem that i am having is that I don't know how to place a value on each site. I have factors taken from Google (using Market Samurai) so I know the broad and phrase match traffic details as well as the Google PPC average prices. My initial thought was to use the Google PPC price and multiply that by the number of organic visitors the site would receive if it was ranked #1 on Google. I appreciate that the PPC figures may be higher than what an advertiser would actually pay per click so I conservatively halved the Google PPC figure given in Market Samurai. Is this a good way of valuing the site or do I need to look at the value per customer to the business that I am trying to sell the site to and work from a conversion factor based on the number of visitors that the site would receive. If the site received 500 visitors per month and 5% of those became customers multiplied by the average profit per customer - that would give a monthly value of the website. I am very unsure as to what the best approach is here and look forward to hearing any advice and ideas from fellow members. Thanks, Michael
| XSMedia

0
My websites Internal page is not ranking.

Hi, I had "x1", "x2","x3" keywords ranked for my websites internal page that is "www.somesite.com/internal-page.htm" i was fairly doing well for my keywords mostly in top 5, but now the case is from last couple of weeks, my internal page url is gone & replaced with home page. And I don't see internal page anywhere mostly in top 1000, is that penalty to internal page ?If yes how can i troubleshoot this ? I see my other pages in top 20-30 but that specific page is not anywhere. Please let me know. -Sunny.
| sunny.popali

0
Google API's

As you may know Google has API’s http://code.google.com/more/ I can see ones for Blogs, News etc. but not for general search am I being dense? If someone can point me in the right direction that would be great. Justin
| GrouchyKids

0
Is it Google's new interface for search result?

Hi, While searching on Google, i came across a new search result page without underlines in the titles of search snippets. Is Google experimenting with something new or there is some problem in my browser. I checked it in Firefox but at the same time when i checked it on IE, normal page was visible. Regards photostream
| IM_Learner

0
How do you hire an SEOmoz-savvy SEO consultant?

I'd like to find an SEO free-lancer to review WikiTree.com and give me ongoing advice. My first instinct would be to go through oDesk, but I know I want someone who is tuned-in to this community and uses SEOmoz's tools. Advice or recommendations? Thanks!
| Interesting.com

0
Punchy Friday: Too much SEO Education?

This is not a question really, just an observation. Yesterday I was listening to "Stuff You Should Know" podcast, and it was about "Tickling". They were addressing how it is impossible to tickle yourself, and they theorized it was because our brain is AWARE that it's your own hand doing the tickling. The first thought that came to my brain was that our brain had put a "NoFolow" link on the tickling page of our brain website when it is from our own hands. I'm reading WAY to much about SEO . . . Happy Friday everyone.
| damon1212

3
Which pieces of content in the online marketing/social media space were the very best of the best in the past 12 months?

As you may be aware - SEOmoz are hiring for a marketing oracle (one of 8 jobs going at the moment: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/8-open-positions-at-seomoz). Their key responsibility will be to produce world class content about online marketing, seo and social media. So, let ask you - what are the best examples of content in this space from the past 12 months? The very best of the best. Don't just think SEO, but any kind of online marketing content. Whether it's editorial, infographic, research etc etc.
| TomCritchlow

2
Yahoo and Bing Search Factors Compared with Google

I have started my research to list all the factors Yahoo or Bing giving more importance compared with Google. This bible if successfully prepared will help everybody. Can anybody help me resources specific on the topic, that can help me?
| WebMarketingSolutions

0
Do "big" SEO companies remove links after termination of service?

Or worded differently: Has anyone heard of "big" SEO companies removing links after termination of service? I have a client who isn't particularly happy with the SEO he's getting from a big Aussie SEO firm, and he wants to terminate, however they've built thousands of links for him and he's a little concerned they might all get pulled. Has anyone heard of this happening, or; Do you think this is a legitimate concern? I think its physically possible to remove backlinks like this because it seems the SEO firm in question is building links by using other client's websites. I also wonder if they might have large content farm style sites where they place links for clients which might be quite easy to take down. Please discuss!
| CheapGames99

