Search Engines
Understanding how search engines work, Google in particular, is important when working in SEO. The basics of crawling and indexing are amazingly useful to understand if you want to rank your own content.
Additionally, Google updates its algorithm several times a year. Understanding the more significant updates, and how they work, can help you to craft content and SEO strategies that are up-to-date.
We've written extensively about how search engines work, and included some of the top resources here. You can also browse the latest posts on search engines from the Moz blog below.
How Search Engines Work : New to SEO? Start with the basics of how search engines operate with our free beginner's guide.
Search Engine Ranking and Visibility : Learn the fundamentals of how search engines rank content on search engine result pages.
Google Algorithm Update History : A complete history of Google algorithm updates since 2000. This includes important links and references for understanding how Google works.
How Search Engines Value Links : Search engines work off a number of signals, but two of the most important are content and links. In this video, Rand Fishkin explains the basics of link evaluation.
MozCast : Is Google updating it's algorithm as we speak? MozCast is the Google algorithm weather report, so you can see how much Google results are changing each day.
Unnatural Link Warnings and Blog Networks
Advice and Confessions from a Reformed Link Network Spammer There was only one time when link building was the easiest, least challenging part of my SEO work. I was a link network spammer, relying upon services with names like "blog networks" and "article networks." These services allow paid subscribers to post their content to a network of sites...
Understand and Rock the Google Venice Update
I am slightly shocked and simply amused that the recent Google Venice Update has largely flown under the radar. The Inside Search Blog published a list of 40 some-odd changes to the algorithm for February, and it seems that Panda 3.3 and the mysterious one liner about link valuation captivated most of the SEO and Inbound world...
Face-off - 4 Ways to De-personalize Google
Google recently launched a radical form of social search personalization and yet another way to shut off that personalization. This is a head-to-head comparison of 4 major methods to de-personalize search results, including Google's new toggle switch.
How Google+ Uses SEO to Steal Search from Facebook and Twitter
Does your Google+ profile rank incredibly well in Google’s search results for your own name? Colleagues mention that their G+ profile now outranks all other online identities that they’ve worked for years on. My own Google+ profile, just 5 months old, ranks...
Are Rich Snippets the New Generation of Spam?
Every SEO specialist knows that a good ranking is not enough to get clicks from the SERPs, mostly if you work in niches filled with videos, images, Google Shopping items or local listings. So every optimization that can grow your CTR of even one digit in percentage can be fundamental.Level Up Your SEO Skills With Our Free Training
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How Negative Emotion Could Hurt Your Rankings
Those of us who have been working in the SEO field for a while might take for granted that citations and links are like a “votes” or “endorsements." However, what if those citations and links are negative – and what if Google can tell the difference? While trolling for links might be fun for some, the harsh responses may end up hurting more than feelings.
Wake Up SEOs, the New Google is Here
I must admit that lately Google is the cause of my headaches. No, not just because it decided I was not going to be not provided with useful information about my sites. And neither because it is changing practically every tool I got used since my first days as an SEO (Google Analytics, Webmaster Tools, Gmail…). And, honestly, not only because it released a ravenous Panda. No, the real question that is causing my headaches is: What the hell does Google want to go with all these changes?
Social Network Spam and Author/Agent Rank
As search engines develop and ranking signals change, it can be helpful to look at patents and try to pull out and explain what factors may go into their algorithms. Not every social share will affect rankings, so how can we build our authority? In this post, we explore the ideas of Author Rank and Agent Rank and how search engines may view social signals. We also provide some actionable tools that you can use to create your identity online as social signals become more of a ranking factors.
SEO Marketing Is Dead, Is Dead! Long Live SSOM
Link bait title? Perhaps. Yet, after much thought, research and consideration of our day to day client processes, we've come to the realization of a simple fact: SEO marketing really is dead. It's been in the death throes for a while and optimizers have just been too busy to see it.
The Responsibilities of SEO Have Been Upgraded
When I started in the SEO field (circa 2003), the job responsibilities weren't easy, but the list was relatively small: Over the next 5 years, those responsibilities increased, but it was primarily in tactical and knowledge sorts of ways. A 2008 rundown might look something like: The last 2.5 years, however, have made for some fairly substantive changes. We...