0
External Sitemap Tool?

Can anyone recommend a good external sitemap generator (that is not also a tool owned by a search engine)? I'm looking for a reputable tool that is independent of Google, Yahoo!, Bing, etc that will crawl, index, report problems, but also that will submit to the search engines. Would love to hear what other Mozzers recommend!
| JeanieWalker

0
All SEO factors in one place, anybody?

Hi, Is there some place or list with all the known SEO factors till date? Regards
| IM_Learner

0
What's the oldest "blank" on the Internet?

What's the oldest active domain on the Internet? What was the first registered domain? What's the oldest active link? What other old web stuff can you think of?
| Gyi

0
404 errors galore

We have a DNN site that we recently rebranded. The old site was almost ten years old and now that we have a brand new site, a lot of random urls are coming up as errors. While we went through and created 301's for our top sites, we still have site popping up from Google's cache. What is the general recommendation? There are way too many sites to 301, mostly because of how DNN writes the urls. Should I let them be and wait for the SE's clear them out? Or is there a way to have Google clear the cache of this domain and start fresh?
| KJ-Rodgers

0
Has anyone heard of or worked with artificialintelligenceseo.com? Are they legit?

A client just brought them to my attention, seem to be making some ridiculous promises...
| mjcarrjr

0
Anyone else seeing a new google search result look?

Just noticed my google search results page has changed. Anyone else seeing this? Screenshot http://cl.ly/2h0v2i2w191O32082U0T
| JohnTurner79

1
Scammer or Legit?

Okay so I keep on seeing stuff like this, I know it's been going on for ages but it seems to be increasing in intensity. Anyway, thanks to Facebook knowing I click on their ads to do with SEO it shows me pretty much just those ad types now. I'll get to the point. I saw an ad for the "Search Marketing Business Academy", or "SMBA" so I was curious and clicked. There's a chap who professes 12 years experience in internet marketing and has a bunch of companies and blah, blah, blah. Anyway, he's offering himself up as basically an expert of experts, one that can show other search marketers how to make it. www.searchmarketingbusinessacademy.com/ There's a few things that look fishy though. The testimonials have common names and no business names There's no mention of what these companies he runs are There's no work to see in the form of case studies or a portfolio Under "Meet Lee Gilbert" it states that they've been supporting other SEM companies since 2004, yet a quick Google of the company and the name shows little to support this. Googling the chaps name just gets you his own website www.leegilbert.co.uk which professes more of the same and just a bunch of products Of just a few pieces of advice given for how to rank on Google it includes keyword density The chap seems to still place a lot of importance on Page Rank (As in the old PR that we all know means nothing now, and his blog about this is only a month old) From searching, it doesn't seem that there is any history at all, let alone this history of mass success There doesn't appear to be any social presence for the company or the man, except that ad. It seems just like an average SEO (albeit one that's a bit behind on the times) who knows an average amount, trying to say he can tell other SEO's how to master the arts. He's not even a member on SEOmoz, that's the biggest give away haha. So, could I be wrong? Am I being too harsh?
| SteveOllington

1
How to achieve the highest global and local relevance in google?

Let's say I have a company that has its main business in Europe for thefollowing languages: English German Portugese French Italian And let's say some other markets (e.g. the Portugese one in south america) is also important. The question now is how should we structure the Domain if we want onlyone top level domain (www.company.com)? a) By using subdomains to target users with Google Webmaster Tools for the relevant country: portugal.company.com/pt (same content) brasil.company.com/pt (same content) germany.company.com/de england.company.com/en etc. or b) by using virtual folders www.company.com/pt www.company.com/de www.company.com/en
etc. or c) something completely different I do not know about? What do you reckon is best? I appreciate all suggestions!
| imsi

0
Rebranding Sites

Our company just went through a rebranding and this includes the web sites. We have a new website (same domain) hosted on a new sever. We implemented 301's for outdated domain names and urls. The content has been overhauled to be simpler and we are building this from ground up with SEO in mind.I have canonical tags, being mindful of follow and no follow, with out trying to page sculpt) and ensuring the urls are descriptive and free of auto generated cms trash. To prepare for the launch, I captured all the analytics and adword campaigns before the switch. and began making lists of where we need to change the name around the web. We were performing pretty well, on SERPS before hand and now we want to try to keep the momentum speeding up with a cleaner newer site. Does anyone have any more suggestions on what more I should be doing to start off on the right foot.
| KJ-Rodgers

0
Who would you like to ask a SEO question the most?

I was wondering about which people in the industry you'd like to ask a question the most in the q&a? On my list is Matt Cutts (obviously), Marshall Simmonds, Jimmy Wales and Biz Stone.
| ThomasHgenhaven

0
Managing SEO Partners

Hi, Up until yesterday my main role was to implement & create SEO strategies and analytics for varying clients, and our own agency. Going forward I have been tasked with sourcing and managing SEO partners for our existing and future clients. This is totally a new concept for me, and I was wondering if any mozzers out there have been tasked with similar roles and could give me some ideas on what questions I should be asking, or maybe have an SEO matrix to rank agencies to help match to clients? Your help as always is greatly appreciated. Many thanks Sean
| Yozzer

0
Who is the Rand Fishkin of black hat seo?

If you had to choose one person to represent the black hat community who would it be?
| JasonJackson

0
Does SEO scale?

Well, does it?
| AaronSchinke

0
Mechanical Turk for product re writing ? Ecommerce question.

We work with ecommerce clients specifically and many of them get duplicated content from their manufacturers. I've heard of people using the turk to outsource product re writing and am wondering if anyone here has had success? Do you just get all the product descriptions re written and delivered in a CSV for uploading or have any of you developed a more automated approach? How is the content quality been? Thanks much!
| iAnalyst.com

0
What is the Best Way To Structure A Growing Internet Marketing Firm?

I have been asking a lot of personal friends (who own SEO companies) this question and have found that it seems to be on all of their minds. From BlueGlass to a small start up consulting firm, it seems that everyone is doing things different and constantly shaking it up. I am wondering what SEOMozers are doing/have done for their company structure?
| NiftyMarketing

0
Does anyone have any insights to the GetSatisfaction service?

I'm looking into website tools that will open connections up between my company and our customers, and provide a good platform to support customer empowerment. Any feedback would be appreciated!
| JeanieWalker

0
What motivates you?

Ross asks and answers this question on his blog. He points to progress -- or perceived progress -- as being particularly important. This made me think about my own motivations and what gets me excited to "do SEO" each day: I don't really "do SEO" all day long. Part of my day is spent as an analyst, another part as a creative consultant and code reviewer, still another part as a business case developer, yet another part as a researcher and forecaster, and another part as a technical writer. Wearing many different hats -- as most SEOs do -- helps to keep things moving. Invariably I can find tasks within each of these disciplines that are fun or exciting. Results -- even when they're not what I want them to be. I love that you can launch an SEO campaign or make some optimization and then start digging into the data almost immediately. We're blessed in this industry with a sort of instant gratification for our efforts (as compared to, say, off-line publishing or -- god help us -- politics) that we probably take for granted. Emerging tools, tactics, and trends. I can confidently say that search marketing evolves every day. So there's always new ideas and strategies to explore. My colleagues -- they're the best and they rock. You: I learn from experts in the field all the time. But enough about me. What gets you going when it comes to SEO?
| jcolman

1
Schedule for Panda / Farmer Update rollout for non English sites?

Hey Mozzers, I just read about the global rollout of googles Panda/Farmer Update for English queries, e.g. at searchengineland. Has anyone read something about when google is planning to roll out the update for non-English speaking countries, i.e. queries in other languages? I googled a bit but couldn't find anything, not even speculations. Cheers, Frank
| FranktheTank-47497

0
Is this a legitimate offer?

I just got an offer from the employer where I've worked for about a year. I started as an Intern, but quickly grew into handling all of the SEO efforts of the company. I finally got an offer to be the Marketing Coordinator of SEM (basically the director/manager of SEM as I would report directly to the VP of Marketing). I was pretty disappointed when I actually got the offer however as it was only for $31,000/year with a possible $3,500 bonus for hitting some goals. I wanted to know if it was just me or if this was pretty underpaid? I was expecting something in the range of 40-50K, was I way off base? It is a fairly small company but I've gotten some pretty good results (2 keywords rank #1, 1 ranked #2 and 4 that have moved into top 30 after being 50 or below 4 months ago. Should I try for another offer or just look else where? Although I just graduated I've done PPC and SEO for about 2 and half years just as an FYI.
| Gerad

0
I'm looking for solid internet usage / traffic data.

Hi there, In a week or two I'll give my first internet marketing presentation to a local business club. Ill walk them through the basics of what is happening online, and how both B2B and B2C business can use their online assets as marketing tools. I want some basic statistical data to back up my story, like: Current web usage distribution (social/search/media etc) Growth of Mobile vs Desktop Search Engines distribution (google bing yahoo msn) Online retail numbers To top it all off, I would also like to be able to show both worldwide and The Netherlands data. What is my best bet for some serious datamining ;)? Thanks in advance for helping me out!
| rickdronkers

0
Is it smart to reveal your clients and projects in the Q&A forum? What about on your own SEO blog?

On one hand it seems like having my cake and eating it too: blogging about SEO using my clients as case studies in order to give them a couple backlinks. On the other hand it seems like asking for it from Google or from competitors. Got any advice? And what of mentioning actual domains and brand names when asking questions here in the forum? One one hand it seems like I'd get more specific advice, on the other hand, once again, it seems like it comes with some amount of risk. Any advice? Thanks!
| TheEspresseo

0
Pagerank updates and expectations

My site (http://www.bluedotlandscaping.com) has recently been redone. Although I have been online for about 9 years, we have never before done SEO. My Google PR is 0. With a lot of work the last 3-5 months we have gotten a MozRank of 3.55. (DA 26 and MozTrust 4.36) What do you think are reasonable expectations? Does Google update often? Is a jump from a PR of 0 to 3 reasonable? If my site does go to a PR of 3, will I see a noticeable change in my keyword rankings? Thanks for your help. Rich
| SCyardman

0
New business acquisition for digital agencies from SEO and CRO

I have a nice simple question to ask all you mozzers out there, specifically if you work for a web design/digital agency. Does your agency get any new business clients through your SEO and CRO efforts? I'm asking this to try and build up a qualitative data set. I am responsible for all SEO and CRO at our agency for all clients along with our own website. Having increased traffic by over 200% in the last 12 months, and obtaining page one of Google for all our targeted keywords, we are still without any new business or ROI. We are fortunate enough to get a lot of great clients via word of mouth, a great sales team and client retention, I'd really like to know what the bigger picture is here? If I get enough data back, I'll make it into my first Youmoz post and share all the data with everyone :¬) I've now added a survey so you answer anonymously: There are only 5 questions in all, your time is greatly appreciated. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/New_business_acquisitions_for_digital_agencies Any feedback gladly welcomed. Regards Sean
| Yozzer

0
What do you want to see in a YOUMoz post?

My first YOUMoz post was published the other day and I got some pretty good feedback in the comments. I was wondering what topic, tip or insight would people like to see from a YOUMoz post? I want to start a new one but have some writer's block, if there's anything out there someone would really like to see, I would love to run with an idea.
| DanDeceuster

0
How does recent Google update affect e-commerce sites:

Most ecommerce sites use the original manufacturer product descriptions in their content. The product features and specifications are the content made by the manufacturer. Sometimes manufacturers insist that the ecommerce sites should use their original content and it is impossible to change what available in the original content and rewrite it.
| IM_Learner

1